It's a recipe for chili sauce, not a chemical formula...With anything which is cooked that long a little more or less celery makes no difference.
If the recipe says 2 bunches and you are making half, use one bunch.
Linda C

Jude the best advice I can give you is that the celery should be more than the peppers and less than the onion! LOL

Three to four cups for a half batch sounds good....but honestly the recipe doesn't need to be exact in terms of the amounts of veggies. Mix them in and see what you think about the ratio. It's really the spices and vinegar that give it it's flavour.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you!

Well thanks Linda...a good thing it's not a chemical formula because chemistry was not my best subject 60 years ago!(LOL) And thanks to you also, Chase. I just did not want to screw up.

jude

Linda C, close your eyes. I guess I broke rule #1 "be sure you have all your ingredients before you start". I didn't have pickling spices, never, ever having made pickles. I have just been to 2 grocery stores plus Dollar General. What they have are pickling spices for specific pickles...dill, kosher dill, bread & butter and pickling lime by either Mrs Wages or Ball. If I had to guess I'd say bread & butter. This whole canning thing says stick to the recipe which I'm trying very hard to do.

It's now 6:30, I have smooshed the tomatoes, chopped the onions, which I deposited on top of the tomatoes. Can I just cover the pan, refrigerate and start over tomorrow, when I can go in search of the elusive pickling spices?

I hate to be such a pain in the rear, but I obviously need a little pickling advice

Again, TIA.

jude

Aw Jude! I am so feeling your pain! I have had my share of panic attacks while canning this summer as evidenced by my many many posts asking questions. IMO yes, you can refrigerate the tomatoes and onions until tomorrow.... I don;t think that will hurt them at all.

As a matter of fact, I pulled up my copy from Nancy and found this note at the end (Nancy's note, not mine)

"Note: If time is tight I make right up to the add sugar part, refrigerate overnight and finish the next day."

Looks like you will be fine!

Good luck \
Alexa

Thanks Alexa, I had pretty much come to grips with that part...it's the picking spice issue now. I don't have a clue (guess I could google) what spices are in pickling spice.

and you know what, I'm just tired, it's been a number of long days, in a row, standing in the kitchen. I've put up a ton of fig stuff the last few days.

jude

jude

Jude, I do this recipe "so far" all the time and then refrigerate and do the next day. That's actually my note Alex is referring too.

As for "pickling Spice" it is a very common spice mix found in the spice department. It's a combo of lots of stuff ( bay leaf, pepper corns, mustard seed, celery seed, allspice etc,) and not worth making on your own. You should have NO problem finding it, if you have to go with a specific pickling spice, it would be the bread and butter pickling spice.

You know Sharon, I didn't think it would be a problem either until I went to the first store, and then the second store, etc. Apparently Mrs. Wages et al, are making it ever so simple for pickle makers, or would it be picklers (that sounds silly, doesn't it) by having a mix for every kind of pickle. I did see the note about refrigerating before adding the sugar but at that point I was way away from adding sugar. I had a feeling the bread and butter mix would be the alternative.

Thanks.

jude

Oh Sharon I am so sorry! I assumed it was Nancy's note because of the way it formatted when I saved it. Apologies for the wrong credit!

Thansk again for popping in to help clarify :-)

Alexa

Alexa, not to worry! You gotta do way more than that to annoy me.....like screw up my Martini! Now that will get you in deep doo doo GF!

Jude....wild about the different pickling spices. I just use plain old, plain old but for sure Bread and Butter mix will work. I use the same pickling spice in my Bread and Butters as I do my Chile sauce.

I also use the same pickling spice I biu in bulk at the Amish store for sweet pickles, for pickled beets, for anything that calls for pickling spice. I think there are as many formulas for pickling spice as there are for pickles and each one is a little bit different.

Annie