Rule the Cookout With Granny’s Secret Hot Pepper Homemade Mustard

This is granny’s best-kept secret stored in a jar. One bite, and you’ll be hooked. This hot pepper homemade mustard has a tangy, zesty flavor that explodes on the palette. Bring it to a cookout or barbecue and there will be people asking you how they can get a jar of their own. And since you’re making it, you’ll have plenty around the house to smear on anything. It even turns a simple snack like cheese and crackers a cold beer into an experience, especially when accompanied by a cold beer.

I dusted off the old wooden recipe box and taped the shredded paper together to bring you my granny’s homemade hot pepper mustard. Whip up a batch before I change my mind, or before she decides to haunt me from her grave. She was a moonshine-making, brandy-brewing, gun-slicker type, so if anyone could pull it off, it would be her. Cheers to Granny.

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Ingredients:

• Yellow hot peppers (banana, wax, chili, or any of your choice) Fill 3-gallon freezer bags with uncut yellow peppers. This will yield around 8 cups of pureed pepper. 
• 4 cups enriched sugar
• 2 cups white distilled vinegar
• 6 cups yellow mustard
• 1/2 cup enriched white flour (optional)

Canning Equipment

• Mason jars: 24 half-pint jars (8 ounces)  or 12 pint-size jars (16 ounces)
• Mason jar lids and rings
• Jar and lid lifter,
• ladle,
• funnel,
• 21-quart canning pot,
• 2-to-3- quart saucepan,
• cookie tray
• cheesecloth

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Instructions

Preparing Water Bath Canning

1. Wash your mason jars with soap and bleach. Rinse thoroughly and fill with two inches of hot tap water. Place each jar on a cookie sheet. If your jars aren’t new, rub your hand over the top to feel for chips. Toss jars that aren’t 100% smooth to the touch.
2. Heat your oven to 180 degrees and immediately place the tray filled with mason jars into the oven to heat them up. This step is vital to creating a good seal and preventing jars from breaking. Preparing the food last provides just enough time for the jars to get hot. The tap water will bubble when the jars are ready. 
3. Now it’s time to sterilize the lids and rings. Take a 2-to-3 quart saucepan and put the same number of lids as jars into it. Make sure the rubber seals on the lids face toward the sky. The lids should not be stacked together, but may touch one another as they are layered in the pan. Try not to touch the rubber seal with your hands. The lids used should be brand new, not previously used for canning. 

1. Layer the canning rings on top of the lids. Fill the pot with water about half an inch above the rings. Place the pan on the stove and bring it to a rolling boil. Once it boils, turn the heat to low. You can reuse rings, but trash any that are dented or rusty.
2. Bring a large pot (20+ quart) a third of the way full with warm tap water to a full boil and reduce to medium heat. Add a tsp. of table salt to the water to prevent white soot from appearing on the outside of the jars post canning. 

Pepper Preparation

1. Rinse the peppers and remove the stems. Do not remove the seeds.
2. Put the whole peppers into a food processor and puree them fully so there are no large chunks.
3. Combine the following in a saucepan: 

• 8 cups pureed peppers
• 6 cups yellow mustard 
• 4 cups sugar
• 2 cups white vinegar

4. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil for 15 minutes. Stir often to prevent scorching.  
5. Since some peppers contain higher amounts of water, check the thickness of the mixture by letting a spoonful cool on the counter; it shouldn’t be runny when it cools a bit. If it is SLOWLY sprinkle 1/2 cup of flour into the boiling mixture and stir for 5 minutes. 
6. Remove the mixture from heat.

Water Bath Canning Directions

1. Get one mason out of the oven and dump the hot water.
2. Place the hot jar near mustard mixture.
3. Place the funnel in the jar and ladle in the mixture, leaving about 2 inches of space from the rim. The space allows for expansion and ensures each jar seals properly. 
4. Remove the funnel and immediately wipe off the top 2 inches of the jar, inside and out. This is key as the rubber seal won’t take if even one speck of anything is in the way. This includes lint from the towel, which is why cheesecloth is recommended. Make one last visual scan of the jar, or cautiously run the palm of your hand across the hot rim ensuring nothing sticky remains. 
5. Use the magnetic lid lifter and snatch a lid from the saucepan careful to only touch the outhe lid with the tool. Place it onto the jar. 

1. Use the lid lifter and snatch a ring from the saucepan. Place it looely on the jar, don’t tighten it down yet.
2. Now, use the jar lifter to pick up the whole mason jar and gently place it in the pot of water by slowly lowering it to the bottom of the pan. Do NOT drop it to the bottom and be careful to not let the jar tip over. 
3. Repeat until the pot is filled with jars. The pan should be densely packed and the water should be 2 inches above the jars.
4. Turn the heat back up to high. Let the jars boil for 30 minutes.
5. Use the jar lifter to pick each jar out of the boiling water, placing them either on a towel or a cooling rack. Do not touch the top of the lids or tighten the rings while the jars are cooling. You will hear a “ting” sound as the seals set and jars begin to cool. Then you can tighten down the rings.

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