The end of summer usually marks the starts of different traditions. Among the traditions is the canning season. The canning tomato sauce is one of the activities in the canning season. Maybe it does not happen in many areas, but surely it is in mid-Atlantic. Summer is the season of tomatoes and by the end of summer there are still many tomatoes in the storage that needs to be processed otherwise they would be rotten and wasted.
And this would be the reason why everyone should know how to can tomato sauce. If it is already winter and you are missing the taste of tomato sauce or paste or puree or jams, all you need to do is open the storage and grab one of those cans and not wait until summer again.
Many dishes are incomplete without tomato sauce. Imagine just how it would be if you want to eat a plate of spaghetti without any tomato sauce. Or maybe you want a taste of summer on a bowl with the tomato soup but without any tomato paste in the storage, you may have to settle with the artificial tomato that would not give you the best taste as the fresh tomato paste. Well, of course canning will need some effort of your part, but be sure that it is just worth it.
Jars of tomato sauce ready for processing, in an outdoor setting.
There are, however, things that you need to know about the tomato canning One of the most frequently asked question is whether we can boiling the water bath process their spaghetti sauce recipe. The recipe is usually the ones with onions, basil, garlic, olive oil and peppers. It would certainly good if you can do it, but unfortunately it is impossible to do. The family recipe should not be canned because if you want to can anything in boiling water bath, then you will need high level of acid.
The cause it because botulism just cannot grow in the environment of high acid, while tomato sits in the middle as they have a PH of about 4.5. This is the reason why tomatoes need to be added with more acid when canned. When the acid is added, then the pH would be lowered. That is the reason why you will find an addition of about two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice for one jar or maybe citric acid if you prefer.
On the other hand, when you make your family recipe spaghetti sauce, usually there will be ingredients added to the recipe that will only lower the acid level so seriously so that it will reach unsafe level.
