Darn, I had found an old thread where Melly was asking about using cranberry juice instead of mayhaw juice for a pepper jelly. I posted on it but it never appeared.

melly - did you ever make that jelly? How did it turn out?

Carol, Dave, anybody have an idea if the basic recipe

4C fruit juice

1/2C peppers

1/2C vinegar

1 package powdered pectin

5 1/2C sugar

is safe? I don't know how acidic mayhaw juice (recipe on NCHFP) is, cranberry should be fine, 1/2C vinegar is enough to acidify the peppers since NCHFP found 60ml of lemon juice acidified a whole pint of peppers. But will any fruit juice (even pasteurized apple juice/cider?) work? Is a soft set OK (most people like a soft pepper jelly to dab on cream cheese), or is a firm set necessary to reduce water activity to safe level?

I would also think you should simmer the peppers in the vinegar/juice mixture before adding sugar since I'm afraid putting sugar and pectin in the juice before the peppers would start setting and not properly acidify the peppers when you added them and the vinegar.

Thoughts?

Here is a link that might be useful: Mayhaw Pepper Jelly