# Ball Blue Book Chili Sauce



## Marilyn (Aug 2, 2006)

Have any of you made this recipe for canning? I just tried it for the first time today and was dismayed by the vinegar requirement. It tasted so very good until it reached the stage that called for 2 1/2 cups vinegar. It was much too much vinegar for the amount of sauce. So much that I would have considered it inedible (after hours of work/simmering). 

Fortunately a fellow canner stopped by for coffee and suggested that I neutralize the vinegar with a little brown sugar. It helped a lot and I processed it, but I am wondering if this vinegar amount was an error. If it was an effort to make the chili sauce more acidic for water bath "safety", I would much rather have pressure canned it.


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## Just Cliff (Nov 27, 2008)

I have all but stopped using those recipes. I have wasted way to many ingredients and time on them. I would much rather can something that my wife and I eat.
Here are a couple of sites to get some recipes. 

http://canningusa.com/
http://www.pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm

Do you can any of your own recipes?


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## judylou (Jun 19, 2009)

I have made it several times and never found it to be overly "vinegary".  It is supposed to have a vinegar bite to it just as commercial chili sauce does or like many ketchup recipes do.

But I do use cider rather than white vinegar and the cider vinegar gives it a more mellow flavor. For all the low acid ingredients in the recipe I think that much vinegar would be required for safety and the amount doesn't seem out of line when compared with similar recipes that call for 1 cup for less than 1/2 the amount of ingredients . And one can always safely increase the amount of sugar if the taste doesn't suit you.

Is it possible that you were a bit low on the amount of tomatoes used or that you cooked it down quite a bit before adding the vinegar? Either of those things would affect the taste.


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## Marilyn (Aug 2, 2006)

Thanks Just Cliff, I'll check out your favorite sites.

And thank you judylou, I did use cider vinegar - and I had cooked it down by 1/2 as stated in the recipe. Once I added the vinegar, it needed to be simmered to desired thickness again. I had hoped that the second simmering would soften the "bite", but no such luck. Yes, I probably cooked it down a little farther than recommended as I ended up with 9 half-pts rather than the 6 pts as mentioned in the recipe.


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## FairviewFarm (Sep 16, 2003)

Perhaps these ingredients and/or quantities would be more to your liking as both called for less vinegar than your recipe.

*Spicy Chili Sauce*
Makes about 6 pints

4 quarts peeled, cored, chopped red-ripe tomatoes (about 24 large)
2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 to 2 cups chopped sweet green peppers (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 to 1 1/2 cups vinegar (5%)

From: So Easy to Preserve, 5th edition


*Grandma's Chili Sauce*
Makes about 7 pints

16 cups peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes
6 onions, chopped
6 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2 cups white vinegar
1 c. lightly packed brown sugar
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp freshly grated or drained bottled horseradish (optional)
1 tbsp celery salt
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground mace or nutmeg
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

From: Ball Complete book of Home Preserving


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

I made the Ball book recipe and I thought it was quite good - so much so that I made it twice. I used cider vinegar also. One thing I DID notice, though, was the times given in the recipe. It took MUCH longer than 45 minutes to an hour to cook down to half-volume. I cooked it for hours.

edited: I didn't care for the Spicy Chili Sauce.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

I made it from the BBB once and liked it but wife didn't and still doesn't. When I used it as a tomato base for one batch of pork & beans, I still like it but she doesn't. We opened a jar several nights ago for supper and had to add a bit of brown sugar before serving it. Just wasn't the same but I didn't admit that I liked it better her way!

Martin


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