Hot Pepper Jelly
- 1 cup chopped hot peppers of your choosing (I like lots of heat so I use a mixture of jalapenos, red poblano, and red cherry hot)
- 1/2 cup chopped bell peppers (I use a mixture of yellow and orange)
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar 5% acidity
- 6 cups sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
- 6 oz liquid fruit pectin
- 1 tsp salt
- Blend the peppers with the vinegar in a blender (if you prefer larger pepper junks can roughly blend with an immersion blender or just finely dice)
- Pour the pepper/vinegar mixture into a large pot and add in sugar and salt, and mix
- Bring to boil and boil for 3 minutes, remove from heat
- Add in fruit pectin and stir for 2 minutes
- Let stand for 2 minutes then skim off any foam
- Pour into clean 1/2 pint fruit jars
- Water bath for 10 minutes to seal or store in the refrigerator
Tomato Sauce Base
- 13-14 lbs of tomatoes or 6 quarts, peeled and cored
- 1/2 cup salt (I use Kosher salt)
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 3 cups sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
- 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper or more to taste
- 6 carrots
- Blanch the Tomatoes by bringing the pot of water to a gentle boil. Carefully place as many tomatoes as possible into the water, ensuring there is enough space to monitor when the skins start to split. Once the skins split, transfer the tomatoes to the ice water bath. This will make peeling easier and cool the tomatoes to prevent burns.
- Peel and Core by removing each tomato from the ice water bath, peel off the skin, and de-stem and core them. Place the processed tomatoes into a bowl.
- Prepare the Sauce by crushing the tomatoes with a masher and transfer them to a large pot. Add the other ingredients: apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar, black pepper, and carrots.
- Simmer the mixture for at least 2 hours, until the sauce reduces by at least one-third. At this point, I like to carefully pulse with an immersion blender to achieve a creamy consistency and puree the carrots. Continue to simmer if needed to reach the desired thickness. Remember, this is a base sauce, so it can be adjusted later depending on its final use.
- Preserve Your Sauce by canning or freezing. If canning, water bath for 30 minutes.
- Read my blog Tomayto, Tomahto: The Harvest of Tomato Idioms for ways to use this tomato sauce base to make other sauces like pasta sauce, pizza sauce, chili sauce, tomato soup, or even ketchup.