Preserve your chilies in a spicy tomato sauce.
Tomatoes are high in acid which makes them one of the safer foods to can. Canning foods isn't difficult but it does take attention to detail and several precautions to make sure the food is safe to consume after canning. The process works by boiling the food to kill any bacteria and then submerging the jar with the food inside in a water bath for 10 to 20 minutes to create a vacuum seal when the jar is removed from the bath. Canning your own tomato chili sauce will just take a few hours.
Instructions
1. Wash the canning jars and lids in hot soapy water, even if they're new. Rinse several times to remove all traces of soap.
2. Place a canning rack in the bottom of a large pot. Put the jars in the pot and fill both the pot and the jars with water. Make sure the tops of the jars are covered by at least an inch of water. Put the lids, both the flat lids and the screw top rims, in a separate pot.
3. Bring the pot with the jars to a boil. Boil the jars for 10 minutes. Pour boiling water over the lids in the separate pot. Leave the lids in the water until you're ready to use them.
4. Make the tomato chili sauce as your recipe directs. Make sure it cooks at a boil for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.
5. Remove the jars from the water with tongs and place upside down on a freshly laundered towel.
6. Put a bowl large enough for the jar to sit in on the work surface by the jars and lids. Ladle the sauce scooping from the bottom into the jar. Fill all the jars to within 1/2 inch of the top. Stir the contents with a knife to release any trapped air in the jar. Wipe any sauce from the top of the jar and the sides where the screw top is screwed on.
7. Place the flat lid on top of the jar. Screw on the rimmed lid so the flat lid is firmly in contact with the top of the jar but don't tighten it as hard as you can.
8. Bring the water in the large pot to a boil. Place the jars on top of the canning rack in the boiling water. Make sure the tops are covered by at least an inch of water and that the jars are spaced two inches apart and do not touch the sides of the pot. Boil, or process, for 20 minutes. Take the jars out of the water bath using tongs and lifting them by their glass sides, not by the lids. Set on the counter to cool. You will probably hear the lids pop as they vacuum seal. Do not disturb the jars for 12 hours after canning.
9. Test the seal by pushing on the flat lid with your finger. It should not move up and down. If it moves down the lid should seal and you won't be able to move it any more.
Tags: Make sure, after canning, boiling water, canning rack, covered least