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I'm making a big batch of Moms spaghetti sauce, we'll, really it's a meat sauce and I'm thinking I'd like to jar up a bunch of it instead of freezing it.
Anything different I'd have to do? After simmering all day can I just let it cool and then fill jars and pressure can like normal?

All the extension services will say to follow a tested recipe and not to change it much other than herbs and spices. That said I would look at something like the Ball recipe:

https://www.healthycanning.com/meat-sauce/

And see how much your recipe varies from it and make a call. But botulism ain't somethiin' I want. I mean take a look at Pelosi and what all the Botox has done to her. So I'd err on the side of caution.

Also you want to can the sauce hot. Don't let it cool.

Fill jars when hot and process, above recipe shows 60 minutes for pints @10lbs, if concerned use meat directions 75 minutes @ 10lbs

After buying no name lids on ebay, our local farm store now has plenty.

Because of the tomato sauce I would add citric acid to each jar to change the PH. We have done this for years to guard against botulism. We don't use lemon juice, buy the dry powdered citric acid they sell in the canning section at the store.Lemon juice changes the flavor.

Thanks for the Replies. I ended up just freezing portions of this batch.

There is no reason to shy away from canning things like Marinara sauce. We (wife and me) don't usually can it with meat but we have done it. Follow printed instruction like Ball, and you well be fine.

I'm 69 years old, I'm luck enough to have know my Great, Great Grand parents and they canned almost everything that couldn't be dried or cured. I ate there many times and I'm still alive.

We freeze gobs of spag sauce for the winter steve. Cant see the advantage of canning for our purposes.

Ziplock, freeze flat, stack like books on a shelf in the freezer when frozen. Same for chili (yes, with beans) and chicken broth.

Freezer works great, but if you want to haul it somewhere canned is easier.

I can see that, but never experienced that "problem".

I have taken the sauce into camp frozen wrapped in newspaper and had it stay that way several days, but its a bit cooler her in Sept.

My main reason was lack of freezer space, fishing has been very very good this Summer, and for those nights I didn't plan ahead and thaw out anything. It would be so easy to toss some pasta In a pot and crack the lid on a jar of sauce.

Kinda figured that was your goal. I will say that a frozen bag in a bowl/pan of warm water thaws right quick.

And retort bags bring the complications even further down...

Not to dismiss you canning but I do a big BBQing around the first to middle part of Sept. I usually do a couple of brisket, 5 or 6 pork butts, ribs, chicken and sausages. I divide up the meat into meal size portions and vacuum bag it and freeze it. When we want some BBQ in the middle of Dec. we get a bag of it out of the freezer and drop it in a pot of boiling water. About 30 minutes later we have BBQ that taste like it just came off the smoker.
I would think you could do your sauce the same way, make a big pot, vacuum bag and freeze it. When you don't plan ahead, just grab a bag and drop it into a pot of boiling water. 30 minutes or so later, cut the top of the bag open and pour the sauce onto the pasta.


Just an idea

I used to live a subsistence lifestyle and everything was canned or dried. When the tomatoes were ripe large batches of catsup, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, Rhubarb juice was concentrated and canned(makes a great lemonade type drink), large batches of venison stew were canned, meat was canned and fish were canned to use like canned tuna.

We did it all on a wood cookstove usually running two large pressure canners and a large water bath canner on the stove to sterilize jars as we would can for two families.

Get a good book on canning and don't take any short cuts.

Modern Tomatoes don't have the acid of the tomatoes of our forbearers so water baths are out for tomatoes now.

What are you using for a vac/sealer? Any problems canning? Have not made that leap yet but considering

we can the meat sauce. we use venison, cut it with pork fat at 30% and then spice it up for italian sausage. Then we brown it and make the meat sauce referenced above. We do 50 ish quarts per year of this stuff. It works GREAT. I will be looking at changing the flavor profile this year but not the canning. I don't want to depend on having power for my freezer. Canning is a superior answer on THAT item for my family.

We have a bunch of different ones around that I have access to. They all work about the same.

Key is to NOT use the rattle to maintain pressure... use a gauge and plug/remove the rattle.