Hot and Sweet Chili Sauce

An old-fashioned chili sauce that is sweet with a touch of heat. A dollop of it at the side of your plate livens up meat pie or meatloaf nicely.

Plan on giving it a long simmering time in the pot before canning, to thicken it up.

The recipe

Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (1/2 US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) OR half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz)

Processing method: Water bath or steam canning

Yield: 4 x half-litre (US pint / 500 ml) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (1/2 inch)

Processing time: 20 minutes either size jar. Adjust time for altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.

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Hot and Sweet Chili Sauce

Course Sauce

Cuisine American

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 3 hours

Total Time 3 hours 45 minutes

Yield 4 half-litre (US pint) jars

Calories 30 kcal

Ingredients

• 375 ml white vinegar (5% or higher. 1 1/2 cups / 12 oz)
• 4 tablespoons pickling spice (in spice bag)
• 1.5 kg tomatoes (paste type. Peeled, cored, chopped. 6 cups. 3.3 lbs. Measured after prep.)
• 150 g red peppers (chopped. Measured after seeding, chopping. 1 cup / 1 large)
• 150 g onion (chopped. Measured after peeling, chopping. 1 cup / 1 medium onion)
• 2 peaches (small. About 200 g / 7 oz of flesh after peeling and pitting)
• 150 g apple (peeled, cored chopped apple. Measured after prep. 1 1/4 cups. 1 medium)
• 150 g pear (peeled, cored chopped pear. Measured after prep. 1 cup. 1 medium)
• 6 to 8 hot peppers (small. Somewhere between 30 to 100 g / 1 to 3 oz)
• 75 g sultana raisins (1/2 cup)
• 350 g white sugar (1 1/2 cups / 12 oz in weight) OR 2 teaspoons liquid stevia
• 4 teaspoons salt (OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Add vinegar to large stainless-steel pot.
2. Make spice bag with pickling spice, add to pot.
3. Wash, core, peel and chop the tomatoes. Add to pot.
4. Put pot on to start slowly simmering.
5. Wash, seed, chop the red bell pepper, add to pot.
6. Wash, peel, chop the onion, add to pot.
7. Wash, peel, pit, chop the peach, add to pot. Stir.
8. Wash, peel, core, chop the apple, add to pot. Stir.
9. Wash, peel, core, chop the pear, add to pot. Stir.
10. Wash, seed, chop the peppers finely, add to pot.
11. Add the raisins, sugar and salt. Stir all well.
12. Bring pot to a boil. Stir frequently during this phase.
13. Lower to a simmer, and stir occasionally.
14. Let simmer uncovered until sauce is thick enough to form a mound on a spoon: about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. When trying to judge this, don't worry if there is still a little bit of thin looking tomato sauce at the very sides of the pot; remember, it's all going to thicken up a lot anyway once cooled, so don't try to simmer until you have something with no sauce or it will no longer be a chili *sauce*
15. Discard spice bag.
16. Pack hot into quarter-litre (1/2 US pint) jars or half-litre (US pint) jars.
17. Leave 2 cm (1/2 inch) headspace for either size jar.
18. Debubble, adjust headspace.
19. Wipe jar rims.
20. Put lids on.
21. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
22. Process either size jar for 20 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.

Reference information

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

For salt substitute, Herbamare Sodium-Free was used.

For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.

More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.

Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.

Recipe notes

• You’ll need around 10 tomatoes, if you use something around the size of Roma tomatoes.
• If you have a food mill, you could wash the tomatoes, core them, and put them through a food mill on coarse.
• Instead of starting with fresh tomatoes, you could start with 1.5 litres / quarts of home-canned or store-bought canned crushed tomatoes.
• The reason they want Sultana raisins is so the colour blends in better with the sauce. You can use darker raisins or currants, if you don’t mind the dark colour spots.
• Instead of red bell pepper you could use orange or yellow. Or green, if you don’t mind the colour contrast in the sauce.
• The recipe calls for granulated sugar, meaning white sugar. If you weren’t worried about darker colour, you could use brown for perhaps more flavour.
• Do not try to thicken it artificially with flour, cornstarch, Clearjel etc. That could cause density issues and make it unsafe, as well as causing clumps and making the sauce unpalatable.

Recipe Source

• Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Ball / Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto: Robert Rose. 2015. Page 268.

Modifications made:

• Suggested options of sugar and salt swaps.

Nutrition information

Regular Version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml

• 30 calories, 148 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 2 to 4 tablespoons: 2 points.
• Weight Watchers SmartPoints®: 2 tablespoons: 2 points, 4 tablespoons: 4 points.

Sugar and Salt-Free Version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml

• 13 calories, 1 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 2 to 4 tablespoons: 1 point.
• Weight Watchers SmartPoints®: 2 to 4 tablespoons: 1 point.

* Nutrition info provided by MyFitnessPal

* PointsPlus™ and SmartPoints™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® registered trademarks.

* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.

* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.