I wouldn't roast the herbs... just the tomatoes and garlic, then proceed with the recipe. You certainly could use the scallions instead. I think oregano would be better than parsley anyway. I would add the salt and sugar when cooking the sauce.

Ah. Good ideas. Thank you.

I would have thought the salt would bring something out in the roasting.
When would you put the scallions in?

If you are using just the white part of the scallion, I would roast them, too. I think the sweeter flavor would be nice in the sauce.

I don't have a scale and won't be coarsely chopping them, so how would you measure them?

Before roasting, I think I'll cut them in half and remove the seeds and stuff - after that should I measure them using water displacement?

Helen

Hi

My mother roasts all of her sauce in a similar manner. She used her sweet 100's this way, too. She doesn't even peel the tomatoes (says she's too lazy, at the ripe age of 78) and puts it all into the blender. I think that she just freezes the blended sauce in glass jars. She says its yummy!

When I blended the roasted ingredients with the remaining ones, the consistency was just what I wanted. So, the herbs, wine, vinegar, (and the parts of the scallions that were greener) didn't even get cooked. They just got pureed together into almost exactly the sauce I have been yearning to can! So I will once again plague you all with questions before I take a break from the forum for a few days of not-canning, followed by a tiny vacation.

I didn't have as many tomatoes as I thought, so I cut the recipe down to a fourth! I didn't process the ONE PINT that resulted :-) but is there a reason I couldn't have?

In other words, wouldn't the 35 minutes of processing (40 for quarts) sufficiently "cook" anything that needs to be cooked for safety's sake?

Next time I plan to de-glaze the roasting pan with the wine to get more of the caramelized essence into the sauce. As a result it will evaporate a lot of the alcohol in an instant.

Last question - at least until next week - I think it would be safe to add some garlic POWDER and omit the sugar. Would one of the experts be kind enough to confirm that?

You can certainly process one pint as opposed to a large batch.

Next time, if you'd like, go ahead and add the salt to the roasting vegetables. It will draw out some of the juices. I'd continue to do what Linda Lou suggested re leaving sugar and herbs out of the roasting pan, or they could be added near the end so there's no problem with scorching or caramelizing.

It's fine to add garlic powder; any dried herbs or spices are OK to add. Also omitting the sugar is OK. Be careful, though, in adding such things. Flavors do change as they are processed and sit in the jar or if frozen. Less is definitely more and garlic powder, for instance, is so easy to add when the sauce is used.

Carol

Carol, I think the question wasn't whether one pint was safe to can, but whether it mattered from a safety perspective that some of the ingredients hadn't been cooked --- did I follow you, helenore?

I think your logic that the processing is cooking enough makes sense --- after all, you can cold-pack tomatoes and then can them --- but will wait for the real experts to weigh in!

Zabby

That's a great point - you sure can't take seasoning out!

The reason I asked about processing is more wondering if there was a reason the stuff all had to be cooked before processing. I figured that it was unnecessary, but I get a little nervous.

I am so close to the perfect sauce for our needs, I would love it if it could be just right.

Thanks, and see you all next week!

Zabby, good save on that one. Helenore, the small amounts you're adding uncooked shouldn't be an issue as long as the product is good and hot when you jar it up for canning. Remember, you have to bring the mixture to the boil.

This is important not just from a food safety angle but from a quality angle. As with blanching vegetables before freezing, the heat destroys enzymes which cause deterioration of the product.

Carol

Yes, thanks Zabby - looks like our last to follow-ups overlapped :-)

And thanks, Carol, for your added info. It all makes sense to me.

I think I might have to find the half pint jar I have somewhere and can that sauce. There isn't quite a pint left anymore :-) And in the dead of winter... Oh I love it here at the harvest forum! My break starts: Now!