Canned Tomato Sauce (The Best)

Canned Tomato Sauce (The Best)

Course: Condiments, Preserves

Cuisine: American, Eastern European

Keyword: best canned tomato sauce, canned tomato meat sauce, canned tomato sauce, canned tomatoes

Prep Time: 4

Cook Time: 1

Canning time: 1

Total Time: 6

Servings: pints

Calories: 196kcal

Author: Victor

Detailed instructions for how to make delicious tomato sauce.

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Ingredients

11 lbs tomatoes cored, blanched, peeled and diced
6 lbs beef ground chuck; optional
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tbsp sea salt coarse, or kosher salt, plus more to taste
2 Tbsp granulated onion or onion powder
2 Tbsp granulated garlic or garlic powder
2 Tbsp dried basil
1 Tbsp black pepper coarsely ground
1 1/3 Tbsp white sugar or to taste; sweet tomatoes don't need added sugar

Instructions

Rinse, core, blanch, peel and dice the tomatoes.
In a large pot, preferably in a large cast-iron jambalaya pot, mix the tomatoes with the oil, salt, granulated garlic and onion, dried basil, and peppers. Taste and add sugar if the sauce tastes tart. Do not fill the pot more than 3/4 of the way. If your pot is too small, make your batches smaller.
If making meat tomato sauce, heat the 1/4 cup of oil and brown the ground beef. Then add the rest of the ingredients as described in the step above.
Bring to a boil, turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, frequently stirring, until the desired thickness is achieved. I usually stop when the sauce is about 3/4 of the original volume. This will take about 40 to 60 minutes.
Fill clean pint-size jars with the hot tomato sauce, leaving one-inch headspace. Wipe the rims and cover them with the lids. Tighten the bands finger-tight.
Process in a pressure canner for 60 minutes at 10 lb weighted gauge for 0 - 1000 ft elevations above sea level and 15 lb weighted gauge for elevations above 1000 ft. If using quart jars, the processing time should be increased to 70 minutes.
When the processing is done, turn off the heat and let the pressure canner depressurize on its own.
Remove the jars and let them fully cool down at room temperature. Check the jars to ensure that each is properly sealed. Store in a cool, dry, and dark place. Properly sealed and stored tomato sauce will keep its freshness for at least a year and up to 2-3 years before noticeable loss of taste qualities.
Refrigerate the tomato sauce once the jar is open.

Notes

The yield from 11 lbs of peeled and cored tomatoes is exactly 8 pints.

The yield from 11 lbs of peeled and cored tomatoes and 6 lbs of ground beef is roughly 12 pints.

Nutrition values are calculated per pint of tomato sauce without beef.

In place of dried garlic, dried onion and dried basil use fresh herbs/veggies. Per recipe batch, I use 2 medium onions (finely chopped), 5 garlic cloves (pressed or minced) and 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil.

Empty jars used for vegetables, meats, and fruits to be processed in a pressure canner need not be pre-sterilized. It is also unnecessary to pre-sterilize jars for fruits, tomatoes, and pickled or fermented foods that will be processed 10 minutes or longer in a boiling-water canner. Source - Healthy Canning.

Nutrition