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Pepper jelly

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I would definitely use some type of fruit in a Chinense only jelly. Most of the Chinense I've had are pretty one dimensional in terms of flavor. I suppose if you mixed several different varieties of your favorite Chinense peppers you could achieve several different flavors in one jelly. I would think a habanero only jelly would have a lot less flavor than a habanero and ghost pepper jelly. I've had some good hab/fruit jellies though, and also some good Bhut/fruit jellies. If you need a recipe for a pepper only, or a pepper with fruit jelly, just click on the link below.

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/58085-red-rocoto-jelly/page-1
 
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Muckyai said:
Need some advice for my first time making pepper jelly. If I were to just use chinense peppers (no bell peppers) would the jelly come out tasty, or would I need an underlying base flavor such as berries or apricots? Thanks for any pearls of wisdom!
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I think it's pretty subjective. I have made some with only Bahamian Goat peppers, and no fruit, and it wasn't bad. Mostly now I put fruit in and blend with different types of peppers. I would start out with the closest you think would taste good to you, then tweak the next batch with more, less, or no fruit, different types of peppers, vinegar or lemon juice, etc... Here's a video of a batch I made. I originally started with a recipe maybe from the pectin box, or online I don't remember. I kept tweaking it. This particular batch was one of my favorites. I've been experimenting with different sweeteners too, like stevia and honey.
 
https://youtu.be/5Vgg-9gXcnA
 
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Thanks so much. It's really nice to get some guidance on something like this, I'd hate to end up pitching a basket of home grown peppers because of a silly novice mistake.
 
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A great "go to" fruit/pepper jelly recipe is:

2 lbs fresh strawberries
1-2 Superhot Chinense peppers
4-5 cups white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 teaspoons powdered pectin

Or, for a Chocolate Strawberry jelly (jam), mix about 1/3 cup cocoa powder to the sugar before you add it to the pot. Always a hit!

Disclaimer: I'm a big fan of spicy berry jams/jellies. My "base" is usually 2 lbs of berries- sometimes all mixed- strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc. That recipe usually yields about seven 1/2 pint jars. It's great on everything from BBQ to ice cream ;)
 
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Pepper-only jellies usually have so much pectin I don't like the consistency. They can be like a solid block you take gel like chunks off with a fork. I like jam/marmalade much better because the "jelly" is fruit, not added pectin to make it gel. However a chinense-only is possible and I looked up a good one I've had that is not like that. Angel's Fire Habanero Jelly. Okay seems their base is sweet peppers and sugar and they use habanero powder. So basically instead of using habs as the base and making it inedible they choose sweet peppers and hab powder, lots of sugar, way less pectin, citric acid, and butter. And it's really good! So hope this helps.
 
I've had stuff so horrible it's like little pepper bits preserved in unflavored pectin gel, so bad.
 
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The recipes from the Big Ball Book are online at the Ball website.  Great because you can trust Ball to be safe.  What I started with was their basic recipe which is heavy on the sweet peppers.  Then by weight, I decreased the sweet peppers and replaced with hot peppers till I got the right heat levels.  I have opened three year old jars and they were as good as day 1 or better.
 
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Hybrid Mode 01 said:
     I've had really good experience mixing chinenses with tart cherries and/or cranberries. There's a really good recipe around here somewhere that another member posted that I use almost exclusively. I'll try to track it down...
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I agree cranberries, I just did a batch of TSP cranberries and pomegranate juice and was amazing . Used the pomegranate juice to cut the finger in half
 
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