Italian Salsa

[darwinslair]

So I spend a lot of time reading about things having to do with whatever interests me at the time, which for the last few years has been food and survival (which I have always been interested in anyway.)

Ran across a piece by Lynn Rosetta Kaspar, who hosts the show "the splendid table" on NPR.  It was about farm families putting up "salsa" for the year.  What they did was stir huge cauldrons of tomato, peppers, garlic and olive oil.  They would sterilize old wine bottles by boiling them in water, then with a funnel they would fill the bottles with the "salsa", cork it, wrap the cork with twine (I have no idea why) and they figured on needing 3 bottles for every day of the year.

That puts my 60 quarts of red sauce per year to shame, but I am going to give it a try.  I have collected 35 wine bottles and synthetic corks (figure I can steilize them too) so I will have a go at it.  Apparently they just keep these on every available shelf in the house.

anyone else ever hear of this?  It is in the book she wrote on country italian cooking.

[Atash Hagmahani]

No, I've not heard of it. I am guessing that the pressure of the cork against the glass is high enough to seal the bottles, but I would worry about contamination when the sauce goes in. If I understand correctly, they just cook the sauce and put it into sterilized bottles? No cooking afterwards? No partial vaccum seal?

I suppose one thing about tomato sauce, though...it is acidic enough that if it spoils, it is unlikely to kill you and furthermore, you are likely to notice that it is spoiled.

[Lady Lilya]

If the bottle just came out of the boiling water, and the contents were placed into it directly out of a boiling cauldron, then wouldn't it be sterile at the time of bottling?  And doesn't hot liquidy-stuff contract a little while cooling?  I guess that would create some pressure drawing the cork inwards.

Also, garlic is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. 

That Italian Salsa sounds a lot like something my mother-in-law makes called Adzhika.  Supposedly, the recipe is from the Caucuses.  She puts it in glass jars with metal lids, or those jars with the rubber seal.  She doesn't make quantities like that, though!  And it is popular enough that it is all consumed within about 2 weeks.