Cooking out the heat - not on purpose

Made hot pepper relish with 3 lbs Homegrown Jalapeño's , 3 lbs white onions, 3/4 lb. of Habanero's, all chopped-up and thrown in stainless pot. Then covered with boiling water and let sit for 10 minutes, pour-off liquid and add to another stainless pot that contained 2 1/2 cups cider vinegar and 2 1/2 cups sugar. After boil, cook 20 minutes. and put in jars, etc. It was really tasty, but lame on the HEAT scale. I'm thinking I boiled-out the heat. I ended up getting more Habaneros, chopping fine and mixing them(raw)in the already properly canned relish (to be refrigerated and consumed soon). Was really good, but I want to properly process this relish, WITH SOME WICKED HEAT that I can enjoy into next year with canning. Any good tips.

 

[texas blues]

You didn't boil out the heat. You simply had so many ingredients without heat i.e jalapeno's and onions that you overwhelmed the habs. How much water did you use?

 

[geeme]

+1 on TB's note. However, also add that SUGAR is one of the few things that cuts through capsaicin. You'll either need to increase the number of pods or reduce the sugar.

Seriously - any idea how quickly the heat leaves after just eating 2 gummy bears when you've eaten a fresh pod?

 

[salsalady]

welcome Donatello!


I've never made pepper relish before, is there a reason to steep the ingredients in hot water and then drain the water?

Capsaisin is oil-based, but I'm wondering if a lot of the capsaisin oils leached out via the hot water and then got poured away. Just a theory....

And as geeme said, the sugar will also cut the heat.

and again, welcome to THP!

salsalady

 

[Donatello62]

Sorry took so long to reply. I live in Connecticut and Irene left us with No power and No internet... Texas Blues - I can understand what you're saying. Way much onions, and the Jalapeño's only have very limited amount of capsaicin. It was just enough water to just cover all the veg's. Geeme - Lot's of sugar! Next time I think I'll drastically increase the amount of Hab's (or something hotter)instead of lowering the sugar. Next year I'll grow a few some MUCH hotter varieties. In my area Hab's are approx. $6.99 per lb.. Though I know it's not much cheaper growing them. SALSA LADY - Thanks for the warm welcome! - It's the recipe that was on the internet (with minor mods). Your questioning of the veg's with the hot water (and drained) has me rethinking things.... Why not skip that step. Add the veg's directly to the vinegar/sugar and cook as needed. Why pour-off the water with the capsaisin oil. Thanks for the enlightenment !