Canning Tomatoes (Part 2)

I returned to The Jam and Jelly Lady's cannery (Tuesday) to attended a master canning course for tomatoes.  We made salsa (which I already talked about ), Italian sauce (Or if you are Italian--Red Gravy) and a Jamaican Jerk Tomato sauce.

Since we are not quite into tomato season we used a good quality can of tomato sauce for the basis of our sauce recipes. We canned canned? We re-can-ted? Haha. Besides it was for educational purposes...

 The smell of all the spices was divine! yum!

 Lined up like little delicious saucy soldiers

Jamican Jerk Sauce

Holy habenero's batman!

hotsauceandsalsa.com

Ok- actually a scotch bonnet (just doesn't have the same ring to it). The scotch bonnet is a milder, sweeter form of a habenero. Um yeah if sweeter and milder is akin to levels in hell.  **Ding, ding-Hell Level 1 housewares.  Hell Level 2  children's toys.  It doesn't matter. It's hell and it's hot. How hot?

Well  peppers are rated on a Scoville scale which measures the amount of capsaicin  in a pepper. You know the difference between "oh what a tasty and delicious green bell pepper:" and "OMG the agony! Please kill me now!" kind of pain. Some peppers are so hot they will blister your skin. How bad-ass is that?

Being the science nerd that I am I found this cool periodic table of peppers from mild to insane.

http://www.pepperfriends.com/forum/topic/2758-scoville-scale/

For the non science nerds you can refer to this chart

http://www.peterpiperspepperspray.com/scoville_heat_units/

But I digress.  Getting back to the Jamaican Jerk sauce. It is freaking HOT! Wear gloves when handling these peppers. Do not touch your face, eyes or any other sensitive areas. Because it is gonna hurt like, well, HELL! 

Looks like molten lava!

 Maybe I should label it with a skull and crossbones and surrounded by flames?

Here is a link to a Jerk Tomato sauce recipe (not quite the same as the one we canned)

What kind of recipe uses Jamaican Jerk sauce?  How about shredded beef  and some rice?

http://www.mycubanrecipes.com/recipes/beef/aporreado-de-tasajo/

Or Jerk Pizza?

http://commen-tate.blogspot.com/2011/12/sweet-jamaican-jerk-pizza.html

Not sure if I am brave enough to try these! 

Canning Tomatoes (Part 1)

I returned to The Jam and Jelly Lady's cannery (Tuesday) to attended a master canning course...for tomatoes. Three--count 'em 3 awesomely yummy recipes. We made salsa, Italian sauce (Or  if you are Italian--Red Gravy) and a Jamaican Jerk Tomato sauce.

Many people grew up using a water canner for tomatoes, but we used a pressure canner. Based on all the literature and the science behind it--this seems safer. And definitely the way I am gonna preserve them.

 Making Salsa 

Is there anything more beautifully vibrant?

Blanch-don't boil!

Score!

❤  the food processor!

Garlic smells so good! (Just not on my hands!)

 My eyes were burning from the peppers and garlic!

Don't cry!

Naked tomatoes!

 I wish you could have seen how goopey our hands were after peeling and de-pithing the tomatoes

 Did I mention we  ❤  the food processor?  We used it for the onions too. Can you imagine doing all this by hand? Yeah -me either.

 To bad we don't have smell-o-blog. The aroma was divine!

Really? I am supposed to wait and not eat this? Yeah, right!

Everyone has a different preference for type of tomatoes, peppers and spices. Just Google canning salsa recipes to get an ideal for ingredients, measurements and processing time.

Up next: Tomato Sauces