Well, I am cooking the sauce right now. It takes forever to thicken.
I have had a terrible disaster. My Ball Canning book that we each got at Canny Camp is missing. DH was the last to use it, and obviously he did not put it back where it goes. I wasted 1-1/2 hour today going everywhere imaginable to find one, to no avail. So, since I was not sure how to process with added zucchini, I left the zucchini out.
I am so mad about that book. There is one at Maijer called Ball Blue Book of Preserving, but it's a whole lot of recipes and a bunch of stuff about freezing. That's not the one I want.
The one we had would tell how long to process if BWB or if Pressure. This one in Meijer does not show that. For instance, it only shows how long to make spaghetti sauce in BWB. Anyway, I don't like that book. Waaaah.
So, here it is, 7:34 at night and the sauce is STILL cooking down. At this rate, it will be about midnight before I can actually process this stuff.
But boy, it sure is tasty! Great recipe!
By the way, Ellen, I have found making the x in the tomato an unnecessary step. The skins slip off so easy without doing that , so I did not waste any time doing it.
Sherry

OMG!!! My canner only held 7 quarts, and since I 5 times this recipe, it made 8 quarts, so we left one out and made spaghetti tonight. I have never, ever, ever had such good spaghetti sauce! It did not need meat at all it was so wonderful.
Wow.
Since I got this recipe from readinglady, I will dub this sauce "Readinglady Ragu". I will never ever buy spaghetti sauce again. Now I just need another 20 lbs. tomatoes to do another batch like this.
I am hooked!
Sherry

Sherry, I've been following your sauce project and I'm eager to hear how it turned out and if you have any tips to add to the above comments.

Are you sharing with the in-laws or is the your stash?

Don't be too hard on Roger!

"Readinglady Ragu." How funny. And alliterative!

I am so glad that pasta sauce turned out well for you and you enjoyed it. You are going to love having that on the shelf this winter.

I have the Ball Blue Book but you might take a look again at the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It has all the usual Ball recipes, the Bernardin recipes from Canada and a lot of the old Kerr recipes updated for today's standards. It's a rich resource.

Carol

Sherry, glad to hear your sauce turned out so well, you had me holding my breath. Yeah!!!!

Nancy

Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!
Yippee!!!!!

You did it! Hooray!

Mine are coming in fast now, so I will give this a try.

There is nothing like canning your own stuff, even if you are up til midnight.

How did the interview go?Annie, why the PS canner? The recipe calls for BWB......

Reminds me of my chili sauce which takes about 3 hours to cook down I think!
Congratulations!
Good girl!!

Well, I'm not Annie, but Annie suggested the pressure canner because Sherry was talking about adding squash and the recipe isn't calibrated for that. Squash is low-acid so without additional vinegar the sauce wouldn't work for a boiling water bath any more.

There's a lot of food chemistry and formulas in canning. It's science+cooking. If a cake isn't calibrated and flops it's an inconvenience. If a canning recipe isn't, it can be a disaster.

Carol

OK I'm a wee bit confused.....easily done!

Just curious why the Chunky Basil needs to be canned in a pressure canner with the addition of zucchini when the mutli use has more ratio of non acidic to acidic and it calls for a BWB?

Sharon, am so glad you asked that because I wondered the same thing. Carol, help us out here. I don't get it.
Sherry

I must be missing something. Carols recipe calls for zuccinni squash and states to BWB. Please clarify as I was going to make it this weekend.

Peppi

I have never canned any type of tomato product. In fact, I don't can as I don't have real good luck with getting the jars to seal. Therefore, I always freeze my produce. I hate to prepare the produce and end up ruining it and investing the time.
I have 33# of tomatoes my husb. just brought in this am. and there's more out there! (5 tomatoe plants!!)
I want to make spaghetti sauce with these tomatoes. I don't have a "canner" so I will freeze the sp. sauce in zip lock baggies. When I googled homemade spaghetti sauce this thread showed up.
QUESTIONS:
1. I would like to add my own choice of various herbs and mushrooms, peppers, and onions. From reading, I have learned there's something about the low acid foods making the sp. sauce not turn out correctly. Carol mentioned science + cooking = disaster if it's not done correctly.
Could anyone please explain the "science" behind the acid for proper sp. sauce??
2. Is it "okay" to use wine instead of lemon juice?
Is lemon juice or vinegar better to use? I'm not too crazy about "bottled" lemon juice. If you use vinegar, what kind? Balsalmic? Red wine? I know balsalmic has a very strong flavor.
3. I'm assuming it's okay to just add your own herbs?? Any suggestions as to this process? I don't want the herbs to over power the end result. I know dried herbs are 3 X stronger than fresh.
4. I read on another website that very much onion and garlic can make your end result bitter? I can't see why that would happen. But, I have never done this before and I don't want to waste 30 pounds of tomatoes.
5. Will freezing the end product be the same as canning it? I would assume so.
6. Is there a ratio as to pounds of tomatoes making a certain amount of sp. sauce? I remember reading some of the threads referring to this, but not sure if there was anything exact.
I think I will make two or three batches vs. doing this all at once. As you can see, I am clueless as to using fresh tomatoes for sp. sauce. Looking forward to hearing from you. I mostly stay on the bluebird forum and the garden forums. So Hi to everyone here. Beth

I don't can sauce from fresh tomatoes...I also freeze it....and when you freeze you don't need to worry about the acid in the finished product.
But, if your tomatoes are red ripe, they will be sweeter than most canned tomatoes are and you will need to add something sour for it to taste right...sometimes red wine will do the trick, some times you need red wine vinegar....sometimes a squeeze of fresh lemon will do.
I wouldn't use balsamic in spaghetti sauce...no reason why...I just think the flavor would get lost and besides it's sweet rather than sour.
yes, just add your own herbs...whatever you like and tasta as you go. Unless you are adding 1/2 a cup of herbs to a couple of quarts of sauce, it would be hard to overpower the sauce with herbs.
But again....taste as you go....if you have too much oregano....add more tomatoes.
Freezing is the same as canning but you have to defrost rather than dump a jar...but a microwave helps with that.
If you have a gallon of skinned and chopped tomatoes, that will cook down to about 2 quarts of sauce.
And I sure never pour off the "juice" I want it all cooked down into the sauce and the flavor in my sauce.
Linda C

When Sherry called me, she wanted to add more zucchini in place of some basil (another cup or so of zucchini in place of half a cup of basil) because her basil wasn't doing as well this year as she liked. I told her to be careful when adding additional amounts of low acid vegetables because it would throw off the acidity level and I couldn't tell her how much. I suggested that, if she really wanted to add the additional zucchini, she could pressure can the sauce, to be safe.

So, because she wanted to add more zucchini than the recipe called for, and because she has a pressure canner available, it was the best option for the substitution she wanted to make.

Annie

Hi Beth and welcome!

I make a ton of tomato sauce every year. I can it but it freezes just as well as it cans. Freezing requires less "rules" than canning.

1) Carol's point is in regard to canning. Acidic level are not relevant to freezing.
2) You don't need lemon juice or vinegar in frozen sauces....wine is always a good thing but choose one you would drink.
3) Use your fresh herbs they won't over power the sauce. Basil is best added fresh when serving but I can with fresh basil all the time and it's wonderful. Go a little easy on the parsley as it can be a bit strong. You can always punch up the herbs when you thaw and heat to serve.
4)Onion and garlic are fine in a frozen sauce, again you want a nice balance. Any of the recipes on this thread have a nice balance of garlic and onion. I don't add garlic when canning but I would if freezing.
5) Well you may get some distention on this one. In my view, freezing a cooked sauce and canning a cooked sauce result in an almost identical product. I prefer to can for two reasons. The shelf life is longer canned than frozen and I do a full year plus worth of tomatoes. Got no room in my freezer.
6) I get approx 20 Quart jars of sauce for every bushel of tomatoes I can...not sure how many pounds of tomatoes are in a bushel. I can over a 100 jars each season.

I'm sure others will pipe in too.

OK, I'll try to clarify. We're not trying to confuse (or scare) anyone, but it can sure happen.

Eden, you're freezing your sauce. You can do anything with a frozen sauce that you want to. When I spoke of "science" I was referring to canning and shelf-storage. When you close something up in a jar and put it on the shelf, then bad things can happen if you mess around.

So change your frozen sauce the way you like. The only issue might be is something doesn't freeze well, but that's quality only, you're not going to hurt anybody.

First, part of the confusion is we're talking two canning recipes and they're getting mixed up. Sherry canned the Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce LindaC posted and asked about adding squash to that one. Annie said "No" unless she used a pressure canner because it's a low-acid addition.

The recipe for Multi-Use Tomato Sauce already has squash (zucchini) in it, so it's been tested with that veggie included.

I can't answer the question as to why one recipe is OK with the squash and one isn't. The weights and amounts are totally different so comparison for the home canner is difficult. Ellie Topp, (the creator of those recipes) is a very well trained food scientist and has a whole lab at her disposal. She's also very clever at finding creative ways to honor the "canning rules" and yet come up with great-tasting formulas.

The Multi-Use Tomato Sauce has more tomatoes (marginal acid), sun-dried tomatoes (acid and absorbs free water), a bit more vinegar. But all kinds of things play into the safety of a canning recipe. You've got acidity (pH) of the various ingredients, available water in the ingredients (because botulism spores like low-acid high-water environments) and density (which affects heat-penetration).

So even if I took a batch of each sauce off the shelf and used my pH meter to see what's going on with each sauce, I wouldn't have all the answers. This is one where I operate on trust of the credentials of the source.

I hope that clarifies but I'll check back later to see if there are other questions. Basically what it comes down to is 1) Freeze what you want 2) Make the sauces the way they are and don't add things. There are some other boundaries, but that falls into the "too much information" category.

Carol

Freezing you can follow your taste buds. You cannot mess around with recipes when canning spaghetti and tomato sauce for shelf storage. Tomatoes are a borderline acid fruit, but spaghetti sauce with herbs, onions, peppers, zuchinni, etc. will not be acid enough to safely can with a boiling water bath. This can lead to lethal botulism. Botulism spores cannot grow in acid, high sugar environments like jams and pickles. Plain tomatoes are on the border of what is safe to can with a boiling water bath, which is why some people skate by with old recipes, but you are playing with fire if you try it. Botulism is fatal, unlike mild food poisoning. If you are going to make a tomato sauce to can, use recipes approved by the FDA that have been tested for their acidity levels. In most cases, this involves the addition of vinegar or lemon juice to the sauce, but you cannot just improvise.

If you are going to can tomato sauce recipe with a lot of low acid additions, you may PRESSURE CAN it using a pressure canner. The rule is to check the ingredients and time the amount of time the jars stay into the pressure canner to the most amount of time deemed safe for the low acid additions. I have a canning book that shows recommended times in a pressure canner for low acid vegetables, but you can find it online too, on Cooperative Extension and FDA sponsored Web sites.

Canning is easy as far as the techniques go, but you do have to pay attention to the science of it so you don't use the wrong techniques on the wrong products. There are a myriad of delicious recipes for canning, and there is always freezing for those who want to use their own recipes. I love the quality of homeade tomato sauce!! I make italian style, mexican style, and salsa.

ok, now I got it! Sherry made the chunky basil sauce, not the the one posted by Carol-readinglady.

Chunky basil with zucc. must be PS.
Multi use from Carol can be BWB......

"Since I got this recipe from readinglady, I will dub this sauce "Readinglady Ragu" I thought Sherry made the multi-sue sauce......she why I was confused????

Peppi, I think Carol (readinglady) originally posted the tomato/basil sauce at Harvest, it came here when Carol posted it for Linda (again, I THINK that's what happened, LOL).

So the chunky basil sauce was posted by Linda who got it from Carol, which is why it is "readinglady ragu". LOLOL

Now, is everyone sufficiently confused?

Oh, and welcome to the Cooking Forum, eden. Like Chase, I can my tomato products because I just don't have freezer room.

Annie

Okay, thanks for clearing up my confusion.
I would like to "can" some of the tomatoes and use a tried and true safe recipe. Is it possible to "can" tomatoes w/o a pressure canner? I have lots of space for canned goods, but my freezer is premium real estate. I just thought I was incapable of making canned sp sauce for fear I would screw it up. But, I think I would like to try canning some.

Would the Dutch Oven work with some water in it? I would like to use quart jars.

Absolutely, you may can tomatoes without a pressure canner. The "safety rules" say to add a teaspoonful of lemon juice or some citric acid per quart, you might have noticed that the multi-use sauce recipe has vinegar? that's the additional aicd coming into play.

You can use your dutch oven if the boiling water will cover the tops of the jars by an inch or so. Any stockpot will do, really, as long as it's deep enough to set your jars into and have the boiling water cover the lids by that much. Sometimes a jar will break sitting right on the bottom of the pan, so I put a dishtowel into the bottom of mine years ago when I didn't have my own canner. I know some people have cake racks small enough to set into the bottom of their stockpots, and some creative souls have wired together canning rings, etc. You need just enough to get the jars up off the bottom of the pan.

annie

As I say I can a lot of tomatoes each year, all with A BWB , I don't have a pressure canner and don't do low acidic so I really don't need one. David was kind enough to post my recipes but I will repeat the recipes here.

All of these recipes results in a safe and tasty product.

Stewed Tomatoes

24 cups smooshed tomatoes left chunky
1 1/2 - 2 cups celery, rough chop
1 1/2 - 2 cups green pepper, rough chop
2 cups onion, rough chop
2 TBSP coarse salt
12 TBSP bottled lemon juice

The amount you use is based on personal taste I like less celery and pepper than onion but really it is a matter of choice. Just don't go past 6 cups total veggies to 24 cups of tomatoes.

Plain Italian Tomato Sauce

24 cups smooshed tomatoes whirred smoothish
2 cups finely minced celery
2 cups finely minced onion
1 1/2 cups finely minced carrot (use just one for a bit less sweet I use 1 1/2)
12 TBSP bottles lemon juice
2 TBSP coarse salt

Herbed Tomato Sauce

24 cups smooshed tomatoes whirred smoothish
4 - 5 cups chopped herbs of your choice
12 TBSP bottled lemon juice
2 TBSP coarse salt.

I use Basil, oregano and parsley but you can use only one or two or three and you don't need to use equal amounts, in other words you can go 2/3 basil 1/3 parsley.

For all of them bring to a rolling boil and then lower heat to a high simmer , you want to see some action but not a full boil. Place your jars in the dishwasher , when the jars are done so is the sauce. I generally cook about an hour , you can go longer. I don't like to cook less than an hour 'cause I want some thickening to take place while canning so it doesn't need to much cook time when I use it.

Fill jars as normal. HWB for 30 minutes.

FYI I usually get about 20 jars to a bushel but it can vary depending on size, cook time etc. I rarely do one batch so I can't recall the numbers of jars per 24 cup batch but it should be 6-8. I usually buy 6 very large onions, 6 peppers and 2 bunches of celery for each bushel. Then again depending on size......not very helpful on that front!
Good luck! Nothing like opening a jar of fresh tomatoes in the middle of February!

Sharon

Whew. This really did become a confusing mess didn't it. I did use the Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce that was readinglady's from the harvest forum. It was the recipe that I am and will continue to rave about.
However, the enxt batch I will try with some added zucchini, and pressure can at 11# pressure for 70 minutes.
the only reason I will change the recipe is because I have a bunch of the darn zucchinis and need to use them up. LOL.
thank you everybody for all your input. This has been a fun and informative thread for me.
And thank you all the recipe contributors.
And thank you, Annie, for your always pleasant and informative free advise.
Sherry

Free..... she gives it to you free...heck I've been having to pay her off monthly! LOL

Well yes, but Chase, there's that exchange rate and the international thing and, well.....OK, I'll stop charging you. (grin)

Sherry, it's always great to talk to you, we ought to call each other more often!

Annie

I agree with Sherry: thanks for all the info. You all have been so great to share all your recipes, directions and tips. And thanks for throwing out the welcome mat!:) I'm already enjoying this forum.

LOL! I thought it was Becky/Booberry's sauce! That's where I got the recipe.
Whatever you call it, it is YUMMY!
:)

That's becoming a very well-traveled sauce. Anything to entice canners into the fold!

Carol

Glad to see everything worked out Sherry. I'm waiting for our fall crop to be ready as I missed the summer one. Nothing like fresh tomatoe sauce in the middle of winter!

Welcome the the forum Eden!

David

Much easier to use is Mrs Wages Spaghetti sause, chili sauce, salsa and pickle spices. All packages have spices. Blanch and skin the tomatoes, as directed on the back of the package, add as much or as little sugar as you would like to add for the tomato sauces. PC or hot water bath is available with these packages. One tidbit, I have found, yrs ago when I started to use them, it called for cooking oil, some do not now, it does make it easier and much better tasting. I only use olive or canola oils. I by mine at Agway store but many stores carry the packages. I use a recipe from tomato paste that my bestest friend's Sicilian mom provided me when we were teenagers. It also uses sugar to taste. People with stomach problems can eat this particular sauce. I can with Mrs Wages, to be able to go to the cupboard and heat it up, cook 30 minutes, as for any canned items, to avoid all toxins. Beats Prego, Ragu, or any of the others on the grocery shelves.

Hi Sharon,

I hope I can ask this without offending you. I know that you have used your Tomoatoe recipes for some time, and Dave too who freom reafing posts is very particular about saftey, but I wanted to check if they are "approved" in some way? Sorry I would love to try this, but I want to be careful. :)

Also you mention "Jars" but not the sie. Could you please advise on the size.
Thanks
Hannah

Ok, I'm going to jump in with questions!

If I use Chase's Plain Italian Tomato Sauce, and I use pint jars, how long do I hot water bath?

I might actually manage to make some. If I can find the time. Gee, you would think since I don't have a job, I'd have lots of time. NOT!

Tami

I have been roasting my tomatoes in a low oven with onion, garlic and basil, letting it cook way down.
I package it for freezing and then use it when I make my meat sauce.
I planted late this year and the tomatoes are just starting to ripen. Our growing season is really long here.

Hi Hannah,

Your question is legitimate and not at all offending. I have been canning tomatoes for a long time but am very cautious with them given they are a bit border line on the acidic level. I have validated my recipe, and adjusted as required , from time to time over the years.

The recipe I use was validated by Bernardin in 2007 according to my notes. The recipe uses quart jars.

Tami , I really don't know what the correct time is for pint jars but off the top of my head I would say 20 minutes when I think of other canning recipes.

Hi Hannah,

Your question is legitimate and not at all offending. I have been canning tomatoes for a long time but am very cautious with them given they are a bit border line on the acidic level. I have validated my recipe, and adjusted as required , from time to time over the years.

The recipe I use was validated by Bernardin in 2007 according to my notes. The recipe uses quart jars.

Tami , I really don't know what the correct time is for pint jars but off the top of my head I would say 20 minutes when I think of other canning recipes.

Thanks Sharon.

When I read this post the other day I thought "What gives? I know Sherry cans sauce from her tomatoes, I've seen the jars at her house". So I can verify that Sherry took your advice and tips and successfully canned her tomatoes.

Duh...I get it now! I just notice that this post originated in 2008.

Hi
Hopefully last question.

the lemon juice. 2Tsp in each jar, or added to the tomatpe vegi mix.

This recipe is much like Carol in CA but I make soup for the freezer. We love it and it's the easiest, letting the oven do a lot of the work.

Katie's Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup recipe:

12 tomatoes -- *see Note
2 carrots -- cut in 1" pieces
1 large onion -- quartered
2 whole heads garlic -- peeled (or more, to taste)
olive oil
2 cups chicken broth -- (or 3) I use 3

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (or 1 Tbsp. dried)
Core tomatoes and cut in half. Place, cut side up, on foil covered cookie sheet with carrots, onion and garlic. Brush with olive oil. Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until vegies are roasted and a little blackened. Place in a large saucepan with the chicken broth and basil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Blend with a stick blender (or in small batches in a blender) until almost smooth. To can: Process in a pressure canner, pints for 60 min. and quarts for 70 min.For dial gauge canners use 11 pounds pressure at 0-2000 ft., 12 lbs. at 2001-4000 ft., 13 lbs. at 4001-6000 ft. and 14 lbs. above 6000 ft. For weighted gauge canners use 10 lbs. pressure at 0-1000 ft., and 15 lbs. over 1000 ft.

**Note: These measurements are approximate...I use whatever it takes to cover the cookie sheet. This makes 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of soup. Cream may be added to taste when soup is served.

I pakage mine in ziplock bags, 2 cups ea. Nice thing about freezing is the amounts don't have to be accurate.

jude

I have canned tomatoes, but not tomato/spaghetti sauce. This past weekend, I picked a mess of tomatoes from the garden and decided to make tomato sauce for the freezer. I looked online and found lots of recipes/methods, but took the easy way out. I cored and quartered the tomatoes and cut out any bad spots, but I neither seeded nor skinned them. I just put them in the blender in batches, along with a couple of onions and some garlic, a bit of salt, some bell peppers and fresh basil. I could have added a lot of other things to make it more of a spaghetti sauce, but chose not to, because I might want to use the sauce for something that I didn't want to necessarily taste like marinara.

Just cooked it for about 8 hours until it was the thickness I desired (less than half the volume before cooking), let it cool, and put it in freezer bags and plopped it in the freezer. That is, all except for enough for DH to make spaghetti the following day. And of course, he added lots of other "stuff" - he always does, which is why it wasn't necessary to put everything in the sauce.

And I know that many would cringe at having skins and seeds in the sauce, but I ate the spaghetti last night and it was delicious. Not bitter at all. Just yummy. DH was impressed and said he thinks he's been ruined for store-bought sauce.

Han123, the general safety guideline to achieve the right acidity from NCHFP is to add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomatoes/tomato product - directly to the jars before filling with product.

I really don't mind some seeds in my sauce from fresh tomatoes...but not the skins. To me they become like little pieces of cellophane in the sauce.
Does anyone ever check the PH of a sauce before canning rather than adding lemon or vinegar just because? It would be very easy to do and might prevent overly sour tomato sauces.

Lindac, Not quite that simple, wish it was - I've retired a couple of old hand-me-down recipes that I miss after 'talking' to the participants on the Harvest forum. Most affordable home testing methods not all that reliable as no way of knowing how much the PH will change with shelf storage - apparently depending on the ingredients, it does change in the sealed jars. And why tested approved recipes are preached, they are tested again after time to see how they have changed, how close to stable they have remained.

I have a question......I have a Meyer lemon tree (very prolific)
Is it OK to use their juice instead of bottled? Or is it not acidic enough?
Maybe I will stick to freezing the roasted tomatoes.

Carol, No it's not okay to use your Meyer Lemon juice. Extra Meyer lemons must be shared with me! LOL

Do NOT use fresh lemons because there is no way to be sure of the acidity level. Bottled juice is what you should use.

Thanks for the info.
I guess I will just have to make lemon brownies with my Meyer lemons......and freeze my roasted tomatoes.

Wow! Another vote for the Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce. I usually just can plain tomatoes, but I made a batch of this today and it is really good. The vinegar really made the flavor. Since my own tomatoes were an embarrassment this year, I'm going to get some more this weekend at the FM and make a double batch. I froze my chopped, leftover basil. I had just barely enough left for the double batch and it was really nice, unbitter basil. I know it will discolor, but it should be okay after a few days in the freezer, right? There wasn't enough to go to the trouble of making pesto.

jxbrown, I often freeze basil and it doesn't discolor. What I usually do, though, is toss the basil in the food processor and add just enough olive oil to make a paste, thick enough to "plop" onto a baking sheet. When the "plops" freeze I put them into a plastic freezer container and then I just toss a "Plop" of basil into soup or whatever I'm making.

Annie