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Needing a quick answer....about Chili Sauce recipe

15 years ago

I'm in the process of making Chase's Chili Sauce and I have a question about the celery. The recipe calls for 2 bunches of celery. The bunch of celery I have would easily yield probably close to 4 cups. Would that be right? I'm only making half a recipe but I don't want to mess up.

TIA

jude

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Comments (11)

lindac
15 years ago
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
User
15 years ago
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!
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If you have a PC I would use that, that way you're not throwing off the taste by adding more vinegar. The thing is finding a similar recipe to get the processing time from. Since it's a small amount of vinegar, even though it's a small amount of pepper too, how about using a PC recipe for plain (in water) peppers from UC Davis? You're not really concerned with the small bits going mushy, though I'm not sure what the high temps would do to the sugar. It might end up tasting a little caramelized. But if you increase the vinegar to 50:50 ratio, then you could safely BWB as in the sweet pickled pepper recipe, 1 Tbsp garlic is about 6 cloves, that's a lot for 1half pint (?) of sauce but you don't have the 7 lbs of peppers either. Maybe cut down the garlic? The Ball recipe uses 36 cloves for 9 half pints - not as much as the recipe above. Do you object to the red pepper flakes and prefer to use fresh chiles? Or is it too vinegary? As malna said, the garlic is the thing that makes it hard to acidify. Ball Thai Chili Sauce (from freshpreserving.com): 1/2 cup finely chopped garlic (about 36 cloves) 1 Tbsp salt 6 cups cider vinegar 6 cups sugar 1/2 cup hot pepper flakes 9 (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands Directions: PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside. COMBINE garlic and salt in a small mixing bowl. Set aside. HEAT vinegar to a boil in a large saucepan. Add sugar, stirring to fully dissolve. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add garlic mixture and hot pepper flakes, stirring well. LADLE hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight. PROCESS in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed. I'm hoping Dave will weigh in. This post was edited by ajsmama on Thu, Sep 18, 14 at 17:04
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Sorry I took days to get back to this. I had to go away for a few days and my personal life was at a stand still. Kay, that is exactly what I intend to do gram for gram...but I just wanted to ask if anyone already had some experience and for my very first round just keep things simple so that I get the ropes of the fermenting procedure itself.....thank you though! Dave, You know, when I was thinking how it could be possible that the calyxes if left on make a big perceptible difference in flavor to the sauce I thought it might be some special bacteria that reside in this tissue that produce some chemical(s) during fermentation that imparts the difference in flavor. I didn't this it would spoil the pepper mix. The calyx region is actually known to cause spoilage?? This recipe is an adaptation from the published and very popular Sriracha book, for all that its worth. A did read in a few places that you are suppose to use about 2% of the weight of the produce in salt. In the recipe I am using there is 1-1/2 lbs of peppers (675gms) to 2 tsp sea salt. I weighed this and it was 13 gms for me which is about 2%. There is no added water. Is that what you know to be correct? Today I read to add 3.3%. Well...maybe next time? And they say to ferment for 4-7 days, stirring once or twice a day, keeping loosely covered. They do say to stop the fermentation and move on to adding vinegar when you like the taste. That is vague for me! When am I supposed to stop? When it tastes 'right' or when fermentation is over? And how do I really know when fermentation is over? People say allow to ferment 1 week, 4 weeks.....you know all about that. Well things seem to be going OK. The fermentation did start on day 2, bubbling nicely, flavor changing very nicely. No mold or off flavors what so ever. This is day 6. I am letting it go on because I really don't know when I am supposed to stop. The fermentation (bubble production) is much slower now. I asked about this in a separate post also. Thank you so much. K.
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jude31
Original Author
15 years ago
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
jude31
Original Author
15 years ago
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
caliloo
15 years ago
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
jude31
Original Author
15 years ago
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
User
15 years ago
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.
jude31
Original Author
15 years ago
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
caliloo
15 years ago
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
User
15 years ago
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.
annie1992
15 years ago
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

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