Habanero Pepper Jelly

 

A word up front with this recipe.

SAFETY FIRST.

I often say that stupidity should hurt. Well, today, I learned two things.

1. Stupidity DOES in fact hurt.
2. I am stupid.

So. When working with Habaneros, it’s important that you think about the damage they can do. The oil from the peppers will soak into anything they can. This means open pores, dry skin, open wounds, etc. If you tend to have especially dry skin, either lotion up, or wear gloves. Right now, it burns under all of my fingernails and the entire end of the pointer finger on my right hand feels like I’m holding it over a candle flame. My forehead finally quit burning about 5 minutes ago, and my nose is starting to stop burning as well. So.. wear gloves, turn the thermostat down to 62 degrees so you don’t sweat… whatever you have to do to make sure that you don’t touch any part of yourself after touching the peppers.

All of that said, on with the recipe. For this one, you’ll need a few special things…

 

You’ll need about 8 1/2 pint Mason jars (or Ball jars) and 2 - 3oz packs of liquid pectin.

Also, you’ll need about 15 Habanero Peppers, a cup’s worth of shredded carrots, 1-1/2 cups of Cider Vinegar, 1 Red Bell pepper, and a bucket of sugar.

To start things off, let’s work on the Habaneros.

Here they are in their whole, evil form.

First, you need to get rid of stems and seeds…

Leaving just the flesh of the pepper behind…

Then, mince the peppers until the are chopped like a fine relish…

Go ahead and prep your carrots as well… you’ll be shredding the carrots…

 

Now, the red pepper. You only need about a half a cup… but, you can eyeball it.

Chop it … all nice and fine.

It’s almost time to start making the jelly… but first, boil a big pot of water. Once boiling, take the lids off of your jars and toss them in the boiling water for 5 minutes to sterilize them. Then pull them out and let them cool a little bit on the counter.

Now, it’s time to start making the jelly.

So, remember that bucket of sugar I said you’d need?

This is 6-1/2 Cups of sugar…. yeah… that’s a lot… but… oh well.

Put the sugar in a medium sized pot, and add 1-1/2 Cups of cider vinegar.

This will be enough to make the sugar mostly wet… toss the sugar around and try to get all of it wet before tossing it on the stove. This is also a good time to get a big pot of water boiling on the stove… like the one that you sterilized the jars in… you want to have 1 inch of water above the tops of the jars.

Put it on medium heat until all of the sugar is dissolved.

After all of the sugar is dissolved, add the chopped red pepper and the carrots. Bring it to a boil and let it go for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After 5 minutes, add the habaneros and simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After 5 minutes, add the 2 packs of liquid pectin and stir continuously for one minute. This will thicken the jelly up rather quick-like.

After the pectin has been in for 1 minute, it’s time to pour into jars. Leave some room at the top, I like to leave 1/2”.

Toss the jars into the boiling water for 5 minutes, then remove them and allow them to cool on a wood surface, or a surface covered in a few towels.

This recipe made about 6-1/2 half-pint jars.

I like to serve the pepper jelly with some cream cheese and crackers, but I suppose there are all sorts of things you can do with it….

 

This was just a test batch.. there will probably be another batch coming around Christmas time…. so… let me know if you want to try a jar from the test batch… you can come by and grab a jar!