Tigress Can Jam #10 - Raspberry Jalapeno Jam
I have to admit, I was positive that I thought this month's can jam was going to be apples. I'd planned on going apple picking anyway and making apple sauce and apple butter and was wondering how I could experiment with it for the jam. When Kaela busted out hot peppers instead, I was a little stuck. I love spicy foods, but I don't particularly make them. The pickled okra I made in September had half a (seeded) scotch bonnet in it and my salsa had jalapenos in it, but that was about the extent of my experimentation. Really, I've had far, far too many bad experiences where I make things using jalapenos or cayenne pepper without gloves and then go to take my contacts out. And it doesn't end well. And EVERY TIME I go back to hot peppers, I think this time will be different and that I just won't touch the peppers. And EVERY TIME I end up with burning fingers. I finally stopped that trend after I made August's salsa and my hands burned afterwards enough that I remembered to buy gloves when we went to Target that night. So I managed to pickle my okra killing myself. But I found myself stumped for this one. Despite my constant making of it, my household is not a jam or chutney house hold, so hot pepper jelly didn't seem like quite the thing. And we certainly weren't pickled pepper people. I made some marinated/pickled peppers last year which I need to throw out because we haven't eaten them because we really haven't liked them.
So, faced with a conundrum of what to make for peppers, the first thing that came to mind was raspberry jalapeno jam. I had always thought that was a wonderful idea, I had a gallon ziploc full of raspberries in the freezer from my labor day picking excursions, and wanted to try it out. So, I googled around, found the one recipe listed in various places and decided to give it a shot. Except that it called for liquid pectin and I only owned regular pectin. So, I adapted it to work with powdered no sugar pectin. Let me tell you know - BIG MISTAKE. I'll tell you why later.
Raspberry Jalapeno Jam with minor shenanigans
makes a little over 5 quarter pints
1 cup frozen or fresh raspberries
1/4 cup finely diced, seeded jalapeno peppers (about 3 large jalapenos for me)
1/2 cup diced, seeded green pepper (about half a pepper)
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1 package no sugar pectin
Sterilize jars. Combine raspberries, peppers, cider vinegar and a mixture of the pectin and 1/4 cup sugar in a medium sized sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Add remaining sugar and bring to a hard boil for one minute. Strain jam through a fine sieve to remove seeds and pepper pieces. Fill jars, leaving 1/4" headspace, wipe rims and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Why my variation sucks: You ever try to strain jam? It's not particularly easy. If I had used the liquid pectin method, I could have strained the peppers and seeds out and then added the pectin to thicken it. It's just not an option with powdered and I found myself trying to get as much jelly as possible from the inside and outside of the strainer and it didn't go well. If you want to use liquid pectin, add 3 ounces to your jam after you've strained it and stir well to combine before pouring into jars.
The Verdict: This is a sweet, spicy jam that tasts neither like jalapenos or raspberries but is delicious and sweet. While I have an unnatural aversion to pectin (it feels like cheating, I don't know), this did provide a solid set. I might have added a 1/2 cup less sugar - this is very sweet, but my fiancee likes it as is. Which is good, because I'm not sure I'd make this jam for myself again. It's not my cup of tea.