Preserves: Kak's Chili Sauce

A few weeks ago I decided to try making hubs' grandmother's famous Chili Sauce. Kak used to make dozens of jars every year then at Christmas she would deliver a few jars to each family member.

I remembered it as being delicious and since she passed away in January I wanted to see if I could carry  on her tradition. So I got the recipe from my mother-in-law and started chopping the required vegetables.

After 3 hours of simmering on the stove my Chili Sauce was ready. I placed the sauce into sterilized mason jars, put them a hot water bath for 15 minutes and they are now labelled and in the basement staying cool. One jar went immediately into the fridge and the next morning I tasted it. Amazing! It is so good.

Here's the list of ingredients needed to make your own

3 quarts (about 12 cups) of tomatoes
1/2 bunch of celery, chopped
2 sweet peppers, diced
3 large onions, chopped
1/4 cup pickling spice
1 Tbsp. celery seed
about 1 cup white vinegar
about 2 cups sugar
pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt & pepper

This will yield about 13 cups of finished sauce.

First you need to remove the skin from the tomatoes. I do this using boiling water, and if you aren't sure how to do this, you can read the instructions on Peeling Tomatoes the Easy Way. After you remove the tomato skins, rough chop them and pour into a saucepan.

Roughly chopped tomatoes in saucepan

Chop the red pepper, onions, and celery into bite-size pieces. Add them to the pot with the tomatoes.

Next add the dry ingredients and vinegar.

All ingredients in saucepan

Stir the mixture well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 3 hours or until mixture is the thickness you want. Remember that it will thicken a bit more as it sits in the storage jars. You can remove the lid during the last bit of simmering if you need to.

Kak's Chili Sauce mixed in pan

Chili Sauce simmering on stove

Pour sauce into sterilized mason jars and put in a hot water bath for 15 minutes

Remove jars from hot water bath and let cool overnight. In the morning test that the seal is good by pressing down on middle of lids. If they move, that jar is not sealed properly and must be used right away.

Label the jars with name and date then store in a cool dry place until ready to use

Chili sauce, Asparagus Frittata, 8 Day Icicle Pickles

Serve chili sauce in place of ketchup or as a side with chicken or pork.