Recipes at the Top: Chit Chat at the Bottom
Sweet Hot Mustard (a/k/a "Hot Pepper Butter") comes from a garden of sweet and hot peppers, prepared mustard, vinegar, sugar, and Clear Jel. It's great for gift giving and for potlucks. It can be your little secret because they don't sell anything like it in the store. Somewhat like honey mustard but with some spicy kick. You are just going to love it! Come see how I make Sweet Hot Mustard / Hot Pepper Butter AT HOME MY WAY!
Sweet Hot Mustard (canning recipe)
(a/k/a "Hot Pepper Butter")
Ingredients:
- 16 cups rough chopped hot and/or sweet peppers (36 peppers of various heat and colors) (I used bell peppers, green, red, and purple; red banana peppers, green tricked you Jalapeno peppers, and about 5 red hot chili peppers. I will increase the heat next year cause I kinda like it a little hot) Regular jalapenos would be great but I didn't have any this year.
- 4 cups white vinegar (5% acidity) (plus a glug for the water bath canner pot to keep the water from leaving lime scale on the jars)
- 4 cups prepared mustard (the yellow condiment you eat on your hot dog)
- 4 cups white granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup ClearJel (available at Amazon online) (no substitutions) (This is added separately from the other stuff.)
- 1 T. table salt
Instructions:
1. Sterilize (I use the dishwasher) at least 8 pint jars, lids and rings (or various half pints/quarter pints which are good for gift giving). I always sterilize extra jars just in case!
2. Wash peppers, remove seeds and veins, stems. I ALWAYS wear gloves because... the potential for error is huge with peppers! Chop the peppers small. I use a food processor and puree my peppers. I don't measure 16 cups of pureed peppers. I think the 16 cups refers to rough chopped peppers but I don't measure them. I used 36 descent sized peppers for my batch! (NOTE: For a completely smooth end product, you may want to cook the seeded/de-stemmed/deveined peppers in a little water for about 10 minutes until they are soft. Then, place them in the food processor and puree.)
3. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine the pepper puree, prepared yellow mustard, 4 cups vinegar, sugar, and salt. DO NOT INCLUDE the Clear Jel YET. (No substitutions on the Clear Jel. You got to have it!)
4. Separately, in a small bowl, combine the Clear Jel with about 3/4 cup COLD water. Stir until smooth. Once smooth, add to the peppers/remaining ingredients in the pot.
5. Heat the pot on medium and stir nearly constantly to avoid sticking. Cook until the mixture is nice and thick. (Think the consistency of your favorite honey mustard.) (Remove from heat if it starts to boil and then resume cooking. You don't want a hard boil here. Just to cook until it thickens.)
5. Place hot jars on a clean towel beside the stove and fill jars with the Sweet Hot Mustard leaving 3/4-1/2" headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, wet paper towel to remove any sticky residue. Add the lids and rings and tighten "finger tight" (which means until it stops and another quarter turn).
6. HOT WATER BATH PROCESSING: Place rack inside the canner or use a towel submerged in the bottom of the pot. Place jars in the pot right side up only. Cover jars with water 1-2 inches over the jars and add a glug of vinegar to keep the jars sparkly. Bring to a boil and start timing when the water is boiling good. SET A TIMER and time the boiling jars for 15 minutes.
7. Turn off the canner and let the water calm down before removing the jars (with a jar grabber). Place the wet, hot jars on a thick towel and leave them overnight. Don't touch them until the next morning. Let them seal on their own.
THE CHIT CHAT:
Where did I find this recipe?
I first made Sweet Hot Mustard (also called "Hot Pepper Butter") last summer. I had lots of peppers and followed a wonderful blog called "Chickens in the Road". I loved Suzanne's recipes, her wealth of knowledge about all things homesteading, and knew I could trust her recipes to be safe so I gave it a shot.
What is Hot Pepper Butter? Is it that good?
What resulted was the most delicious condiment "known to man". It is sweet and deliciously hot and turns a regular cold sandwich into something extraordinary. To say I loved this new recipe was an understatement. It's like a spicy honey mustard if I had to describe it.
Throughout the year, I handed out several jars of Hot Pepper Butter and one of my cousins actually called me on the phone (which he rarely does) to tell me how much he loved the stuff; where could he buy something like it in Florida; and when could he get more? The first call that I got from Jeff when he received it was "Thank you for sending me such a nice thing, but WHAT is it and what do I eat it on?" A few months later he was calling to tell me he loved the stuff and needed to get his hands on some more! That's my kind of recipe!
I told Jeff that my favorite way to eat it was on cold sandwiches (turkey, ham) or with potato chips but he now tells me his favorite way to eat it is with wings. I also think it would be great for dipping chicken strips, as a side to turkey, pork or ribs.
I know I'm getting wordy here but... I got to tell it.
In September, I set out with plans to pick a "peck of peppers" from the 28-pepper raised bed and checked out "Chickens in the Road" for the recipe. Well, wouldn't you know that a blog that has existed for years and years and years; a blog that has resulted in books for sale on Amazon and lots of followers had SHUT DOWN! Nooooooo! I never print recipes anymore but that is about to change!
Thankfully, I found some other places on line that featured a similar recipe. Finally in October, I made some.
I'm not sure if this is exactly the recipe that I started with but this recipe is delicious! It's the stuff sandwich dreams are made of. Definitely I wanted to place this recipe on my own blog so that I never lose it again- and yes, I'm going to print it!
Whew. It was a close one but sweet cousin, Jeff - I think we are back in business. Your hippy cousin Gina made us some more Sweet Hot Mustard. You just worry about getting us some wings when I come to visit! I'll be bringing the mustard.
(Note this recipe, this specific summer, resulted in orange Sweet Hot Mustard. Last year's batch was more yellow. I made my batch late in the season this year when mostly all of my peppers had turned beautifully red. The red peppers combined with the yellow mustard created a beautiful fall colored Sweet Hot Mustard but be ready for a little variation in color depending on what color peppers you are using.)
Here are some pics of this years batch on the stove!
Look at all of these beautiful peppers! Gahhh!
All cut up and ready for the food processor.
Pepper puree smells like heaven!
I measured out the mustard. Do you know they don't sell glass jars of mustard anymore! What the!
This is what Clear Jel looks like.
I made a slurry with it with some water.
Cooking it in the pot looks like this.
(This was before it got thick.)
Ready for filling the jars.
Ready for the canner!
Enjoy!
Gina
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