Some pizza sauce recipes start with 45 pounds or a half-bushel of tomatoes, others with a 28-ounce can. Since yesterday's trip to the Farmers' Market scored 25 pounds, I went along with the former. The 45-pound one has you simmer the tomatoes with pepper and onion and that technique appealed to me, despite the cries from my Mehu-Liisa in the closet. I used an apple corer to remove the tomato cores, then discarded just the ends of those, and quartered the pommes d'amour. The proportions of the recipes I researched (none in the Ball Blue Book!) seemed a little too conservative in the supporting cast, so I peeled and quartered 6 pounds of Spanish onions, then seeded and chopped 4 green peppers, and layered them into the large stockpot. My big score from the market yesterday was 2 pounds of fresh pimentoes, which I had never even seen before (I though they only came in little jars alongside the anchovies at the grocery). The pimentoes went in too, because I didn't know what else to do with them. The strategy is to consolidate to the large stockpot after simmering brings the levels down. More on that project as it develops, it's gonna end up in the pressure canner when it's ready, but first it has to simmer down, cool down, and be pureed. I liked the 45-pound recipe because it has a second stage of cooking for the real seasoning with garlic and herbs.
The midnight canner came by and made my Duplin Scuppernong Blush Jelly for me last night. The first pectin extraction, a week ago, had yielded only a cup because of my inexperience. Monday, I bought 4 more Granny Smith apples and extracted a total of a quart. Yesterday afternoon, I simmered that down to the 2 cups the recipe requires, so everything was ready when the midnight canner arrived. I have had any luck with natural pectins (I've only used Pomona's - and they didn't set), I advised him to have a spoon and plate ready to do gelling tests. But he became overconfident, saying he could tell it was ready when it boiled up to the top of the pot, with fine foamy bubbles that could not be stirred back down. He filled 7 8-ounce jelly jars and poured the quarter-cup or so excess into a bowl. Six jars sealed one the first try, the seventh yielded to a second hot water bath. This morning, the jelly in the bowl is nicely set, but the stuff in the jars seems a little watery. I'll discuss this with him, if he ever returns...
My cable modem went offline most of yesterday, but a call to TWC magically got it working within minutes after the call. That always seem to happen, maybe the technicians just need attention. I cancelled the house call set up for tomorrow. Having the computer free gave me an opportunity to do some VHS-SVCD dubbing of some rare Frank Zappa TV tapes sent to me by a friend - some public service announcements to "get out and vote" made in 1984 and an interview with Pennsylvania State Trooper Chuck Ash in 1988, on the eve of his final tour. We're hoping that bin/cue and ISO files for SVCD will make a better archive than VHS tape. All audio problems solved once again with the help of Cool Edit 2000.
1:15:22 PM 
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