goodness, it would be very vinegar-y if you substituted a cup and a half of the water for a cup and a half of vinegar! What I see here is only *two tablespoons* total of low acid ingredients, so that really seems like overkill!! I'm not sure why you'd want to go to the trouble of canning it, since it's made up pretty much totally of already dried & processed ingredients, except for the jalapeno. But if I were going to try to do it, I'd leave out all but a cup of the water --- whatever it took to get the consistency of the tomato paste down to more like tomatoe sauce --- and increase the vinegar to maybe half a cup (that's what the roasted red pepper spread uses, albeit slightly stronger vinegar, for a lot more non-acid stuff). I'd leave out the cornstarch (seems unnecessary to add all that water to thin it and then add sthg to thicken in!). I would use fresh onion (why not, since we're preserving the finished product. When I opened a jar, I could add back in more water to reacch the desired consistency. But probably instead if I wanted to eat this stuff often, I would mince some jalapeno & onion and put together little "batches" of all the solid ingredients, pre-measured, and put them in the freezer. When I wanted sauce I would open a can of tomato paste, add the 3 cups water and 2 tsp vinegar and an ingredient pack, cook for the 3 minutes, and bingo. Zabby

Mine isn't all that new, probably 10 years old. Kinda ugly, I just replaced the knob on the lid with one for a kitchen drawer. It is a Rival brand, oval shaped, I forgot the capacity. But it is big enough to put a whole turkey breast inside. It has 3 settings High will boil, low will slow cook, and it has a warm setting that is perfect eating temp. Speaking of turkey breast, I partially thaw a turkey breast in the fridge overnight , about 18 hours usually. Put it in the crock pot the next morning with the cavity up. Pour a can of Golden mushroom soup in the cavity and turn it on high for 2 hours. Then switch it to low for 4 hours. It turns out perfect!

I worked with a chef for years who was originally from Mexico and he was very good about mixing various cuisines together. Basically, if it tasted good, he'd do it. So, we ended up with Cajun Catfish tacos with a cilantro jalapeno cream sauce. It was one of our most popular bar food items. I believe they now even serve it in the restaurant area at lunch time. I don't have an actual recipe, but they're easy to make. The catfish is marinated in Cajun seasonings...many grocery stores carry the pre-marinated item. Grilled, the catfish is folded into soft flour tortillas with some chopped tomato and onion and some finely shredded cabbage. This is drizzled with the cilantro jalapeno cream which is basically cilantro pureed in sour cream, with minced pickled jalapenos to taste.

In general you are right that it is ok to reduce the low acid ingredients. And in this case it would be safe to do so as well. That isn't the issue. It is the pureed tomatoes juice amount and mix - 13 quarts of juice would require more acid to be added. That they were frozen means they were diluted even more with the water from all the ruptured cells. And that they weren't paste types means even more water. More free water requires more acid. They only add that warning to a few recipes because they are so finely balanced pH wise that there isn't any room for alterations. But had you started out with the 8 quarts of peeled, chopped paste tomatoes then yes you can reduce the amount of onions, garlic, peppers, etc. with no problems as long as you don't reduce the amount of vinegar. Dave