eLvisPug: hab jelly recipe

Aren't these beautiful!

And deadly.

You must be incredibly careful with these babies or you will be sorry. Wear gloves. Also be careful to not stand over the steam while they cook.

After a day of making Hab jelly my face and arms burned most of the night.

I tried 2 recipes

Most of the pepper recipes I found online used liquid pectin. I don't care for using the liquid pectin so I searched until I found a recipe without it.

This one first.
It called for 3 pounds of peppers. I measured and put in 7/8 habs. It didn't look as if it was going to set up. The next day in the fridge it still was a little loose. Now, a few more days later it is set up just fine.

One of the tricks I always do is keep a jar from each batch to taste test it and also to test it's jelling. You don't have to keep a whole jar and I don't process this jar. I want to get into it often.

3 pounds habanero peppers, stems removed
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar (I used regular white vinegar)
1 package pectin
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 cups sugar
white wine or apple juice as needed (see below)

Puree the peppers with the vinegar, working in batches if necessary. Cover and refrigerate several days, up to a week.

Strain mixture in a jelly bag. Add wine or juice to measure exactly 4 cups, if necessary. Mix juice, salt, and pectin in a suitable saucepot and bring to the boil. Add sugar and return to a rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute (or test for gell point). Remove from heat, skim, and ladle into hot sterilized jars. Adjust caps, process 5 minutes.

Yield: about 6 half pints

From: paulhinr@mindspring.com (Paul Hinrichs)
Posted By: rec.food.preserving
Post Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998

I then tried this one. This is the one I'm keeping in my files. It jelled up quickly, it was easy and didn't need 3 pounds of peppers. I was a little worried because 2 bells could be? What? Small? large? I'm much happier if they tell me ounces, weight, cups.

Habanero Jelly

3 ORANGE bell peppers, large, fleshy
5-10 chiles habaneros, ripe (original comment: "10 makes this stuff DEADLY")
1.5 C. vinegar, white, distilled
7 C. sugar
1 pkg liquid fruit pectin (Certo or equivalent)

1. Remove stems, seeds, and membranes from bell peppers. Remove stems from habaneros (and seeds too, if you want to take the trouble, but if you do you run the risk of removing membranes, too, which will reduce hotness of the end product).
2. Put bell peppers, habaneros, and the vinegar in a blender and process until smooth.
3. Combine pepper-vinegar puree and all the sugar in a non-corrosive pan.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and strain through cheesecloth into another pan. Add pectin and bring to a full rolling boil while stirring. Boil about one minute, remove from heat and ladle into sterile jars.
Yield: about 7 half-pint jars.

Brent's comments:
1) ORANGE bell peppers are EXTREMELY expensive. YELLOW bell peppers are expensive but much cheaper and just as suitable, since it turns out the orange color doesn't really show very well anyway -- the yellow ends up clearer and more appealing, whereas the orange ends up looking a bit like a murky yellow. And RED bells are cheapest of all, not to mention giving perhaps the best color. I got the best flavor jelly when I used a good tasting mild chile for "filler" instead of regular old bell peppers (namely, "Szentesi", a Hungarian paprika type, but just substitute your favorite choice).

2) Actually, the best jelly of all came by using rocotos instead of habaneros. I still used bell pepper and/or Szentesi for "filler", used about 10-15 rocotos or so, de-seeded and de-veined them as original recipe directed, and even so these batches turned out hot and delicious flavor. But next time I will leave all membranes, removing only seeds. Who cares if the jelly's so hot you have to use a bit less on your toast/bagel?

3) The batch I made with 8 habaneros, de-seeded and de-veined per original recipe, was not very hot at all, hence my modification to no longer de-seed nor especially de-vein. I suppose an alternative would be to still de-seed and de-vein, but use many more (20-30?) habaneros to get more of that distinctive hab flavor/aroma without making it deadly for non-chile-heads.