Ajvar, step by step
Interactive lesson: from 10 kg (22 lb) of red peppers to safe jars — roasting, peeling, cooking, vinegar and pH 4.2, filling and the water bath.
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The whole lesson as text
1. Peppers
Good ajvar starts at the market: fleshy, ripe, red peppers.
- Fleshy red peppers — Balkan “horn” and kapija types, elephant's ear and similar ajvar varieties; good substitutes are long red Romano or Ramiro-type peppers. Bell peppers give a paler, thinner ajvar.
- Fully ripe only — Peppers must be fully red, ripe and firm. Green and part-coloured ones give a bitter taste and a brown colour.
- Weigh out 10 kg — One batch is 10 kg (22 lb) of raw red peppers. Roasted, peeled and deseeded, that gives 4–5 kg of flesh.
- How many jars — After cooking with oil you have 3–3.5 kg of ajvar: 4–5 jars of 720 mL or 8–10 jars of 370 mL.
Why: Thick-walled peppers roast and peel easily and give more flesh. Even peppers roast evenly, so there are none raw and none burnt.
- Buy in the morning and roast the same or the next day. Peppers left in a sack soften and start rotting around the stalk.
- Write your real figures in the batch log and plan next year from them.
2. Roasting and peeling
Roasting gives the smoky taste and makes peeling easier.
- Roast until black — Roast and turn until the skin is black and blistered all over.
- Let them sweat — Put the hot peppers straight into a covered bowl or a bag for 15–30 min. The skin comes away by itself.
- Peel, don't rinse — Remove skin, stalk and seeds. Don't rinse under the tap: you wash away flavour and add water you then spend hours boiling off.
- Drain somewhere cold — In a colander for 2–12 h. If it drains for longer than 2 hours, keep it in the fridge or a cold room below 10 °C (50 °F).
Why: The skin must blacken and lift away while the flesh stays soft, not burnt. Peeled peppers are a cooked, moist, low-acid vegetable, so they mustn't sit long in the warm.
- Hotplate or barbecue: 10–15 min per round. Oven: 220–250 °C (430–480 °F), 30–40 min.
- Handling hot peppers: cotton gloves under rubber gloves protect against burns.
3. Grinding and cooking · Locked
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4. Vinegar and pH · Locked
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5. Filling · Locked
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6. Water bath and storage · Locked
Buy the Ajvar and pinjur module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.