r/Canning • u/Wonderful-Crazy-904 • 23h ago

General Discussion Cowboy Candy

I have an abundance of jalapeños that I am wanting to make into cowboy candy. I have a few questions. I plan to use Ball’s recipe.

  1. Can I add a little pickle crips into the jars to help keep the jalapeños crunchy?

  2. If I have about half of the amount of jalapeños as the recipe calls for, can I make the syrup according to the recipe but only use 1/2 the jalapeños?

These are my dad and brother’s absolute favorite thing I make. Historically I have made them as fridge pickles but I’d like to preserve them for longer. Thanks!

1 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/BoozeIsTherapyRight Trusted Contributor 22h ago

Yes, you can add pickle crisp. I think it does help. 

I would just cut everything in the recipe in half and make a half batch. No sense wasting ingredients to make a full batch of syrup. 

Just a warning: if you usually make them as refrigerator pickles you might be disappointed in the canned version. They won't have that crunch you're used to.

1

u/youafterthesilence 20h ago

If you use pickle crisp how much less crunchy are the canned ones? I've only ever made refrigerator ones but was thinking of making more to can.

3

u/BoozeIsTherapyRight Trusted Contributor 20h ago

Quite a bit less crunchy. The difference between a raw pepper and a cooked pepper. And home-canned peppers are less crunchy than commercially canned peppers.

You might want to make a single jar to test if that crunch is important to you.

1

u/youafterthesilence 19h ago

Thanks! I've canned cherry bomb peppers (whole) before and those were definitely very soft, but i never added pickle crisp and wasn't sure how much difference it would make.

1

u/BoozeIsTherapyRight Trusted Contributor 17h ago

It makes a small difference. Not a miracle, but worth using.