home made and canned barbecue sauce

I am tomatoed out!  I have been putting up tomatoes like crazy.  and then I brought in more!

The one thing that I buy but have not made was barbecue sauce.  I like mine thin to mop on rather than the thick sticky stuff so I usually buy Head Country and then "fix" it.  So I was on a mission.

First I halved, de-seeded and squeezed the tomatoes.  Then chopped some onions and bell peppers to go in.  Then on the stove to cook.

After they were nice and tender I put them thru the blender and then thru a sieve to remove any remaining seeds and bits of peel.  By not peeling them I save time and end up with more yield than I would if I peeled them.

What I had left was a nicely flavored tomato puree.  Back in the pot it went with some seasoning.  I had about 42 cups of puree so I added 4 cups of apple cider vinegar, 4 tablespoons Paprika, 2 tablespoons black pepper, 4 tablespoons salt and 4 cups Brown Sugar.

Then I let it simmer until it was the right consistency, while stirring frequently.  It still did not taste right and so I put on my thinking cap of what it is I fix sauce with so I added a small jar of prepared mustard and some maple syrup.

Ahhh ... Perfection... then

Then in the pint jars and with my Tattler lids of course.  I pressure canned it at 10 lbs for 20 minutes.  ( I could have water bathed it but I prefer to pressure everything I can)

I ended up with 25 pretty pint jars of barbecue sauce.  I won't have to buy any for a while!