Just to clarify: the reason I picked this recipe is I still have alot of tomatoes and I've already made stewed toms, salsa, bruschetta, catsup, pasta sauce, tomato juice, V5 juice. I have alot of hot sauce recipes but I want one tomato-based to can. Alot of the recipes I've found make a small batch to use within a week or so.
btw - I discovered if you use kefir whey as a starter for fermenting pepper mash and you don't want to drink the rest you can use it just like buttermilk - I made 'kefir' bread and used some for making cheese.

Roasting the peppers is not a problem. You can add the garlic if you reduce the peppers so that the total amount of low-acid veggies remains the same.

Dried peppers, dried spices and brown sugar instead of white would not be issues, though I suspect the brown sugar would change the flavor profile substantially. You might divide the batch, add brown to half, white to the other, and see what you like better. A white sugar sauce would be more versatile.

Carol

Carol, so you use garlic as you would any other low acid vegetable? 1:1 substitution? If you didn't want to decrease the peppers how about using dried garlic or garlic powder?
-Kay

We're speaking of very limited amounts of garlic, so in that case yes, I would. However, I wouldn't eliminate all the peppers solely in favor of garlic.

Dried garlic should be fine as would be dried peppers. For myself, though, dried garlic or powder, as with most dried herbs, is a poor second to the fresh. It's purely personal preference.

Carol

somehow I had the idea that in addition to being low acid, garlic actually acted on the vinegar to offset the acidity ... wrong???
kay

I don't think so, or no more than red peppers would. I haven't heard that. I was thinking purely in terms of the flavor.

Carol

I finished up the sauce Saturday and I'm pretty pleased with the result. I followed the BBB recipe, roasting 1/3 of the chili peppers (a mix of jalapeno, thai and poblano) and added 3 crushed cloves of garlic and 1 dried habanero. I let this steep for 2 hours after cooking until soft to meld the flavors before running through the food mill. I substituted brown sugar for granulated and reduced the total sugar to taste (1/4 cup plus 2 Tabs for me). I followed the rest of the recipe except I cooked it until I liked the texture (Tabasco thick). Canned it per recipe. Somewhere along the line a friend from Turkey tasted it and pronounced it mild, woah, it was hot to me but I added a dried Thai chile to each jar for insurance. Because I didn't reduce it I ended up with 10 half pints and some left over for the fridge. Found a vinegar cruet at the local discount department store (Building 19 for NE-glanders)for dispensing.
Thanks for all your input!

lamalu - I am planning to do something similar to this. This is the recipe that Carol (readinglady) posted in another thread - I think it's the same as BBB except no sugar, right? I'm curious, did you end up using the pickling spices or not? They do not sound like what I would like but am wondering what else you would substitute? Thanks for letting us know how yours turned out.

ann

8 cups (64 ounces) canned, diced tomatoes, undrained
1½ cups seeded, chopped Serrano peppers
4 cups distilled white vinegar (5 percent)
2 teaspoons canning salt
2 tablespoons whole mixed pickling spices (optional)

This recipe yields four half-pint jars.

Hi Ann. You're right, it does sound like the same recipe except for the sugar and the BBB calls for fresh tomato. Yes, I did use the pickling spices - I reread the label and found enough to like - cinnamon, allspice, cardamom. I used the Bermuda hot sauce recipe from leener's for inspiration. I think I added some molasses too. I've been getting compliments on my sauce so far!
Good luck!