jalapeno jam

By Jody

You can grow your own, pick your own, or buy them at the grocery store. An average of 1 pound is needed per batch of 5 jars (8 oz each). For reference, a bushel of peppers weighs 25 pounds
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3 pounds of peppers
6 c lemon juice
3 packages of pectin
9 c sugar/splenda blend

makes 16 pints

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb to 1 pound of cleaned Peppers seeds and stems removed
• 6 cups sugar (or other sweeteners - see step 6)
• 2 cups of 5% apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, instead.
• 1 packets of dry pectin (1 packet is equal to 3 Tablespoons of pectin)

Preparation

Step 1

Wash the jars and lids

This is a good time to get the jars ready! The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle. Otherwise put the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes. I just put the lids in a small pot of almost boiling water for 5 minutes, and use the magnetic "lid lifter wand" to pull them out.

Get the water bath canner heating up

Rinse out your canner, fill it with hot tap water and put it on the stove on low heat (for now) so it will be ready (but not boiled away) by the time you are ready for it later.

Step 3 -Wash the peppers!

Step 4 - Remove stems


Step 5 - Puree the peppers in a blender

Pop the peppers into a blender or food processor and puree them. You may need to add 1 cup of the vinegar now to get the blender to work properly with them!

choose type of sweetener:

regular no-sugar or regular 6 cups of sugar
low sugar no-sugar 4.5 cups of sugar
lower sugar no-sugar 2 cups sugar and 2 cups Splenda (or about 1/3 that if you use Stevia, which is my preference)
no sugar no-sugar 4 cups Splenda (or about 1/3 that if you use Stevia, which is my preference)
natural no-sugar 3 cups fruit juice (grape, peach, apple or mixed)



Step 7 - Mix the pectin and some sugar / sweetener

Mix the .5 packets of dry pectin with about 1/2 cup of sugar or other sweetener and set aside.

Step 8 - Cook the peppers, vinegar and sugar / sweetener

Combine the pepper puree, the remaining apple cider vinegar and the remaining sweetener in a pot and heat to a boil over medium heat, while stirring periodically, to prevent burning. Boil for 10 minutes, continuing to stir as needed to prevent burning.

Note: The recipes that were first developed and tested (in labs) used vinegar. The commonly used acids in home canning are vinegar, lemon and lime juice. Lemon and lime juices are more acidic than vinegar, but have less effect on flavor. Consequently, you may safely substitute an equal amount of lemon juice for vinegar in recipes using vinegar.

Step 9 - Add the pectin and boil hard for one minute

After boiling for 10 minutes, add the pectin from step 7, return the mix to a boil and then boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Step 10 - Skim any excessive foam

Foam... What is it? Just jam with a lot of air from the boiling. But it tastes more like, well, foam, that jam, so most people remove it. It is harmless, though. Some people add 1 teaspoon of butter or margarine to the mix in step 6 to reduce foaming, but food experts debate whether that may contribute to earlier spoilage, so I usually omit it and skim.

But save the skimmed foam! You can recover jam from it to use fresh! See this page for directions!

Step 11 - Testing for "jell" (thickness)


I keep a metal tablespoon sitting in a glass of ice water, then take a half spoonful of the mix and let it cool to room temperature on the spoon. If it thickens up to the consistency I like, then I know the jam is ready. If not, I mix in a little more pectin (about 1/3 to 1/2 of another package) and bring it to a boil again for 1 minute. Get a few jars out of the dishwasher (still hot) and get your funnel, lid lifter and ladle ready. I put an old towel down - it makes clean up easier.

Step 12 - Fill the jars and put the lid and rings on

Fill them to within ¼-inch of the top, wipe any spilled jam off the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around the

Step 13 - Process the jars in the boiling water bath

Keep the jars covered with at least 2 inches of water. Keep the water boiling. In general, boil them for 10 minutes. I say "in general" because you have to process (boil) them longer at higher altitudes than sea level, or if you use larger jars, or if you did not

sanitize the jars and lids right before using them. The directions inside every box of pectin will tell you exactly. The directions on the pectin tend to be pretty conservative. Clemson University says you only need to process them for 10 minutes. I usually hedge my bets and start pulling them out after 10 minutes, and the last jars were probably in for 12. I rarely have a jar spoil, so it must work.

Step 14 - Remove and cool the jars - Done!

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