Homemade Tomato Sauce Recipe

Gardening and preserving is a great way to provide food for our families throughout the year. There is a problem, however, when too much needs to be harvested at the same time and you just don’t have time to process everything at once. Luckily there is sometimes a way around this problem! Canning fresh tomato sauce.

Last summer my tomatoes did amazingly well. Maybe too well since some of my plants toppled over from the weight of the tomatoes, cage and all. So as my tomatoes were ripening I would pick them, wash them and freeze them to process at a less busy time. I ended up with A LOT of frozen tomatoes.

Frozen Tomatoes

So now it’s mid winter and I suddenly have more time on my hands. I also don’t mind heating up the kitchen, unlike in the heat of the summer. So this is a perfect time to haul those tomatoes out of the freezer and get them canned. They do take quite a while to thaw, depending on the amount you try to thaw at once. The last time I had them in a Rubbermaid tote to thaw and it took 2 days.

Now I think it is important to say that I use safe and tested canning recipes and guidelines. If you decide to can your own sauce I hope that you will research the safest methods too, as we tend to share our home canned goods with those who mean the very most to us. I use the National Centre for Home Food Preservation as a trusted source of canning safety information. This link will take you to guidelines for tomato sauce.

National Center for Home Food Preservation | How Do I? Can Tomatoes (uga.edu)

Once the tomatoes are thawed, a small slice is all that’s needed to slip the skin right off of the tomato. Next season I will core and cut an X before freezing to make this job even easier. Once skinned and cored I tossed all of my tomatoes into 2 crock pots to cook down a bit. I have cooked on the stove top before but they scorch so easily I find it is easier to use a crock pot.

Once they have cooked down and softened I run them all through my food mill to crush up the tomatoes and remove the seeds before returning to the crock pot, leaving the lid askew. I continue to cook them down until they are as thick as I want. I add canning salt, onion powder and garlic powder to taste. Some flavours change during canning so I play it safe and add more seasonings when I open the jars to use them.

Cooking Tomato Sauce

Canning fresh tomato sauce

Once I feel that my sauce is ready, I heat up my canner with water and freshly washed jars inside. The NCHFP states that as long as jars will be processed for at least 10 minutes, they do not need to be sterilized before filling.

Once my jars are hot I fill them with hot tomato sauce, one at a time. I add 2 Tbsp of lemon juice to each jar and leave the proper amount of headspace. Then I wipe the rim of the jars with paper towel soaked in vinegar, double checking that there are no chips in the jar that will prevent a seal. Then I add a new lid and screw on a band to hold it in place, tightening just until I meet resistance.

Filling Jars with Tomato Sauce

I repeat this process until my jars are filled, keeping the filled jars in the hot canner to keep them hot. Once my canner is loaded, I lock the lid into place and turn up the heat to medium high. I wait until there is a solid stream of steam coming from the steam vent and then set a timer for 10 minutes.

Once the 10 minutes is up I use an oven glove to carefully place the canner’s weight on top on the steam vent without burning myself. Because of my altitude I used a 15 lb weight but it really depends on your specific altitude so if you plan to pressure can, check what the altitude is at your home.

Once the weight is on, the pressure inside the canner starts building up. I know that it has reached pressure when the weight starts to rattle and release little bursts of steam. Now I can start my timer for the processing time called for in the recipe. The weight should be rattling gently, if it seems too fast I turn the heat down a tad, little by little, until it is consistent but gentle. If the pressure is too high or the temperature fluctuates too much or too quickly then you might end up with siphoning (when you lose liquid from your jars).

Once my timer goes off I turn off the stove burner. Many people will move the canner off of the hot burner at this point but a loaded canner is very heavy so I usually just leave it where it is. Now I wait for the canner to come down from pressure. My canner doesn’t have a dial gauge so I need to wait for the pressure plug to drop. It will once the canner has been depressurized.

Once the pressure plug drops I will remove the weight and then wait another 10 minutes before opening the canner. I leave the lid on but sitting offset, letting the canner cool but not too quickly. After another 10 minutes I remove the lid and wait again before removing the jars.

I always use a jar lifter to move hot jars. I got way too many burns at the beginning of my canning career before I had proper tools and have learned how valuable they are. I set my jars down on a cutting board or kitchen towel, a hot jar on a cold counter can cause a jar to break.

Jars fresh out of the canner

Now is the hard part. Not touching the lids! My jars this time all popped and sealed within a few minutes of removing from the canner but it is still so tempting to touch those lids to make sure. Don’t! They need to seal on their own.

After 12-24 hours I will remove the bands and pick the jars up by the lid to make sure they have a good seal before washing them well, labelling and dating them to send down to the cold room until they are needed.

Making my own sauce, pickles, jam, anything... well it's a lot of work. It sure is easier to just spend a few dollars at the store. But there is value in knowing what is in your food, in seeing the results of your hard work, and in stepping back and admiring the fruits of your labor. Canning fresh tomato sauce its great!