Jalapeno Jelly Time

Whether it's hearing the high school band practicing or the crisp bite of a September evening, some things just feel like fall.  Kelly and I added to our fall memories yesterday when we took our first shot at making and canning jalapeno blueberry jelly.

After a successful summer grow season we had a plethora of jalapeno peppers.  Fortunately a coworker gave us her recipe for this spicy, sweet jelly.  It's a great way to spend a few hours on a rainy afternoon and makes a tasty treat that you can give out to friends and family.

Here is what you will need:

We added a few more peppers than above.

• About a dozen medium jalapeno peppers.  If you have smaller ones, 2 small = 1 medium
• 6 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of blueberries
• 2 cups of vinegar
• 2 packages of liquid Pectin (6 oz total)
•  Plastic gloves
• Jars (cleaned and sanitized)
• 2 large pots
• Jar lifter

The first step is to deseed the peppers.  You don't have to get every single seed out.  I left a few in to add some heat to the jelly.  Same with the membranes.  Oh, if you get this far and don't have plastic gloves on, well God help you.  Once you're done with this you want to combine the peppers and 1/2 cup of vinegar, along with the blueberries in a food processor. 

If there is one other thing you may need for this it's a gas mask.  Watch out when you take the lid off the food processor.  And never take a big sniff of the mix.  At any point.  Trust me.

This is wrong.

Next up is to take the remaining 1 1/2 cups of vinegar and combine it with the sugar in a large pot.  We accidentally put the blueberries into this mixture but fortunately realized our mistake and scooped them out.  Once you've brought the sugar and vinegar to a boil you can add the mix from the food processor.  From here on you have to constantly stir the pot or it will boil over and you'll have one hell of a mess.  

Working as a team really helped with this recipe.  While I stirred the pot for the next 10 minutes, my wife was able to clean up and set for the next part.  It also made it a lot more fun and was a nice afternoon activity.

While you are stirring make sure you have the exhaust fan going because the fumes can be very overwhelming.  Your sinuses will be clear for sure.  After the 10 minutes you add the two pouches of pectin to the mix.  Boil for another minute or two and then it's time to jar.   Word is there is a special funnel that allows you to pour the jelly into the jar easily.  Since we didn't have one of those we just used a ladle and measuring pitcher with a spout. 

We got 8 jars out of this batch.  Each jar is 8 ounces and should be filled to about the lowest ring.  You will then want to boil the jars in another pot filled with water to seal them.  We left them in for around 15 minutes and then used the jar lifter to remove them from the pot.

Leave the jars on a towel to dry and listen for the popping sound indicating that they have sealed.  After about a half hour we checked them and only three were popped, I pressed down on a few and they stayed down and sealed.  Eventually they all sealed and we had our little project complete.  It turned out to be pretty easy and we sampled the jelly with friend later that night.  A big success.