Why Are There Carrots In Canned Jalapeños, Anyway?

If you've ever found carrot coins swimming around with your jalapeño slices and thought the canning company was doing it just to bulk up the product's weight ... you're partly right. However, there's a lot more that those carrot pieces add to the mix. If you like finding them in your jalapeños, then continue to enjoy the extra crunch and color that the carrots bring. If, however, you feel shortchanged finding carrots in your canned jalapeños, knowing why they're there can reduce the sting and perhaps even help you start enjoying them.

Irrespective of how they are pickled, carrots complement jalapeños. The mild sweetness of this root vegetable balances the pepper's heat, while the spicy jalapeño brine gives the carrot pieces a nice zing. You're also more likely to find carrots in Mexican canned jalapeños or ones that are meant to be used in Mexican food. For instance, go to an authentic Mexican restaurant — the kind that makes its own tortillas – and you might get a side of pickled carrots and jalapeños. The combination is part of a broader condiment called escabeche, which has most likely inspired the addition of carrots in canned jalapeños.

While jalapeños can get a little soft after spending time in brine, carrots retain a snappy crunch that makes them such good additions to pickles. Whether the jalapeños you buy are precooked and pickled in vinegar and spices or simply floating in brine, the carrots make a tasty addition. They add a bright color, refreshing crunch, and a mild sweetness. Almost anything you'd want to use those peppers in — boxed cornbread tastes great with jalapeños — would benefit from a few bits of those pickled carrots as well. In fact, the slight spice that the carrots pick up from the jalapeño brine makes them very snackable right out of the can. They can also be used with the jalapeños in sandwiches, tamales, eggs, and any number of other dishes across different cuisines.

Mexican escabeche was originally a way of cooking ingredients like vegetables and meat in vinegar. The present-day version of simple pickled vegetables contains jalapeño and carrots (you may also see onion and garlic for added flavor, as well as cauliflower, radishes, and more). You can still find canned jalapeños without carrots (simply check the ingredients on the label), but they're so good that if you do find them in the can, put them to good use. For one, you can use canned black beans for quick refried beans, which pair deliciously with the briny, zingy pickled carrots that accompany canned jalapeños.