Canning Season Continues in December

After my husband's September foot injury (mentioned at the end of this post) I realized I couldn't possibly make all the tomato products I had intended to make in September and October, because tending to his needs and appointments was taking up extra time. I gave away many pounds of tomatoes, and froze whole as many as I could squeeze into the corners and crannies of my freezer, telling myself I might get around to making something in November.

And it got to be December before I found a day with enough ambition and no other commitments. I took the bathroom scales out to the garage, along with a sturdy canvas bag, and began filling up the bag with tomatoes until it reached the 25 pounds specified in the handwritten spaghetti sauce recipe my neighbor had shared with me.

The first day, I only had enough ambition to cook the tomatoes and run them through the Foley food mill. (Learn its history here!) Because they were frozen, it took quite a while for them to thaw and then cook 'til soft. The juice/puree nearly filled my biggest kettle (I think it was about 10 quarts of tomato puree), which I set out on the patio table overnight to keep cool. The temperature was below freezing, and while the puree did not freeze, it certainly was very cold in the morning! Consequently, it took at least six hours to bring it to a boil and then let it cook down to the thicker consistency I wanted.

Meanwhile, I prepped the onions with this handy device my husband picked up for me years ago at the fair.

All I have to do is peel the onions and cut them into chunks, like this:

Several turn of the crank later, and I have a nice pile of diced onions:

The green peppers were much easier, because I had already diced them in the fall when I harvested them. I just had to open the freezer bags and dump them into a measuring device. (It's a Pampered Chef 2-quart Batter Bowl. I love my Pampered Chef kitchen tools!)

I had so many onions and so many peppers, I ended up sauteeing them separately in my biggest frying pan.

Then those ingredients, plus seasonings and a few other things, were all added to the tomato puree. I let that simmer for a while until the flavors were all blended together nicely and the texture was what I wanted.

Finally it was time to fill the sterilized jars and process the spaghetti sauce in a boiling water bath.

I ran the canner kettle twice, for a total of 16 pints. Enough was left for one more pint, but we just made spaghetti and ate that. My husband says it is the best spaghetti sauce I have ever made! It was a different recipe than I have used in that past. I will include it at the end of this post, along with what I did differently. These are the first 8 jars to come out of the canner kettle. All 16 sealed, too.

Spaghetti Sauce
25 pounds tomatoes
4 large green peppers, diced (6-8 cups) or 2 cups dried
4 large onions, diced or 1 cup dried
1/4 C. olive oil
2-3 24 oz cans tomato paste (to reach your desired thickness)
I only used 2 6-oz. cans
6 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
I only used one can
1 1/2 C. sugar
I used monk fruit sweetener
1/4 C. salt
4 tsp. dried garlic
I used about a dozen cloves of fresh garlic from my garden, pressed
4 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried parsley
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves (remove before canning)
1/4 C. soy sauce
I used coconut aminos
1 tsp. lemon juice each jar before filling with sauce

Bring cored, quartered tomatoes to a boil in a large stainless steel or enameled stockpot. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until soft. Press tomato mixture, in batches, through a food mill into a large kettle or bowl. Discard skins and seeds. Return the puree to the stockpot, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until it reaches your desired thickness.

Saute the diced peppers and onions in the olive oil until soft. Add them to the tomato puree in the stock pot, along with all the other ingredients. (Except the lemon juice.) Continue to cook the sauce down until the flavors are well blended and it has reached the thickness you want.

Sterilize jars, lids, and rings. Add 1 tsp lemon juice to each jar. Ladle hot spaghetti sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims. Center lid on jar. Apply band, and adjust to fingertip-tight. Place jars in boiling water canner. Process pint jars 35 minutes and quart jars 40 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off heat, remove lid from kettle and let jars stand 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool.

Makes 8-9 quarts, or 16-20 pints, depending on how much canned tomatoes you add and how long you cook it down.

Other notes: Since my tomatoes were frozen whole, I didn't bother to quarter them. I just threw them into the stockpot as is. Some were cored and some weren't.

I tried using less sweetener, but the crushed red pepper flakes made the sauce spicier than I prefer. It needed all the sweetener to balance out the spiciness. I added one can of diced tomatoes to also help balance the flavors. I was trying to avoid using very many commercially canned products in my home canning project, so I cooked the sauce down more in order to get it thick enough without adding a lot of tomato paste or diced tomatoes.

If I find I still have enough tomatoes in the freezer after making salsa, I might try this recipe again!