Turbo-1's HOT STUFF

turbo

It really depends how much heat you can tolerate. With our hot home-grown habaneros, I doubt that you'd dip it like salsa. At least not more than once.

You've got to realize that cayenne pepper is not really that hot, crushed red pepper is not too hot, nor is Tobasco. Lots of people think jalapenos are mild at maybe 2500-8000 Scoville units (I am one of them, and love to make poppers out of them), Tobasco and cayenne peppers may run from 30,000-50,000 Scoville units, and the hotter varieties of habaneros are over 10x hotter than that. In fact, our habaneros look just like the Red Savinas on this page, which may explain why they are so much more potent than the ones in the supermarket.

http://www.thescarms.com/hotstuff/pepperfacts.htm

Math Jeans

lol. So you use red habaneros and not orange ones?

turbo

I like to let them ripen fully, but the Maine climate does not allow me to fully ripen the whole crop, so we have to back down and process some orange and green ones, too, as frost threatens. I'm thinking of doing some large-container planting on our back deck next year to give them as much reflected sun and heat as I can, just to see if I can get a higher percentage of them to ripen together = bigger batches of relishes.

Math Jeans

Well. I'll make up some of the relish as soon as I can and give you the results once iv gotten the materials for it. But ur talkin so someone who eats plain habaneros . I can't wait.

turbo

Well, we ran out of habanero sauce earlier this year and had to resort to using peppers from the store, which are WAY wimpy compared to the ones on our garden. That relish from store-bought habaneros, you can eat on chips, crackers, etc as a snack with cheese, oysters, etc. Tasty, but not blistering hot. Our home-grown habanero relish will make you break out in a sweat, even if your mouth can stand the heat. Beware! (see the link I posted a few posts ago) Pepper vary greatly in hotness, even within types/species - if you can eat raw habaneros from a store, you would be well-advised to approach ours with some caution.

turbo

Today, I processed a huge bag of sweet corn that my sister-in-law gave us last night, so I was shucking, boiling, slicing, and freezing this afternoon. She didn't leave empty-handed - we picked a large plastic shopping bag of apples from our largest apple tree and she'll be making pies, breads, and tarts for a while. While I was shucking corn, my father came down with a bag of buttercup squash that are too large for a single person to cook and eat, and we will supply him with more reasonable-sized squash as ours mature. While we were talking in the driveway, my vegetarian/organic gardening neighbor stopped by with his dog, and I gave him a couple of little jars of the new habanero relish. It's fall and the food is flying!!

When my wife got home from work, she picked all the red lipstick peppers and a few jalapenos, so I made up another batch of chili relish using those and lots of Russian garlic. I may have to save a jar for Christmas - the bright red lipsticks and the rich green jalapenos look very festive. Not blistering hot, but pretty darned hot, and very flavorful. I dropped off a jar of that at my neighbor's place tonight - we owe him, since he is providing all our German and Russian garlic cloves to help us establish our own sustainable yearly garlic crop.

Math Jeans

I would love to live on your block. So jealous.

turbo

Well there are about 10 houses on this 3-mile stretch of road, so I don't know if you could call it a block.

Math Jeans

well. my main point was...I want your food.

Math Jeans

Well, I just ran into a problem. My parents won't allow me to do the canning process (mainly because one of my relatives is a biologist and now they are paranoid about bacteria), so if I make a small batch and eat it within a couple of days, could I avoid it?

Math Is Hard

I knew you were one of us right away.

We have some serious hotsauce/salsa fans here.

turbo

The little canning jars are made for canning and freezing. Make as much as you want, and freeze it. Take one jar at a time out of the freezer for use and keep it refrigerated - you'll be fine. The thing about bacteria is that if you keep the food chilled, the bacteria can't gain a foothold or multiply.

The concern about home-canning is that you are going to store those jars of food at room temperature, and if you haven't properly processed the food and sterilized the jars and lids, some bacteria can multiply and produce toxins. Probably the worst one is listeria, that thrives in de-oxygenated environments. This is not a concern with frozen foods, so have your parents talk to the biologist and confirm what I have told you, and they'll probably let you use the alternate method of preservation - freezing. Good luck.

If you want to make up really small batches, refrigerate it, and use it in a timely fashion, you are no more at risk of food poisoning that you are from eating some salad or casserole from the fridge that is a few days old, especially since the vinegar drives the pH so low that most bacteria can't get a foothold, anyway, and you're boiling the relish to cook it. Normal kitchen hygiene is sufficient to keep you safe if you aren't going to jar it and store it at room temperature. We HAVE to can our salsas, because there is no other reasonable way to store it. We already have two chest freezers full and the big freezer in our fridge is full of food, so cupboards and pantries and tables down cellar have to be our storage facilities. If I shoot a deer this year, we may have to shuffle a lot of food to my father's freezer to make room for the venison.

Math Jeans

So I can make a full batch and put it in a can, but freeze it instead of having to process it? Then when I'm about to eat it I can just stick some in the fridge?

turbo

That's the idea. If you can get a case of the little Ball jelly jars with lids and rings, you'll be all set to experiment with chili relishes. The jars are designed to be used for freezing or canning. Freezing the relishes promptly after you jar them, and keeping them refrigerated as you thaw and use them is a good way to go. My wife and I just don't have the freezer capacity to put up all our pickles, salsas, and chili relishes, so we can't use that method, unless we have a walk-in freezer installed. That picture I posted was of our smallest cupboard. We have another much larger one under the counter that is full, and we are putting salsas and other processed canned food in our ceiling-to-floor pantry cupboard with sliding doors.

Math Jeans

I'm going to attempt to get the materials for the habanero relish this weekend (I know they arn't as good as home grown. Don't rub it in). But before I do, do you have a really really hot salsa recepes we well? (Tell me if I'm being too nosy). .

turbo

It's really pretty loose around here. My wife and I just grab what we've got and go with it. We might have a few gallons of red tomatoes or green ones, and we'll scald them in boiling water then shock them in cold water. That makes peeling them easier. I think it's helpful to quarter the tomatoes so they de-water more easily, and start simmering them down with a few cups of vinegar. Once the tomatoes are simmered down to about the consistency that you'd consider using for salsa you chop and add onions and every kind of peppers (bell, sweet, and chilies) you can get with LOTS of garlic and some salt. Simmer until the chilies are getting cooked down and incorporated, and then season to taste. You may want to add more hot stuff, maybe some herbs, and CERTAINLY some cilantro before canning. This can take hours spread over a couple of days, so save your fresh herbs for the last hurrah, so their flavors will be strongest in the finished product.

People up here run rafting companies, guided snowmobile tours, etc to encourage tourism. Maybe I should start a school of salsa... With all the variables, there's no real formula, but until you've done it a few times how do you know what works?

David, if you lived here and wanted some of our hot foods, I would make you tend and weed my peppers, and harvest them, but in return I'd teach you how to make them into fantastic foods that you cannot find in stores anywhere.

Evo

turbo, do you wear gloves on your hands when you cut the peppers? That stuff can really linger on your hands.