Jalapeño Jelly

When I first visited Jessica in her new apartment on Manhattan she had stocked her pantry with delicious provisions including a haberno jelly that went great with goat cheese. Seeking to replicate this I tried to find a similar recipe, but the closest one I found was jalapeños, which was close enough for my first try. I thought I could tweak later once I got the basics down.

Pectin is an important factor for any jelly since it is the agent that causes the gel to form. You can usually purchase extracted pectin (often from apples or citrus) or you can use a natural source by including a fruit high in pectin. This recipe uses apples as a natural source of pectin. Pectin is a polysaccharide (basically a special type of sugar) meaning that it forms chains and has molecules sticking off itself. When heat, sugar, and fruit is added to pectin the acid in the fruit will changed the charge on the pectin's branches causing it to change shape and trap water. The sugar and heat help decrease the amount of water in the solution thus decreasing the solubility of pectin allowing it to trap water more easily and thus a gel forms. Getting a gel to form is a common place for things to go wrong in jams or jellies, but luckily I got it to work the first time.

The main ingredients were apples (for pectin), some jalapeños, and cranberries (mostly for color). Using the apples as a natural source of pectin was nice, however I think it imparted too much apple flavor that overpowered the jalapeño, which was to subtle for me. I'm partial to in your face heat. I consulted Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, since I knew it had some jellies in it, and I think I'll try using commercial pectin next time to eliminate the need for the apples and switch to habernos for more heat. Also, I think this jelly would be good with bits of haberno in it instead of completely clear so I think I'll add some cooked chopped bits to the jars after I boil the sugar, vinegar, pectin, and whole habernos and pour it. Stay tuned!