Chili Sauce

Most of my Blue Beech paste tomatoes ripened and some were going bad, so I had to do something with them. If I had pecks of tomatoes maybe I would can them or make tomato sauce. I did not have that many and I wanted to make something special with them. I decided to make chili sauce using the recipe in Joy of Cooking that I used several years ago. The chili sauce I am referring to is not hot sauce, it is the ketchup-like, spicier condiment commonly used in cocktail sauce. All the commercial versions are made with high fructose corn syrup, a poisonous industrial chemical made from GMO corn. And its taste can not compare to the homemade version.

 

 

Besides, I would bet you commercial chili sauce is not made from the ingredients above, Blue Beech tomatoes, Carmen, Lipstick, Jalapeno and Revolution peppers, and Rossa Lunga onions, along with brown sugar, apple cider vinegar and spices. The recipe I used is below. I actually halved the recipe since I only had four quarts of tomatoes and it made four pints of sauce.

 

Chili Sauce

• 1 peck/8 quarts tomatoes
• 6 green peppers, seeded
• 1 Tbsp. dried red pepper
• 6 large white onions

 Peel and quarter the tomatoes. Put onions and peppers in a food processor and chop fine. Place all of this in a large sauce pan and add:

• 2 c. brown sugar
• 3 c. apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp. ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. allspice
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. celery seed
• 2 Tbsp. dry mustard

Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer slowly at least 3 hours until thickened. Adjust seasoning. Put sauce in small, sterilized jars and seal. I used pint canning jars with seals. The recipe does not call for processing because of the acid content, but I chose to process in a water bath for ten minutes. The full recipe should make 8 pint jars of sauce.

 

 

The chili sauce is not a bright red but a bit brownish because of the green peppers and brown spices, but it tastes terrific. It is good on hamburgers, steaks, or your morning eggs.