Yes, there really was a Mama Lil and yes, she made delicious pickled peppers in oil with the same recipe they use today. The success of Mama Lil’s is a tribute to her extraordinary recipe, fresh quality ingredients and sharing great meals with family and friends!

Mama Lil’s peppers are grown and made in Washington’s Yakima Valley, but the recipe comes from the heartfelt tradition of immigrants from “the old country” coming together to share food. The Hungarian goathorn peppers in oil came from a recipe from Mama Lil’s Serbian friend, who learned it from a Slovenian, who luckily for us had the good fortune to discover this amazing recipe for Italian pickled peppers in oil. If you were to travel to the Arbruzzo region of Italy you would find a variation of Mama Lil’s peppers in oil served with your meals.

Traditional Abruzzese chefs and families use these flavorful peppers and aromatic oil to transform simple ingredients into a luscious, savory cuisine. It is in this tradition of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary that fans of Mama Lil’s consistently say that they use Mama Lil’s in “everything”!