I make salsas that taste great, but my tomato sauces taste bitter. I use only top quality veggies, skin and seed them (Food mill previously, Squeezo this year), cook in stainless steel, am careful not to scorch. Last year I fed gallons of sauce to the chickens and even they were not impressed. I have a batch simmering now, and it doesn't taste worth canning. Should I add SUGAR? or VINEGAR? or SALT? Help, please. Kendy

-- Kendy Sawyer (sweetfire@grove.net), September 20, 1999

Answers

I'd try sugar!!

-- Bob Henderson (redgate@echoweb.net), September 20, 1999.

Usually to remove the bitterness from any foodstuff you use some salt. Some restaurants serve coffee bitter to my taste and I just add several grains of salt. I learned this trick from a Greek restaurant in Chicago. They added salt to all of the coffee that they made. One of the clone recipe sites has a salsa recipe. You might compare your's to it to see if you can tell what the difference might be. It is at http://www.topsecretrecipes.com

-- greenbeanman (greenbeanman@ourtownusa.net), September 20, 1999.

I've added both some sugar and some salt, too late to take out peppers' membranes, they were seeded and then ground whole. Sauce is tasting better already. Thanks for the help. Kendy

-- Kendy Sawyer (sweetfire@grove.net), September 20, 1999.

If you are adding green pepers to your sauce, they may be the bitterness. Even taking out the seeds and membranes may not help. It seems alot of green pepers, California Wonders and the likes, have a bitter aftertaste that you wont find with mild jalopenos or banna pepers. Try tasteing your pepers before adding them. Only adding fully rippened pepers, solid red for some, may help. I gave up on canning elaborate sauces. Now I dry the onions and pepers and add them to my canned, purreed Tomatoes when I cook up a meal.

-- Kathy (redfernfarm@lisco.com), September 20, 1999.

I don't like using salt or sugar, Try fresh or dried basil for sweetening sauce. We had no rain this summer and all my peppers are bitter, might want to leave them out and see what happens.

-- Craig Oxendine (sox@threewings.com), September 20, 1999.