Learning Through Experience: Pickling Asparagus for the First Time (May 2026)
Four valuable lessons that will take the stress out of canning pickled asparagus.
My first time making pickled asparagus at home, by myself, with a borrowed steam canner, was a lot of fun, a fair amount of work, and produced what I would call mixed results, but I have no regrets.
The recipe I used came from The National Center for Home Food Preservation website and says it will make “six wide-mouth pint jars” and starts with a whopping 10 pounds of asparagus. I can’t imagine ever having that much asparagus! I had two-and-a-half pounds to start, and after I trimmed it had just about two pounds ready for processing (Fig. 1). I scaled the recipe by dividing each ingredient by five, which curiously left me with too little brine. I solved this problem by making more brine and wound up throwing some down the sink after filling the jars, but it was just salty vinegar, so no real tragedy there.
After making my first batch of brine and heating the jars, I stuffed my two pounds of asparagus into three straight-sided wide-mouth pint jars, (Fig. 2) which is a many more jars than one would expect based on the recipe, which says 10 pounds will give you six pints (the math would say I should get 1.2 pint jars). I only had enough brine to fill one of the jars.
Reflecting, I believe I should have measured the asparagus I had by volume rather than weight; by pre-stuffing the jars with spears, I could have determined that I had three jars full of spears, then simply halved the original brine recipe.
I quickly made a second batch of brine, and when it boiled, filled all the jars with the brine to ½ inch from the rim of the jar, removed bubbles, wiped the edge, added the two-piece lid, and placed the jars in the canner. Waiting to get a steady stream of steam and a temperature reading of 212°F in the dome, I set the timer and processed the jars for 10 minutes. At the end of the time, I turned off the heat and let it sit undisturbed for an additional five minutes before removing the jars from the steam canner.
Everything sealed, but everything floated, and I can tell the asparagus shrank quite significantly because it twisted around in the jar (Fig. 3). The lessons I learned from my first asparagus canning adventure are that the pickles won’t be ruined if you have to pause to make more brine, the translation of pounds of vegetables into jars of product is at best an estimate, some things can only be learned through experience, and ugly can still be delicious.
I won’t be entering this into any contests at the county fair, that’s for sure. But for a summer picnic, I’ll be ready with some delicious home-canned asparagus on my antipasto platter.
Pickled Asparagus Recipe
For six wide-mouth pint jars
10 pounds asparagus
6 large garlic cloves
4 ½ cups water
4 ½ cups white distilled vinegar (5% acidity)
6 small hot peppers (optional)
½ cup canning salt
3 teaspoons dill seed
Instructions
Wash and rinse canning jars; keep hot until ready to use. Prepare lids according to manufacturer's directions.
Wash asparagus well, but gently, under running water. Cut stems from the bottom to leave spears with tips that fit into the canning jar with a little less than ½-inch headspace. Peel and wash garlic cloves. Place a garlic clove at the bottom of each jar and tightly pack asparagus into jars with the blunt ends down. This is known as a raw pack.
In an 8-quart Dutch oven or saucepot, combine water, vinegar, hot peppers (optional), salt and dill seed. Bring to a boil. Place one hot pepper (if used) in each jar over asparagus spears. Pour boiling hot pickling brine over spears, leaving ½-inch headspace.
Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids.
Process in a boiling water (or steam) canner according to the processing time below. Let cool, undisturbed, for 12 to 24 hours and check for seals.
Allow pickled asparagus to sit in processed jars for 3 to 5 days before consumption for best flavor development.
Recommended process time for Pickled Asparagus in a boiling-water canner:
For 12-ounce or pint jars at 0-1,000 ft elevation, process for 10 minutes; 1,001-6,000 ft elevation process for 15 minutes; and above 6,000 feet, process for 20 minutes.
If you have questions about this, or any food preservation activity, reach out to the UC Master Food Preservers Statewide Helpline