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aninocentangel

A question about cooking methods prior to processing

aninocentangel
15 years ago

Good Morning! I've been lurking around here for a while, and have really learned a lot, thank you so much!

I do have a question, however. I have a great spaghetti sauce recipe (for freezing) that has you roast the vegetables. We really like the flavor the roasting process adds. This year we bought a side of beef and also have a hunting license so hopefully we'll have venison too, which means no room for my frozen spaghetti sauce.

I've been trying to find an approved canning recipe that calls for roasting the veggies but have had no luck so far. Can I take a recipe that is approved for canning and roast the veggies, then proceed as prescribed for the rest of the recipe? I would hold such add-ins that we also enjoy (red wine, olive oil, garlic etc) to add into the sauce after opening the jar, as I don't know how well those would hold up to canning. I have a large presto pressure cooker/canner that I will be processing quarts of sauce in, as I prefer to pressure process as much as is practical.

As an aside, my grandma taught me the basics of canning when I was a child, some 30 years ago, and told me that almost any recipe is okay to can if you use a pressure cooker and process it as for the ingredient that requires the longest processing time. For example, if you're making a succotash type recipe with corn, beans and tomatoes and the corn needs the longer time, process it as though it were a jar of corn. She did say that you might get an ugly surprise in that one or more of the ingredients might not hold up to a longer processing time, but barring incident and with a proper seal it will be safe to eat. I guess she was somewhat of an expert in her day, she was a home ec teacher and did work with the county extension office after that, but she retired in the 60's.

Now, I'm sure she would be incorrect according to current guidelines but it would be interesting to hear opinions. She also litmus tested each batch she was canning, regardless of what it was or how she was going to process it, and if it was a new recipe each jar was tested individually for at least two canning seasons before she felt comfortable doing batch testing, None of gramma's jars ever popped on her LOL

I must admit that I never litmus, do any of you?

Have a good day, and thanks for all the great advice.

Enjay

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