My canning obsession started simply enough, with a bumper crop of backyard peaches. I canned peaches in syrup, peach jam, peach barbecue sauce. A day trip to Blueberry Hill Farms in Edom resulted in a year’s worth of blueberry lime jelly. Then there was a brief but disastrous attempt at pickling before I returned to the friendlier fruits. Mango chutney with ginger and golden raisins. Rio Grande ruby red grapefruit marmalade.
My boiling-water canner started to seem downright primitive. I upgraded to a steam-pressure canner. The first time I used it, I stared apprehensively at the pressure gauge, convinced the whole thing was going to blow. When it didn’t, I bought a second. Mason jars filled my cupboards and then my laundry room. Mouth lids accumulated at the bottom of my dishwasher, and jar bands clattered around the utensil drawer.
When I mastered the art of boxed pectin-free jam, I figured the time had come to test my skills against the best at the State Fair of Texas. But I was hesitant to take on the fiercely competitive Jams and Jellies categories out of the gate. Instead, I went for broke with the lesser-populated Relishes, subset Chili Sauce. I filled out my application and sent in the $2 fee. At the El Rio Grande Supermercado on Jefferson, I bought a dozen giant green mangoes, soft like butter to the touch, with just a sunset hint of red on the bottom. I picked out the brightest orange habaneros, a bag of carrots, and a cone of piloncillo.
There’s nothing quite like a gas range covered with steaming canners—in August, in Dallas—filled with bubbling jars of vinegar and peppers. I meticulously tapped out air bubbles, wiped the glass threads clean, and tightened hot bands with rubber gloves. Out of the dozens of half-pint jars, I picked out the best two and hand-delivered them to a table of steely-eyed, white-haired veteran competitors armed with a label gun in Fair Park’s Creative Arts Building. Then I waited.
In her article for the October issue (“The Grease-Stained, Sugar-Dusted, Insanely Texan, True but Improbable, Inside Story About the Invention of Fried Jell-O”), James Beard Award-winning writer Alice Laussade goes behind the scenes of the State Fair’s Big Tex Choice Awards to discover the strange reason some of the best fried foods never make it to the judges’ tasting table. She might be right that all’s not fair in the world of fried fare. But as for the 2006 Relish competition, those judges had almost impeccable taste. My Mango Habanero Hot Sauce came home with second place.
Second-Best Mango Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe
8 large ripe mangoes, peeled and seeded
1 pound of carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
3 medium white onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cups distilled white vinegar
2 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon piloncillo or light brown sugar
6 fresh orange habanero chiles, seeded and deveined
Process carrot, onion, and chiles in a food processor until finely chopped. Add mangoes, salt, and sugar. Pulse to purée until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a medium saucepan and stir in vinegar and water. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Pour into half-pint canning jars and process in a boiling-water canner for 15 minutes. Great on breakfast tacos.
