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Canning Tomato Sauce - is it safe to add Olives?

15 years ago

My favorite type of tomato/pasta sauce contains some chopped Kalamata Olives (or a blend of olives). Can these be safely added to a basic approved canning recipe? It's not a major ingredient in terms of quantity but makes a huge difference in flavor and it would be much more cost effective if I add them before canning, vs. adding a few chopped olives before serving.

Thank you so much. :-)

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Comments (9)

digdirt2
15 years ago
Olives are one of the listed foods that are conducive to creating anaerobic growing conditions for botulism plus there is the oil restrictions so I would recommend against it. At the very least it would have to be pressure canned even if acidified and there is the changed density issue so no way to know the required time for processing.

Wait to see what others say but I'd have to say no. Add them prior to serving. JMO

Dave
Linda_Lou
15 years ago
Sorry, no. Too low in acid, too much oil to add to any recipe unless already listed as an ingredient. The ONLY safe things to add are dried herbs and spices.
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Because most tomatoes contain natural acid, and I must assume that you cooked yours down to a point where it wasn't watery anymore. Even though you made 8 pints instead of 5, I doubt it would be a problem. The worst case would be that the tomatoes were origially very low in acid, which I doubt. The dried spagetti mix does have citric in it too, enough to acidify 5 pints. To be absolutly sure its safe, open each jar as mentioned, and reheat to boiling, add the additional acid (maybe a bit of garlic too??), and fill the jars, cap and process again. Freezing is an option, if you have the space and have left enough headspace in each jar for expansion. I don't usually freeze anything in glass jars after the clarifying of some home made sparkling wines that blew up in the freezer. Even if the sauce were to become unsafe in its jars, simply reheating and bringing to a boil for about 10 minutes would kill off any baceria culture that may have occured inside the jars while in storage.
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Since it has been longer than 24 hours it is too late to reprocess them as suggested in the other discussion. Did you do them in a BWB or PC and for how long? It can make a difference in cold storage time but basically its no more than 3 weeks in the fridge. Or you can open them, bring back to a boil, add the lemon juice, put in freezer containers and freeze them for longer storage. Dave
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Food Saver has NEVER advised anyone to use that system to make any home canning safe. To make home canning safe, a high acid is needed, as well as processing times for foods that contain lower acid, which would need a pressure canning. Because I have been canning a very delicate thin skinnned pepperoncini, and using a special vacuum system to remove all the air from these peppers, and also force in all vinegar and salt brine, then fill canning jars with these peppers that have been exposed to the special vacuum (NOT A Food Saver vacuum) my process involves no heat of any kind, but instead, a high acid, and a high amount of vacuum with no chance of any air that would be trapped in the jars. My peppers are safe, and have no chance of being contaminated by any bacterial botulism or any other kind of spoilage. The ONLY think I used the vacuum process for is a specific pepper type, with no added water, only full strength 5% vinegar and pickling salt as the brine.
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OK... I think what I'm saying is that the puree has much less waste than starting with whole tomatoes, seeding them & peeling, removing any cores, etc, that they are more concentrated (yes, that's a bad word to use here in this example.) Here's what I mean... If the seasoned tomato sauce recipe required 12c tomatoes & made 4c, there's both a lot of cookdown as well as waste. Hilde tried doubling the recipe but instead of using 24c, she used the 1.5c/lb formula, so the original recipe should have been 9c... but by doubling to 18, the recipe actually made 12c instead of 8c, even after all that cooking down. My suggestion was this: If instead of 24 cups you used 40% less (about 14.4) plus the 2c onions = 16.4 cups, cooked down in half would be a little over 8 cups! Double the original recipe! It may not actually be 40.0%. The 40% is 1.5c divided by 2.5c so 0.60 or 40% less. So 12c - 40% = 7.2c... plus the 1c onions = 8.2c...cook it down to half would give about the 4 cups the original recipe yielded. so however you look at it, 60% of the called for amount, or the called for amount minus 40%. I wonder what Linda Lou thinks about this reasoning. Also, what about increasing the other ingredients? If Hilde adds 40% more onion & spices, that would probably be the mathematical solution to the 18 cups of puree, but that wouldn't go over too well regarding hi/lo acid ratio theories. Another way to look at it: The 8 gallons of puree is equal to 53 quarts of tomatoes, not 32! Any thoughts?
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readinglady
15 years ago
Aside from the safety issues, I don't see the benefit in canning the sauce with the Kalamata olives. You're adding a prepared product to a prepared product when they could easily be stirred in at time of heating. How is there a cost advantage?

Carol
robin_d
Original Author
15 years ago
Using just a few olives for the occasional pasta meal then having them go bad in the fridge vs. using the whole jar at once in a huge batch for canning means less wasted olives. :-)

I know I can add them while heating the sauce to serve, but chopping a couple teaspoons of olives each time is a pain and I'd rather be able to just heat the jar and call it good. We only eat jarred sauce when I'm feeling too lazy to actually cook, which implies that I'm feeling too lazy to open a whole jar of olives and chop 5 or 6 of them. This is all about convenience. :-)

I assumed I'd need to pressure can this, esp. if there is meat in it as well (an approved meat sauce recipe, of course).

Do chopped olives freeze well?
nancyofnc
15 years ago
I buy big quantities of olives when on sale, put them in freezer bags or vacuum sealed bags, and pop them in the freezer. They last for at least a year! When I want a small bit of them, I just crunch off some and put the rest back in the freezer. Please don't add trouble to your canned goods.

Nancy
robin_d
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh, I won't add the olives to my sauce before canning, since it's not "safe", but it's good to know that they freeze well - that will make things much simpler. Thank you.
readinglady
15 years ago
You could chop olives, stir in a little olive oil and freeze the mixture in an ice cube tray. Then pop out and bag up the cubes. Presto! When it comes time to heat the sauce just toss in a couple of Kalamata cubes.

Carol
robin_d
Original Author
15 years ago
That's a great idea, Carol - I'll do that. Thank you!
ksrogers
15 years ago
Cured olives go bad?? Not very often.

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