Wood Chick BBQ Sauce for Canning

On this blog, I have written several times about my favorite recipe for barbecue sauce - it's one I tried from a Food Network recipe from an old episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay.   It used to be that I watched FN every night when I couldn't fall asleep, but I never watch it anymore.   It's turned into a network devoted to "reality" (I put the term in quotes because anyone that thinks that these shows aren't scripted is fooling themselves) chef competitions like "Chopped".   I hate these shows - I love the old kind of shows that they used to have on Food Network, like Paula Deen without the studio audience, or the Barefoot Contessa or Alton Brown.   They showed people cooking recipes that I might actually try - now I have to go to PBS to get my fix, or the Hallmark network, although I don't watch that much now that they canceled Lucinda Scala Quinn's Mad Hungry.  

A couple years ago, I developed a version of the Wood Chick BBQ sauce for canning as part of a blog contest I was in called Tigress Can Jam, but I developed that recipe in the dead of winter and I used canned tomato puree.   This year, I finally got around to trying it out with actual tomatoes. The 2nd week of October, we had a good frost and I called my friend Ann Ruhlig to see if she had any tomatoes left and she said she had, and that they were "good for canning", which is a great euphemism to describe a tomato that isn't picture perfect...i.e. they might have a few bad spots.   I picked up a box of tomatoes the size of a ream of paper for $10, which is a great deal!  I got them home and cored them and cut off the bad spots, and followed a great technique I learned from Linda Ziedrich for making tomato puree for canning.  Core each tomato, give it a gentle squeeze one at a time as you put them into a stock pot   Cook the tomatoes until they are soft, then drain them in a colander.    Then process them through a food mill - I like to use the fruit and vegetable strainer attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer,but a Foley style food mill will work, too.    Tomato puree made this way will not be too watery, and the tomatoes don't have to be peeled first, which is a giant pain to do.  I am not one to can tomatoes straight up for this reason - it's too labor intensive to peel tomatoes.  I'll peel them for salsa and that's it!

The beauty of this recipe is that it can be doubled or halved or whatever, depending on how much tomato puree you might end up with.   Note that you must keep the ratio of the ingredients the same, or you may end up with a recipe that isn't safe for canning i.e. 10 cups tomato puree means you'd add only 2 3/4 c chopped onions, etc. 

Wood Chick Style Barbecue Sauce for Canning

20 c tomato puree
5.5 c. finely chopped onions
6 c. white vinegar
3.5 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. dry mustard
1 T. black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic
1 T. paprika
1/2 c. maple syrup
3/4 c. honey
1 T. ground cloves
2 T. canning salt
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. hot chili powder
2 T. allspice

In a large stock pot, combine tomatoes puree and onions and bring to a boil, boil gently for 30 minutes until onions soften, about 30 minutes. At this point add the remaining ingredients and boil gently stirring often until the sauce reaches the consistency of thin commercial barbecue sauce, about an hour. Prepare the canner and lids, and then ladle hot sauce into jars, removing bubbles and leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Process for 35 minutes.  Makes about 5 pints.