Canning Tomatoe Sauce Question

[ninnymary]

I made a pasta sauce using chopped onion and garlic. I saute this and then added chopped heirloom tomatoes. Cooked it down and pureed in blender. I put it back in the saucepan and added a little butter, salt and pepper to taste. Poured it over angel hair pasta and boy was it good.

I'd like to can it using the water bath method. Since it has butter, I wasn't sure if I could do this or if it had to be done in a pressure cooker.

I know I could leave the butter out and add it when I open the jar but I think I prefer it put it in while I'm preparing the sauce for canning.

Can I can this with the sauce having butter?

Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

Although mostly fat, butter is a low-acid food. Meat, vegetables, butter, cream, etc. are low-acid products that will support the outgrowth of C. botulinum and toxin formation in a sealed jar at room temperature. Low-acid products have to be pressure-canned by tested processes to be kept in a sealed jar at room temperature. It is not clear what the botulism risk is from such a high-fat product, but to store a low-acid moist food in a sealed jar at room temperature requires processing to destroy spores. A normal salted butter has about 16-17% water, some salt, protein, vitamins and minerals. Some butter-like spreads have varying amounts of water in them. We have no kind of database in the home canning/food processing arena to know what the microbiological concerns would be in a butter stored at room temperature in a sealed jar. In the absence of that, given that it is low-acid and that fats can protect spores from heat if they are in the product during a canning process, we cannot recommend storing butter produced by these methods under vacuum sealed conditions at room temperature.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#33

I would not do the butter, Mary, either water bath or pressure canning methods. From the above, “fats can protect spores from heat if they are in the product during a canning process” I’d be concerned you would not heat it enough if you pressure can it. With the water-bath method, you need a high-acid product to prevent botulism. Butter is a low-acid food. You could add acid (I usually use lemon juice) to get a stronger acid, but I don’t know how much lemon juice you’d need to add to get the pH low enough. If my memory is right, you need a pH of 4.2 to be safe from botulism.
I add a small amount of butter to jelly and jam when I water bath can it to cut down on the foam, but that is a small amount and is taken into account in the recipe. But that means you can add some. I don’t know the volumes you are talking about. Even if I knew volumes I would not know the right answer.

Not all tomatoes are low-acid enough to water bath can without adding some more acid like that lemon juice. Then you are adding onions which will weaken the acid some too. When I am canning soup I take a few liberties with the exact ratios of the ingredients or make substitutions (though I also use more chicken broth than it calls for and extend the processing time from 85 minutes to 99 minutes) but for practically all other canning I try to follow the recipe pretty closely. Unless I found a recipe from a source I trust that tells you how much acid to add for water bath or how long to process it for pressure canning, I’d be nervous about canning something with much butter in it.

I think I’d just mix some butter with the pasta before I added the sauce. Or add butter when you are heating the sauce up. I imagine you’ll heat the sauce when you take it out of the jar.

 

[ninnymary]

Thanks Ridge. I want to be safe rather than sorry.

Mary