Thanks for the replies guys! And the olive oil is what prompted me to post. I'm slowly getting the hang of all this.

jt

Ellie Topp's "Small Batch Preserving" has a recipe for Carmelized Red Onion Relish that has been posted in the forum. I made it two years ago and it is quite good. Maybe have to make it again soon now that you reminded me of it....

I'm sure I could hunt down the recipe in my files, if you are interested.

After seeing the canned meatloaf, that was enough for me. I would not trust his recipes,methods, or times.
Stick with the Ball Blue book, any of the USDA safe sites or So Easy to Preserve by the Univ. of Georgia, or the Small Batch Preserving, etc., then you know you will be safe.

I found it, suzyq. Thanks!

Posted by readinglady z8 OR (My Page) on Mon, Jul 10, 06 at 1:05

Here's a recipe for a red onion relish you might try. There's no reason why white onions couldn't also be used. For a lighter relish you could try a dry white wine and white balsamic vinegar or just use wine vinegar and increase the sugar, if needed.
Caramelized Red Onion Relish

Categories : Canning & Preserving Pickles and Relishes

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 large red onions -- peeled
1/4 cup brown sugar -- firmly packed
1 cup dry red wine
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Slice onions very thinly. Combine onions and sugar in a heavy skillet (non-acidic). Cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat for 25 minutes or until onions turn golden and start to caramelized, stirring frequently.

Stir in wine and vinegar. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated, stirring frequently.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sppon into a clean wide-mouth jar and cool briefly.

Remove hot jars from canner and ladle relish into jars to within 1/2-inch of rim. Process 10 minutes for half-pint jars. (BWB)

"from "Small-Batch preserving""
Yield:
"2 cups"

Here is a link that might be useful: So Easy to Preserve by the Univ. of Georgia

I don't do a lot of canning except for hot peppers and tomatoes so not sure if I want to get the "Small Batch Preserving" book or not. But being that I only can pints and smaller this book sounds perfect. Very seldom that I make more than 6 pints of anything at a time too. Does it have a lot of pepper recipes? I think I will get a copy from local library and scan the pages that interest me. Thats if they have the new edition.

I wish this forum had a FAQ that we could put important links in etc.

Just checked local library system and they have 8 copies of the 2007 edition. Placed a hold and should have by Wed or so.

You guys are the best!!

At least this forum has many more threads and the lengths have been increased considerably. Some threads can go back several years. Because there are so many forums, and so much activity, it would be a major task to create FAQs. Wish the search engine here was better though.

When we started up the Hot Pepper forum a few years back it seemed no problem at all. I had a special password and entered the FAQ myself. Later Taba took it over and I'm not sure can still be added to now as I'm not very active there and don't plan to be. Many of the original members fled to another forum as did members of the tomato forum. I think things on GW are much better now than used to be.

1 cup dry red wine...

I know zip abt wine and haven't drank wine since the late 60s early 70s when I was rather fond of Boone's Farm. Previous to that only German wines while stationed there and maybe a couple flasks of T'bird when really young. So I asked the man that was stocking wine at local Sam's Club this morning. LOL Our combined knowledge was pretty much limited to Strawberry Hill. He did show me the 'red' section and I found 1 description that said 'dry' and bought it. (see link below)

Really looking forward to canning 1/2 pints of caramelized onion rings. They will go with so many of the things in my diet. I grilled 1/3 pounders Black Angus beef burgers for the freezer over the weekend. The onions will also go with most of the burritos that I make and freeze.

Library emailed me today that "Small Batch Preserving" is ready for pickup.

jt

What's the word?
Thunderbird
What's the price?
50 twice

Here is a link that might be useful: Angove's Nine Vines Grenache Shiraz Rosè

I'm not a big red wine drinker, but I do enjoy Spanish wines. I had good luck using a Spanish red with this recipe - they do reds particularly well. The smell of the red wine and onion carmelizing is pretty tempting. I love this recipe on grilled cheese.

jt,

A few notes:

- if you want to find the "Small-Batch preserving" book used and cheap, know that it was originally published as "Put a Lid on It!" and then "Put a Lid on It! II" (or something like that). The new edition has been updated in presentation & marketing; I don't think there's much safety concern with the older one. It's not VERY old. It arose from a Canadian cable TV show; the authors have good food-preserving credentials and the stamp of Health Canada, though HC's recommendations don't always agree EXACTLY with the USDA's in every detail with every revision, but most careful American preservers are comfortable with them.

- If you like onion, there is also a Red Onion Jelly recipe in the Bernardin (Cdn) preserving book from the same guy who devised the Habanero Gold recipe. I haven't made it but it similarly has bits suspended in jelly; the pic is v. pretty. Let me know if you want me to type it in for you -- no problem.

Zabby

I was going through the "The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving: Over 300 Recipes to Use Year-Round" from the library today & marking the pages that I wanted to scan. 47 pages ticked and only up to page 219! Going to Amazon the book. Now I need to buy another book so can get free shipping. What do you guys think of this title.. "Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today"

There are 4 pages of suggestions under 'Customers Who Bought This Item Aso Bought' and are any of these a better choice? Link is below.

Hi Zabby!

jt

Here is a link that might be useful: The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving

John,
I have the Ball Complete Book..........
There's a LOT on jams and jellies and some variations, but overall, most of it's covered in the regular BBB.

Mine is hardback and has lots of pretty pictures tho' (grin).

Not very much on drying, freezing or other methods.

Deanna

I like the BCB etc. etc. It's a compilation of Ball, Bernardin and even updated versions of old Kerry recipes. It looks like they went through their archives and included almost everything.

It also contains extras like basic canning info, use of BWB and pressure-canner, yield charts of pounds to cups and yield of raw product to pints or quarts.

The index and arrangement are "idiosyncratic" but accessible if you have good search skills (and of course you do).

Still, I don't know of anything on the market that's more thorough.

For a specialized interest, I like the Jamlady Cookbook and Joy of Pickling. I can't recommend Blue-Ribbon Preserves, even though I personally like the book, because not all recipes follow USDA guidelines, so it's sort of a "caveat emptor" with that one.

Carol

- If you like onion, there is also a Red Onion Jelly recipe in the Bernardin (Cdn) preserving book from the same guy who devised the Habanero Gold recipe. I haven't made it but it similarly has bits suspended in jelly; the pic is v. pretty. Let me know if you want me to type it in for you -- no problem.

Zabby,

Yes, I would like it. TIA!

Deanna & Carol,

Just amazoned BCB and CBSBP and am thinking these would make great Christmas gifts for some of my pod-head friends. Thanks!

34.2° last night, but conditions were not favorable for frost formation so didn't have to get up before the sun and hose off the plants to prevent damage. Next scare will be Sat night & looks good for a week or so after that. Pepper plants are more hardy in the fall than tomatoes & can live through several hours of 28° w/o losing many leaves.

jt

Geez.......you're supposed to be colder than we are, John.
I had a light coating of ice on my windshield this AM.

It was nice to NOT have to worry about the garden, we tore out the last of it last weekend. The only thing left out there are my strawberry plants, one hardy parsley plant, rhubarb and some fall seeded lettuce that's barely poking it's head up.

Deanna

First frost here last night. The garden is still sitting in its entirety. DH had surgery Tuesday, so pulling out tomatoes, etc. wasn't in the cards. If it keeps dry for the next few days I'll get out and pull the tomatoes, maybe run the cornstalks through the mulcher.

Carol

Ha ha! I'm laughing at myself. I have not been reading this thread because I thought I had no interest in carmelizing onions. However, now that I am finished with peppers I am turning my attention to the 230 onions I have. 203! 160 are reds, 70 are yellows. I am going to keep quite a few for the winter, make some into French Onion Soup and freeze and the rest?

Well, I just started looking into things to do with them tonight and found the Carmelized Red Onion Relish from Small Batch that is posted above! I logged on to ask a question regarding this recipe and suddenly noticed this thread that i had previously been ignoring. Silly me.

Anyway, my question is this. We have talked about Small Batch (and btw, good choice to buy it, jt, as you and I seem to have similar tastes I think I can say that you will really like it) and you all are completely confident in the safety of the recipes, therefore I am also confident. But in this one, how is it that only 3 tbs of vinegar are sufficient to can these onions? And, it calls for 2 onions but how do I know what size onions? And is there any reason I can't make this recipe large, say like 5 or 10 times larger?

Zabby, I also would like the recipe for red onion jelly, thank you very much!

As for frosts, we have now had a couple of killing frosts, but I can't complain as it is the latest on record for this.

Ann

It says "large red onions." Most recipes are being updated to # of cups, but I assume there's leeway for some variation in size. If concerned, check online for yields by size. 2 Medium onions are 1 pound, so 2 large would have to be more than that.

As far as the vinegar goes, you're forgetting the dry red wine, which also contributes acidity.

Carol

OK, here ya go. This is from the Bernardin 2003 book, so it may be in the BCB. There's a section "saluting Canadian entrepreneurs" of all things, headed up by five jellies from Bob Rouleau, an Ottawa small-businessman who sells a line of jellies called "The Feasting Table." The habanero gold seems to be his flaghip product (and the rights to to the recipe seems to have been bought in its entirety by Ball/Bernardin/Jardin/Alltrista, since it appears with no mention of Bob in their current supermarket-freebie pamphlet full of coupons & adds & recipes). But this one sure looks pretty, too.

ZESTY RED ONION JELLY

"A house specialty designed especially for an Ottawa newspaper. For jelly with a lovely pink hue, make the jelly in August when the red onions are fresh. Bob says that when he makes this jelly in January, it lacks the beautiful rose hue of the same recipe made with freshly picked produce."

1 cup diced red onion
2 tsp lemon zest
3/4 cup white vinegar
3 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch (85 ml [3 fl oz]) liquid pectin

Cut red onion into 1/8 inch slices; cut slices into 1/4 inch dice. Measure 1 cup into a large, deep stainless steel saucepan. With a sharp knife, cut a wide strip of paper-thin yellow peel from lemon; cut into thin strips and measure 2 tsp into saucepan. Stir in vinegar and sugar.

***Over high heat, bring mixture to a full, roiling boil. Stirring constantly, boil hard 1 minute. Remove from heat. Immediately stir in one pouch Liquid Pectin, mixing well.

Pour jelly into a hot jar, dividing solids equally among jars and filling each jar to within 1/4 inch of top rim (headspace). Wipe jar rims. Centre lids on jars & screw on bands. Process in BWB 10 minutes.

Cool for about 30 minutes, then, when lids are concave but jelly is still hot, carefully invert & twist jars to distribute solids throughout jelly. (**Do not let them remain upside down for long periods**) Repeat as needed during the cooling/setting time, until solids are nicely suspended.

And, John, while I'm at it, this other one looks like a good one for a pepperhead.

BASIL BANANA PEPPER JELLY

1/2 cup thinly sliced, seeded mild banana peppers [OR other peppers of any kind, fresh or pickled]
1/4 cup thinly sliced, fresh hot peppers (most of seeds removed)
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
3 to 4 large fresh basil leaves, cut into thin ribbons
1/4 tsp. dried basil
3/4 cup whilt vinegar
3 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch liquid pectin

Combine peppers, red onion, fresh & dried basil in a large, deep stainless steel saucepan. Stir in vinegar and sugar.

CONTINUE from *** AS FOR RED ONION JELLY (and Habanero Gold), above.

Zabby

Thanks, Zabby!

Ann writes: And, it calls for 2 onions but how do I know what size onions?

Seems I'm constantly trying to figure out how to convert. I personally would like to see weight amt for chopped and diced ingredients. And if calls for drained it makes it even tougher. Some tomatoes are all juice and others are fleshy.

Did find one chart so far though. Onions are near the bottom.

jt

Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking measurement equivalents

And this chart is different...

Here is a link that might be useful: Food equivalents

zabby, thank you for the jelly recipe - it looks very good. I think I'm going to have to try it.

Carol - I did not know that wine will count for acidity. But, (I'm sorry, I don't mean to be difficult) does that mean that we need to use wine of a specified acidity? I would assume that wines vary quite a lot. Taste wise they certainly taste more or less acidic.

As for onion size, okay, this one gets some leeway, but I'll go with a bit over a pound for a large.

Interesting, Carol says a medium onion is one pound. Jt's first link says a medium onion is 1/2 cup chopped, his second says 3/4 cup chopped. I haven't weighed mine, but what I do know that I get over a cup of chopped for what I usually consider a medium onion. Maybe I need to rethink what I call medium.

Ann

Ann, that's why most of us tend to leave devising the recipes to the experts who can test them! Presumably there have been tests of low-acid wines and there is a margin of safety.

My experience (which is admittedly miniscule compared with that of some here, of course) is that when it matters, recipes from reliable sources will usually say so. For example, somtimes they say "5% acidity" for the vinegar, or I'm thinking of the Roasted Red Pepper recipe, which specifies to measure the onion & garlic after it's chopped to be sure you have 1/4 cup. I am assuming that when it says just "1 medium onion" there is more leeway and the size isn't as crucial to the safety.

As for wine, I suspect that different levels of acid taste are mostly due to differences in sugar levels. I know this is true of tomatoes; pretty much all ripe tomatoes are the same acid level, with only a few rare, specially bred varieties as exceptions; the ones that taste less acidic have more sugars to balance the acid out.

Zabby

Clarification: I said 2 medium onions = 1 pound, so 1 medium onion would be approximately 1/2 pound.

When you get a recipe like this from a safe source (and I consider Small-Batch Preserving safe) you can assume there is a certain amount of leeway built in. In other words, if your onion is a little more or less, it's fine and if you use a dry red wine as directed regardless of brand (i.e. something like a Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot) you'll fall within the acidity range the product is designed for.

You're not being difficult. You're just feeling your way trying to learn how to reasonably assess a recipe that isn't as precise as some.

Carol

Just finished canning my first ever batch. I must say that that was a lot of work for two half-pint jars & next time will double at least.

My 2 'large' onions weighed 1 lb 5.4 oz after being peeled & stem/root removed. Not enough as it turned out. Next time will use 2 lbs. Or perhaps I cooked down too far? I ended up having to add a little water to each jar to get the level up properly. The flavor was most excellent & was very pleased with the result. I've never caramelized onions w/o using EVO and am glad doesn't significantly change the taste.

Now I'm pondering what flavor hot pepper powder would work best as an addition. And maybe a little garlic? I might dice the onions next time, but probably not.

Thanks for all the help!

jt

john, was this the caramelized red onion relish?

Zabby

Zabby,

Yes it was the caramelized red onion relish.

From other recipes in the book I gather that 1 lg onion = 8 oz/250 g.

JohnT

Ah! Wonderful to know it worked well for you. I'll be getting to this sometime this week. I think I will do about 3-4 times the amount. That's how many onions I was doing this weekend for soup and that fits nicely in my pans.

Carol, you're right, I did mis-read your original statement for amount of onion.

And thanks for putting up with the endless questions!

Ann

Ann,

I'm curious how many onions you end up using and how much of the relish you had left to fill the jars. Even though I used 1 lb 5.4 oz onions instead of 1 lb (2 large) onions I didn't have enough relish to fill 2 half pints.

Perhaps I caramelized the onions for too long and perhaps cooked down the liquid too much.

Am going to start a double batch this afternoon. To further complicate things I want to add 1 oz chopped fresh manzano pepper when I add the wine and vinegar. To make up for it I'll start with only 15 oz sliced onions this time.

And I think that if I fall short in enough relish to fill 4 jars that I will add red wine instead of water this time.

Does this all sound OK?

jt

This time I doubled the recipe, used yellow onions, added a chopped red rocoto pepper, added 1 clove garlic when caramelizing and decreased cooking time.

"Slice onions very thinly. Combine onions and sugar in a heavy skillet (non-acidic). Cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat for 25 minutes or until onions turn golden and start to caramelized, stirring frequently."

That's probably where I messed up in batch #1. I completely caramelized the onions as normally do. This time I added wine etc when the onions were just starting to turn color and did not cook the wine down as much either. I still ended up a little short on liquid so topped off with more wine.

I'll open one of the 4 jars tonight and sample. BTW, the wine in lower left of picture was an ingredient & not me trying to be Julia.

I'm taking notes, LOL! Both batches look very good, and I would have gone as long as you did in Batch #1 as well. Now the real question is whether you topped the onions off with wine or yourself....

It may not be till this weekend that I get around to this, but I will let you know how mine go. I have many many more reds than yellows, so will stick with them.

Ann

> Now the real question is whether you topped the onions off with wine or yourself....

Ann,

LOL! Strictly a beer drinker here and only because my system won't tolerate alcohol much. I have the Julia Child's DVDs and have always loved her. Two Fat Ladies were a fav too.

Anyways, the single rocoto really pepped up relish w/o dominating the taste. As always, I thought needs more salt, but that's the way I like it. The taste of the completely caramelized onions was sweeter and better, but the texture of the 2nd batch equaled things out.

Next time a different brand red wine and instead of fresh ground black pepper will sub a Szechwan pepper blend. And maybe a little more sea salt.

jt

Stir in wine and vinegar. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated, stirring frequently.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon into a clean wide-mouth jar and cool briefly.

Remove hot jars from canner and ladle relish into jars to within 1/2-inch of rim. Process 10 minutes for half-pint jars. (BWB)

I don't understand the need to spoon into a wide-mouth jar and cool briefly. Is there something that I'm missing again? And I must confess that mine went directly from frying pan into the hot jars.

jt

jt - I was hoping someone would answer your question, but I think you and I may be the only ones reading this thread now! Anyway, I can't think of a reason to cool briefly either, and I would also put them directly into the jars and process.

I haven't done this yet. I have to admit, I'm having a bit of canning burn-out. I did manage to get some applesauce made this weekend, but that was all. My onions will keep for awhile yet (all 170 of them!) so I don't feel in a rush to make this. But I will do so soon, I promise.

I'm going to do the red onion jelly also, I'll let you know how that goes. I'm thinking a great Christmas present would be threesome of red onion jelly, habanero gold, and jalapeno jelly ....

Ann

This is only a guess about the "cooling slightly" and that is the onions would tend to collapse a bit in the jars, allowing you to top off with more liquid so that no onion mixture is exposed once the processing is done.

Ellie Topp always has good reasons for her instructions; the only downside is she doesn't always provide the "Why."

Carol

Thanks for the replies!

Well, I made another variation yesterday while watching football out on the deck. Beautiful, warm day! Not that I don't cook out on the deck all winter long anyways.

2 lbs peeled yellow onions
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup brown sugar -- firmly packed
2 cups White Zinfandel wine
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon Creole seasoning
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper powder

Yield 4 half pints

Just opened a jar a few minutes ago and it was delicious! I grilled burgers yesterday for the freezer and will grill porkchops today or tomorrow. This relish will really work for both. I used freshly dehydrated and ground manzanos (C. pubescens) for the hot powder. This species provides plenty of heat w/o overpowering the taste as some C. chinense (habaneros etc) would. I need to try using ripe jalapeños in a batch. The sweetness of a red ripe jal is something too few people have experienced.

I'll be most of the afternoon wheeling pepper plants into the basement for overwintering. I think might get a hard freeze tonight.

jt

I'm still reading, guys!

I have made this recipe per the original instructions but it was 3 years ago as part of the wedding-favours-for-my-friend can-a-thon, and I am afraid I remember mostly that it was a beautiful purpl=y-coloured thing in the jars but that I was a bit disappointed in the flavour given the amount of work.

Carol's theory about the reason for the cooling is better than any I can come up with.

I think I will take brazen advantage of jt's experience, however, and try his version with the yellow onions and white wine.

I did try the Red Onion jelly the other day --- see the "What Have You Put Up" thread --- and liked it very well. It is quite lemon-y, so if you want more onion-y I wd suggest to use less lemon zest than the recipe calls for.

I also finally got my only own copy of the Ellie Topp book. I have been cooking from various library versions of it for about five years, since some of my very first canning attempts. I ordered it last year along with a food mill from Amazon, and the food mill took 4 months to arrive and the book was STILL back ordered at that point so I gave up and cancelled it.

Was glad that jt ordered it and reported it had arrived, since that spurred me to try again --- I had to get a reference book for work purposes so I threw it into the order from the Cdn Amazon website and was pleased that it seems to be back in stock because everything came within the week, and at a good price too --- the rising Cdn dollar FINALLY made an impression and Amazon.ca lowered its Cdn prices some since the last time I'd been on.

Now of course I'm overwhelmed with wanting to make everything in it. I think the cranberry jalapeno might be next. Seems SO Christmassy! ALso liked the instructions for drying my own cranberries & candy-ing my own ginger.

Zabby

jt - you're a mad man! You're making me feel guilty. I'm going to have to get going on this myself just so I can say I did it!

Carol - that is a reasonable idea for why the cooling slightly.

Zabby - thanks for the comments on the jelly, sounds actually quite good!

You have the new version of her book, I have the old one and I'm jealous, lol! Mine doesn't have the drying cranberries or candying ginger. So please tell, is there anything special about drying cranberries or can I just put them in my dehydrator?

Ann

Zabby - how much yield did you get with the red onion jelly? Also, did you prepare your lemon zest with a knife or with a zester?

Ann

Zabby,
I've made that cranberry jalapeno, and while I like it, I found it too sweet. I made up my own version last year using 100% unsweetened cranberry juice. I'll post it if you want.
Melly

Ann,
I'm back from a trip to Ottawa and dug out this thread; can you say "can't let anything go?" ;-)

>> Mine doesn't have the drying cranberries or candying ginger. So please tell, is there anything special about drying cranberries or can I just put them in my dehydrator?

I'm afraid I don't know from dehydrators. I know I've read in several places that drying cranberries requires the addition of sugar to get them to preserve properly, and this book says the method given here uses less sugar than the commercially dried ones you can buy.

Aunt Ellie says to cut them in half (hm; already sounds like a lot of work), place them in a bowl with sugar (1/4 cup to 2 cups cranberries) and toss to coat, then let them stand 24 hours, drain off the liquid, and then put in a low oven on a baking sheet (100 degrees F for 4 hours). Remove when "almost dry," and let finish air-drying for 24 hours.

She says to refrigerate or freeze, so it sounds like they can't be counted on to come out 100% moisture-free at least by the oven method.

Zabby

>> Zabby - how much yield did you get with the red onion jelly?

I got just about exactly what the recipe said --- 3 cups or 3 1/2 or whatever it was. I remember because there wasn't a partly filled jar for us to try right away; I had to open one of the processed ones.

>> Also, did you prepare your lemon zest with a knife or with a zester?

I took off wide pieces of it with a vegetable peeler and then cut it into thin strips with a knife.

Usually I zest lemons with a Lee Valley rasp, which is SO fast and easy produces zillions of tiny threads, but this recipe seemed to call for pieces big enough to suspend in the jelly with the bits of red onion.

Zabby

Melly,

Oh, would you, please? I don't want anything too sweet with hot peppers.

Where do you get your unsweetened cranberry juice, btw? I think they have it at the health food store here but most of what's at the grocery is sweetened.

Zabby

Zabby, I have to apologize. I should have come back to this thread. After I wrote I rechecked my Small Batch book and it does indeed have the cranberry drying recipe. I just never noticed it before. Thank you for posting it though! I agree with you, I sort of backed out as soon as I read "cut the cranberries in half", LOL!

And I must be having mental issues, for some reason I just could not find an amount on the jelly recipe. Hmm.

jt - time for me to fess up. The reason I have not done the carmelized onions yet is this - it seems to me that carmelizing onions is a simple enough task that I am not sure I gain much by canning them. Now that you've done it, what do you think? Is it worth it to have those jars or is it just as easy to do when you want them?

Ann

Ann,

I do all my cooking in batches because I don't like cooking a meal for just one person (me) every day. And when my kids were still living with me I was the master of one skillet meals. I'm lazy and I hate cleaning up, washing dishes etc. Also I only eat once a day and that is just before I go to sleep. So it's nuke something from the freezer and bring it to the bedroom and watch TV. Last weekend I fried a half dozen 1/2 lb pork/beef burgers and a doz pork chops. The caramelized onions go perfectly with both. And with the above info you can guess why I make and freeze hundreds of burritos each year. And to add to my weirdness... I haven't cooked anything indoors for the last couple of years and I think the last time was making cheesy/onion/habanero bread in the bread machine.

JohnT

Zabby,
I did buy the cranberry juice at a health food store last year. This year I actually found it at our commissary made by ocean spray. This is how I made it last year.

Cranberry Pepper Jelly
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups 100% unsweetened cranberry juice
1 1/2 cups total a combination of finely diced jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, and red onions
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1 pkg powdered pectin
5 cups sugar

This year I think I will reduce the vinegar somewhat and increase the cranberry juice. I haven't decided whether I will use cider or some other sort of vinegar. I have some raspberry red wine vinegar that I used in my cherry pepper relish, so I might use that. If you try it, let me know how it turns out.

Melly

Oh, Melly, thanks, that sounds perfect.

I would be tempted to try red wine vinegar, or to replace part (like a quarter cup) of the cider vinegar with balsamic for zing of flavour.

I assume the procedure is per the cranberry-hot pepper jelly in _Small Batch Preserving_?

Zabby

Zabby,
Yes the procedure is the usual - put the stuff in the pot with the pectin, bring to boil, add sugar, etc. I think I would have to go with white balsamic because I'm afraid the regular would really do a number on the beautiful color. I most pleased with the consistency, just the perfect soft set.
Melly

bump

bump - I'm going to try the Small Batch recipe for the first time and was wondering about the weight measure of "large red onions". I think the above explanation that 2 large = 1 lb is what I'll go with.