Pickled Garlic Scapes – Recipe for Canning (2024)

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May 2, 2018 by Ashley Adamant 30 Comments

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If you’re growing enough garlic to feed your family, you’re also growing enough garlic scapes to feed an army. When the garlic scapes start popping up, it’s hard to use them all fresh. Sure, they’re good in scrambled eggs and they make a spectacular fresh garlic scape pesto but even after you’ve used them every way imaginable, they’re still coming…

It’s time to pull out the canner and make pickled garlic scapes. Home-canned pickled garlic scapes taste like extra garlic-y pickled dilly beans, with an extra crunchy snap. While green beans can sometimes get a bit soggy in the canner, garlic scapes barely even feel it, coming out crisp and flavorful every time.

Garlic scapesare long, and it’s a shame to cut them down to size for canning jars. Try using extra tall pint and a half jars for a more dramatic finished presentation on the table. They also make really pretty gifts that way.

I’ve found that you can pickle them in two shapes. The long straight stems can be cut to length for tall canning jars, but the curl above the straight portion fits perfectly into a wide mouth jar. Try canning up both versions, the straight pickles and fun curly Q’s.

Yield: Roughly 3 pints

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Canning Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Pickled garlic scapes preserve short-livedgarlic scapes for year-round eating.

Ingredients

1 pound garlic scapes, 3 to 5 bunches if you're buying them at the farmers market
2-3 teaspoons dill seed, one teaspoon per jar
1 to 1.5 teaspoons whole peppercorns, 1/2 tsp. per jar
1 to 1.5 teaspoons whole coriander seed, 1/2 tsp. per jar
1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
1.5 cups water
2 tablespoons pickling salt or kosher salt

Instructions

Start a water bath canner and bring it up to a boil.
Trim each end of the scapes, removing the blossoms and reserving them for another use, and trimming the tough bottom end off. Start with a single scape, and trim it to the size of your jar, fitting it in with just over 1/2 inch of headspace. Use this as your measuring stick, and trim the rest of the scapes to the same length.
Pack the scapes into pint or tall pint and a half mason jars. Add 1 teaspoon dill seed and 1/2 teaspoon of peppercorns and coriander seed to each jar. For spicy pickles, add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional).
Mix the water, cider vinegar and salt together in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir to incorporate the salt.
Pour the hot vinegar brine over the garlic scapes in masonjars, filling to within 1/2 inch of the top rim.
Seal with 2 part canning lids and process in a water bath canner: 10 minutes for pints and 15 for pint and a half or quart jars.
Wait at least 2 weeks for the flavors to infuse before eating. I find they're best at least 6 weeks later, so try to be patient.

Notes

Yield: Roughly 3 pints (or 2 extra tall pint and a half jars) Canning Method: Water Bath Headspace: 1/2 inch Process Time: 10 Minutes for pints and 15 minutes for 1.5 pint or quart jars

Pickled Garlic Scapes – Recipe for Canning (4)

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Comments

Kristina
June 6, 2020 at 3:41 pm
Have you ever tried this with white vinegar? I wonder if it would work.
Reply
- Ashley Adamant
  July 11, 2020 at 1:24 am
  I’m sure it’d be tasty with white vinegar as well. I almost always use cider vinegar just as a matter of course, but there’s no reason not to use white. Let me know how they turn out if you make them with white vinegar.
  Reply
  - alanna dorf
    June 25, 2021 at 7:32 pm
    i prefer the taste pickling with white vinegar personally- and have had success for scapes, dilly beans, cukes, beets and fennel.
    thanks for sharing all the ideas and tips for helping one keep all the garden goodness
    Reply
Diana Schulze
June 18, 2020 at 7:33 am
Wow! Such a wealth of information! Love it! Thank you. Diana
Reply
myna lee johnstone
June 25, 2020 at 10:01 am
Are you cutting off the bulb part? What do youb do with it?
Reply
- Ashley Adamant
  July 11, 2020 at 1:10 am
  We generally eat those scrambled in eggs for breakfast, they’re my favorite part. You can pickle those too though!
  Reply
Julia Sanders
July 12, 2020 at 8:30 pm
Do you have to use dill? I personally don’t like dill.
Reply
- Admin
  July 14, 2020 at 8:50 pm
  I used dill seed in this recipe, but you can omit it.
  Reply
Angela Meier
July 15, 2020 at 5:10 pm
Can I pickle the stem part as well? I’ve cut them, and they kind of remind me of asparagus, so I’m hoping they will soften INV a pickling brine as well?
Reply
Kaitlyn Lauzon
July 25, 2020 at 4:15 pm
Can I use fresh dill instead of seeds?
Reply
- Ashley Adamant
  January 3, 2021 at 4:16 am
  Yes you can!
  Reply
Heather Fairley
August 5, 2020 at 5:11 pm
Hello, I made these and they’ve been in my pantry for 3 weeks.
When I processed them in pints, I boiled for 10 minutes, then turned the heat off and removed the lid, and left them in there for another 5 minutes before pulling them. All the cans “popped” on my counter properly. 24 hours later, I removed the rims and wet-wiped off the lids and threads before putting them in the pantry.
Since storing them, my pantry smells a lot like garlic. I’ve never pickled anything that I can smell outside of the sealed jars before. We have checked that the centre of each lid is still firmly in the down position, it won’t budge when we press on them, so I think none of them have a broken seal. Do you think it’s okay that I can smell the pickles? Does this ever happen to you?
TIA
Reply
- Administrator
  February 25, 2021 at 7:56 pm
  I have never experienced anything like that before. That’s definitely very odd. As long as your seal seems good, then they should be ok to eat.
  Reply
- François Cantin
  June 10, 2021 at 11:28 am
  Try washing with soap all outside surface of all jars.
  Reply
- Rebecca Marshall
  June 17, 2022 at 12:50 pm
  Most likely some of the brine siphoned out during processing. If you wash your jars with warm, soapy water after processing, the residue will be gone (and the smell, too!).
  Reply
donna-mae mcquaig
September 26, 2020 at 4:36 pm
How can you use the blossoms off of the garlic scapes?
Reply
- Administrator
  June 15, 2021 at 5:56 pm
  Here is a great article that I found that gives a lot of great ideas for using the blossoms. They can be cooked or eaten raw in a variety of dishes.
  Reply
- Jackie
  June 21, 2022 at 5:58 pm
  I save them in my scrap freezer bag for making stock.
  Reply
Lucy V.
December 11, 2020 at 1:59 pm
Looking for recipe to make butterscotch syrup for a friend that love love loves butterscotch anything. Want to give as Christmas gift.
Thank you
Lucy
Reply
- Ashley Adamant
  December 28, 2020 at 12:40 am
  You know, I’ve never had butterscotch syrup myself, so I can’t give you any particular personal recommendations, but maybe try this one? http://www.foodpreserving.org/2012/07/day-68-butterscotch-sauce.html
  Reply
Emily
June 14, 2021 at 4:36 pm
Thank you for this post! I plan to follow this recipe for some leek and onion scapes. I just have one question. What does the salt you use weigh? A bit of research has shown me that if substituting a different type of salt, you need to go by weight as the grains are different sizes, and I would like to use sea salt. Thanks!
Reply
- Administrator
  June 15, 2021 at 5:50 pm
  The conversion for pickling salt and sea salt would be about the same. They are both larger grains of salt.
  Reply
Shelly Merritt
July 12, 2021 at 4:40 pm
I have left over vinegar mixture…can I save it and use at a later time?
Reply
- Administrator
  July 12, 2021 at 6:40 pm
  If you have leftover vinegar mixture then it should be fine to save it for later in this particular case since this is a raw pack method and the vinegar solution has not had contact with the vegetables. If the vinegar solution had been mixed with the vegetables, then it would not be safe to reuse.
  Reply
Enid
July 27, 2021 at 10:45 am
I canned my first scapes on Sunday and a friend said I just needed to pour the brine over and not process. I’m concerned that is wrong advice. Can I process them now, two days later or are they unsafe. Please advise. Thanks
Reply
- Administrator
  July 27, 2021 at 1:22 pm
  How many jars did you make and where have they been stored?
  Reply
chantale
February 9, 2022 at 10:21 pm
Hi! I’m opening some jars that I made from this recipe. There is a film or deposit on the inside of the lid, and in one case along the inside of the jar where the headspace is. It doesn’t really look like mold – but I’m trying to be sure. It looks more like a salty or otherwise hardened film… some light brown spots, and some sort of white. It is raised from the lid, but not by much. The product looks and smells fine, and I see the oily film from the scapes so wondering if it could be that that has stuck to the lid and discoloured.. I’ve been informed of “pinholing” but i don’t really think it’s that. I know this is difficult without a photo, but has anyone ever experienced something similar on the lids of their scape pickles? Thank you!
Chantale
Reply

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