It would depend on the recipe. I hate to give that answer since I know it's not terribly helpful but some fruit relishes, for example, are primarily high-acid ingredients while vegetable relishes are low-acid. The same would be true of sauces and chutneys, etc. That's why you so often see recipes posted on the Forum with questions about whether certain ingredients can be eliminated, increased, etc. You do have some latitude to play around with things. Take your question about the heat of a salsa. Let's say the recipe called for 1 cup of sweet red pepper and 1/4 cup of hot peppers. You want it hotter and you aren't so crazy about sweet reds. The total amount of peppers is 1 1/4 cup, so you could have 3/4 cup of sweet reds and 1/2 cup of hot peppers. The total amount of low-acid veggies is the same. The important thing is you haven't changed the proportions of the recipe. Also be sure you don't change the preparation. Safe-tested recipes allow for some variation. For example, if the recipe says "chopped peppers" not everyone will chop the pieces the same size. But if you ground those peppers up instead, then a cup of ground peppers is a lot more by weight than a cup of chopped peppers. So, again, you've altered the proportions of the recipe and increased the ratio of low-acid vegetables. That can be risky. Or, as you suggested, you could add a good tablespoon or whatever of hot red pepper flakes. Just as you could adjust any other seasonings - less cumin, more peppercorns, etc. As long as the seasonings are dried, not fresh herbs. Carol

This is one that many folks here use for canning soup. Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup for Canning Source of Recipe My own recipe * Exported from MasterCook * Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup Recipe By :Katie Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories : Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 12 tomatoes -- *see Note 2 carrots -- cut in 2" pieces 1 large onion -- quartered 2 whole heads garlic -- peeled (or more, to taste) olive oil 2 cups chicken broth -- (or 3) 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (or 1 Tbsp. dried) Core tomatoes and cut in half. Place, cut side up, on foil covered cookie sheet with carrots, onion and garlic. Brush with olive oil. Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until vegies are roasted and a little blackened. Place in a large saucepan with the chicken broth and basil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Blend with a stick blender (or in small batches in a blender) until almost smooth. To can: Ladle into clean hot jars and leave a one-inch headspace. Process pints 60 minutes and quarts 70 minutes. For dial gauge canners use 11 lbs. pressure at 0-2000 ft., 12 lbs. at 2001-4000 ft., 13 lbs. at 4001- 6000 ft., and 14 lbs. over 6000 ft. For weighted gauge canners use 10 lbs. pressure at 0-1000 ft. and 15 lbs. over 1000 ft. To serve: Add cream to taste when heating if desired.

If you are going to freeze it you can basically make and season it anyway you wish. For canning that isn't the case as there are restrictions that would apply. I can all my tomato sauce so I'm not sure how much my recipes would appeal to you but one we use often is a sauced version of the BBB Stewed Tomatoes recipe. In other words we make the stewed tomatoes recipe and them mill it all and cook the sauce down by 1/2 and can it. Your recipe sounds good but I would suspect either reactive aluminum cookware or too much basil as the source of the bitterness. Small amounts work well but if too much it can turn bitter. As a general guideline, since so many herbs and spices intensify during storage many find it best to make the sauce plain - just tomatoes and some salt and/or sugar, and then add the herbs and seasoning at serving preparation time. So why not try just roasted tomatoes in a bit of olive oil with a little diced garlic and a bit of salt and then process it. Make sure all the cookware you use is non-reactive too. Dave

I realize I'm resurrecting an old thread - apologies for that. :-)) I cooked my first convection turkey yesterday, having read the old thread. I partially cooked my Xmas turkey on convection but that was largely cause I was late putting it in so I wanted to hurry it along. LOL!! This time was Convect from beginning to end. Largely it turned out fine. I do have some questions/issues: It seems Buehl makes basically the same stuffing I do. Mine was not wet at all before I stuffed. It would have been fine in a normally roasted turkey. However with this method it was really quite mushy -- more like porridge than stuffing and, as I LUV stuffing, I need to *fix this*. I was thinking I'd leave out the egg/water I usually put in the stuffing but it appears you use it. OR do you use egg only with no water or just a drop or two to thin the egg? Buehl, in the thread you didn't mention at what temp(s) you convect your turkeys. I used 375 for 20 mins then down to 325 for the remainder. A 13# turkey took 2 hours and 20 minutes to reach an internal of 175 degrees (probe). Is this similar to what you use? You mentioned wrapping the legs or anything subject to overbrowing. Does this mean you don't tent it at all but simply cover/wrap whatever appears to be getting too brown? I read on the noted thread that there was very little juice/fat from these convected turkeys thus gravy was hard come by. I used 2 Tbsps of Becel (marg) plus a little turkey fat in the bottom of the pan (as I do with any turkey) and had more than enough for gravy so don't know what that's about?? I was prepared for that event with turkey gravy mixes but didn't need to use them. What do you do about gravy? I apologize for asking so many questions of you but it seems you have a very similar taste in 'turkey dinner results'. :-)) Moreover you have vastly greater experience! Hope you don't mind my picking your brain. TIA Holly