Tomorrow is the first day of September, and with it comes all those traditional end-of-summer events, including tomato canning season (at least here in the mid-Atlantic where I live). Because the yearly tomato glut is finally beginning to arrive, I’ve been getting a number of questions about how to safely can tomatoes.
The most frequent question I get is from people wondering if they can boiling water bath process their favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. You know, the kind that has plenty of garlic, onions, basil, olive oil and sometimes even a few peppers.
Sadly, I always end up delivering disappointing news. You really can’t just can your family recipe. Anything canned in a boiling water bath needs to be high acid (for the science minded types, this means that it has to have a pH of 4.5 or below). This is because botulism cannot grow in high acid environments. However, tomatoes are in the grey zone, typically having a pH right around 4.5. Because of this, tomatoes need to be acidified when canned, so that the acid levels are pushed into the safe zone and the pH becomes something lower than 4.5. That’s why my instructions (and all other good ones you’ll find) for canning whole tomatoes includes two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice per jar (you can also use citric acid if you prefer).
When you make spaghetti sauce, one typically adds a slew of ingredients that, while delicious, lower the acid to seriously unsafe levels. Unless your family spaghetti sauce recipe contains several cups of red wine vinegar, it will be too low in acid to be canned in a boiling water bath.
Most canning information will repeatedly remind you that it’s incredibly important to follow tested recipes. While I will occasionally play around a bit with jams and pickles (and I only do this because I know which aspects can’t be monkeyed with), even I never deviate when it comes to acidifying my tomatoes. I always follow the instructions in either the Ball Blue Book or So Easy to Preserve when I want to preserve tomato sauce, soup and salsas.
The one caveat I have to offer is that if you have a pressure canner, you may be able to preserve your beloved sauce recipe (just so you know, any recipe that includes meat MUST be pressure canned). Pressure canners raise the internal temperature of your jars to temperatures in the neighborhood of 240 degrees, which is high enough to kill off any botulism spores that may exist in your food. However, you should still consult recipes that have been tested using a pressure canner to determine processing time and pressure.
The good news here is that there are plenty of safe, tested tomato recipes that are designed for canning. Let’s hear about your favorites!
This is the dumbest article about not canning your families tomato sauce recipe. Tomatoes are a high acid food on their own, don’t require ‘pickling’ with vinegar. I have been canning for over 25 years and I go against the grain sometimes and can things without canning recipes. Basic tomato sauce is perfect for a first canning experience and a water bath canner is fine.
BTW no one has ever gotten ill from my items including meat based things I have made in my pressure canner.
I have also won awards from my canned food including BBQ sauce.
Tomatoes are not a high acid food. Modern tomatoes do not have enough acid to be canned without adding something acidic.
I put red wine in my homemade sauce. I used canned tomatoe puree. So, was wondering is that safe to water bath and can???
Rosanne, I can’t determine that. You’d need to test the pH.
Bernardin just released a salsa mix where you add in fresh tomatoes and basically whatever you want with 1/4 of that mix added to it and then process it in a boiling water canner for 35 mins, so it seems like they are creating things that allow us to can grandma’s recipe. The salsa mix says on the bottle that the sauce will last sealed for a year. so maybe if we add some of this to our pasta sauces it would help to preserve our creations for sauce. If they are saying boiling water canner than that’s what I’m going to follow.
I have a salsa recipe that I’ve used for a long time and everyone loves it. I make a lot and eat some fresh and can the rest. But the recipe calls for vinegar even though it has some onions etc. Our entire church uses it without problems. We waterbath can them so that must raise the ph enough for it to be safe.
I don’t think Melissa is talking to be about being hostile. I think I put my comment in the wrong place.
There are excellent recipes for canned Spaghetti Sauce, both with and without Meat, at the website for the (US) National Center for Home Food Preservation. You may not be able to can the Old Family Recipe, but these are great recipes that can be preserved at home. Check it out–
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can3_tomato.html
I think the USDA says that simply because there are a very few varieties of tomatoes that are not acidic enough. I’ve found that most varieties are in fact acidic enough, around PH 4.0. The only ones that are not are some very sweet heirloom varieties, but I don’t think those are suitable for sauce anyway.
I test my batches of sauce with some PH strips, and they are always well below 4.5 PH… I still add a very small amount of citric acid just in case, but I’m pretty sure it is not necessary unless you are canning those few varieties that lack the acidity. I have yet to find such a variety, and I’ve grown several different types of heirlooms.
I’ve learned so much from this article and comments and your (Marisa) reponses here. I was discouraged at first, but then realized I CAN jar my old family recipe. I was concerned that adding lemon juice would change the recipe, but read here it doesn’t really affect the taste. I also (just now) learned that tomatoes were not a high acid food… I always thought they were. I’ve always added a little sugar to my sauce (supposedly to counteract the acidity). So much for that theory. I did also research what sugar does to pH, and apparently adding it doesn’t contribute to lowering the pH. So I guess, if I’m at all concerned about the lemon juice affecting this 60+ year old recipe, I can add a little sugar (it’s probably more psychological than necessary). I’ve NEVER canned anything before. Now to research what I need besides a pressure canner.
Oh yes… and I learned about pH strips. Must get some of those.
I put 14 canning jars each time in the oven for 20 minutes at 250 F degrees after washing with hot water. I do not turn off the oven until finishing canning. I have usinf this method to can stawberry jams, peaches and tometoe sauce. I still have 2 tometoe sauce jars left from four years ago. I am still alive.
Be sure to verify the temp of your oven. . .ovens tend to not be highly calibrated
That’s a little hostile, don’t you think? Marisa is following the USDA standards for safe canning practices, which keeps inexperienced canners from getting sick, or worse, getting other people sick. Take a deep breath. No one was attacking you.
*like*
Thanks Marisa for always looking out for us while still embracing creativity in recipes. I always know I can trust your measured viewpoint on different preserving processes.
*double like* Thanks, Marisa!
You’d have to be CRAZY to can tomatoes using a water bath….oh wait…never mind:-)
I’d always rather be safe than sorry…adding lemon juice is a good way to increase the acid levels safely without having the alter the taste too much. I love this website and need to buy your book, soon!
Thank you crazy canner for the information regarding canning with meat in sauces…..I hate waste & have so many tomatoes to put away & we just don’t eat things up fast enough to freeze.
Totally agree. Grew up on a farm in SW PA and mom canned everything her three boys could pick. We lived and the canned food was always delicious. Well, maybe not all. I hated canned green beans.
There are a lot of comments here, but things are different now than 30 years ago. The change to acidize tomato or tomato sauce came about in 1994 when it was determined that new varieties of tomatoes were not acid enough to meet existing canning procedures. The problem with tomatoes is that they vary in acid depending on growing conditions, ripeness, variety, early or late season, and probably a few other things. Acidizing was applied to both water bath and pressure canning because as presented, the two processes do the same thing. Pressure canning is just a higher temperature and shorter time procedure, but with respect to tomatoes, it is not particularly different. Both procedures need tomatoes with a pH of less than 4.6 to be safe at the times and pressures listed.
Since I didn’t want to acidize my tomatoes, here is what I figured out. (1) According to the U of Arizona, new varieties of tomatoes had a pH of 5, so one better be acidizing those varieties or trouble is a-coming. (2) If you are canning a salsa recipe or something similar, it is not the same as canning plain tomatoes. Canning a mix of anything can get really complex, like how safe a particular recipe can be canned may depend on the amount of free water molecules in the mix. If the recipe has sugar, the sugar occupies the free water molecules and prevents bacterial growth. Reducing the sugar can significantly change the way the mix behaves. That’s why instructions are constantly yapping about following tested recipes exactly. (3) Can’t one just pressure can tomatoes as a low acid food like green beans and not acidize? Certainly, but we have no times or pressures for that procedure. It certainly seems like the USDA could have done the bacteriological studies by now and come up with canning procedures for low acid tomatoes, but it’s not happened yet.
My experiments – I grind tomatoes up and can them every year. This year I decided to do some testing and maybe avoid acidizing. The varieties I grow vary from heirlooms to new hybrids to paste types. When I grind tomatoes, everything that is ripe goes in the mix. So I ground and pressed 3 gallons of juice and did pH tests on the juice. My pH meter is a good unit that can be calibrated with standardized buffers of pH4, pH7, and pH9. I also have pH strips, the kind that has 4 color patches that each turn a different color and is compared to a 4 color, color-metric scale. I have never seen a pH strip that is a single color type that is even close to accurate. So if you are going to use pH strips make sure they are the type with 4 color patches. The results indicated that the pH of the mix was 4.5. For me that was too close for comfort and I acidized the batches. Maybe the USDA or some University will get a around to doing the studies, but for now we are stuck.
djh has covered this quite well. Just because no one has ever died from eating my (or your) canned foods is no reason to advocate reckless behavior! You might can food using unsafe techniques for a lifetime without ever growing botulism spores–just like you might routinely run red lights without having a collision. But Ms. McClellan is doing the right thing by advising people to pay attention to food safety.
If you read the article, it refers specifically to sauce with other (low-acid) ingredients added.
I have been looking for days on the internet for a tomato basil soup recipe to water bath can with. Thinking maybe garlic, peppers & onions too? Can you offer any suggestions? There are tons of more basic recipes, but I am really looking for a soup recipe. Thanks!!!
Out of curiousity, I’m going to have to ask this. I make a spaghetti sauce with sausage that simmers overnight. I want to can it because I don’t have the freezer space to store it this year. If it’s simmering for a minimum of 8 hours, canned in a pressure canner, and brought to a simmer again before consumption, how could the botulism possibly survive all that?
My recipe is somewhat similar to the version on the USDA website, minus the veggies (except for the mushrooms, sometimes we add them, sometimes we don’t). The main difference is that I don’t measure anything–I eyeball it, and adjust to taste/or to what I have on hand. The way I understand the USDA recipe is that there isn’t any room for adjustments of any kind.
This blog post was about canning tomato sauce in a boiling water bath canner. If you’re using a pressure canner, many of the restrictions go out the window.
I canned some tomato sauce and mistakenly used 1 teaspoon rather than 1 tablespoon of bottled lemon juice per pint. Would I be able to recook and reprocess this sauce so I don’t lose it entirely?
Yep, you can certainly do that.
Couldn’t you use Balsamic Vinegar instead of lemon juice to to reach proper acidity? It’s about 6% and I love it in my sauce… would that work?
Nope, you can’t sub in balsamic vinegar. It doesn’t have the same concentration of acid that lemon juice does. You’d have to use far, far more.
Ok-sorry- just read the last paragraph that I missed where you totally just answered my last question. 🙂 But how do I know how long and how much pressure for a family tomato sauce recipe for a pressure canner? Thanks!
Ok- so I understand that you cannot use a water bath for canning your family tomato sauce recipe, but why can’t you use a pressure canner? Isn’t there a maximum pressure and time for a pressure canner that would kill anything regardless of whether it is a scientifically tested recipe? Thanks!
I have been using a recipe for homemade tomato sauce since 1975. It doesn’t call for lemon juice or citric acid. The sauce is processed in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. It’s a delicious sauce and I’ve never had a problem. I use my own home-grown tomatoes and any other ingredients I have (parsley, oregano, basil). Delicious!
Linda, canning standards were drastically rewritten in 1988-89 and so what was considered safe in 1975 isn’t seen as such anymore. The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends that you only follow recipes published in the last 25 years.
My husband makes his salsa using canned tomatoes from the grocery store, he then adds fresh jalapeno and banana peppers and cilantro. If we can the salsa using the water bath method do we need to worry about the ph level since the tomatoes were already canned?
It doesn’t matter that the tomatoes were previously canned. You’re still adding a bunch of low acid ingredients to the tomatoes, which will lower the pH of the finished product and could move it into an unsafe area.
I made hot sauce (salsa) yesterday but did not hot water bath them can that be done now?
I have 4 tomato plants and so far only one is producing tomato’s. I have about 15 tomatoes that are pretty ripe. I don’t know how people get so many pounds of tomatoes, but maybe later in the season they will all produce. I want to can some tomato sauce (my grandmother’s recipe), but it calls for using tomato puree in addition to fresh tomatoe’s. Can I use canned tomato puree with my fresh tomato sauce. I do have citric acid to add to my sauce and am planning on water bathing them since this is the first year I have canned (trying to see if it is worth it). Can someone tell me if I can do this?
I followed the Ball Book recipe for seasoned tomato sauce along with the lemon. I used quarts but processed for 35 minutes instead of 40; there was definately some added time with putting them all in (it was at a boil) as well as the 5 minute rest time. Are they ruined?
Jenny, I don’t know if they’re ruined or not. Did you follow the Ball recipe and processing time? Is so, you’re probably fine. If you made up your own recipe and shortened the time, they may not be safe. However, I can’t tell you one way or another.
So, I followed the recipe. The process time says 40 and then 5 minutes with the lid and heat off. They definately sat in the water 40 with maybe 5 minutes not boiling. I feel like it is fine – lids are all concave – lemon in. Thoughts?
Further explanation …. I used quarts instead of pints but read the quarts processing time.
Dear Marissa,
I am a veteran cook but have only canned jam in the past. Decided to go for it with tomatoes and then wondered “Why process twice when I can just make my heavenly sauce and can that?”. Ooops. 7 quarts later I read your post on why this is not a wise idea. I did however use a bottle of red wine and 1/4 of a second in the sauce. Would this be enough to raise the PH level sufficiently? If not can I simply let the jars cool for a few hours and then place them in the freezer? Help!
I can’t know whether your bottle and a 1/4 of wine is enough to sufficiently raise the acidity of your sauce to safe levels unless I know what else is in the sauce. However, you could just let it cool, pop the jars to remove the sauce to give the jars enough headspace and then freeze them. Make sure to leave at least 2 inches of headspace for quarts that are going into the freezer.
If I can my tomato sauce with meat in a pressure canner, do i need to add lemon juice or vinegar?
As long as you can it in a pressure canner and follow the prescribed time and pressure for that kind of product, you can skip the acidic ingredients.
I would like to learn about jarring my own homemade “Sunday Gravy” tomato sauce for resale in specialty stores. I know I will need to look into a commercial FDA approved kitchen but do you have other suggestions as to what to do? My desire is not to add preservatives or sugar. Please help steer me in the right direction.
I am new to canning and want to make paste, sauce ( spagehtti,tomatoe), salsa, juce, etc. Would it be better to can the tomatoes whole now and make these things later or should I do these now and bypass the whole tomatoe step? pls help.
My preference is to can whole tomatoes and then make those other products as needed. I do make salsa and can it. I’d recommend getting a good canning cookbook and trying some of the recipes for salsa, sauce, juice, etc. and find out if you like them. That’s the first step.
Hi…..can anyone confirm if his is indeed true:
the toxin of botulism is not thermoresistant… That mean, if you have the toxine in your jar of sauce (after long time storage) then you boil your sauce for at least 10 minutes before consum it, you destroy the toxin
(i just jarred sauce using boiling bath but no lemon juice, because i didn’t see this article until afterward. I put the jars in the refridgerator for now)
Thanks
Eric
I have to admit, Marissa, that your post is kind of a bummer. I was planning next summer to can a crap-load of spaghetti sauce for myself, family and friends so I was researching how to do that and found your blog (which is awesome, I must say). Now that I know I can’t do that, I’m pretty disappointed, but glad to not have botulism.
However, your bummer of a post has peaked my interest in pressure cookers/canners. Is there a brand you can recommend? Can you use a pressure cooker as a pressure canner and vice versa? What’s the differece?
Hi Ryan,
I just sent a reply to your question and it disappeared! I do not know if it’s going to post or not so I’ll re-type and hope it doesn’t show two times.
I’ve been using a pressure canner to can beef, pork, chicken, broth, beans, pumkin and beets for about two years. Tomatoes and tomatoe sauce is the next thing on my list, I’m just waiting for them to go on sale again.
I use the Presto brand pressure canners and have both the 16 and 23 quart versions. The 23 quart version will fit two ‘layers’ of pint jars or one ‘layer’ of quart jars. The 16 quart will only can one layer. I’ve been very happy with both canners (purchased on Amazon for about $80 each).
With regard to using a pressure cooker as a canner, there are a couple issues. First, you’d need a rack that would fit inside the cooker – jars should not be in direct contact with the heat source. Second, if you could fit jars in one, your batch would only produce a few 8oz. jars.
Most importantly, follow standard procedures and do your research. Follow pressures listed for your altitude and process times. A good (free) source is the USDA website:
http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=3&tax_subject=358&topic_id=1610&level3_id=5942&level4_id=0&placement_default=0
The down-side is that (since the last time I was there) they do not give much of a ‘how-to’ or recipes. I started with a cold pack, but learned I prefer hot pack for all meats that are being canned. Just a side note, there is up-front time/effort involved but I’ve found it so beneficial. Meat is on the shelf with no preservatives all the time. We can have meat, mashed potatoes and gravy in the time it takes to make the potatoes (the juices in the jars make awesome gravy).
‘The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving’ is a source I’ve been very happy with. It discusses proper procedure for both water bath and pressure canning, has methods for canning single items (meats, vegetables, beans) but also has a lot of recipes. I purchased mine on Amazon, which was about half the cost of B&N.
Have a great day, and happy canning!
Rena
I have NEVER canned anything before. I currently have a huge pot of tomato sauce on the stove that I had intended on canning using the waterbath method (I do not have a pressure canner). After reading your blog I’m scared. I did not use fresh tomatos and I’m hoping that since I used cans of puree and paste it will be ok to proceed as planned. In addition to the cans of puree and paste I have added fresh onions and basil sauteed in olive oil, and dried oregano. Do I need to resort to freezing?
After the tomato sauce I also plan on canning our family sauer kraut recipe which uses jarred sauer kraut and fresh bacon.
After that my plan was to jar my apple pie filling using fresh granny smith apples.
I know this is long–I appreciate any help you can offer to this newbie.
Thanks in advance,
Linda
Linda, chances are that your sauce is not safe for canning. The use of previously canned tomatoes does not make a sauce made from them safe for canning. If you added onions, garlic and herbs without adding additional acid, my best guess would be that it’s too low in acid for safe canning.
I can tell you that it is never safe to anything containing meat without a pressure canner. You should not can your sauerkraut with bacon in a water bath canner.
When canning, it’s always recommended to follow tested recipes to ensure safety, particularly when you’re just getting started.
Well poop 😉 … but thank you for the quick response … I’m still deciding whether I should freeze or not … Am I correct in believing that if I add 2 tbsp. lemon juice to each 1 qt. jar it will be alright? Also, will that change the flavor drastically? (don’t think I want to serve a lemony spaghetti sauce.
Oh one more thing, I have pork neck bones in the sauce … they’ll be removed before canning, even though “technically” this is not a meat sauce, is it considered a meat sauce in the canning world?
Any amount of meat makes it a meat sauce. So the presence of those neck bones renders it absolutely unfit for boiling water bath canning. No amount of lemon juice will make it safe. That’s a sauce that can ONLY be frozen or pressure canned.
Hi I am looking to can olive oil. How is it done?
Kevin, I have no idea how you can olive oil.
yesterday i made some green tomato relish from a recipe i found online. after doing all the work and processing, i got to wondering about the vinegar content and whether or not the ratio of vinegar was high enough. also the recipe was fairly vague for amounts, but the result was only 250 ml over what they told me it would be so i must have got that part close! it called for 24 large green tomatoes (i used roma), 3 red bell peppers (i used 2 very large ones), 3 green bell peppers, 12 large onions (i used 10 because mine were huge), 3 tbsp celery seed and mustard seed, 1 tbsp salt, 5 cups sugar and 2 cups apple cider vinegar. i also had a break in canning, so after processing the first lot (30 minutes in a water bath), i left it on the stove and came back a couple hours later process the rest bringing the mixture back to a boil each time. do you see any problems in this?
a co-worker and I made some spaghetti sauce using tomatoes from our daycare garden. I have never caned before. She said it was ok to do it. Our sauce does contain garlic, onions, oil, green peppers, (which I see now that may not be good to can) we also added carrots, orgeno, sugar, tomato paste, fresh hot pepper. We let it simmer somwhere between 3-5 hrs. We left them out to seal and most jars did. Do we have to toss all jars out? or could we use them up now???
If I understand you right, you didn’t follow a tested recipe or process your jars. Does not sound safe to me.
i’m a bit confused on oil and herbs in the sauce for water bath canning. can i add either or both? i’ve seen recipes call for oil (1tbsp) and basil/garlic and then others that say just do the tomatoes (and lemon juice). what’s the best way to do it? thank you!
It’s best to follow a tested recipe. If it calls for oil and herbs, it’s safe to add them. If it doesn’t, then it’s not.
I am a total newbie and stupid stupid me read one online recipe for basic crushed tomaotoe sauce….and followed it. 3 busels later I am reading around and have read in SERVERAL places that 2 TBSP of lemon juice is needed per quart, I only added 1 TBSP….OMG have I wasted many many hours canning tomatoes that are not safe to eat?
HELP!!!!
I’m in a similar situation – I made my sauce and added the jars to a boil that I had going for an apple butter recipe (which did say to use the boil-water method), but then hopped online to check how long the bigger tomato sauce cans should be left in only to find this. I’ve pulled out my tomato sauce after 15 minutes. If I let the jars cool 24 hours, can I then add lemon juice and re-process (properly) safely?
Hmmmm…..I cooked down what was left of assorted hot peppers & tomatoes (overnight in the slow cooker) after pureeing them in the food processor, then put the hot mixture in my last three pint jars with a tablespoon of lemon juice in each jar. Then I did the boiling water bath for 35 minutes, figuring the combination of that long cooking time, acid, and processing would kill any botulism. I have no idea what the proportion of pepper/tomato/onion is. It’s thick & spicy!
So my question is: if there WOULD somehow be botulism in a jar, is the ‘boil for ten minutes’ rule going to kill it? My husband’s family cans tomatoes every year in the most incredibly rule-breaking ways and they generally do the boil-it-good-before-you-eat-it route. Is this what keeps them alive? He teases me a lot about my newfound canning desire & earnest rule-following. Ok, not so rule-following since I did the aforementioned pints of chili sauce without my pressure canner (3 pint jars in a 16-quart canner? Seems silly) but definitely earnest.
So if I used the lemon juice from the little yellow bottle with the green cap to can my tomatoes will they be ok if I will be cooking them when I use them or are they not good?
Using that lemon juice is just fine.
250 jars of tomato sauce canned by sterilizing the jars in the oven, boiling the tomato sauce, and letting the sauce seal on its own. no acid added. Just garlic, a little oil, salt, and a couple basil leaves per can. What to do? Please help.
I love the minnesota tomato mixture! It has onions, peppers, celery in it and can be hotwater bathed or it can be pressure canned it is put out by the University of Mn extension.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/foodsafety/components/handouts/tomatomixture.pdf
this is a nice chart for 1001 to 2000 ft
http://www.extension.umn.edu/foodsafety/components/handouts/QuickRefChart.pdf
Here is the new link to this canning recipe. You do tomatoes, celery, bell peppers and onions in A WATER BATH. It is an awesome recipe and so Yummmmy in the winter months. http://www1.extension.umn.edu/food-safety/preserving/tomatoes-salsa/minnesota-method/
Why bottled lemon juice, can’t you use real lemon juice?
https://foodinjars.com.s164546.gridserver.com/arugulapesto/2010/09/canning-101-why-recipes-call-for-bottled-lemon-juice/
thank you a million times over for the hard facts on this topic! I had been wondering and hadn’t found a good source to just, plain ole English, say what can be canned in a water bath 🙂 THANK YOU!
I just home canned tomato pints. I think I didn’t process them long enough. 45 minutes in the water bath. Should I throw them out?
Thanks.
I canned a ton of sauce and did a hot water bath about a month ago. A coworker just told me it isn’t safe to eat this way. If I pressure cook it now, would that kill any growth and make it safe to eat? I hate to throw it all away! Thanks
I have two questions: First, I made three quart-sized jars of pickles last weekend using a pressure canner. I think I may have not processed them quite long enough because I live at a high elevation. They are sealed and sitting in my cupboard. Do I need to toss them or is there anything I can to to be sure they are safe? Can I reboil them and recan them or is it too late? Secondly, I made some 8oz. and 12 oz. jars of salsa yesterday. I changed the recipe in the Ball book a bit before reading that you should never do this. I used green chiles instead of jalepenos, left out the teaspoon of ground cumin because I ran out, and I also added 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice. Do you think these need to be thrown away? Also, one of the jars has more head room than it should. How will this affect the food storage? Thanks for your help!!!
Help! I just canned pizza sauce. It was boiling when i put it in the jars and it self sealed. i was told it was fine. am i at risk? i’m scared to eat it. thanks!!!
Jenn, I can’t tell you for sure if your sauce is safe, but I’m guessing it’s not. First, I don’t know what you put in it (tomatoes need additional acid to be safe for canning, and if you added such things as onions, garlic, peppers and herbs, you need even more acid to bring the pH of the sauce into a safe zone). Second, it doesn’t sound like you did a processing step. To be in accordance with USDA canning guidelines, you must process those jars, either in a boiling water canner or a pressure canner, depending on the recipe you used. When canning, always consult tested recipes, such as those in the Ball Blue Book or the University of Georgia’s So Easy to Preserve.
I canned with my mother-in-law (who has canned many times) and I have never canned before. We made salsa. We used a canning recipe but it called for 30 Medium tomotoes, and we had small yellow “pear” tomatoes, romas, and larger steak tomatoes. I am sure that we had more that the 30 called for and so we added more of all of the ingredients. After reading up on canning, I am a little nervous. So, the big thing is, I added about 3/4 cup vinegar and about 2 Tbs lemon juice to each 5 1/2 quart pot of salsa. What do you think? We water-bathed the pint jars for 35min after cooking the salsa for about 2 hours.
I made a recipe of salsa and my mother-in-law was helping. I have never canned before and so am now reading up on it. So, it called for 30 med tomatoes…which I had small yellow “pear” tomatoes, romas and steak tomatoes. We had more that what it called for, i am guessing. So, we added more of all of the other ingredients. But, I was not sure how much vinegar to add (called for 2 cups) I added 3/4 cups to each 5 1/2 quart pot, plus around 2 Tbs of lemon juice to each. I am a bit nervous not after reading the posts. One other thing. We cooked the salsa for about 2 hours and them water-bathed each pint jar for 35min. What do you think?
I canned today for the first time. I roasted tomatoes and garlic with olive oil in the oven, then used a food mill and simmered the sauce on the stove until ready for canning. I added 1 tbls. of lemon juice to each jar and left 1/2 in. space. I then did the hot water bath canning, but i accidently left the jars in the canner pot for 45 min. verses the 35 min. required. Also I simmered the sauce for about two hours. From what I have been reading, i’m thinking I wasn’t supposed to do that. makes for a lower acidity, not sure.
I am new to canning too, and just prepared a batch of tomato sauce (includes fresh onions, garlic and basil) for canning. If I want to substitute lemon juice with citric acid, what is the ratio per quart? Thank you so much for this great site!
I recently started canning and learned that figs, like tomatoes are low-acid. I used a recipe for fig strawberry balsamic jam from Yvonne Tromblay’s book, but it only called for 1T vinegar. I’m wondering if the acidity of the strawberries is enough to raise the Ph of the figs. Should I be worried?
Brenda, strawberries typically have a pH of between 3 and 3.9, making them quite acidic. I don’t know the amounts in the recipe you’re using, but I imagine that combination of the acidic strawberries with the balsamic vinegar makes for an acidic-enough jam.
I have an added tip or two for those of you looking into pressure canners….
A pressure canner is essentially no different than a pressure cooker except that a) It is much larger to accommodate the jars and; b) It usually has a way to regulate the pressure to different levels (PSI)…and the pressure directly relates to the temperature it reaches inside. Most canning recipes call for 10 psi while a standard pressure cooker is designed to stay at 15 psi. It’d probably work but you’d overcook your food and you can’t really get even a single pint jar into a 5 qt pot. Not recommended.
The least expensive pressure canners on the market are the two sizes made by Presto. In fact, Walmart and Walmart.com usually sell them for less than the MSRP. The large one comes with a jiggler weighted for 15 psi and a pressure gauge. The smaller one comes with a two-part jiggler that you can separate to do either 10 or 15 psi and NO gauge.
Here’s the tip… While it’s nice to be able to see the actual pressure in the pot, I wish I had the smaller pot because a) It comes up to pressure much faster for small batches; and b) You don’t have to stand there and tinker with the heat because the 10 psi jiggler will make sure you never go over 10 psi. For these reasons, I’d recommend the smaller pot if you can find it. If you really want more space or the pressure gauge, go with the big pot but order the replacement two-part jiggler from Presto. I’m thinking I may do that myself soon.
Incidentally, I wrote a letter to Presto telling them how dumb it is that both pots don’t come with the a 10 psi jiggler. They told me to use the gauge…kind of missed the point. 🙂
Oh, and thank you for bringing this up! I’ve known a lot of people who do not think that proper canning technique is important because, you know, it was good enough for grandma. Ugh.
Well, I just went ahead and pressure canned my spaghetti/pizza sauce. It is worth it to me. The ones suited for water bath canning are nasty sour. I’d rather freeze it or take the time to pressure can.
Hello everyone!
Yesterday I pressure canned a tomato sauce with ground beef, onions garlic, olive oil and herbs. 1st try it took me 20 min to get the seal on right (my top is a bit tempormental and this is the first time this season I have used it) so I lost alot of water before I got going thus the canner ran dry after 30 min.
So I reprocessed and that went well got the seal right but it still ran dry after 47 min. I have never canned meat before so had no idea I needed to add extra water to go for an hour.
If I try again will I ruin the sauce? I was thinking of giving up and freezing but I really wanted this self stable.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation is your source for current research-based recommendations for most methods of home food preservation.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/
Answers to canning, freezing, curing questions for every food you can think of.
Thanks Marisa. That’s kind of what I thought. Can I freeze these jars or should I just plan to use it all right away? Should I store them in the fridge? I’m kind of new to this and she says she’s never had any problems, but I do remember my mom boiling everything.
Scott, a pressure cooker is different from a pressure canner. Pressure canners either have gauges or numbered weights that let you know what the amount of pressure is that your food in under. Pressure canning recipes should always give you the amount of pressure you need to apply – typically either 10 or 15 pounds.
so then a pressure cooker is the same as a pressure canner?
Has anyone canned pesto sauce?
Pesto freezes beautifully. The garlic, oil, cheese nuts and basil are all low-acid and canning it would definitely require a pressure canner. By the time you put it through enough processing to make it safely shelf stable, it would be a cooked, brown mess and would taste nasty. Stick with freezing.
Shelley, it’s not safe to skip the boiling water bath step. Though the jars sealed, the processing ensures that any bacteria or yeast that floated into the jars during canning are killed.
A friend of mine invited me over yesterday to can homemade salsa. She followed an ingredient recipe but did not process them at all-just sealed them. Within an hour all of the jars did seal. Is it safe to keep on the shelf? I didn’t think they’d seal. The recipe called for a 2 cups of vinegar and some lemon juice. Also, it’s very thin and runny. Is there anything a person can do to thicken it up once you open it?
Scott, I’m not an expert at high elevation canning, but I do know that processing times do get much longer the higher you are. Here’s a guide to high altitude canning: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/p41.html
Heather, this post was only about processing things in a boiling water canner. The rules change when you’re using a pressure canner.
Katie, you’re right, freezing is another option.
The other option for storing homemade spaghetti sauce is freezing. Use a thick, high quality freezer bag and store in 2-3 cup increments. If you freeze them flat, they take up remarkable little space in the freezer.
I have been canning for 20 years. My mother taught me everything she knows. I have always canned my homemade marinara sauce as is without adding lemon juice or vinegar. I process quarts 1 hour and 15 minutes at 10 lbs pressure in the pressure cooker. This is an alternative to hot water bath canning that allows safe canning of low acid foods. My mother canned leftover meats, soups, seafood, and even homemade peanut butter using the pressure cooker. With the pressure cooker I can 500 jars a year and save huge on groceries.
i live at 6200 feet elevation at Lake Tahoe. i have heard to can successfully i will need a pressure canner due to the altitude and boiling temp at high altitude. i have a pressure cooker is that the same as a pressure canner?
Lemon juice and vinegar are NOT equivalent! Lemon juice is twice as acidic as vinegar. http://www.chile-pepper-sauces.com/canning-salsa.html
Hey – I’m a beginner canner and my girlfriend and I canned about 6 jars of tomato sauce a few days ago. We used the boiling water seal method, and it wasn’t until after we got them all done that we read more about tomato canning and botulism spores. We put some wine in our sauce but no lemon juice or vinegar. This page was really helpful, so first and foremost, thanks.. That said, I guess my main question is: After just a few days of being jarred can we open it all back up, cook it and redo the canning but adding the lemon juice the second time around, or is this batch just doomed? – Dave in Philly.
Dave, you probably should uncan that batch, boil it for a while, add some acid (consult Ball instructions on how much) and recan it. If you don’t, you could end up too nervous to eat it later on down the line.
Some additional input on Lu’s oil question…
I’ve had my pressure canner for close to two years now and, as I mentioned, I can my own soup recipes (following the times for veggie or chicken soup depending on whether I used any meat or meat broth). I’m fairly heavy-handed with the oil during the saute phase and I’ve never had a jar not seal as long as you leave the right headspace. I also can my own chicken stock and occasionally, a little chicken fat will make it into the jar. It always seals fine and, as it cools, the fat rises to the top.
I too hunted for answers about why you can’t use oil and starches in canned goods–even pressure canning. I was further frustrated when some Ball and other “tested recipes” call for oil after giving you a mini-lecture on not using it. After doing some research, here’s what I think (and mind you, this is an educated guess)…
1) If the food siphons (leaks out during processing) and there’s a lot of oil, I suppose it could keep it from sealing. If you leave proper head space and clean the jar rim prior to closing, this should happen very rarely.
2) Oil is very heat-sensitive. It goes rancid easily when exposed to heat and light. Since pressure caning reaches 240 degrees or higher, you could be accelerating the break-down of the oil. Furthermore, it could probably go rancid sitting on the shelf later–even if unopened. (I’m not positive about this). Rancidity won’t kill you but it tastes pretty awful.
3) Pressure canning is about time, temperature, AND DENSITY of the food, which affects heat absorption. Adding lots of oil to a recipe will make the food absorb heat at a different rate (faster, I suspect…think about deep fat frying). Not only will this change canning times, but it may cook your food faster than water and you’ll have a mushy product.
4) Expansion – If you’ve ever used a deep fat fryer, you know that you can only fill the pot 2/3 full because the hot oil expands when water-logged items are dropped into it. I actually spotted a canning recipe the other day for vinaigrette-based canned red peppers. The instructions specifically say not to fill the jars more than 3/4 full because of expansion.
Bottom line is that I don’t think the oil is so much of a safety issue as it is a hassle and quality issue. The people who write books of tested canning recipes want to guarantee that they’ll work, look good, and taste good 100% of the time–and be safe. The only way they can do that is to instruct you to avoid ingredients that are temperamental.
Thanks, Marisa for opening up this great discussion! A lot of us more seasoned canners really want to learn how to work on our own recipes and it’s nice to have a form where people can share their personal successes and failures.
what do you say when people ask if they can reduce the salt in pickles? i have only found a recipe for low-sodium pickles, but someone was asking me if they can reduce the salt in dilly beans. I know salt acts as a preservative in fermenting, and preserves color, flavor, and texture in quick packs, but what about safety and low-sodium pickled products? Is that something they can reduce safely? Ball and Nat’l Center for Home Food Preservation don’t address this questions. Thanks!
Hah! My large farm family always canned quarts and quarts of stewed tomatoes (among other things)…always plain…and doctored them up as we used them in recipes. The funny thing is now all the recipes I have from my Mom (now deceased) give ingredients in terms of quarts of stewed tomatoes…which makes it not impossible, but sometimes a little difficult to “translate” into today’s store canned items…
Does it really need to be bottled lemon juice? Can it be replaced by fresh lemon juice? Is bottled lemon juice concentrated or ready to drink? Sorry about the confusion, but I’m in Portugal and I’m trying to figure out how to replace this in an accurate way. Thanks!
I have a love affair going on with my 23-quart pressure canner… oh the wonderful things we make together. 🙂 High, high, high on the list of favorites – a sublime pomodoro that my friend who lives in Tuscany gave me the general guidelines for. I use my juicer/steamer to separate and reduce – pressure canning the resulting vegetable stock, as well as the incredible sauce that morphs therefrom. Sigh… if we ever get tomatoes from our very sad garden this year I will break out in the hallelujah chorus!
I’m with the commenter above! A few years ago I canned a ton of tomato sauce and then not as many whole tomatoes. I ended up reaching for the whole tomatoes much more often, and realized that I could always have made tomato sauce out of the canned ones. So now I basically only can whole tomatoes.
I’m wondering your thoughts on heirloom tomatoes, which can often be lower in acid (particularly if you are throwing a few yellow tomatoes in too). I pressure can, so I’m less worried, but I’m wondering if you think about this.
I find this discussion very interesting. For years my mother made tomato, celery and onion soup in jars. She boiled and overflowed then sealed the jars. She didn’t put the jars in a water bath. I don’t remember any going bad when I was a child.
I have been using her recipe successfully for years and haven’t had any problems.
I am wondering if we have just been very lucky all these years!!
Cheers Loretta
I always tell those people to just get the tomatoes canned and then make the sauce later and it will be just as good!
Alternately, you can make up a batch of the family recipe if you’re going to freeze it. I use my FoodSaver for mine and it works out wonderfully.
that’s why I freeze my pizza sauce. I have successfully canned salsa from the Simply in Season cookbook for several years now – I wonder what the acid is there.
My friend who cans green beans in her pressure canner says botulism can be killed by boiling food for 5 minutes before serving. Is this true?
Marisa, we use pHmeter all the time in laboratory (this is my work), this is the instrument to mesure the pH, but we need to calibrate with standard solutions before use and need a sensor for the temperature of the sauce when we take the lecture.
And for strip-test, I agree with punkin3,14, the pigment of sauce could do interference when this is time to mesure pH… That kind of test are qualitative instead of quantitative… but useful in lot of case.
Also, having a pH at least then 4.5 when you have pasta sauce is not enought, you need to increase time of boiling to be sure the middle of your jar will reach 212F (you have more thermoresistance with lot of solid, case of tomato pasta) and killed all the bacteria (but spore of botulisme will not growth because of the acidity, same as with other acid recipes).
Other thing, the toxin of botulism is not thermoresistant… That mean, if you have the toxine in your jar of sauce (after long time storage) then you boil your sauce for at least 10 minutes before consum it, you destroy the toxin 🙂 I didn’t said to do that, I just said reboiling your sauce before eating is an other safety!
I love your post, this is a very important point to know when we can 🙂
Ok thanks – it tastes good but better eat it up now and try to find a fruit salsa recipe that I like as is.
Lu, when you’re pressure canning, the pH of your food isn’t an issue anymore, so I imagine that you’re right and the lower amounts of oil are due to the fact that they want to ensure a seal. As far as the herbs go, I don’t have enough experience to speak from.
Kristen, peppers are low acid, so if you increase their amounts, you will lower the acid of the finished product. I gotta say, your salsa makes me nervous.
p.s. thanks for the help
Marisa,
Yes I did increase onion a bit. In the future could I make these substitutions by adding some more acid, like more lemon/lime juice or vinegar? Maybe I need to eat this batch soon.
I have read some recipes on Ninja Poodles that say add more peppers if you want more heat but with no change in lemon juice or vinegar – is that bad idea though?
I was wondering if you had any idea of what effect (if any) olive oil might have on pressure canning a tomato sauce (which includes meat).
I’ve been reluctant so far to try canning my mother’s tomato sauce because of the olive oil. I’ve found recipes (in approved books) similar enough to my mothers that I know what time + pressure would be good, but the all use less olive oil than I feel is necessary in order to sautee the onions (I was already counting on leaving out the garlic because garlic + oil + room temperature is too botulism friendly) before adding the tomatoes and the rest of the stuff. Though not that much oil that you can even tell it’s there in the sauce.
From what I’ve been reading, it looks like the worst the oil could do is make the jars not seal – kind of what happens when canning a meat based stock if you didn’t skim most of the fat off. Which is easy enough to know when I test the seals before storing the jars. So I was just wondering if you knew anything else about this subject.
Also, related to tomato sauces – what’s your experience as far as flavor is concerned with adding herbs (fresh or dried) to the sauce? Is the flavor of the herbs totally lost when you open the jars month later? I’m just wondering if it might be a better idea to leave them out altogether and add herbs once I open the jars and reheat the sauce…
Last year my hubby and I made the Seasoned Tomato Sauce recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving… sadly, not with tomatoes from our garden. We call it tomato GRAVY because its really light and perfect for all year round. It calls for 1 Tbsp of bottled lemon juice per pint jar. Everybody loved it and nobody got paralyzed, so we’re making it again this year… FROM our garden! 🙂
oops – I also added a few cloves of garlic to the Pineapple Chili Salsa recipe.
Marisa,
I am a canning newby and have really enjoyed your site, the ball canning book I have just didn’t give me enough info or variety on the subject. However this recent post has me concerned about a batch of salsa I just made and canned. It is the Pineapple Chili Salsa in the Ball book but I tweaked it a bit to my tastes. I changed the papaya to mango, added some jalepeno’s for more heat, used yellow instead of green onions and upped the brown sugar by 4 TBS, oh and I also added a few shakes of chipotle Tabasco sauce for a little more heat and smoke and to give a little vinegar kick – recipe used lemon and lime juice only. Should I be worried about messing up the acid levels of this recipe?
Kristen, it appears that mango and papaya have similar pH values, so that substitution shouldn’t be a problem. Your addition of garlic and the increased amount of jalapeno concerns me though, as they’re both low acid ingredients. Did you increase the amount of onion as well? It may be that you’ve made the recipe unsafe.
@Leigh: I made ketchup earlier this week and I noticed that when I added the veggie puree (basically, the liquids left over after cooking tomatoes, onions and peppers down for 30 minutes and then ran it through a fine-mesh sieve), vinegar, sugar and spices it looked a heck of a lot like canned enchiladas sauce. I have a hunch that if you just altered the spices–keeping the total proportion the same–for a standard ketchup canning recipe and just skipped the cooking down process, you’d have shelf-stable enchilada sauce. Thoughts?
Hi Marisa. Great post and great comments. Anyone have a recommendation for a canning book that is more about the science behind canning? For instance, I recently made pickled onions. Ball Blue Book calls for a 5 minute simmer in brine before hot pack. Other recipe (from a blog) calls for dumping sliced onions into hot brine, let sit for 30 minutes (no heat) then can. Process time was longer on second recipe, but onions were not soggy and limp as they were with the first (I made them both). Both had more than 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water so I feel comfortable with their safety. So I’m trying to figure out when can I raw pack and when should I hot pack, and I don’t just want to follow a tested recipe, I want to know WHY and how doing one or the other changes processing times. And stuff like could I have pasteurized these pickles rather than boiled them (ala National Center for Home Food Preservation instructions for cucumber pickles). I have a science background. I understand the fundamentals. I want to know more. And I am often wanting to do a variation on a recipe that is not in any of the trusted resources (extention recipes and Ball Blue Book). Any ideas for me?
Like many of the other commenters, I just can whole, skinned tomatoes and then use them to make sauce later in the year. The particular sauce recipe we use needs to cook down quite a bit and it’s difficult to get that with more than a double batch in any case, and this way we don’t need to worry about botulism. I might also try my hand at canning tomato paste and salsa this summer.
Regarding pH meters, isn’t the issue in part that you need to make a slurry that has the exact ratios of ingredients in the can? That is, you can’t just dip a strip into the sauce, because unless you have pureed the onions, peppers, garlic, etc. their low acidity won’t be apparent in a test strip.
As with all things, it depends on the actual product. Sensitivity varies greatly depending on what the strips are marketed for, so you want to read up on what you are using, and calibrate when in doubt (i.e., measure the pH of some liquids with an all ready known pH).
The bigger problem that I have with those colour-coded pH papers is that when you are dipping them into a red liquid, it can be difficult/messy to read the result. I much prefer using my digital pH metre for canning. Its become my favourite accessory.
The pH in tomatoes themselves varies greatly, and is further impacted by how much you cook them down (i.e., how much water is cooked off). I just finished a batch of salsa, with no added acid but cooked down almost to a paste, whose pH came in at pH 3.1.
I just made the Ball Blue Book ‘Herbed Spaghetti Sauce’. It tastes fine. I thought if it needed jazzing up I’d do that as I used it. In the meantime I know I’ve got a good base made from local tomatoes. Yummers.
I use the tomato sauce recipe ian Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and always add the lemon juice. It’s a good basic sauce and I doctor it with whatever I want after I pop the lid.
Garden Girl mentioned fresh lemon juice vs. bottled. The reason I’ve heard/read in canning manuals and on the web for specifying bottled instead of fresh is that the bottled stuff is guaranteed to have a consistent level of acidity while fresh fruit may not. You may get a particularly sweet lemon with less acid or a more sour one that will alter the taste of the recipe.
My feeling is that if you take the time to understand the food science behind it (which is difficult when most canning instructions don’t tell you *why* can’t do certain things), you’ll feel more comfortable with the risk you’re taking when modifying a recipe. So, if you think fresh lemons in the quantity you’re using will be safe enough for you personally, go for it. If not, use the bottled stuff.
Marisa, thank you so much for giving the the pressure canner some attention. I have one and I absolutely love it. Pressure cookers/canners are nothing to be afraid of. I’m also much more comfortable modifying recipes when they’re being pressure canned because acidity isn’t really part of the preserving process (although most recipes still call for added acid as a safe-guard). The main idea behind pressure canning is that the food reaches a high temperature (about 240 degrees) for a long enough time to kill-off botulism spores, which are pretty much the only harmful microbes that can live over 212 degrees (boiling water). Making your food safe in a pressure canner is a matter of temperature, time, and the chunkiness or viscosity of your food–you want the heat to be able to penetrate to the center mass of the food.
The moral of the story is that if you’re trying to adapt a recipe for canning, you can do it with the least amount of risk by investing in a pressure canner. Just choose a canning recipe that’s the closest to what you’re making in terms of ingredients and follow the processing instructions for that. You’ll eventually figure out that most veggie recipes call for 45-60 minutes and anything with meat calls for 75-90 minutes.
I’m no scientist and I can’t guarantee that there’s NO risk, but I can tell you that I’ve been canning my own soup and stew recipes and my own marinara for over a year now and I trust it and feel safe. There’s nothing more satisfying than passing by the wall of Ragu in the megamart and opening a jar of homemade marinara for weeknight pasta. No defrosting–just heat and serve. And if you play your cards right, it’s cheaper too.
I prefer to use citric acid as I find that lemon juice gives a slightly off flavor. Red wine vinegar is a good option too, just make sure that the acidity of your vinegar is acceptable (some fancy vinegars actually don’t have a high enough acidity levels). And don’t use fresh lemon juice to acidify tomatoes (fine in jams & jellies though!). It’s ph is not standardized (lol).
What happens if you do can tomato sauce a bit varied from the recipe?
Like salsa or tomato sauce with more tomato paste?
I canned about a month ago and they are sitting on the pantry shelf.
Should I throw the contents out?
How would you be able to tell if the contents are poisoned?
Or can you not tell?
Thanks!
Linda
Linda, since you didn’t include additional acid lowering ingredients, you should probably be okay. However, I cannot guarantee that, as I wasn’t there when you were canning and don’t know the recipe you used. Unfortunately, the problem with botulism is that there’s no way to know whether it is present in your food when you open the jar. That’s why it is so incredibly dangerous. -Marisa
I tried a few different tomato sauce recipes over the past few years, and found all of them to be rather disappointing. So this year my compromise has been to simply can all my tomatoes as just plain tomato sauce (with absolutely nothing else added but the required added lemon juice). That way, I can just doctor up each individual jar as I need it, right before I use it. So far it’s worked out perfectly; plus, I’m not left trying to figure out how many jars of pasta sauce vs pizza sauce vs any other kind of sauce I should be putting up.
Gosh… I should proof my stuff. Sorry. First I made a delicious pizza sauce “one” year. And when referring to the hamburger, meat sauces, and soups, you can “pressure can” those for the longest time required (by ingredient) and you are okay, but she sure didn’t say I could do that.
Typo corrected! 😉 -Marisa
I made a delicious pizza sauce one year. Canned it like the recipe said. On a lark, I emailed the extension office for our county. She emailed me back and and said that due to the high olive oil content, I should freeze it. She did not mention that I had the option to pressure can, which I could have done because I do have a pressure canner. I’m still not sure why that wouldn’t work since you can can hamburger and even sauces with hamburger in them or soups. But, since I’m not a chemist, I didn’t take any chances and stuck it in the freezer. Definitely it didn’t work for a gift basket like I hoped, but ah well… it was still delicious!
Jeanna, it may have been that she didn’t realize that you had a pressure canner. Or because it wasn’t a tested pressure canning recipe, she didn’t know the processing time and pressure and didn’t feel like she could recommend them blindly. Extension offices like to follow the rules very precisely and don’t like to guess at all. -Marisa
I bought tomatoes yesterday to turn into sauce (my own are sitting green on the vine still) and when reading the ingredients out to the hubby he said “well that sounds bland and boring….” (he is the sauce maker in our house so has definite ideas about how it should be done) SOOO i am just going to peel and can some whole, and some crushed, and if the heat lets up i am going to make a paste out of some…thus giving the hubby the base for his sauce. because heck if he is going to poo-poo the tested recipes he can do the extra work come winter!
Regina, that sounds like a smart plan to me! -Marisa
THANK YOU for this! i have a lot of friends canning things willy nilly right now. this time of year seems to inspire people to hoard food for the winter. many of them are not experienced canners and wing it on a lot of things. i know its a rare thing, but its scary to think what could happen. i hope a lot of people who read this will think twice about experimenting!
I have an old family spaghetti sauce recipe that we have used for over 35 years (probably over 45 years) that is canned in a boiling water bath. It does not use wine, vinegar or any other addition like is discussed in this blog. We have never had an issue with it and I will continue to make this wonderful recipe as it is!!!
You don’t mention sugar as a possible ingredient – could that be the difference? Our recipe calls for the following: tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, oil, sugar, salt, and tomato paste.
Trudy, sugar does nothing to increase the acidity and safety of a recipe. Honestly, your recipe sounds highly unsafe to me. You’re very fortunately that you’ve had no problems with it over the years. -Marisa
…and if all else fails, you can freeze it.
You’re so right! I actually just froze some meat sauce this week, because I didn’t want to get into the business of hauling out the pressure canner and making it shelf stable. -Marisa
Could be a good idea to have a pHmeter at home if you want to know your pH exactly and done your canning safely 🙂
I look my pH often with “striptest” and/or pHmeter to have a control and be more creative… But I have both at home: pressure canner and boiling bath water. So I use the good one in regard of the pH that I obtain with my recipes 🙂
Manon, from what I’ve read, pH meters aren’t thought to be accurate enough for ensuring that home canned goods are safe. But it sounds like you know what you’re doing. -Marisa
Hi Marisa,
I absolutely love your blog, and am just getting into home canning. Your comment here on pH meters strikes me as odd, I have always been taught to use a pH meter to determine correct acidification and safety of foods. If this is not the proper method to determine a high acid food, what other options are out there that are more accurate? Thank you for everything that you have done here, you are running a beautiful site!
I’m one of those ‘science-minded’ folks she mentioned, so I’ll explain it to the best of my understanding. Using a pH meter to create/alter recipes has 2 basic problems.
The first is that if you’re dealing with a chunky recipe, the pH of each of the ingredients can vary greatly. What you measure may not be the actual pH of the whole product.
Problem 2 is that the pH may not remain stable throughout the storage time. For example, pickles generally use a 5% vinegar plus salt & water because the salt water brine causes the veg to create lactic acid, which can raise the acidity (and lower the pH) to as much as 20%. Pickles work because the acidity increases, other recipes may not because the reaction moves in the other direction, decreasing the acidity and raising the pH.
Hope this helps!
Winnie, I had the same question! I’m about to can 10 pints of Ashley English’s Tomato Basil Sauce tonight(18 pounds of peeled, cored tomatoes sitting at home in the fridge) and her recipe calls for balsamic and lemon juice,which I worry would ruin the tomato flavor. I think I’ll use an equivalent amount of red wine vinegar instead.
The recipe I used for canning cooked tomatoes was from Fine Cooking magazine, and called for citric acid. This worked well for me since we already had that on hand.
Anne, that’s a perfectly acceptable way to go. I rarely have citric acid on hand, so lemon juice has always just been easier for me. -Marisa
Do you have a favorite brand of bottled lemon juice that you use? I am assuming that you’re not talking about those plastic lemons with the green caps that you see in the produce section of the supermarkets. And, you prefer it (bottled) over juicing your own lemons at home, right? I’ve used lemon juice squeezed at home this year (my first forays into canning) with my sauce/butter/salsa… they’ll be okay?
Erin, most of the time I use the Santa Cruz Organic lemon juice that I can get at Whole Foods. They also carry another brand on occasion, and I’ve grabbed it at well (can’t remember the name at the moment) and it’s been just fine. I use bottled lemon juice for canning because of its consistent acidity. That consistency is the reason bottled is recommended over fresh for canning. When I’m working on other recipes that aren’t destined for the canner, I always use fresh. -Marisa
I’ve been wondering about a red enchilada sauce? Specially is the chemical that makes the chilies hot acidic?
Leigh, I’ve never made a red enchilada sauce for canning, so I don’t know. I believe it has vinegar in it though. I’ll check a cookbook later tonight and let you know if I learn anything groundbreaking. -Marisa
We always can our tomatoes then use then as needed throughout the year. Canning tomatoes is easy, and goes fairly quickly, and once you have quarts and quarts of tomatoes canned and stored, you can grab a jar or two and make your favorite sauce, salsa, add to stews, soups, chili, and casseroles, plain quarts of tomatoes are so very versatile and so very good.
No matter what we are canning we always follow the directions in the Ball Canning book.
That’s how I do it as well. I like the flexibility of the plain tomatoes. -Marisa
I haven’t canned tomato sauce, but I hope to do so if my tomatos ripen.
Thanks for the tip!
🙂 I’m actually really glad you wrote this- I started canning a few years ago, and the first thing seared into my brain was “follow a tested recipe!” At this point, I’ve only ever canned from Ball and Better Homes and Gardens 🙂 I just recently found your blog, and with all your recipes and such, I was curious how careful you were about following tested procedures, etc. Now I know! 🙂
Does it have to be lemon juice? Is adding an equivalent amount of vinegar ok? I canned a few jars of sauce using a Stocking Up recipe and used vinegar instead of lemon juice…now I am nervous.
Winnie, vinegar does the same thing as lemon juice, so your sauce should be just fine. Sorry to scare you, I should have specifically called out vinegar as another acceptable acid.
Actually, it is supposed to be double the amount of vinegar. Also vinegar can cause flavor changes.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_03/tomato_intro.html