Question on Hot N Sweet jam

16 years ago

First off, I have made this jelly and absolutely loved it....:).

But I can't help but want to tweak..:)

I know that the pepper/onion to vinegar ratio cannot be altered which is fine. I plan on using a ultra hot habanero called Fatalli that is much much hotter than your average habanero pepper. I figure if anything I will use less than the recipe calls for here.

What I want to change is the fruit combo.

1.Can I mix and match fruits?

2.Can I increase the amount of fruit in the recipe as long as it is an acidic fruit with no problems? Example, I want to go ahead with the 1 cup of Apricot but also want to add dried peaches and dried cherries. Both of these are acidic enough to can on their own without vinegar, so would it be a problem to add these to taste? Is there a danger in adding more fruit to the recipe?

also I am not worried about the liquid pectin, I use pomona with no probs, but I am actually going for a glaze type consistancy here, so may just cook to the right temp or might experiment with amounts of pomona pectin.

Hot 'N Sweet Confetti Jelly

(Habanero Gold based recipe)

1 cup minced dried apricots (1/8" dice)

Note: Could use dried peaches or pears instead.

1 1/4 total cups minced red sweet pepper and minced red onion (1/8" dice),> approximately half-and-half.

1/4 cup Habanero peppers

Note: For extra-hot, increase Habaneros to 1/2 cup and reduce red sweet pepper/red onion combination to 1 cup total.

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

6 cups sugar

1 3-oz. pouch liquid pectin (I used Ball, which I've decided I like better than Certo.)

>

Prep apricots, peppers and onion. Place in a large, stainless or other > non-reactive pot. Add sugar and vinegar. Bring to the boil and cook 5 minutes. Pull off the burner; allow to cool, cover and let sit overnight.

Stir occasionally if convenient.

Note: 4-6 hours would be plenty, so the time doesn't need to be any greater than the soaking time for apricots in the original recipe. (I've used as little as an hour without noticeable problems. Annie)

Next day, bring the mixture back to the boil. Stir in liquid pectin. Boil hard 1 minute.

Pull off the heat. If necessary, skim foam. (I did need to skim a bit.) Let cool 2 minutes, stirring to distribute solids (at Camp we let it set about 10 minutes and I didn't have to mess around getting the peppers suspended in the jelly, it got thick enough to keep the suspension) Pour into jars. Stir to distribute and remove air bubbles. Do the usual with the jars and lids, BWB 10 minutes.

When jars are sealed, "agitate" to distribute solids throughout the jelly.

Yield: 6 8-oz. jars.

thanks

Kendra

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Comments (4)

readinglady
16 years ago
Yes, you can mix-and-match fruit.

I also don't see any reason why you can't increase the amount of dried fruit. I increased from the original recipe in the first place. The only difference is as more fuit is added you lose clarity, so the "look" is different.

I would be hesitant to reduce the sugar, if that's your reason for using the Pomona's. There are low-sugar pepper jelly recipes out there, but this recipe wasn't formulated for that and sugar along with vinegar is helpful in terms of safety.

Carol
ardnek710
Original Author
16 years ago
Actually, I don't plan on changing the sugar although that is why I do use pomona for other jams and jellys.

Here though, I want to make a glaze for meat but want to add to the fruitiness, so clarity of final product is also not a main concern.

thanks
kendra
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ksrogers
16 years ago
If its going to be a sauce as opposed to a jam, the Clear Jel will do the job. It can thicken as much or as little as you prefer. If I am looking for a thickener and don't want a pudding or thick paste, I mix some Clear Jel with a little water and pour it slowly into a boiling liquid, while vigorously stirring. If it sets up too much, add a bit more liquid, not enough, add a bit more of the starch water.
ardnek710
Original Author
16 years ago
So, I made the above jelly with the following changes to the recipe:

Used 1 1/2 cup dried chopped apricots, 1 1/2 cup dried chopped peaches, 1 1/2 cup dried chopped cherries.
I also doubled the vinegar and added a little more sugar (mainly cause the fatalli pepper, even though I deseeded half of them, were SOOOOOOO hot). I kept the onion, bell pepper, and hot pepper the same as the original.
I also ended up NOT adding pectin since I was going for a glaze consistency, I found the sugar alone was fine.

Now, this mix tasted excellent and we used it on chicken thighs as a glaze. It was sweet and fruity and hot all at the same time and the chicken looked beautiful with the chunks of dried fruits and the shiny sugar glaze.

However, it was very very chunky since I added all that extra dried fruit. My question this time is can I use commercial fruit juice preps that are not 100% fruit to increase the fruity flavor but not add more chunks of dried fruit to the mix? I think I want to back down the amount of dried fruit (I want more glaze than fruit) but I want to maintain the very fruity flavor I got from the extra fruit.
I have black cherry extract (100% cherry) and then I have apricot and peach nectar that are only 45% fruit and have some water and sugar added. I want to mix these, possibly cook down to eliminate volume, add some dried fruit for looks (but not near as much as before), then make the rest of the recipe as written originally? Any problems here?

Any suggestions??

thanks
Kendra