Bread and Butter Jalapeños

INSTRUCTIONS

Soak vegetables for an hour in cold water after slicing (this will help float out some of the seeds).

Put vinegar and following 5 ingredients in a big pot and bring to a slow boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Dump in jalapeños, onions, & cayennes and heat mix back up to a simmer. Stir and turn mix for 10 minutes.

Pack peppers in canning jars, putting in a couple of cayenne-types per jar, and leaving ½-inch head space. Pour the hot sweet mix in on the peppers, again leaving ½-inch head space. Seal and immerse fully in a simmering hot water bath at 180F (not a roiling boil) for 10 minutes. Remove and after cooling put in a dark cupboard for 6 weeks for aging.

Serve on Ritz kind of crackers (subliminal "Sex" written on crackers only makes them better) or as a stand-alone relish; Best danged home-canned jalapeños you'll ever munch.

You can also mix in cucumber chunks or slices at whatever replacement ratio you'd like as this recipe was adapted from a bread and butter cucumber pickle. The 10 minute simmer bath is still going to leave you with a kind of mushy jalapeño, but if you don't over-boil the jars it's not bad.