Consider using a food strainer to get the pulp and juice out of the tomatoes. You cut them open, dig out the watery goo and seeds. Then you can strain them. Adding onions and peppers are oK, provided you also add sufficient acid. Also, to help soak up the excess liquid, the peppers can be dehydrated beforehand, then they can soak up some of the liquid. Additional acid would be required if the result is a thick sauce. It may also need pressure canning to increase safety. Most all tomatoes home, or commercially canned use citric acid. Roasting will take some time, and can ahelp to incease acid level if the acid is not boiled off as well. Do not can whole cloves of garlic. The only way whole cloves can be canned is if they are pickled in vinegar. Mincing it, or using dried can be done.

Thank you for your reply, ksrogers. I really appreciate the sharing you, (as well as others), take the time to do on these forums - I read them as often as I am able.

I do have a new KitchenAid food strainer that I plan to learn to use on day, as well as an old tedious hand cranker. But my desire is for more flavor from these blah tomatoes, which is why Id prefer to roast them. I will be cutting in half and scooping out the seeds, both to reduce the moisture and also, to me they add too much bitterness sometimes.

I have been canning for a bit of time but usually with absolute, known recipes. IÂm just not confident that omitting the items would not be messing up something that should prevent me from canning them up, even in a pressure canner, as instructed in the BBB..that I donÂt know enough about to see. IÂve read many places on this forum about "alarms going off because of low/no addition of bottled lemon juice or vinegar in recipes that others are experimenting with. I get no alarms when just looking at the 2 recipes and comparing to what I would like to do because the recipes (see below) are from the newest BBB, and have NO added acids required to begin with.

The EXACT recipes do not sound appetizing to me. Roasting veggies brings out flavors I enjoy the most, which is why I would prefer to roast until thick instead of "cook until thick". However, I donÂt know if the roasting would do something to the veggies that I donÂt know of, or if leaving out celery, carrots and brown sugar would omit too much liquids or something else I have no knowledge of. I donÂt *think* the small amount of brown sugar is enough to add much to the ÂpreservativenessÂ..(sorry I know that isnÂt a word  just fits), but am not sure.

Here are the complete recipes as in BBB.

Creole Sauce.
3 qt. tomatoes  peeled, cored chopped (about 18 medium)
2 c. chopped onions (about 2 medium)
1 c. chopped sweet red peppers (about 2 medium)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 hot red pepper finely chopped
----
Below are the remaining items in the original recipe that IÂd like to omit
½ c. chopped celery
1 Tbs. chopped parsley
1 Tbs. sugar
½ tsp. marjoram
½ tsp. chili powder

Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Cook slowly until thick. As sauce thickened stir frequently to prevent sticking. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1" headspace. Adjust 2-piece caps. Process pints 25 min. - qts. 30 min. at 10 pounds of pressure in steam-pressure canner.

Spiced Tomato Soup
4 qt. tomatoes  peeled, cored chopped
3 ½ c. chopped onions
2 c. chopped sweet red peppers
1 clove garlic
2 tsp. salt
----
Below are the remaining items in the original recipe that IÂd like to omit
2 ½ c. chopped celery
1 c. sliced carrots
7 bay leaves
1 Tbs. whole cloves
1 c. brown sugar

Combine tomatoes, onions, celery, peppers, carrots, bay leaves, cloves and garlic in large saucepan. Simmer until vegetables are tender. puree in food processor or food mill . Return to saucepot. Add sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat 15 minutes. ladle hot soup into hot jars, leaving 1" headspace. Adjust 2-piece caps. Process pints 20 min at 10 pounds pressure
.......................................
IÂm doing pints only and since IÂm at an altitude of 5200Â, IÂll use the usual 13 pounds pressure for the required time.

Thanks for your help. Sorry to drag this out but my mind has less organization as I get older and conciseness escapes me.

This is KatieC's Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup recipe that always gets rave reviews here.

Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup
Recipe By :Katie
12 tomatoes -- *see Note
2 carrots -- cut in 1" pieces
1 large onion -- quartered
2 whole heads garlic -- peeled (or more, to taste)
olive oil
2 cups chicken broth -- (or 3)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (or 1 Tbsp. dried)
cream -- to taste

Core tomatoes and cut in half. Place, cut side up, on foil covered cookie sheet with carrots, onion and garlic. Brush with olive oil. Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until vegies are roasted and a little blackened. Place in a large saucepan with the chicken broth and basil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Blend with a stick blender (or in small batches in a blender) until almost smooth. Add cream to taste. To can: Process in a pressure canner, pints for 60 min. and quarts for 70 min.For dial gauge canners use 11 pounds pressure at 0-2000 ft., 12 lbs. at 2001-4000 ft., 13 lbs. at 4001-6000 ft. and 14 lbs. above 6000 ft. For weighted gauge canners use 10 lbs. pressure at 0-1000 ft., and 15 lbs. over 1000 ft. *Note: These measurements are approximate...I use whatever it takes to cover the cookie sheet. This makes 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of soup.

I didn't have a stick blender so I just put the veggies through my Foley food mill after roasting them. It worked great.

Katie

We have made it 2 years running and highly recommend it. Just offered for your consideration. Hope it helps.

Dave

Dave, I really like Katies tomato soup recipe and have jars of it already in storage! It is my 'tomato sauce' in many recipes. Just doesn't use up the remaining peppers and onions that I have to go along with the many bland tomatoes.:]

My initial plan was to roast tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic to sauce consistency and freeze. After packaging up 40 lbs. of chicken breasts a few days ago, my freezer is stuffed to the gills and we just can't become a 2-freezer family. ; ) There are only 2 of us here.

Thanks for your thoughts.

The removal of the excess water inside can help to increast flavor. It can also reduce the time needed to roast them to get a thicker product. Gee, its only ne here but I do have two freezers. It was what my dad had way back. I would have opted for just one, when I sold the older one that lost the ability to self defrost. The other one suddenly lost its ability to chill, and set off my freezer alarm. I rushed out to get a new one that same morning (7am), thinking I needed to get things frozen fast again. I rented a truck and took a new one home, and placed next to the one that had failed to cool. I later realized that the 'supposed' energy saving device had caused the problem, so it was removed. I now have an old one and a new one, but both work just fine. Both have stuff in them, but ar enot full, and lot of it is from my garden and my sausage meats for making sausages and curing beef for pastrami. For chicken breasts, I cut them at the thickest part to butterfly and then pound then out thin between two sheets of plastic wrap. Each half breast gets a smear of Dijon mustard, home made Canadian bacon slice and some swiss cheese (Cordon Blu). Its folded and rolled in seasoned bread crumbs and wrapped in plastic, then into a Food Saver bag. These cook up fairly fast and are a great meal. I also made some with herbed butter inside.

Usually the omission of a low acid vegetable or seasoning will not impact safety as much as if something was added to reduce the acidity level. Here, I made a roasted pepper pepper spread. I grow pimento peppers and allow them to ripen to red. They get roasted on my gas grill with some Mesquite chips as smoke. Also, onions, and garlic are roasted in there too. I remove the blackened skins off the peppers and puree them with the garlic and onions in a blender. I add Balsamic vinegar and some citric and can in pints. They look like red tomato sauce, but don't have a single tomato in them. Really great on crusty bread. Plan to make a pizza with it, instead of tomato sauce.

Do you have any freezer space? ReadingLady has posted a recipe for roasted end of season vegetables that is very good. But it gets frozen.

Ken, I thought we were a bit overboard with our 3 fridges and one large freezer, but I guess not. .LOL Every one of the fridges freezers are stuffed, too. Truth be told though, we do have many parrots to feed too, and theyll accept most fruits/veggie/grains/legumes and much of the well-cooked meat offered. Sure miss my ol chest freezer. I would have been able to lay a good amount more in than there is in that upright.

Ill have to keep the Cordon Blu in mind. Glad you mentioned it. Ive never made it but have seen various recipes and do like all the ingredients. I didnt care much for chicken breast meat until this year.. at my age ..go figure! My mouth tends to water when I read the postings you and others do on homemade sausages. Ive seriously contemplated making some, but they can be purchased, and time is one thing I cant buy. >>sighIf I could keep everything a bit longer, Id have room to freeze a batch of Carols Roasted Tomatoes, Peppers, Corn and Capers, (re-arranged a bit for what I have)... after the turkey comes out of the freezer in a few days. It does sound wonderful. Thanks for the link, prairie_love.

Got to go put on some sourdough bread.
Crystal

My side by side fridge and freezer is fairly big. Used to have a 30"x30" chest freezer years ago, but you needed to stand on your get to get to the bottom of it, and it would frost up about every 3 months. The newer freezer is slightly larger than the older one. The heat coils usually on the back are embedded inside the box, so the sides and to fell very warm to the touch. I also added a freezer alarm that shows temp and signals of its above 25 degrees. The alarms have saved me a lot of grief.

Hope you have a good viable sourdough culture! I had posted a few times about how to keep them going for many years. I make a batch from my starter and mix only flour and water into it, nothing else. I like the starter to be quite thick as opposed to a batter. After 2-3 days if its not bubbling well, I take some of a dried batch I have stored in a plastic bag in the fridge, then I just add a bit of my dried culture and it usually starts right up within a few hours. After a 1-2 days, I spoon out a small amount and spread it on a sheet of plastic wrap to dry out. After a day of drying, it gets crumbled and placed in the fridge for quite some length of time, as it keeps very well that way. The rest of the bubbling mixture gets a cup taken out and put back in the fridge for the next time. The rest, gets mixed with more flour (sometimes whole wheat) and water. Another 2 days pass and its usually ready for the bread making. I do add regular yeast too, but thats only for the quicker rise I like to see. I know someone who adds sour cream to their bread. Very crusty and sour! Might make a batch of bread this weekend, and use a little buttermilk in the dough just to give it a bit smoother/finer texture.
My herbed butter was made last summer and I used fresh rosemary, sage, thyme, and lots of garlic. It all went into a small food processor to be finely chopped, then I added chunks of butter and some olive oil. I don't mix too much longer as butter will soften and melt a bit. I have these Japanese sushi molds that I line with plastic wrap and place a spoon of the mixture in each compartment. Its covered with wrap and a small plastic cover is pressed on, molding it into a small rectangular shaped cube. I place in the freezer and let them harden and then pull out the wrap from the plastic mold and cut them into individual chunks then back into the the freezer. When I do the turkey its usually just a big breast and rib meat (healthier with less fat). The herbed butter gets stuffed under the skin on top of the breast. I also posted my way of doing stuffing with sausage meat and chestnuts, as well as mixed breads. I will probabaly add a few dried cranberries to it as well as they give a nice burst of tart/tang when you eat some.

Sourdough bread is made regularly here, though we make a hybrid with starter and packaged yeast. DH has made it since we got married 30 years ago. During the heat of the summer, we cook very few things indoors except in the microwave.. and resort to store bought bread., which we always complain about. So this spring when the temps started to heat up, I started to experiment with the old bread machine I hadnt thought of in years. I got a pretty decent tasting bread, but the rise/texture wasnt what I wanted as the machine is one of the old verticals. Ordered a Zojirushi bread machine, grew my own sourdough starter and now DH seems reluctant resume his normal winter bread making! Its not always perfect but, I really hate to say this, the bread I make in the bread machine is much more flavorful and has superior texture when compared to DHs... As toast it is fabulous! Chewy, crisp/crunchy edges.. Close enough to perfect for us. Ive experimented a bit in the past with the starter, but I have decided to no longer mess with something we like so well.. Ill miss it if DH goes back to his full time winter bread making, but would never hurt his feelings. He enjoys making it, I only enjoy eating it!

I have never made herbed butter because many herbs cause upset stomach, But I make a soft butter spread that I like as well as MOST store bought stuff. It has no preservatives and is healthier.

Ive decided to dehydrate the peppers and maybe the onions, too, Green onions I like dehydrated but immature yellows, probably not so much. The tomatoes are fine when green but are ripening with some indentations that make them noticeably imperfect and I dont trust them for canning. I dont know what the cause is but its just not worth it. Many are ripening to become compost moisturizers! They seem good to eat fresh, though just too many.

Thanks for your suggestions.

A sourdough culture has beeing going on here for almost a 100 years. It was part from San Francisco, and part my grandfathers, who had a bakery in VT. There, he made bagels with back caraway and sour rye bread with the sourdough. Since then, its been cultured many times over to my regular flour and whole wheat flour. I still make a sour rye bread too, but that takes about 4 days to get going. That machine is the one they rave about at King Arthur flour. Here, mine is old and the vertical square can. Bought 20+ years ago and I usually make a sweet bread in that with an egg, milk, butter, mace, honey, bread flour and regular yeast. I keep my regular yeast tightly covered in the freezer until I need it. One thing I like to add to breads is a bit of potato flour and ascorbic acid. Both add ins seem to keep ythe bread moist and less prone to going stale, but here thats rare.

I might make a loaf of my 'lead bread' soon too. Just plain bread dough rolled out, covered with chopped onions and cheddar cheese, and rolled up like a jelly roll. Place in big bread pan, let it rise a several hours, and bake. It puffs up nicely, but collapses quickly when cooling, hence the nickname lead bread as its heavy with onions and lots of cheese and you cant stop eating it!

ksrogers,
I bake almost all of our bread during the winter. can you give me an idea of how much potato flour and acid you add say for a 6 cups flour reciepe? Thanks.

kim

My DH had to restart his culture a few months ago because he had forgotten to store some separately from use. Too stubborn to use some of mine as a primer, though!

Ive thought of purchasing some true San Francisco starter to see if it really does taste different than mine does in the recipe, but havent yet. The buttermilk powder and lecithin granules I use in my recipe both act as mild preservatives. A loaf of sourdough never lasts longer than 3-4 days here and always tastes good.

My old Breadman machine didnt have a cake cycle.. only bread. The Zorjirushi was a good splurge for us. Sometimes shoulders/hands/neck/back get out of whack, so it will come in handy even when my DH starts up doing the baking again. Not to mention not turning on the oven in the summer to bake or, the alternative.. buying store-bought bread!

"Lead bread" LOL... Sounds like a great one to have with chile beans!

Off to slice more peppers for the dehydrator.

For the potato flour, I would use about a half cup. I also like to add a bit more wheat gluten to my doughs. The ascorbic is about one quarter to a half a teaspoon. Lecithin is more of an emulsifier and acts to keep moisture in the bread as well. I use it for sweet breads that have eggs in them, mainly a danish pastery dough, I call it a Bubka, and also add white raisins.