Cranapeno jam

"Phlegmmy!" they said. "This cranberry/jalapeno jam is not nearly hot enough" they said. You want hot, tootsie? I'll give you hot. I put about 1.5 cups of these bad boys in the jam this time, membranes, seeds and all. Not hot, my foot.




Here's the whole mess, bubbling away.


Jars must be sterilized.




Filled jars must be put in boiling water-bath for at least 10 minutes for my altitude.
BTW - Silicone oven-mitts is the bomb-diggity for all cooking pursuits. I was pining for one and Himself outdid Himself and bought me a pair. Handling hot shit will never be the same. Speaking of Himself and handling hot shit-- yeah, I know that was redundant-- he also got me one of these Kuhn Rikon Cool Gripper for snagging the empty jars out of the water bath. They can be slippery and hard to pick up properly when you're getting them out of the boiling water to fill with your canning product, so this is an incredible tool for that purpose. When picking up with this tool, be sure to turn your palm outward, grip the far rim of the jar while keeping your thumb pointed back to yourself. This way you can dump the boiling water out over the pot without risk of it pouring down your arm. *shudder to think* Probably over time, the foam on the grippy bit will give way, because as with all tools, you need to make sure you sterilize anything that will be touching a surface you'll be sealing food into.

I'm besotted with my Maslin pot. This one is heavy stainless steel, has a bowed-out lip for pouring, a wonderful bail which stops short of the rim so it stays cooler than the pot for easy handling, and inside is a pint-marker for the contents, so you can be sure you have enough jars on the boil to house the fruits of your labour.

[ritual tasting of the product on the pan before washing, this is now pleasantly spiky, actually, but I still wouldn't call it hot. Now about 10 minutes after tasting, that bracing pepper icy-hotness is lingering on my tongue, but this would never break me out into a sweat as a properly hot pepper can do. Or maybe these peppers weren't that hot? Or maybe my hot-taster is throwed off? Anyway, I may be questioning the wisdom of making the mild version of this at all-- I thought this version would light my own fire, but it was not at all like licking a nettle. Hmmm... maybe over some ice cream???]


There we have about 4 pints put by for lessening the odiousness of turkey-sandwiches to come. (There were two more pints going through the water bath as this photo was taken.) Sweet!
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