Pepper Jelly

I love hot pepper jelly. For the past few years, I've made a batch or two every summer. Pepper jelly is a little tricky. Perhaps it has to do with the level of capsaisin in the various peppers I've grown, or the ratio of hot peppers to sweet peppers (I'm never very precise about the hot/sweet ratio), but sometimes the stuff sets into real jelly, and sometimes it stays syrup-y. Most of the time, I don't care if it sets or not; the syrup-y stuff makes a delicious dipping sauce for chicken or smoked sausage. On a couple of occasions, I've left it in the jars for a couple of months, then opened all the jars, dumped the contents into a pan, added more fruit pectin to stiffen it up a bit, and re-canned it.

I made pepper jelly today. Judging by the film of jelly remaining in the pan after I filled the jars, it looks like this batch is going to set perfectly. I'm going to get the recipe down before I forget it.

3 cups of chopped peppers - half sweet peppers and half hot (jalapeno and chili) peppers. (I used both red and green peppers. I removed the seeds and ribs from the sweet peppers and from about half of the hot peppers. The seeds don't bother me one bit.)
3 cups of apple cider vinegar
13 cups of sugar
1 package of powdered fruit pectin
2 pouches of liquid fruit pectin

Mix the chopped peppers, the vinegar, the sugar, and the powdered fruit pectin in a pan over high heat. Stirring almost constantly, bring the mixture to a roiling boil. Add the liquid fruit pectin. Return to a rolling boil, stirring constantly, and boil for 1 minute. Take the pan off the heat. Skim off the foam. Pour into jars. (This batch made 6 half-pint jars and 3 pint jars.) Wipe off the rims, attach the lids, and water bath for 10 minutes.

I do not add green food coloring to my pepper jelly as some folks do. The natural color of the jelly is a beautiful gold color, with flecks of green and red peppers.

If I can remember to buy more supplies tomorrow, I may make another batch, as we go through the stuff like crazy. We brush it on chicken on the grill, or use it as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets or smoked sausage. Mixed with ketchup, it makes a delicious topping for meat loaf. Though I haven't tried it, I bet it would make a good glaze for baked ham or ribs. And, of course, it's good with cream cheese and crackers.

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