At the end of the growing season and processing so many vegetables, I decided to put the last of the hot peppers into the freezer. Now that winter is in full swing and the holidays are over, I'm taking the time to make hot sauce.
I pureed 4 cups of mixed peppers: African, Cayenne, Habanero, Citrus and Green Jalapeno's, 2 Onions, and 4 cups of white Vinegar in a blender.
I pureed 1 quart of diced tomatoes and 1 quart of tomato sauce with 1 cup brown sugar, and 4 cups of Apple Cider Vinegar. I opened a can of pineapple, and mandarin oranges and blended those with the tomatoes. I combined the that with the hot peppers and mix it well. I had so much that I had to use two large pots to cook down the hot sauce.
While the hot sauce was simmering, I pulled out the canner and got all the lids, rings, and jars washed.
.jpg)
When the sauce had cooked for an hour or so, I got the jars into the oven to heat them up before filling them. Jars should always be hot when filling them with a hot mixture. Also, the water in the canner should also be hot so as not to shock the jars when placing them into the canner. I've had a couple jars crack over the years, and it is not fun cleaning up that mess when the rest of the jars are in there too.
I did add 1 T. of Lime juice to each jar as I filled them, I probably didn't need too, but, thought why not. I got 14 pints of sauce for the pantry, and would you believe I still have another large bag of hot peppers in the freezer. I may not ever get to them now that I have two shelves full of hot sauce. I labeled this batch Hot-Hot Sauce because it has a lot of heat compared to my normal sauce.
I was inspired to get those peppers canned by seeing @scrbblingramma posting about her winter canning. See, I got too it! Now onto the next project.
