Time to make tomato sauce!

Tomato sauce in Weck's canning jars

Saturday, November 11, 2023

November is when I defrost and clean out our freezers to make room for the deer my husband will get for us.  It is also the time that I use the extra frozen tomatoes to make sauce.  Making tomato sauce is an easy way to preserve the extras for winter that can be stored anywhere, in the pantry, kitchen, basement or even under the bed!  All you need are some canning jars, tongs, and a stock pot.

It is a good idea to go through your freezer at a minimum of once/year.  You can record what you have left from last year's harvest to adjust what you plant for the coming season, make sure the freezer is organized with like things together with the oldest up front and remove anything past its prime.  I started using plastic containers that are the width of quart bags so I can stand the frozen bags upright.  This makes the label easy to see, keeps bags from slipping around and dramatically increases how much I can get in the freezer.

I have learned that I need one wire basket of frozen quart bags of tomatoes to keep us in salsa, soups, chili and other uses for tomatoes.  After I fill up the basket with this season's frozen tomatoes. I will can all left from the previous year and any additional from this year.  I'll record how many i left in the freezer, how many were from last season and this season that I am making into sauce as well as how many jars of sauce I can.  From this, I can see what adjustments to make on the number of tomato plants to grow next year.

Tomatoes are considered an acidic vegetable so simple water bath canning is all that is needed to process the sauce for food safety.  Always follow the recipe exactly to ensure the acid level is high enough for water bath canning.  If a recipe calls for pressure canning, also follow it exactly as the time for canning under pressure and acid level of the food is critical for making sure all bacteria is eliminated during the canning process.

I follow Ball's "Complete Book of Home Preserving" for their tomato paste recipe which makes a thick sauce.  Just put 9 cups of fresh, pureed tomatoes in a large pot, 1.5 cups of pureed sweet bell peppers, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 clove of garlic and simmer about 2.5 hours to concentrate the flavor.  You can simmer more or less to the taste you prefer.  Remove the bay leaf and garlic clove.

I use Weck's brand canning jars and pint sized for canning my sauce as that is the amount I use for soups, chili, and spaghetti sauce.  Weck's jars are pretty and the lids are glass so they can be re-used for a lifetime.  Ball and Mason jars are more readily available in big box stores and easy to can with.  I just like using jars/lids that I don't have to buy more of each year and that are as safe as possible.  Glass is the safest on the market.

Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty

Boil the jars, lids and seals as the sauce is close to being done.  Add 3 teaspoons of lemon juice to each pint jar, fill with the hot tomato sauce to within 1/2 inch of top of the jar, and seal the lid.  Make sure that the rims are wiped clean before putting on the lid so you will get a good seal.  Follow the instructions for the type of jar/lid system you are using.  

Place all the filled jars in a large pot, insuring they are fully covered with water.  Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 45 minutes.  Remove the jars from the pot and let cool.  Follow the jar/lid manufacturer's instructions for when and how to test the seal.  Test each seal before storing.  For any that the seal is broken, either put into the refrigerator to use in the next week or so or you can put into quart freezer bags for longer term storage.  Some lid systems require you to wait until completely cool (24 hours later) and the conventional metal lids will make a popping sound when they are sealed usually within 30 minutes of being removed from the pot to cool.

Last time I made sauce, I used 40 quarts of frozen tomatoes, 7 pints of frozen sweet peppers, 30 bay leaves and 15 cloves of garlic.  This gave me 32 pints of canned sauce.  I'll document what I do this year as well.  I grow everything I need for the sauce, except the lemon juice.  You have to use the lemon juice to have confidence that the acid level is high enough for safely canning via water bath versus pressure canning.

This type of canning is called "water bath canning"; no special pressure canner is required.  In general, any crop that is acidic by itself like tomatoes or is preserved using an acidic liquid or solid like vinegar and sugar are good candidates for water bath canning.  Do follow the recipe from a reputable source to guarantee food safety.

Ball's canning books have lots of tips on water bath and pressure canning so it is a great resource to use.  You can also look up their canning tips on-line.