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Making and Canning Homemade Spaghetti Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes!
Making and canning your own spaghetti sauce is something families remember years later. No store bought spaghetti sauce compares with the taste of that made from your own tomatoes from your garden or fresh-picked from a local farm! In the middle of the winter, you can make a meal with your spaghetti sauce and taste the summer flavor of fresh tomatoes.
Here's how to do it, in easy steps and completely illustrated. This method is so easy, ANYONE can do this! It's a great thing to do with your kids!
Ingredients and Equipment
Tomatoes - about 20 lbs (yes, you need a big basketful - you remove the skins, seeds and a lot of the water, so it takes a lot to start.)
Spaghetti sauce mix or your own seasonings. The Ball spaghetti sauce mix sells for about $2.00 to $4.00 per packet. A packet will make about a 7 pint jars. See below for seasonings.
1 Water bath Canner (a huge pot to sterilize the jars after filling) (about $20 - $30 at mall kitchen stores, Wal-Mart. Note: we sell our own better, less messy canner here: just request the information from feedback ) Tomatoes are on the border between the high-acid fruits that can be preserved in a boiling-water bath and the low-acid fruits, vegetables and meats that need pressure canning
Pint canning jars (Ball or Kerr jars can be found at Publix and Wal-Mart - about $8 per dozen jars including the lids and rings). Be sure to get wide mouth jars to fit the pickles in! Pint size works best!
Lids - thin, flat, round metal lids with a gum binder that seals them against the top of the jar. They may only be used once.
Rings - metal bands that secure the lids to the jars. They may be reused many times.
Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)
Lid lifter (has a magnet to pick the lids out of the boiling water where you sterilize them. ($2 at Wal-Mart)
1 large pot.
Large spoons and ladles
Jar funnel ($3-$4 at Wal-Mart)
Process - How to Make Spaghetti Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes
Step 1 - Selecting the tomatoes
It's fun to go pick your own and you can obviously get better quality tomatoes!
At right is a picture of tomatoes from my garden - they are so much better than anything from the grocery store. And if you don't have enough, a pick-you-own farm is the pace to go! At right are 4 common varieties that will work:
Top left: Beefsteak
Top right: Lemon Boy, yellow
Bottom left: Roma, paste-type
Bottom right: Better Boy
The picture at left shows the best variety of tomato to use: Roma; also called paste tomatoes. they have fewer sides, thicker, meatier walls, and less water.
Also, you don't want mushy, bruised or rotten tomatoes!
Step 2 - Removing the tomato skins
Here's a trick you may not know: put the tomatoes, a few at a time in a large pot of boiling water for no more than 1 minute (30 - 45 seconds is usually enough)
then.....
Plunge them into a waiting bowl of ice water.
This makes the skins slide right off of the tomatoes! If you leave the skins in, they become tough and chewy in the sauce, not very pleasant.
Step 3 - Removing seeds and water
After you have peeled the skins off the tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in half. Now we need to remove the seeds and excess water.
Step 4 - Squeeze of the seeds and water
Just like it sounds: wash your hands then squeeze each tomato and use your finger or a spoon to scoop and shake out most of the seeds. You don't need to get fanatical about it; removing just most will do.
Step 5 - Drain the tomatoes
Toss the squeezed (Squozen? :) tomatoes into a colander or drainer, while you work on others. This helps more of the water to drain off. You may want to save the liquid: if you then pass it through a sieve, screen or cheesecloth, you have fresh tomato juice; great to drink cold or use in cooking!
Step 6 - Get the jars and lids sterilizing
The dishwasher is fine for the jars. I get that going while I'm preparing everything else, so it's done by the time I'm ready to fill the jars.
Be sure to let it go through the rinse cycle to get rid of any soap!
Lids: Put the lids into a pan of boiling water for at least several minutes.
Note: everything gets sterilized in the water bath (step 7) anyway, so this just helps to ensure there is no spoilage later!)
Step 7. Mix or your own seasoning?
Either works equally well. the spaghetti sauce mix for canning has the advantage of being tested. It's basically corn starch, onion powder, salt and seasoning. It doesn't have any preservative to improve the canning, so the advantage is just that it is easier.
Otherwise, use:
2 cups chopped onions
3 Tablespoons of oregano
4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons diced, fresh OR dried basil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup chopped celery
2 Tablespoons chopped green peppers
1 teaspoon salt (optional - I don't put any in!)
1/4 cup lemon juice (helps to acidify it, not needed if you have a pressure canner)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 red wine (optional) I think a little burgundy makes it!)
And if you like your spaghetti sauce thick, add 4 Tablespoons corn starch
Step 8 - Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer
You don't need to overcook it; just bring it to boiling to sterilize it, mix the seasonings and cook down the tomatoes.
Step 9 - Fill the jars with sauces and put the lid and rings on
Fill them to within 1/4 inch of the top, seat the lid and hand-tighten the ring around them.
Be sure the contact surfaces (top of the jar and underside of the ring) are clean to get a good seal!
Step 10 - Boil the jars in the canner
Put them in the canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Keep the water boiling. Process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 35 minutes for pints and 40 minutes for quarts. If you have a pressure canner, use it and process the sauce for 30 minutes for pint jars and 35 minutes for quarts, at a pressure of 10 to 11 pounds. Remember to adjust the time if you are at a different altitude other than sea level!
I prefer a pressure canner or my own design water bath canner, shown at right - it is much deeper, so it is neater, no boilovers, and allows you to cover the tallest jars with several inches of water to ensure safety! To order one, click on feedback and tell me you'd like one!
Step 9 - Done
Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight) You can then remove the rings if you like.
Other Equipment:
From left to right:
Jar lifting tongs to pick up hot jars
Lid lifter - to remove lids from the pot of boiling water (sterilizing )
Lid - disposable - you may only use them once
Ring - holds the lids on the jar until after the jars cool - then you don't need them
Canning jar funnel - to fill the jars
Complete Water Bath Canner Kit
This is the same type of standard canner that my grandmother used to make everything from applesauce to jams and jellies to tomato and spaghetti sauce!. This complete kit includes everything you need and lasts for years: the canner, jar rack, jar grabber tongs, lid lifting wand, six pint jars with lids and rings, a plastic funnel, labels, bubble freer, and the bible of canning, the Ball Blue Book. It's much cheaper than buying the items separately. You'll never need anything else except more jars & lids! For more information and current pricing:
Average Customer Review: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Summary - Cost of Making Homemade Spaghetti Sauce - makes 7 pint jars, 16 oz each*
Item
Quantity
Cost in 2004
Source
Subtotal
Tomatoes
20 - 25 lbs (to make about 16 cups of prepared tomato)
free from the garden, or $0.50 cents at a PYO
Garden
$0.00
Canning jars (pint size, wide mouth), includes lids and rings
7 jars
$8.00/dozen
Wal-Mart, BigLots, Publix, Kroger
$4.50
seasoning
See step 7
$2.00?
Wal-Mart, Publix, Kroger
$2.00
Spaghetti mix
1 packet
$4.00 per package
Wal-Mart, BigLots, Publix, Kroger
Total
$6.50 total or about $0.95 per jar INCLUDING the jars - which you can reuse!
* - This assumes you already have the pots, pans, ladles, and reusable equipment. Note that you can reuse the jars! Many products are sold in jars that will take the lids and rings for canning. For example, Classico Spaghetti sauce is in quart sized jars that work with Ball and Kerr lids and rings
Tomatoes are a low acid fruit - adding lemon juice helps, processing at least 35 minutes in the water bath canner, or better still, using a pressure canner almost eliminates spoilage. If you don't have a pressure canner, you must boost the acid level of the sauce, by adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per quart of sauce.
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