Annual chili sauce making

Mom is up this weekend.  Our big plan was to make Chili Sauce.  You know, Grandma's Chili Sauce.  This is the third year in a row I've made it.  I simply love it and can't seem to eat beef roast without it.  Mom bought tomatoes at the farmer's stand.  I got green peppers at another farm stand.  We got started about 11:00 this morning.  We finished at 6:30 tonight.  Our plan was two batches.  One for each of us.  We knew going in that it would be lots of work but we figured...well we can do it together.

Mom is a great tomato peeler.  We are talking 52 tomatoes.  And 8 onions, 4 green peppers...then the magic spices and such.  I did the onions and green peppers and was so glad for my Pampered Chef chopper.  Makes things so much quicker. 

Once it is all put together, you boil it for 2 hours before packing it in jars and heat canning it.  I don't have a large enough pot so each batch is put into 2 pots.  Once they boil down enough, I combine them to finish the process.  By the time it is all boiled down, I have about 3/4 of a pan total to put in jars.  But this is 3/4 of a pan of simmered and combined goodness.  I can't describe how delicious it is.

When I was  young, we had chili sauce on our "game" meat.  We ate lots of venison growing up and we would pack this chili sauce on the meat.  Honestly, it was the only way I could eat the meat my father killed.  Duck?  Sure....Goose?  Sure...pheasant...absolutely.  I don't eat "funky" meat anymore but I still like chili sauce.

When it was all said and done, we had 22 bottles.  Every single bottle sealed which is a bonus!

 



Certainly a productive day.  I'm beat but it was energy spent well.  I hope you had a good weekend too.