Remember when I went canning crazy last year?
Well, we are at it again! We’ve done beets and pickles (so many pickles, both long-term canning and refrigerator pickles) and sliced peppers. And now, per Aaron’s request we’ve made two different batches of pepper jelly! (next up will be tomatoes… we’ve been freezing them in prep for marathon sauce making)
The peppers in our garden have been finishing off the season super strong. We ended this canning session with 12 half pints and 2 full pints of pepper jelly and we feel like we hardly made a dent in the peppers.
We did one batch with scotch bonnets and one batch with habaneros. And even the yellow bell peppers we used were from our garden too!
For the scotch bonnet batch we strained the actual pepper pieces out of the mix after cooking. Which, by the way, made a delicious sweet-hot pepper mash we’ve been throwing in other dishes all week long. I even put it on my sandwich yesterday!
We didn’t strain the habanero batch, and I think I prefer that method. Why? It’s just plum easier! I don’t feel like it makes a huge difference in the end product, and it eliminates a couple of steps!
You can see the flecks of pepper in the habanero batch, I think it’s pretty! Plus it helps us tell the two batches apart, especially since we decided to forego the food coloring in the recipes.
Speaking of recipes we roughly followed two recipes, found HERE and HERE.
The best way to eat this stuff? Crackers (or bread) and cream cheese baby! Thankfully we had some on hand to try it out! Yum!
I also put some on an egg sandwich yesterday morning, mmhmm. Anything goes.
The scotch bonnet batch turned out fairly mild/medium… it builds a little as you keep eating it. The habaneros? HOT. Like HOT HOT HOT, but still super tasty… something about all that sugar! ;)
We are thinking about making a third batch with jalapenos since we have a bunch of those too. And then are thinking these will make great little gifts for the holidays! And an easy appetizer dish to bring for holiday parties, with crackers and cream cheese of course!
And now I’m thinking about the holidays! Can’t wait!!
Sam
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