Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Cherry Bomb Jam

I found this recipe on a forum



Annie's Cherry Bomb Jam
36 oz. pitted, stemmed cherries
2-5 jalapenos (I used 3)
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 box powdered pectin
1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter (optional)
4 1/2 cups sugar
Chop or dice about half of the cherries using a food processor, or by hand, depending on how chunky you like your jams. Mix chopped cherries with remaining cherries. Remove seeds from jalapenos, being careful to wear rubber gloves for protection, and mince in food processor. I left the seeds in 1 jalapeno for extra kick.
Add minced jalapenos with cherries in a non-reactive pan, add vinegar, pectin, and butter. Bring to a boil and add sugar. Bring to a full, rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Ladle into prepared jars, process in a BWB for 10 minutes (or 5 minutes for sterilized jars). Makes 7 half pints.

I didn't bother adding the butter. 

I went into crisis mode during the last few steps when I realized that I only had a cup and a half of sugar, so Alison was dispatched to the sketchy grocery store down the block to acquire some. 

Pitting the cherries

Food Processor!




 Cherry Goop


Jalapeno's ready to go... I used all five from the recipe but only the seeds from one. I think in retrospect this may be a mistake. The initial taste test was a great sweet cherry taste with a kick at the end, the heat from the peppers. A few days later, the flavors have combined a bit more, and the jam still tastes good, but there is definitely a jalapeno smell, and hint of pepper taste. probably using only 3 peppers would have been a better bet. Still good, but I'm thinking people that don't enjoy spicy things might have liked it, now they probably won't. We'll see!


 Boiling the Jam

Jam in the jars... 


Processing the jam in a hot water bath. 

Since I had never done this before I did not know that cherries have very little natural pectin in them, making it one of the trickier jams to set. And I now have 8 jars of jam that have not set. So I'll probably reprocess this with some additional sugar and pectin in a couple of days to see if I can get it to set properly. The jam has been processed, so I'm in no danger of it going bad while I wait. We'll see if we can get it to do what it's supposed to do.

Next time I'll probably try something that is a little easier to work with, but this was one I had in the back of my mind for a while. I have a ton of fresh Mint, that we are trying to eradicate from around the house. I'm thinking of maybe doing mint jelly next. 

3 comments:

  1. I'm going to attempt this, I'm not a huge jalapeno fan, but I think it will add a nice spice to the cherries and I am very excited!

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  2. Try the cherry bomb peppers if you can find them. Sweet and hot

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  3. Made this twice and love it! Ingenious recipe. Great to eat w meat and or chips!

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