Thursday Recipe - Pineapple Hot Sauce

I love the pineapple habanero sauce from Costco. I decided to create my own version of it to bottle just to see if I could. Here's what I came up with.

Pineapple Hot Sauce

1 pineapple
1 medium yellow onion
1 red bell pepper
6-8 jalapeños or other hot peppers
1 c. sugar
1 c. vinegar
2 T lemon juice
1 T pickling salt (or kosher or un-iodized)
1 T powdered pectin (optional - this helps it thicken up)

Peel and core the pineapple. Chop it into small bits and dump into a large saucepan (4-qt or 6-qt). Peel the onion, then dice into small bits. Add it to the pot.

Use gloves to handle the hot peppers! The oils that make them spicy can and will burn your skin. And if you touch your eyes or lips or nose, it will burn for hours. That is the voice of experience speaking.

Remove stems from the peppers. If you want it less hot, remove the seeds. Chop into small bits. You should end up with about 1/2-3/4 c. of chopped peppers. Add that to the pot.

Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes or so until it thickens up. Pack into pint bottles and process according to your altitude. Treat it like a cross between jam and pickles.