Fungus or spores or crystallization?

[pastryani]

I made a habanero jam (has sugar and vinegar) ~2 yrs ago and stuck it in the fridge.  It's not cut with anything like fruit, so it's SUPER SPICY.  Needless to say, I don't use a lot of it.  The other day I was digging around in the back of the fridge and found this.  Is this bad/harmful sporific growth or just sugar crystallizing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pastrygirl]

Probably sugar, you'll know if you scoop a little out and feel the texture. 

[pastryani]

It's gritty... when I heat it up it melts out, but I'm guessing spores would melt away too?!  Do you know why this happens?  How to prevent it?  Add glucose to the mix?!

 

[Kerry Beal]

Don't think that fungus would melt - so likely sugar. Glucose might help.

 

It's very pretty though!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My guess is sugar.  It happens all the time for me with store bought jams.

 

[Lisa Shock]

Looks like sugar to me, which I know is a weak assessment online. It happens when a solution is super-saturated with sugar. Heat it up and add a teaspoon of water and everything should be fine. When things are that low on water, growth of evil beasties is extremely unlikely. Honey can last hundreds of years because of its low moisture content.

[pastryani]

Lol "evil beasties"!!!   Thanks all - I melted it down and everything dissolved.  I didnt see the post about the water earlier so I didn't add any extra water, so I'm guessing it'll develop crystals sooner this time.  Once I transferred it to a clean jar I made the mistake of licking the spoon.  man that stuff is hot.  Sweet, but dang hot. 

[Tri2Cook]

Looks like the mystery has been solved... but now I want to make habanero jam. Recipe?

[pastryani]

2 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Looks like the mystery has been solved... but now I want to make habanero jam. Recipe?

 

Aww man I wish I had a recipe.  It's just habaneros, sugar, and vinegar.  I think the original ratio of vinegar to sugar was 1:3, but unfortunately I didn't measure or weigh anything (plus since I didn't add any other fruit to it, I kept having to add more sugar to 'dilute' it out and I just did that to taste).  I didn't use pectin or anything to set it - it's just kind of fluid and syrupy.  I know you can add red peppers/peaches/pineapple/etc. to it to cut the heat.  At this point I think I should make a fruit jam separately and then combine the two since this stuff is SO potent.  A word of caution: Don't smell the mixture while it's heating - the capsaicin-laden steam is tough on the lungs (seems like this would be obvious, but as foodies we tend to want to smell and taste everything).   Edit:  Also remember to wear GLOVES!!

Edited August 12, 2016 by pastryani (log)

[Tri2Cook]

I eat habaneros all the time so I'm not too worried about the heat level but I like the idea of having them in jam form. I did a google search and came up with recipes that sound like they'd be pretty close to what you said you did. I plan to use pectin, I want it to set. I also stumbled across recipes for peach habanero, pineapple habanero, blueberry habanero, strawberry habanero and habanero ginger jams... so maybe some very small batches of assorted flavors will be in order.