I want to can some homemade spaghetti sauce

[MissMillie]

All the recipes I'm finding call for a water bath canner.

Can this be done w/o special equipment? A big pot of water on the stove top?

[dawg day]

1. Sure, it's harder to get the hot jars out though.

Make sure you use grippy tongs.

[mercuryblues]

2. Yes if you have a wire rack that fits in the bottom

The jars can burst if set directly on the pot bottom.

The pot also has to be deep enough to keep the jars covered with water.

[riversedge]

3. I use a deep spagjetti pan. fits 4 jars nicely and covers the tops

[Arkansas Granny]

4. You can use any large pot as long as the jars are covered with at least 1 inch of water.

You will also want to place a rack or a folded cotton towel in the bottom of the pot to keep the jars from direct contact with the pan to help prevent breakage.

Remember, if the sauce contains meat, you need to use a pressure cooker.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Yes, BUT...

Tomatoes are acidic, so the nasties will be killed at 212F boiling point.

However, not all tomatoes are acidic enough, and water boils at less then 212F as you move to higher elevations, so if you're on a mountaintop, it will be all bubbly at a much lower temp and you could kill your family.

That's the bad news. The good news is that you could get away with a pressure cooker if you have one. Or even just a pot of boiling water if everything goes right.

Here's just one of many, many online canning references-- https://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--1396/canning-temperatures-and-processing-times.asp

Personally, if I thought I might be doing this a lot, I would invest in a pressure canner (stovetop can be fine) and a few dozen Ball jars. Just remember that for the stovetop ones, your burners have to put out enough BTU's to work, or you'll be staring at it just fizzing for hours.

[Turbineguy]

7. Salt to raise the boiling point?

A good layer of steam above the jars to displace air?

[Retrograde]

17. Tried that once, didn't work

You need to get the contents of the jars to the safe point, and while boiling point elevation is a physio-chemical thing, it takes more salt than you probably have. And it corrodes any lids/rings you're using. Pressure canning will raise the temperature of the contents a lot more.

Steam above the jars does nothing to displace any air in the jars. When jars are heated - either in boiling water for low pH foods or in a pressure canner, the air in the jars is forced out. As the jars and their contents cool, the air contracts (PV = nRT, my favorite equation, which says that gases have greater volume at higher temperatures) causing a partial vacuum in the jars. If done correctly, you'll hear a distinct pop from each can as it cools: that means they've sealed.

[packman]

8. God, I remember canning tomatoes years ago

Had an abundance from a community garden and nothing tastes as sweet as fresh picked tomatoes. Anyway what was I to do with bags and bags of tomatoes - can them of course. So I quickly read up and how to do it, bought all the equipment (pot, tongs, jars, etc.) and went after it. First I plunged them in boiling water for a few seconds to skin them. Then cutting them, then boiling the jars, and so on and so forth. Well, the kitchen was a total mess, the stovetop looked like a battle zone, wife left me after the third or forth argument - but I had 6 qt. jars of tomato sauce, juice, whatever.

SUGGESTION: Go out and buy several jars of spaghetti sauce and freeze those tomatoes for future sauces and cooking.

[if..fish..had..wings]

6. Careful

If you add things to the sauce (other than tomatoes) be very careful. You will lower the acidity and really should use a pressure canner.

When I can sauce it only has tomatoes and basil so I'm okay in a water bath canner. But one year I added onions and garlic and bell peppers and that one I definitely pressure canned.

[randr]

9. I had for years water bathed my tomato sauce

Last year I put it in quart freezer bags. Worked great.

[procon]

10. No. Any canning product that contains meats,

Low acid veggies, either separate or in combination, must be processed with a pressure canner. Water bath canning is limited to fruits, jams and jellies, pickles, pickled products like sauerkraut, beets, peppers.

Don't rely on homemade canning recipes or anecdotal instructions, the misinformation can literally kill you. Use the up to date and lab tested canning information at the USDA database for safety.


https://nifa.usda.gov/press-release/usdas-complete-guide-home-canning-available



I am a certified Master Food Preserver and I taught canning classes to 4H kids and interested adults for over 30 years.

Pressure canners (not to be confused with a pressure cooker which is for cooking your dinner) process food for long term storage. They are very expensive, but they will last a lifetime. People try to cut corners and use a water bath canner or even their little pressure cooker, but don't do it.

It you can't afford one, try to form a canning club and get your family and friends to join you in preserving food. Don't forget the fellas, hunters and fishermen are big time canners for processing meats and fish on site.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. + 1

[dem in texas]

14. Absolutely Right

I used to have a big garden and canned or froze the fruit and vegetables I raised. Plain tomatoes are high acid and are safe "canned" in a hot water bath, but if other ingredients such as meat or cheese are in the sauce, you must "can" it with a pressure cooker. I had a hot water canner and a pressure cooker canner. Each one had a wire rack that would hold 6 quart jars.

Ball Jar canning books have all the safety instructions for food preservation by canning or freezing.

The easiest way to save your sauce is to freeze it. I always freeze what is left in order to get two meals for my work. I usually use the sauce within 90 days.

[procon]

15. Don't trust that today's commercial tomatoes

are reliably high acid. They've changed the varietals to become sweeter, firmer and keep longer. Unless you grow your own, you might find heirlooms, but they're pretty pricey to be used for canning. Rule of thumb is to pressure can all tomato products for safety reasons.

If you want to can tomato sauces, the added herbs, seasonings and other ingredients makes a pressure canner a must have. If you have a year's worth of tomatoes to preserve, a large canner is the way to go. For processing just a few pounds, your refrigerator freezer is the best choice. If you have one of the gigantic freezers you might have enough room to freeze all your sauces... And hope you never have a power failure. Yeah, that happened to me!

[3catwoman3]

12. Why is putting something up in glass jars...

...called “canning,” and not bottling or “jarring?”

[dem in texas]

13. Cans are an old fashioned word for glass jars

My late mother-in-law still called them cans as did many of our elderly neighbors when we lived in rural Tennessee. That is why the process of preserving food in glass jars is called "caning".

[3catwoman3]

16. Thanks. I have long wondered...

...about that.

[Retrograde]

18. A hot water bath canner is a big pot

filled with water. Most commercial ones come with fancy racks that keep the jars from banging together and make them easier to lift (but a towel in the bottom of the pot helps keep them in place, and good tongs can be used to lift the jars). I use a ginormous enameled stock pot, which will hold 5 quart jars.

The pot has to be big enough to cover the jars and contents to a depth of 2+ inches.

If you want to can high pH foods or anything containing meat, you will need a pressure canner, which is a giant pressure cooker. You just can not get the internal temperatures you need otherwise. Whether you need one for your sauce I can't say - it depends on what's in it.

[csziggy]

19. You are better off just canning the tomatoes or making straight tomato sauce

Then when you are ready for the sauce, use your own tomato sauce as the base.

I swear by the Ball recipes for canning - they want you to buy their jars and they have been putting out recipes to use them for a very, very long time, since 1884.

Here is their recipe for Tomato Sauce: https://www.ballhomecanning.com/recipes/tomato-sauce/


I highly recommend their book about canning. My copy is about 40 years old but if I were to do canning today, I would get the new version to make sure the techniques are up to date.

https://www.amazon.com/All-Ball-Book-Canning-Preserving/dp/0848746783