- Pepper Jelly
Yield: 7 cups
1/4 cup peppers (I use half hot and half bell)
1/4 cup hot peppers
2/3 cup sweet non-hot peppers
6 c sugar
2 1/2 c apple juice from a bottle
1 package jelly pectin (use the amount the package recommends)
Mince peppers in a food processor; don't mush them. Or, if you
really want to, mince by hand wearing gloves. Put juice into an
enameled or stainless steel or otherwise non-acid reacting pan.
Simmer juice uncovered until warm. Add sugar and stir until
dissolved. Put on a mask or cloth bandanna around breathing orifices
to protect vs. pepper gas. Add peppers and cook until color intensifies and they look done. Add gelatin and stir until it
dissolves. Begin testing jelly with a spoon; when syrup falls off
spoon in a single mass, or "sheet" instead of droplets when dripped
slowly off a spoon held sideways, jelly is ready for canning.
While this is cooking you should be preparing
your jars so you dont wind up with jelly that jells in the pot
before your jars are ready (I had this happen once).
P.S. Your tolerance for hotness may vary so this may come out "too
hot"; if so reduce peppers next recipe and give this as a gift to
a friend with an asbestos tongue. My brother has said tongue type
and i give him all my too hot kitchen oopses. He loves them!
This goes well with roasts, esp. pork, cold leftover meats, and has no fat in it! About 40 calories per Tablespoon and high in
vitamins. Also a conversation maker as an hors d' oeuvre: Put a
bit of cream cheese on good crackers, spoon jelly over cheese,
voila! Looks neat too, esp. if your jelly is clear and has 3
colors. Red and green only makes a nice Xmas gift. Some folks
add just a bit of cranberry juice to the recipe to tint the clear
base pink, but I like it clear.
I hear you can make this almost white-based if you use white vinegar
instead of juice and use more pectin.
Sometimes this will jell without pectin, sometimes not; depends on
the apple juice I think. You may just use 1/2 cup hot peppers
1/4 and 1/4 above.
1 U.S. cup here means a volume
unit of 8 oz.)
The original recipe recommended:
1/4 cup "hottish" yellow peppers such as waxes
1/4 cup red hot peppers
2/3 cup mild bells
But I have had success using:
1/8 cup hot green peppers
1/8 cup green bells
1/4 cup hot red peppers
2/3 cup golden-orange bells
Since I couldnt find yellow "hottish" peppers.
