A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Hobbies, Crafts and Creativity Our Favorite Recipes tomato chili?

anyone know anything about something called tomatoe chili? My grandmother used to make it, and everyone would put it on cornbread, in beans, and on top of pan sausage. My Mammaw called it 'mater chili. I know she cooked it. It was the one thing I was never forced to eat as a kid, so I have no idea what it might have tasted like or what ingredients were in there. I asked my aunt if she knew anything about it and all she knew was she cooked the tomatoes and she believed it had onions in it also. I don't know if this was a wide spread reciepe or something the dear woman made up? did she add chili powder, peppers, cilantro? this is probably a long shot.........just thought I'd ask.

ill take a shot at a guess,perhaps this concoction was her recipe for salsa.
you may have not been forced to eat it because it may have had a bit of spice to it,perhaps jalapenos or some other pepper. there has always been a number of foods that folks didnt make thier kids eat or even try. i like horseradish a lot but i cant imagine a kid liking it.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_12262,00.html

does this sound like it?

we make chili with tomatoes, onions, chili powder and meat. eat it with beans, corn bread, rice, what have you. but tomatoes, onions, and chili are the main ingredients.

yep Jiffy, I concure--that is how we make our chili---but we always add beans---
then we eat it with the cornbread, italian bread or sometimes just crackers.

But I guess it could be a type of salsa. Either way--if it were spicy I can understand not giving it to a small child.

Hmmm, I've seen it before. It had tomatoes, onions, chili peppers, vinegar and brown sugar in it, I'm pretty sure it had garlic as well. It has no meat in it, you can preserve it. It's called chili jam.

my grandmother also made something called tomatoe perserves which was something different? also something I wasn't required to try. ha ha
at any rate, I'm gonna try and make some 'tomatoe chili'. good point, it was most likely spicy since I wasn't made to try it. I remember it looked like mostly tomatoes. probably a cooked salsa of sorts. It's dissapointing some family reciepes just get lost. I have a couple of her cook books, but like most of us some things just don't have a reciepe and you don't write them down. you just know it by heart and use what you have. I guess even if I had her reciepe I'd tweak it to suit my taste.
thanks everyone for your input!

Talking about tomatoes:
We would eat :poormans strawberries" on bread in summer.
On white bread lay thick slices of tomatoes and sprinkle lots of sugar over them.Tasted just like ripe strawberries.

Somebody made sandwich spread and ate it all the time like that. Sautee onions,
chopped tomatoes , add pepper, salt, sugar. spread out on a plate and let cool.
Put in jar and use as sandwich spread. Better then jam i think.

I love tomatoes sliced and sprinkled with tony chacheries!