suzy, I over a hundred of jars of tomatoes each year and I use lemon juice. You can't taste it at all in the finished product , it is used to add acidity. I would not use balsamic. I'm not sure that it would add the right level of acidity and I'd be worried about it adding to much of a strong vinegar flavour to the sauce.

When you say spaghetti sauce what specifically do you mean in terms of seasonings and/or veggies?

I have recipes I've used for years. One is chunky, more like a stewed tomato, I use it for things like chili.

Another is a sauce made with fresh herbs like basil and parsley and the third is an Italian style sauce using finely diced carrots, peppers and onion.

I'm glad to post any or all if you are interested.

If you have a Ball Blue Book, there is a recipe for Spaghetti Sauce that is frozen, not canned, but the tested recipes I know of for home-canning spaghetti sauce (without meat) requires a pressure canner. There are too many low-acid ingredients in spaghetti sauce to make it safe to can in a boiling water bath. That doesn't mean you won't find recipes for doing just that - you will - but please consider them unsafe to use. Follow the instructions found at the link below for tested recipes.

Bottled lemon juice (or citric acid) is added to increase the acid. All tomato products need some bottled lemon juice added to them because tomatoes are on the boarder-line of being acid enough for canning in a boiling water bath. There are also many low-acid varieties of tomatoes now, so adding the bottled lemon juice is essential to assure acidity. Don't substitute fresh lemon juice for bottled. The acidity of fresh lemons varies enough that they may not be adding enough acid.

If you want to add balsamic vinegar, add it when reheating the spaghetti sauce just before you serve it, NOT as a replacement for lemon juice.
Home canning rules:
-Avoid altering recipes for home canning. Don't substitute or alter ingredient amounts, unless it specifies so in the TESTED recipe.
-Don't double recipes because it can alter the acid level.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Canning Guide - Tomatos and Tomato Products

I should have clarified, my recipes for canned tomatoes are what I use as a base for spaghetti sauce , they aren't a spaghetti sauce themselves although I do use the herb sauce over pasta. It is more like a fresh tomato sauce than what people call spaghetti sauce.

The three recipes I have are originated from a Bernardin recipe book and call for a hot water bath. They have a very low veg to tomato ratio, call for lemon juice and I am very careful not to monkey with them!!!

Grainlady - Chase:

My family and others, put up tomatoes in Mason Jars.
This was done in the late Fall, when they could argue tomato price , with the Hucksters

Then used the Tomatoes when needed, to make Spaghetti Sauce.

Question:
If Lemon Juice is used in canning the Sauce , can some sugar be added to cut the Acidity,

when the Sauce is prepared for serving ???

I add Sugar to the Sauce if it is too Acidic.

Luigi

I got this recipe from the Harvest forum a few years ago and it is my go-to tomato sauce now. It doesn't use lemon juice.

I think it's from Small Batch Preserving, or something like that...

Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
8 cups (2 L) coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes -- (about 9-12 tomatoes or 4 lb/2 kg)
1 cup chopped onion -- (250 mL)
3 cloves garlic -- minced
2/3 cup red wine -- (150 mL)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar (5 % strength) -- (75 mL)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (125 mL)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley -- (15 mL)
1 teaspoon pickling salt -- (5 mL)
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar -- (2 mL)
1 6-oz/156 mL) can tomato paste

Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, wine, vinegar, basil, parsley, salt, sugar and tomato paste in a very large non-reactive pan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes or until mixture reaches desired consistency, stirring frequently.

Remove hot jars from canner and ladle sauce into jars to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of rim (head space). Process 35 minutes for pin (500 mL) jars and 40 minutes for quart (1 L) jars in a BWB.

Yield:
"8 cups"

hawk307 -
You can add the sugar to cut the acidity after you open the canned tomato product and are preparing it for consumption. I can remember my mother adding butter and sugar to home-canned tomatoes to cut the acid, and making tomato soup with them. What lovely stuff that was!!!

The Ball Blue Book has a recipe for Basil-Garlic Tomato Sauce processed in a boiling-water canner. This one is great for low-sodium diets and could quickly be used as the base for spaghetti sauce. Another recipe from the Ball Blue Book for Seasoned Tomato Sauce is also processed in a boiling-water canner.

-Grainlady

Thank you all for the tips, I promise, I won't mess with the recipe. The spagettic sauce we used to buy at COSCO can not be found in any store, so I thought I'd try a batch of my own. Susytwo, I'm liking your recipe, may try it, then decide which recipe to use for the canning.

Just a comment about the addition of Lemon juice to canned tomato products. I was a bit concerned myself, but did quarts of cold packed tomatoes, quartered, with the addition of the recommended amount of salt and lemon juice and processed according to BBB instructions. My mother swore up and down that I added something different to those tomatoes, that they tasted more tomato-y. The only thing was the addition of the lemon juice which I think brightens up the flavor.

Steve

As an alternative, you can add citric acid to tomatoes, 1/2 teaspoon per quart. Yes, it's OK with the USDA and no, it doesn't change the flavor of the tomatoes.

I use it because my mother is allergic to lemons and if she eats chili at my house made with home canned tomatoes, I'd rather that she not have an adverse reaction.

I also use the Small Batch Preserving recipe for Tomato Basil Sauce, it was given to me by Carol/Readinglady and my girls like it just as it is, they don't even use it as a base for spaghetti sauce, they use it as sauce by itself.

Annie

I buy a bushel of Roma tomatoes every year and peel and cook them and freeze them.

I've never canned, but it would certainly save room in my freezer!
I assume I would need to raise the jars off the floor of the pot in some way?

jasdip-

Another alternative to freezing and home-canning is to dehydrate your tomatoes. You'll never believe how many dried tomatoes you can stuff into a quart jar.

If you don't have a canner with a rack in it, you can line the bottom of your kettle with some extra jar rings to raise the jars off the bottom. If you are new to home canning, there is a self-study you can take at the National Center for Home Food Preservation web site (the link is below), and I'd recommend reading the free information you will find at the National Center for Home Food Preservation under "publications".

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

jasdip, you do need something between the bottom of the pot and your jars, although I've put them right in and not had them break. I think I was just lucky.

When I was young and broke and first starting a household, I put a folded dish towel under the jars to keep them from clunking on the bottom fo the pot. It worked fine, although you have to be careful about putting the jars in because the towel will float up until it gets weighted down by the jars.

I have an Excaliber dehydrator and love it, I think zucchini and apples are my favorite dehydrated items. Oh, and onions, no matter how many layers I use to bag them, my whole freezer still smells like onions. I also dehydrate a lot of hot peppers for Elery, he adds them to a lot of stuff although I don't use very many.

I've been pretty spectacularly unsuccessful at dehydrating tomatoes and strawberries, though. The strawberries became chewy little red bits that tasted like nothing. The tomatoes never became crisp enough to powder, although I could put them in the food processor and chop them up into bits after dehydration. I didn't like them with the peels on, the peels became little chewy pieces of "stuff" so I had to peel them and that made them harder to handle. And I didn't think they kept their flavor very well, I was not impressed.

I'm considering trying a tomato leather this year, tomatoes are a fruit and fruit leather is done by lots of people but so far I have not been impressed with my dehydrated tomatoes.

I admit, I do tend to like different vegetables preserved in different ways. I don't like dehydrated potatoes either, they remind me of the boxed instant potatoes. I do par-fry them and put them in the freezer for french fries, though. I like green beans canned, but I like corn frozen. I like berries frozen, but I like apples dried. It's all a matter of finding out which method works best for you and your particular tastes.

Annie

Annie-

Zucchini and apples are favorites around here, too. (Thank goodness for a good mandoline to make quick work of slicing them!)

Here's a how-to for tomato leather if you don't already have a recipe.

Tomato Leather

Core ripe tomatoes and cut into quarters. Cook over low heat in a covered saucepan, 15 to 20 minutes. Pur�e or force through a sieve or colander and pour into electric fry pan or shallow pan. Add salt to taste and cook over low heat until thickened. Spread on a cookie sheet, tray lined with plastic wrap, or leather sheets. Dry at 140�F.

I like to peel the leather off the leather sheets when they are set enough to do so, then sit the leather back onto the drying screens without the plastic wrap or plastic leather sheets, and flip them a time or two during drying, if necessary.

You can cut the leather into strips or squares with kitchen scissors and store them in a vacuum-sealed jar, or whole sheets stacked with parchment paper or waxed paper between the sheets and store in the freezer for longer storage time.

Rehydrate the strips in hot water to make tomato sauce or tomato paste, or add the strips directly to your favorite soup. Add Italian or Pizza Spices to the rehydrated sauce, a little vinegar and sugar (if you like) for pizza sauce.

I purchase tomato powder in #10 cans and wouldn't bother making my own because the spray-process used to make it commercially is far superior than what I can make; but I do make tomato leather and LOTS of dehydrated tomatoes. ;-)

-Grainlady