Thanks for posting - my DS loves Manwiches, I never knew what to use "chili sauce" for!

What kind of tomatoes did you use? I've got a lot of small ones (Glaciers) coming in, as well as some volunteer beefsteaks that I don't want to sell (since I can't tell people what they are). Unfortunately, the 1 Speckled Roman paste tomato that has ripened so far had a bad spot (not BER).

Hi ajsmama!

I also never knew what Chili Sauce was for. I only knew to try it as a "sloppy joe" sauce after reading on Gardenweb an old thread about it.

I dont grow paste tomatoes much anymore. There just isnt any flavor there. In the past I would use both paste and regular tomatoes, but this year I didnt even grow any Romas. I blanche, and hand strip the seeds and watery parts, reserving for making juice. When I cook down, there is a lot less water than if not stripping out the seeds and straining. This recipe does not make a lot of sauce. We eat sloppy joes about twice a month. So I will be making 12 pints of this sauce to get through the year. I did try other recipes, but this one was just right! And the kids had helped make it, so that makes them more eager to choose this over the commercial version of "Manwich".

Absolutely awesome to find that perfect recipe!

Ellen_inMo,
Thanks so much for this post. Got me to thinkin' about "Manwich", so DH and I spent the day tweaking the Ball Chili Sauce recipe in combo with the Bernardin Grandma's Chili Sauce recipe.

7-1/2 pints are finally out of the canner. Looks good so far - I think we have a winner here too, based on tasting along the way.

Thanks again! Now I better to type up the notes for next time :-)

malna - after you type up your notes would you mind sharing? Thanks

Tweaking? Man how that word scares me! But if everyone approves of the changes, I'd like to see it also. I had added a dallop of BBQ sauce to this when I served it, because it was a touch dry, as I'd browned a little more meat than I should have. It was the Ball Blue Book BBQ sauce that I had canned last year, which my family loves! But the streight Chili Sauce by itself was just great!

I don't know if anyone is interested, but, I've found a recipe online for using chili sauce that calls for slow cooking a brisket with chili sauce and onion soup mix.

Instead I used Penzeys' roasted onion powder with the chili sauce. It's a keeper. The aroma of the brisket cooking all day is wonderful.

Deborah

Recipes to use chili sauce?? Bring them on! Im already ready to fast forward to next year and put out three times as many tomatoes as this year!! Ive learned my lesson this year of trying to process tomatoes with everything else going on. Heck with that! Freeze em and deal with them in the fall, when Im not working anymore for the year. I would get much more pleasure out of canning that way. MORE pleasure from canning??! Is that possible?! :)

5 or 6 pounds-ish brisket
1 pint jar chili sauce.
1 Tablespoon liquid smoke.
2 Tablespoons Penzeys' toasted onion powder
Garlic salt and pepper to taste.
1/2 bottle of beer (you know what to do with the other half)

1.Brown the brisket.
2.Mix the other ingredients.
3. Throw the brisket in a pot and pour mixed ingredients over. Cover tightly.
4. Slow cook it in the oven or slow cooker for 8 hrs. (I did mine in an old Nesco 6 quart roaster, one that has temp settings)

Deborah

I forgot to add, you can leave out the liquid smoke (I happen to like it) and, you can use onion soup mix.

And you are right about enjoying canning... it's happy work; it makes for a very satifying fatigue.

Just an aside, my trained chef daughter had never tasted chili sauce before I canned it last year. I didn't think she'd like it (she's a tad fussy about food) but she's wild about the stuff. Life is strange.

Thank you Deborah!! I would "skip over" any recipe, canning or whatever, that listed chili sauce because I assumed it had a chili flavor. Not that that's bad, but, jeez, we already eat enough actual chili and it gets really old, especially for the kids who are also being served chili regularly at school. And, heck, two of my three kids don't even eat chili.

My goal is to can products that I can make meals with. I am sick to death tired of buying stuff from the store. The nutritional benefits are absolutely important to me. I'm horrified by nutritional labels, and all the research I have done concerning processed foods in general. I stopped looking forward to being in the kitchen for years. My own recipes, too fattening. Too expensive. Learning to can has revived my love for cooking again.

The "tweaking" is mostly with the spices and flavors. I knew DH would not like cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. in it, so we compromised on the spice bag idea. Gives just a hint of spices but they aren't overwhelming at all. Neither of us likes sweet sauces, so I knew 1 cup of sugar would be too much. Plus our tomatoes are sweet and I used Vidalia onions, which add more sweetness. I've learned the hard way to start with a small amount, especially sugar and salt, then add more to taste. No sense spending all the time and wasting the produce on something DH won't eat.

Our Chili Sauce (Adapted from Bernardin Grandma's Chili Sauce and Ball Chili Sauce recipes in Complete Book of Home Preserving. Note: The Chili Sauce recipe in this book is different than the one in the Ball Blue Book)
Made 7-1/2 pints (8/21/2012). My additions are noted by the *.

16 cups prepared tomatoes (used Opalka, Amish Paste, Hungarian Italian with a few Early Wonders and Steak Sandwich thrown in)

4-1/2 cups onions (original said 6 onions, chopped) [estimated 1 onion = 3/4 cup from Produce Purchasing Guide. Ball recipe said 2 cups chopped onion=about 3 small]

6 cups peppers total (original said 6 green peppers, chopped and 2 red peppers, chopped) [estimated 1 pepper = 1-1/4 cups from Produce Purcase Guide - we thought that was too much, Ball recipe said 1 cup chopped pepper is about 1 small pepper. Still thought 8 cups of pepper was too much.] Used 4 packs of frozen Gypsy peppers=4 cups and 2 packs of frozen Anaheims=2 cups.

2 cups white vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar (original was 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar)

2 cloves our garlic, minced (original Bernardin 1 clove, Ball 2 cloves)

2 teaspoons pickling salt

*1/2 teaspoon citric acid

Spice Bag idea from Ball Chili Sauce recipe:

1 4" cinnamon stick
1 fresh bay leaf
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seed
1/2 tablespoon celery seed
6 whole cloves
1 whole allspice
1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns
*1 teaspoon cumin seed

Combine prepared tomatoes, onions, peppers, vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, spice bag and salt in a large stainless steel
saucepan. Stirring frequently, bring to a boil. Boil gently, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching, until mixture reaches desired consistency, about 2 hours. *Ours took 4 hours.

*Removed spice bag after 1-1/2 hours. Added 3/4 teaspoon Cavender's Greek Seasoning instead of ground spices in original recipes.

Ladle sauce into a hot jar to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of top of jar (headspace). Using nonmetallic utensil, remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if required, by adding more sauce. Wipe jar rim removing any food residue.

Process pint jars in BWB for 20 minutes.

Fantastic!!! And I have just enough tomatoes to do this recipe in the next few days when they fully ripen. I use Cavenders Greek Seasining in EVERYTHING. I'm excited you included this also and omitting the sweet spices. The cloves and allspice thing seems to not agree with me much.

I'm thinking you and I have the same "taste" in mind here. I'm sure others will want to try the same with the same result. My kids will only eat Manwich. No sloppy joe packets or generic Manwich. We eat it twice a month. I'm ecstatic they liked this recipe well enough!

I don't know that I've ever seen Cavender's around here - what's in it (might have to experiment with my own mix of dried herbs)? Don't know if I'd go for cloves and allspice either (though I do you them in pickles), and mustard seeds are horribly expensive - have only found them in small bottles in grocery stores. Since there's no brine to get cludy, might sub ground mustard?

I usually add some BBQ sauce to the pan too - not that we eat sloppy joes that often, I don't like buying things in cans except beans.

Cavender's is one of those "secret" recipes - it does have salt, black pepper, garlic, oregano, sugar, onion powder, parsley and five other spices, but they won't tell you what those five spices are.

I know it's available at Walmart (at least it is here) and online from amazon, Great American Spice Company, etc. I use so much I've started buying it in a 5 lb. tub and giving it as gifts. Everybody loves it.

I buy bulk spices from Penzey's - right now they are offering free shipping for a $30 order, and I have no problem spending $30 there. I got a 4 oz. bag of mustard seed for $2.39. Way less than the grocery store and that will last me at least a year. Actually, one of the things I have to be really careful of is using Penzey's spices - they are so fresh and flavorful I use about 1/2 of what I'd use if I bought the stuff from the grocery store.

But I don't see why ground mustard wouldn't work.

I've been meaning for the past month to go to W. Hartford and visit Penzey's for mustard seed but just can't seem to make it down to "the city". Wouldn't you know my mom bought some dried chiles in San Jose Penzey's when she was visiting my sister, not realizing we had one local, but I have plenty of dried chiles (and hotter ones!) from peppers I grew last year. Guess I'd better grow mustard LOL!

I'll look at Walmart for Cavender's, I was just there yesterday but didn't look in spice aisle.

Which chili sauce recipe in the Ball Blue Book? I see 2 in mine.

I would assume the first one, the one under Sauces. The other one toward the back of the book under Pickling is a pickled tomato and pepper recipe.

Dave

Just an FYI - we opened a jar last night. It was great on venison.

But...the cinnamon and clove flavors have gotten a little stronger since I made it. I made myself a note to cut them down next time (which is today) to a 2" cinnamon stick and 4 whole cloves instead of 6.

We both really like it - it's just that I prefer to not taste one spice above all others.

That happened to me with the Nchfp Spicy Chili Sauce. Lots of allspice and clove flavor. I refuse to waste the sauce I made so I mixed hot sauce with it when I served it, and that helped considerably. I'm still curious about the Nchfp "Hot Chili Sauce".

An update - popped open a jar of our tweaked chili sauce tonight (we're calling it our "North of the Border" chili sauce - did another batch tweaking the spices to make a "South of the Border" flavor).

DH's comment - "Don't you dare change a thing - it's gooood".

I think it just needed some time to meld all the flavors back together. Weird how that happens - in the future I certainly won't start making notes on what to change without tasting it after being on the shelf for a couple of months.

I certainly will make your recipe next! Oh to have all the tomatoes I started off with this year! With what I have left, Im busy making more of the NCHFP Chili Pepper Tomato Salsa (RoTel like tomatoes). Omg, YUM! I cant get enough of it!! I will have made about 30 pints of it so far!

I know this is an old thread, but I was looking for some information on chili sauce and found it here.

I saw the question about Cavender's Greek Seasoning. Here's a copycat homemade recipe (untested by me).

http://www.food.com/recipe/greek-seasoning-blend-59207

Here is a link that might be useful: Copycat Cavender's Greek Seasoning

Thanks - you think the cornstarch can be omitted? I know it's a small amount but I wouldn't like to use any cornstarch in a canning recipe unless it had been tested with it.

Sure - you could leave out the cornstarch. It's simply there as an anti-caking agent (that's why they put it in baby powder and powdered sugar).

I figured as much. It's a small amount, unless you're dumping the whole 3/4C of mix into the preserving pot, but why use if you don't need to? I've never had a problem with my salt or garlic powder caking in this house.

I'm assuming "dill" means dill weed, not dill seed?