cowboy candy

ingredients

• 3 pounds jalapeños, discard stem, slice evenly

• 2 cups cider vinegar

• 6 cups white granulated sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed

• 3 teaspoons granulated garlic

• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Instructions

Have you canning jars, lids, rings and canning pot ready to go. Your jars need to be hot as the peppers and syrup will be hot. Personally I prep my peppers first, syrup second, and load the canner with empty jars third. That way the jars are heating at the same time the syrup is.

• Use gloves, cut off tops to remove stems from jalapeños. (If you want to, you can freeze the tops to use for hot sauce later)

• Slice the peppers, I find a mandolin is the fastest way to do this.

• In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, granulated garlic and cayenne pepper to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Raise the heat to boiling again, add the pepper slices. This will make a gas that chokes everyone in the room. Turn on your stove vent. Don’t panic if it looks like you have too many peppers for the amount of syrup. They will darken and shrink as you boil them. Turn the heat down after adding the peppers and simmer for at least 5 minutes.

• Use a slotted spoon to pack the peppers into your clean and hot jars. Don’t be scared to pack them in there. You can fit more than you think in each jar.
  

• Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the peppers. You need to use a chop stick, butter knife or something else to make sure you get any air bubbles out.

• Don’t toss your left over syrup. Put that in a jar also, you can use it as a base for barbq sauce.

• Wipe down your jar rims with a little vinegar on a paper towel, but lids and rings on. Rings need to be finger tip tight.

• Place jars in a canner, cover with water by 2-inches. Bring the water to a full rolling boil. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints. When done carefully remove jars from canning pot set on a towel for 24 hours. After 24 hours you can remove the rings from your jars, label and store.

• The longer it sits, the better it gets. In my opinion 3-5 weeks is the ideal amount of time. However it’s your house, do what you want.