20lbs -- I guess I need to make Tomato Sauce?

[lupinfarm]

I'm going to be canning all these tomatos, I actually have about 40+ lbs of Tomatoes hanging around the house waiting to be canned.

I don't own a pressure canner, and I have heard there are ways to do this in a water bath canner. The varieties are beefsteak and roma tomatoes, I will also be adding other vegetables to the sauce like mushrooms, green peppers, and onions.

And.. This is what I picked today, 20lbs of Tomatoes and peppers... there is 20 more lbs upstairs and more still on the plants

 

[patandchickens]

Very nice!

Tomatoes waterbath-can just fine (that is the normal way of doing it), BUT if you want to add any veggies at all to the sauce, please make sure you are following a recent tested recipe such as from the Ball Blue Book or OMAFRA or extension services. Waterbath canning is only safe for things with a fairly acid pH, and adding veggies to the tomatoes has the potential to raise the pH to where only pressure canning will offer sufficient insurance against botulism. Tested recipes will have enough acid built in to balance the amounts of nonacid veggies that are added. Waterbath canning is not a good project for freelancing on, especially if people other than yourself will be eating the result

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are a lot of different recipes for canning tomatoes and tomato sauces on the internet. From other posts on here, I'd expect that Ball, the ones who make the jars, have some good ones. I'd also expect Presto, the people who make the cookers have some good ones. Another place you could look is the US Department of Agricultre. You can always visit your local library.

The reason I am mentioning all this is that you know what ingredients you have and the processing time will vary depending on which blend and proportions of ingredients you choose. There are also different details involved.

For the water bath method instead of pressure cooker to can tomatoes you need to add acid. Adding onions and peppers to the tomatoes and cooking it down to a sauce changes the basic conditions. I'm probably making it sound complicated when it is really not. Just find a recipe and follow it and you will do fine.

Another suggestion. Get a lot of jars, lids, and rings. You are going to have a lot of great sauce.

 

[lupinfarm]

Very nice!

Tomatoes waterbath-can just fine (that is the normal way of doing it), BUT if you want to add any veggies at all to the sauce, please make sure you are following a recent tested recipe such as from the Ball Blue Book or OMAFRA or extension services. Waterbath canning is only safe for things with a fairly acid pH, and adding veggies to the tomatoes has the potential to raise the pH to where only pressure canning will offer sufficient insurance against botulism. Tested recipes will have enough acid built in to balance the amounts of nonacid veggies that are added. Waterbath canning is not a good project for freelancing on, especially if people other than yourself will be eating the result

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Yeah, I'm beginning to think it'd just be easier to can the tomatos and add the others when cooking up into spaghetti

 

[lupinfarm]

Pat, I found this recipe online for water bath canning of tomato spaghetti sauce...

What do you think?

http://www.bigoven.com/149643-Canned-Basic-Spaghetti-Sauce-recipe.html

 

[Ridgerunner]

This link is to the USDA recommendations for canning tomatoes. They do not recommend the boiling water method for anything other than a very basic tomato sauce. They recommend spaghetti sauce be pressure canned.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/usda/4_USDAcanningGuide3_06.pdf

 

[lupinfarm]

Sounds good. I can't afford a pressure canner right now so I'll do the basic tomato sauce, I can add to it when cooking spaghetti anyway.

 

[patandchickens]

Pat, I found this recipe online for water bath canning of tomato spaghetti sauce...

What do you think?

http://www.bigoven.com/149643-Canned-Basic-Spaghetti-Sauce-recipe.html

Sure, anything like that should be fine -- adding seasonings is fine, it is adding veggies or anything else nonacidic "in quantity" that's an issue.

Regular ol' tomato sauce, seasoned or un, is normally waterbath canned.

Have fun,

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

Awesome, I'm going out now to get supplies together for the goat house (Starting the floor tomorrow!!) and will pick up some larger canning jars for the spaghetti sauce. We eat a lot of spaghetti because its easy for everyone to make and my brother can't kill himself making it either lol.

 

[chills]

lucky you .. having too many tomatoes is not something ive experienced just yet .. have fun!!