Hi Dave, Probability is an essential element of decision making, along with reward and consequences. Most of life's hazards are actually within our control, but we chose to take the risk. For example, one of the greatest risks we all take each day is driving in a car. We can completely eliminate this risk by not getting in a car, but then the quality of life that comes with mobility is reduced below our acceptable range, so we choose to take the risk. Similarly I can eliminate all risk of dying in a plane crash by not flying, yet I have flown in over 1,000 airplanes because I judged the reward of keeping my job to outweigh the extremely low risk of a plane crash. To eliminate all risk of botulism, we would not only have to stop eating home canned foods, but also stop eating in restaurants (25 cases of botulism in the CDC report) and stop eating commercially canned foods (10 cases). So really it is degrees of risk that we deal with, and make decisions versus reward and consequences. If there was no consequence to using an approved recipe, then I would agree with you that taking additional risk makes no sense. In my case, however, there is a consequence. I grow my own vegetables and create my own recipes with them, and I get great pleasure from this. My salsa, for example, is quite unique and tastes much better than anything I have ever found commercially. I am not willing to give this up, so I choose to accept what may be slightly more risk to keep this pleasure, just as I choose to drive, fly, and eat out. Naturally if I truly believed that my recipes and methods were materially unsafe I would abandon them in a flash. That's where statistics come into play. According to Ball there are over 20 million home canners in the USA, putting up hundreds of millions of jars of food. With tomatoes being the most popular home garden crop, I have to believe there are perhaps tens of millions of jars of tomato products put up annually. Add to this the fact than many, if not most, home canners have never heard of the NCHFP, nonetheless follow their guidance (we see this everyday on this forum) and I would expect people to be dropping like flies - but they are not. With no reported cases of botulism in the CDC report caused by home canned salsa over the 10 year period, I conclude that the probability of getting botulism from tomato products, even unapproved recipes, is extremely low and acceptable for me. Certainly not acceptable for everyone, just as there are millions who refuse to fly, but with these statistics - along with my careful canning techniques and 35 year clean record - I truly believe my salsa is very safe. I wouldn't eat it otherwise. As I have said before, the teachings from you, Linda Lou, and others on this forum are extremely valuable in guiding people toward the lowest known risks, provided they are willing to only can approved recipes. But there are many of us who chose a slightly different risk/reward equation. To each his own. For the record, although my salsa is not an approved recipe do to higher levels of onions and garlic, I did change to acidifying it with citric acid and pressure canning as I found these did not materially change the taste. TomNJ

"But actually it isn't all that difficult to know the approved ones as there are so few of them for spaghetti sauce since it is a low acid product. NCHFP/USDA publications, which includes the ones in So Easy to Preserve, and those in the Ball/Bernardin books. That's it. There aren't any in Small Batch Preserving." Well, it may not call itself spaghetti sauce, but there is "Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce" with fresh herbs and veges in Small Batch Preserving, and also "Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce" with both veges and fresh herbs in Small Batch Preserving, and also "Seasoned Tomato Sauce" with veges and fresh herbs that Small Batch Preserving suggests using in "pasta sauces, soups, stews, pizza, or casseroles." So, although the OP did leave the door open to reasonable questions about recipe safety, it is also good to take care in making broad statements about recipes which include such phrases as "there are no recipes which. . .", or "all approved recipes for (pasta sauce, salsa, whatever) MUST be. . ." since there may well be a safe recipe which allows such processing. For example: you CAN use fresh herbs in the approved NCHFP spaghetti sauce recipe, as this email from Elizabeth Andress states: Thank you for visiting the National Center for Home Food Preservation. > question -> Spaghetti Sauce without Meat: > 1. Can I eliminate the celery/peppers completely? > 2. Can I use fresh herbs or only dried? > 3. Can I add basil (fresh or dried)? > 4. Can I eliminate the sugar? For our particular procedures: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_03/spaghetti_sauce.html You can leave out the celery and peppers completely, leaving everything else the same. (The mushrooms are already optional, also.) If you use fresh herbs, make sure they are very clean. I can only recommend using the equivalent volume measures, though, and that may not give you the flavor you desire. Eg., instead of 2 TBSP dried oregano, use 2 TBSP minced fresh oregano. I do not have enough information to know the upper limit on how much fresh to add, so that's all I can suggest without testing. (which we cannot do). You can use basil as a substitute for one of the other herbs (eg, you may not want the parsley with basil). Or, if you are leaving out the celery and peppers completely, you could add 2 to 4 TBSP of basil. Yes, you can eliminate the sugar in this recipe. The chopped celery and/or peppers and the sugar add a little moisture/liquid in many recipes. In this particular sauce, however, it is cooked down to thickened consistency anyway, so the amount of liquid that would be added by these ingredients would not be important as it might be in other types of food products/mixtures. Best wishes, Elizabeth Andress -------------------------------------- Elizabeth L. Andress, Ph.D. Project Director, National Center for HFP Professor and Extension Food Safety Specialist Department of Foods and Nutrition The University of Georgia 208 Hoke Smith Annex Athens, GA 30602-4356 Phone: (706) 542-3773 FAX: (706) 542-1979 -----------------------------------------------

Then do a hot water bath for 70 minutes. I suspect that somewhere along the way that fact that this was supposed to be pressure canned (not BWB) for 70 mins. got lost from the instructions. Not that that would make it a safe recipe fro canning but it would be at least a little safer. BWB processing for meats has never been approved. Pressure canning has always been required for meats since the early 1900's. So failure to add the lemon juice is the least of your problems. Per the guidelines even with added lemon juice it still would not be considered safe to consume. But the choice is yours. Dave

I agree it's extra work but sometimes it's more manageable to deal with a smaller batch of tomatoes than a full 30 pounds, depending upon your kitchen and your experience. There might also be a space consideration. How much extra room does your freezer have? If you are up to doing the entire batch at once and there's enough freezer space to accomodate the tomatoes, then Dave's suggestion is a more efficient one. Carol