"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 -----------------------------------------------

There are TONS of threads here about paste tomatoes but I'll just list the ones that I think are really good, commenting that most of my tomato friends don't use paste tomatoes for sauce. They use the BEST tasting varieties they have since most paste toimato varieties are not noted for excellent taste and just cook the sauce down a bit more and they also try to use any dense fleshed non-paste of which there are many including some excellent heart varieties. Anyway, here are some paste varieties that I think have decent taste eaten raw that you might consider for sauces if you want to stick to just known paste varieties. All are red and high yielding and have wroked well for others. Heidi Mama Leone Ludmilla's Red Plum Sarnowski Polish Plum Opalka ( Jersey Devil is about the same as are several other long reds or similar) Tadesse or Wuhib I've grown Borgo Cellano and don't like the taste at all but maybe it's just me. And you speak of disease tolerance. ON LI you shouldn't be bothered by any of the systemic tomato diseases such as Fusarium, Verticillium, etc., which leaves you with the same problem all of us have and that's the foliage diseases and with just a few exceptions that aren't of use for the home gardener, there are no varieties, hybrid or OP that have any significant tolerance to the common foliage diseases. In addition, most paste varieties are very susceptible to Early Blight ( A. solani) and BER which is why so many folks use some non-pastes for sauce. And some use pastes AND other non-paste varieties for their suace. Hope that helps. Carolyn

Here's a tip from Shirley Corriher (Cookwise); the night before you boil the eggs for deviled eggs, store the egg carton sideways--that is, on edge so that the eggs are resting horizontally. (You may wish to tape the carton shut so it doesn't pop open, and/or prop something next to it in the fridge so it stays sideways.) The idea is that the yolk will center itself inside the albumen and make a more attractive deviled egg. Here's one of her methods for boiling eggs, using a cold water start: -Place eggs in a single layer in a heavy saucepan and cover with 1 1/2 inches of cold water -Partially cover the pot and bring to a full rolling boil -Turn the heat down to low, cover completely, and leave on heat for 30 seconds -Remove from heat and let eggs stand in hot water for 15 minutes --Cool the eggs by putting them in cold running water for 5 minutes. (I drain the hot water first, then run cold water over them for 5 minutes) I've been boiling eggs this way for the past year or so; very few cracked shells and few green yolks. The nice thing about this technique is that once you turn off the heat you can go do something else. I use the kitchen timer at the link, wearing it around my neck to summon me back to the kitchen to finish up the task. As someone else mentioned, if you use slightly older eggs, they are easier to shell than really fresh ones. I tend to buy two dozen at a time, using one for fresh applications (souffles, poaching, etc) and saving the second one to boil the next week. Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen timer

I think I used too much vinegar in the first batch - all the eggs had dark grey marks all over them. Some in spots and some where the shells had cracked. I skipped the vinegar in the second batch, and it was fine. My MIL tried to give me a square egg mold once! If you have a lot of them, it's cool, but one at a time is deadly! Thanks for your help. AM PS Maybe next time I'll use the "Hello, Kitty" egg mold! Here is a link that might be useful: Hello Kitty Egg mold