Saturday, September 25, 2010

Big Job = Big Taste


Although today was the first time that I've ever canned chili sauce myself, I have had a long time love for it.  No, not the store-bought stuff with HFCS 'corn sugar' in it.  The lovely homemade tomatoey, spicy, sweet kind of chili sauce is what I'm talkin' 'bout! 

Over the years, I've tasted many people's version of this condiment.  Some were really awesome (thanks, Aunt Mary!) and some were pretty awful (names deleted to protect the innocent.)  I knew what I wanted my chili sauce to taste like and finally found a recipe that looked like it might work in the Ball Big Book.

After a trip to the Farmer's Market for tomates, I was able to harvest pretty much all the rest of the vegetables needed from the garden.  My one change to the recipe involved a jalapeno pepper.  I just couldn't figure out how a cook could call her finished product 'chili sauce' if it had absolutely no chiles in it.  So, I added one to give it a teeny, tiny little kick. 

Three and a half hours later, I was finished.  Holy cow, that took longer than the peach pie filling that I've previously whined about!  I ended up with 7 and 3/4 pints.  Since my canner only holds 7 pints at a time, that meant that I had to sacrifice and begin eating the 3/4 pint immediately.  Sam was good enough to help me out.  We ate one bowl full on tortilla chips.  Yum, yum, yum.  Then we put it on our cheeseburgers instead of catsup.  OMGosh!  It was lucious.  I'm going to really enjoy the fruits of my labors, but I don't think I'll be making another batch until next year.  I'm pooped!

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