The ratio is important because the processing times just include the amount of added low acid vegetables listed in the recipe, like onion, garlic, etc. Adding extra would lower the acid level. No butter would be safe to add, you need to omit it.

If your doing additions to the tomato sauce and use dried vegetables, they will absorb the liquid, hence the acid. If its fresh veggies added, for every cup of added veggies per quart jar, I would increase the acidity by adding another 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid. A half teaspoon of citric is alredy required for a plain tomato sauce. A cup of added veggies, like peppers and onions will be quite a lot per quart, but I belive that an additional 1/4 teaspoon of citric would help. Also, pressure canning is an option that allows you to expand on these amounts of veggies.

There are tested recipes out there which do include added vegetables, including a tomato basil sauce posted several times on this forum.

Not only would adding vegetables change the pH level, as Linda Lou indicated, but it also changes the density of the mixture, which is a factor in processing time (heat penetration).

I don't know, without testing, how anyone could be certain adding 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid would be sufficient to compensate for the reduced pH. Nor would it resolve processing time issues.

Carol

kgardininma,

Botulism poisoning is rare. I do like to remind people of this because it's easy to get the impression from the talk of "unsafe" recipes that if you overdo the basil by a pinch one day by mistake there is a 90% chance your family will die, which is WAY far from the truth. The risk of serious illness from any canned tomato sauce is small. Everyone decides their own level of comfort with risk.

BUT, botulism DOES happen, and it is SO dangerous when it does, and the idea of possibly making someone you love sick with what was meant to be a wonderful, loving food gift is SO awful, that most of us figure the level of risk we're comfortable with regarding botulism is pretty much 0%, which is what you get if you follow approved recipes and processing instructions.

The good news is that it's not hard to find a tested recipe that is great. You'll find you won't miss the saute-ing in butter --- the canning recipes with added onion, garlic, herbs, etc. taste great, especially with fresh tomatoes.

Do you have the Ball Blue Book? That's the place to start for basic recipes that are known to be safe. I also like the university of Michigan website.

Personally, based on the amount of added other ingredients I've seen in tested recipes, I will happily throw in a sprig of fresh basil and a chopped garlic clove into each pint of plain tomato sauce.

If I want to go further than that, I follow a recipe with minor substitutions of very similar ingredients, such as using more garlic and less onion, or substituting one fresh herb for another.

It helps to think of canning and cooking as separte things, not "can I can these recipes I love to cook?" but "what great things can I can that I'll love to then eat or cook with?" With that in mind, if you look through some resources (the BBB, the website below, the recipes shared here), you'll soon have a canned sauce you love and that you know is perfectly safe!

I highly recommend the "Chunky Basil pasta sauce" from the Small-Batch Preserving book, for starters (you shd be able to find it if you do a search on this forum --- also, look for a thread called "Your Greatest Hits Recipes for Leesa" --- but if you can't, just ask and I'll be happy to repost it for you.

Zabby

Here is a link that might be useful: Preserving Foods Safely

Merely commone sense and speculation as well as a PRESSURE CANNING would be required as I stated above. In many instances even a half teaspoon of citric per quart may be too much, as some tomatoes to contain quite a lot of acid by themselves, but we have no eay way of knowing how much there is unless we use pH measuring equipment.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I was thinking. We really like a lot of garlic, so I figured I'd probably have to be careful and find a recipe to go off of to be on the safe side. I know botulism is rare, but I really want to err on the safe side rather than risk my two kids' safety! I also was thinking it would be safe to make some substitutions like a little more basil instead of adding rosemary or sage (personal preference). I like the whole "what can I cook with this stuff I've canned" vs. "canning stuff I love" school of thought. That definitely helps. The reason I want to can is primarily preserve my harvest and enjoy it year round, and secondly to make my life a little easier. I don't really want to have to cook sauce EVERY time I want it, so canning sauce vs. plain tomatoes is a step in that direction. It will cut down my dinner-cooking time but I can still spare a little time to adjust seasonings or add onions, more garlic, or even meat.

Thanks again!

p.s. ksrogers: I'm on the south shore, about an hour or so from the city - just before the bridge to the Cape...small world!

Wouldn't it be nice to have a software program where we could punch in the main ingredients we want to use (and why) and get an answer as to how much acidity to add, ingredient amount suggestions, complimentary ingredient suggestions and what safe processing procedure is needed. I think it's doable, but is it marketable?

dreaming in missouri

John, that would be wonderful, wouldn't it?

Zabby, that is the Michigan State website, not University of Michigan, LOL. Here in Michigan, them's fighting words. (grin) There's Michigan State, my beloved "Moo U", the agricultural/veterinarian college and then there's University of Michigan, the upscale, pretentious and uptight medical school with not a cow in sight. U of M doesn't have a canning website that I'm aware of....

Annie

kgardeninma,
Even closer when you meet someone here who lives only 5 minutes away in the next town... That happened, to me. I still never got my loaned small Hav-A-Hart trap back from her yet (now going on 2 years). Lucky thing I charged her a $20 deposit on it, as that just about pays for a replacement. She had many rodents to deal with.

Gosh, Annie, oops! I sure do know the difference.

Though I expect my dear friend (and great cook) the French professor with graduate degrees from U of Michigan wd be amused to hear that it is simply a "medical school." (I expect he'd agree with good humour that it can be uptight and pretentious, however.)

Only explanation I can plead is that here in Canada the university and college systems are very different; there aren't "provincial" universities the way there are state ones (and "college" means a very different thing up here). So it's not an automatic understanding I grew up with!

Take pity on us poor canucks who don't have extension services at all... ;-)

Zabby

kgardeninma,

Here's my quick-supper approach. I can plain tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes for use in cooking, and also lots of Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce (my personal fave so far of the seasoned, veggie-including approved sauce recipes I've tried; I suspect the red wine is the secret), sometimes with a mix of herbs instead of the basil.

I buy turkey sausages in large quanitites when they're on sale, cook them, chop them, then freeze them in meal-sized portions.

Then I need only boil the pasta and, while it's cooking, defrost some sausage in the microwave, open and reheat a jar of pasta sauce, combine it all. DH will usually grate some cheese to sprinkle on top.

I also highly recommend the idea, which I just tried based on the recommendation of another poster on this forum, of using a jar of Annie's salsa as the base of a black bean soup! I put in a jar of salsa, a can of commercial black beans, a little chicken stock, and some of the local corn I froze in October. Added a squirt of lime juice at the end and served with tortilla chips. Mmm! DH loved it, too.

I know you'll find lots of yummy ways to save time with canning. Keep us posted!

Zabby

Zabby

You can always freeze the sauce you make, or you can can an approved recipe (Ball Blue Book & or Small Batch Preserving are good references) and add fresh ingredients when you go to serve the sauce.

As Zabby suggested, the Chunky Basil Tomato Sauce is a favorite of mine too. I usually add cooked meat & a little hot pepper to it when I'm ready to make pasta.