Mrs. Conn's "Antique" recipe

There is always so much fuss about people stealing recipes online and then sharing them as their own; there may be another "Chili Sauce" recipe in the world...but not this one.  I have to believe this recipe is at least 200 years old and, for as much as I cook, I've never seen it anywhere online.  And, naturally, it comes with a story!


I've heard it said that furniture one hundred years old or older qualifies as antique.  It's really no telling how old this recipe is, my now 95-year old mother got it from an elderly neighbor, an interesting lady I remember from my childhood only as  Mrs. Conn in Bastrop, Louisiana.  In 1957,   Mother noted that Mrs. Conn  told her the recipe came from an "old" cookbook in her family.


My late father used to grow the most delicious tomatoes I've ever tasted and he purposefully grew much more than he needed because he loved sharing  them with others.  It's hard to believe that today, when I'm paying $2.50 a pound for homegrown tomatoes, that Daddy used to have so many ripe tomatoes  he'd sometimes almost have more than he could manage!  My father died in 2004, several months ago I ran into one of his  former neighbors and one of the first things he said was, "I'll never forget Mr. Carroll's tomatoes."


This recipe isn't something most people will want to tackle BUT in the immortal words of Justin Wilson, I "guarantee" you'll never taste anything more delicious with unlimited ways to use it.  My favorites are with purplehull peas and hot cornbread and on homemade hamburgers.  It's basically a tomato relish...only with an entirely different texture and flavor.


It's also not a recipe for the fainthearted - it's pretty much an all day project but the end result is worth the effort!  I wish I could describe how the ingredients smell when they're cooking...for three hours!  It's almost intoxicating!   This recipe is obviously intended for canning and while it makes an ample amount, it's not a tremendous amount! 

Mrs. Conn's Chili Sauce

8 quarts really ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped

8 large onions, chopped

3 cups sugar

1/3 cup salt

1 quart plus 1 pint vinegar

3 tsp. cloves

3 tsp. cinnamon

3 tsp. ginger

3 tsp. nutmeg

1 cup hot pepper, chopped

Cook all this for 3 hours, stirring often, then seal it in sterilized jars.

I am not a pepper expert and finding the perfect peppers to use would be a challenge for me...as it was for my late Uncle Dee who used a variety of peppers  that were so hot he had to throw away just about everything he'd used trying to chop them.  I remember my mother having one small  baby food jar of Uncle Dee's Chili Sauce that she cooked with for probably 2-3 years!   You want your peppers hot but definitely not too hot!