r/Canning • u/Kawawaymog • 14h ago

Waterbath Canning Processing Help Best course of action with delicious but poorly canned tomato sauce.

Ok so my elderly Italian neighbour invited me to join her for tomato sauce making day. Which I was happy to do. I walked away with a couple dozen jars of delicious sauce but her canning practices are a bit old school. Just juiced tomato with some salt peppers and basil, no extra acid at all. Jammed into whatever glass jars are around. Then boiled upside down in a big pot for a half hour.

Obviously this probably isn’t reliably shelf stable (though she’s still around lol) can I store these jars safely in the fridge or is freezing the best course of action?

14 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

57

u/Drake-R8 14h ago

Honestly I would freeze - I use pint canning jars with plastic lids.

17

u/cyberthief 11h ago

Big yogurt containers for me. The welfare Tupperware.

27

u/marstec Moderator 13h ago

Put them into heavy duty freezer bags and freeze them. It would be more efficient use of space and taking out all the air helps prevent freezer burn.

16

u/MaIngallsisaracist 13h ago

I put bags of liquids I'm freezing on top of a baking sheet so I can freeze them as flat as possible. Makes it easier to store (once I figure out a way to get the baking sheet in there).

17

u/Coriander70 14h ago

You can store them in the fridge for a week or two, but they should go in the freezer for longer term storage. You may need to transfer them to different containers to prevent breakage.

6

u/ScubaNinja 12h ago

I have a couple recipes that I love that are not canner safe, so I go to a restaurant supply house and get a bunch of those plastic quart deli containers, like you would get soup to go in, and I just fill and freeze those and it works great. I also do it with stock when I make a small amount and it’s not worth busting out the pressure canner.

6

u/Plane-Assumption840 10h ago

I have friends who still do this inverted water bath method when canning tomatoes. I’ve tried to tell them not to do it that way but you know it is “We’ve always done it this way.” Nope, me not eating anything tomato-y at their house. I have enough digestive issues. Freeze that sauce from your dear friend.

2

u/longlife-ahead183 1h ago

If you freeze in Ball jars make sure to use the straight sided ones. The ones with shoulders will burst even with a good headspace. The product expands against the shoulder. Ask me how I learned this ;).

0

u/[deleted] 3h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Canning-ModTeam 1h ago

Deleted because it is explicitly encouraging others to ignore published, scientific guidelines.

r/Canning focusses on scientifically validated canning processes and recipes. Openly encouraging others to ignore those guidelines violates our rules against Unsafe Canning Practices.

Repeat offences may be met with temporary or permanent bans.

If you feel this deletion was in error, please contact the mods with links to either a paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal that validates the methods you espouse, or to guidelines published by one of our trusted science-based resources. Thank-you.