Cowboy Candy Recipe - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

What is cowboy candy made of? ›

Cowboy candy is another name for candied jalapeños. Because jalapeños are a spicy pepper bursting with flavor, they're perfect to be pickled and sweetened up. By boiling them with sugar and vinegar, you create a beautiful balance between sweet, spicy, and acidic.

Save your frozen jalapeños for another recipe—fresh is best here! If you use frozen peppers, they'll turn out far too mushy. Canned jalapeños won't work well either.

Ways to use cowboy candy

Top a burger, a bagel and cream cheese or a pizza. Chop and add to any salad, especially ones where you might otherwise use pickle relish — egg, chicken or potato salad, for example — or dips and sandwich spreads.

According to the brand, the current owners' grandmother, Mindie Heironimus, invented the treat as a way to use surplus jalapeños. In 1922, she pickled the jalapeños the same way she did with cucumbers, and the family took to calling the sweet and spicy result Cowboy Candy®.

They're similar to pickled jalapeños but with a lot more sugar in the recipe, resulting in crunchy, crystalline jalapeños that have extra sweetness to cut through all the spice. Plus, the added sugar and exclusion of water in the pickling liquid, creates a thicker, syrupy brine that packs a bright, acidic punch.

Legend has it that Cowboy Candy originated in 1922 on the St. Augustine, Texas-based WHH Ranch by a 7-year-old named Mindie Heironimus, who pickled homegrown jalapeños with sugar and spices. The family called them Cowboy Candy for unknown reasons, maybe because the cowboys couldn't get enough of this sweet-hot treat.

Frozen jalapeños will last for up to 6 months. Use them within 3 months for best results. They will lose some of their texture but will still be pretty much just as spicy as fresh jalapeños.

What Do Candied Jalapeños Taste Like? Candied jalapeños are overall sweet with a kick of heat. They retain some of their crispy crunch after simmering; the mustard seeds and celery seeds provide some flavors and crunch reminiscent of a pickle.

The peppers will be softer when thawed, so it will be harder to remove seeds afterward. Be sure to package them well to avoid the pepper flavoring impacting your other frozen foods and freezer burn.

If you're a newbie to this condiment, like me, cowboy candy is a colloquial name for sliced jalapeños in a sweet and tangy syrup. They are a great addition to sandwiches, salads or nachos and really shine when paired with cheese.

What dessert did cowboys eat? ›

Dried apples, raisins and apricots were common, but berries and prunes also were available. In addition to eating it plain, dried fruit reconstituted in water with crumbled biscuits formed the basis of simple steamed cobblers and puddings.

Cowboy candy is a versatile treat! Some popular ways to serve cowboy candy is on crackers smeared with cream cheese. Some other great ideas include serving over baked brie, on salads, on a burger or hot dog, or even right out of the jar!

Cowboy candy is another name for candied jalapenos. They are essentially sliced jalapenos that are simmered and sweetened in a seasoned simple syrup. They're a perfect combination of sweet and spicy and they're ideal for quick sweet snacks or garnishing.

COWBOY CANDY Trademark of WHH Ranch Company - Registration Number 3738661 - Serial Number 77471571 :: Justia Trademarks.

Cowboy candy is candied jalapenos. Yep, that's it. Cowboy candy is just a cute little name for candied jalapenos. You can wear a cowboy hat while you make them and eat them if you want to feel more like a cowboy.

Sugar, mainly sucrose from sugar beets or sugarcane, is the major constituent of most candies. Other sweeteners employed in candy manufacture include corn syrup, corn sugar, honey, molasses, maple sugar, and noncaloric sweeteners.