OK here's a strange one. This is something that my grandmother used to make and my aunt has been making it and giving jars of it to us for Christmas for the last 20+ years. It always gets eaten unlike some of her other creations (quince butter). I have never made it but I picked up the recipe on Thanksgiving and just gave it a try.
Chicago Hots is something like a chili pepper relish, it's not spicy hot. It can be eaten plain, but more likely you dump it over a brick of cream cheese and scoop it up with crackers, Triscuits are the traditional choice.
I used 2 red bell peppers and 4 fresno chiles, they weren't too spicy. I didn't have dried mustard seeds so I used a very seedy type of mustard that came from Trader Joe's. It's just being brought to a boil now and I'm getting ready to can 3 quarts. We'll see if it turns out like my aunt's.
Code:
Chicago Hots
Betty's Famous recipe
Ingredients
8c Tomatoes cut fine
1c Salt
2c Sugar
2c Onions cut fine
1/2c Mustard seed
3c Celery cut fine
2 each Red and Green pepper cut fine
1qt Cider vinegar
Directions
1. Combine tomatoes and salt and let stand overnight.
2. Drain tomatoes well and add rest of ingredients in a large pot.
2. Heat to boil and can.
edit 1. Yield was about 4 quarts and I dumped maybe 2 quarts of watery liquor. I'm wondering if I should have rinsed the salt out of the tomatoes. I've talked to my aunt about how she makes this recipe. I have canned it into 3 quart jars and one pint jar, going to process in boiling water for an hour to be totally safe. Pint jars would be better for typical use, and I would use them if I was giving this as a gift, but this is just an experiment at this point.
