Big Mama’s Chili Sauce

Few culinary terms are as open to interpretation as “chili sauce,” and when a recipe calls for chili sauce, there is sometimes a huge lot of confusion about what should be added. Chili sauces can be used as a condiment or an ingredient. They can be hot or mild relative to how much chili pepper goes into the sauce. Chili sauce can be categorized as a hot sauce or a tomato-based condiment similar to ketchup or cocktail sauce. Do you see the confusion? The best way to describe Big Mama’s Chili Sauce is as a cross between a tomato-based condiment and a sweet chow-chow. This chunky sauce has a good mix of sweet and spicy, with the heat determined by the type of pepper used. This particular sauce has always been used as a condiment or topping, but I have found it works well as a finishing sauce for ribs, too. Try it in the morning on scrambled eggs or in a breakfast burrito. Use it instead of relish on hot dogs. Add a dose to beans or peas to heighten their flavor.