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

Perhaps I should just let this thread die, but I always concerned about how people assess the information they find on the internet. desertmarcy, I am curious as to why you believe that Dr. Metcalf is a "qualified" individual? Because he is a professor of microbiology? I can assure you, that is NOT sufficient qualification. And the reason I can assure you of that is that I am also a professor of microbiology and I certainly do NOT know as much about food safety as many of the contributors to this forum, including Linda Lou and Carol. There are many areas of microbiology, food safety is a very specialized field. I was curious, so I went to the Cal State Sacramento web page and looked up Dr. Metcalf. His page describes his research with solar cooking. Wondering where he received his degree and what his previous research has been, I attempted to view his curriculum vitae - it was an inactive link. I then did a literature search to see if he has published his findings. He has only one peer reviewed publication on solar water purification and that was from 1999 - considered quite a long time ago in scientific research. On his web page, he states that most of the world believes that water must be boiled for 20 minutes to be safe, but that it can be pasteurized by heating to 65C (149°F). There is an important point here and that is the word pasteurization. It is very different than sterilization. Pasteurization only removes some of the microbes that are present, those that are thought to be most likely to cause illness. It certainly will not remove all microbes. His research appears to be mostly directed toward finding ways that people in developing countries can make their food safer. It is probably a powerful tool in those situations, people don't have money or resources to cook and prepare food the way we do here. Being able to pasteurize water is a huge accomplishment in those situations. However, appying those principles in countries that do have the ability to prepare food with more care seems unwise in my opinion. It is a proven fact that water must be boiled for 20 minutes to inactivate bacterial endospores, including those of Clostridium botulinum which causes botulism. The USDA has carried out extensive studies to determine safe methods for home canning of foods. While they may err on the side of excessive safety (I'm not saying they do, only that they may), they have used scientific experiments to support their findings. I understand the concern for diminishing energy resources, but compromising the safety of one's food seems a very high risk to take in order to conserve. This is, of course, only my opinion and, as stated above everyone has to decide what level of risk is acceptable. I did however wish to point out that one must evaluate information from the internet very carefully and know what the qualifications are of the person providing the information. Perhaps you know more about Dr. Metcalf than I could find. Sorry this is so long.

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

I prepare 3 meals a day, 7 days a week. We may eat out for one lunch, but it is rare. So, I'll take shortcuts any day when the quality isn't compromised! Trader Joe's has been the best thing that's happened to our food budget, quality of premade foods, and our health. I've lost 6.5 lbs since I started eating 100% TJ's food and beverages on January 9th! It took so long for our town to get one recently, and now it has made a big difference. Lou...I love making Italian sauces. My DH and sons say that my best sauces are those that I call "pantry pasta" meaning whatever I have in the pantry may be used! What sauce recipe do you want to share? Thanks, Cameron