You may pressure can the pizza sauce without the cheese. You cannot process dairy. Seems easy enough to add the cheese to the pizza when ready to bake.

I have been researching a similar question for a couple of years now and I can assure you that at this time there is no way you can pressure can anything without using an approved and tested recipe. There is no way for you to be able to figure out the pressure and length of time needed to kill all the bacteria that might grow in your sauce. I know, it seems to me too, that it should be simple to just look at similar recipes and deduce from them what you need to do, but beleive me, all the experts here and everywhere else that I could find, warn me that unless you follow exactly a recipe that has been tested for home preservation that you are getting yourself into troubled waters. And they also say that you can't necessarily taste or smell botulism and that it can kill you. It just isn't worth taking the chance.

Alright, from the both of you I got the message. Just to stoke the fire a little, but couldn't I leave it at a massive pressure for a looong time and be guaranteed complete annihilation of all enzymes, molds, yeasts and bacterium?

Sure seems to me like you can. (Look for my questions and answers on pressure canning tomatoes) I mean if you can process meat by processing for an hour, why wouldn't you be able to process tomato sauce? But they all assure me that if you did that the quality would be terrible. The other question I have is couldn't you just add the recommended acid to each bottle and then be assured of it's safety. However, you still wouldn't know for how long to process it. I just gave up and accepted that you have to follow the proven guidelines and hope that more research will provide answers in the future.

Meta, I read your question and the answers.... so my question to you is, could you not freeze the sauce? I would certainly consider that route if I were you. Good luck.
jude

Is there a rule of thumb for pressure cooking?

Yes, follow the pressure canning directions provided in an approved, tested recipe. ;)

You cannot safely make up pressure canning times. Sure, theoretically you could pressure can most anything for 12 hours but you still wouldn't know if it was safe and you definitely wouldn't care for the end result even if it was safe. An example: any recipe containing oil (like cheese) - natural or added - the oil insulates any botulism spores and prevents the applied heat from killing it. Then it sits on the shelf and spores produce toxin in the perfect environment you have created for it. It's the toxin that kills you.

Make your recipe and freeze it as already suggested. Most anything can be safely frozen but many things can't be safely canned.

Dave

Dave, it's interesting you say that. I've got a recipe from the NCHFP with olive oil in it, so I assume you don't mean /every/ recipe.

Also, there's got to be a beginning. It's the chicken and the egg routine. Does each perfect canning recipe have 50 dead people before it that tried the 50 other methods?

As for freezer space, it's the same question for anything else: Why bottle /anything/ when you can freeze it. In short, I don't have a walk in freezer and making this stuff up in bulk was for the purpose of not having to make this stuff every time I want pizza sauce.

And yes, like meat, you'd think it should be possible. How would this ruin tomatoes? It's suppose to be a paste.

Thanks guys.

You cannot safely can your own recipes. Why? You not only do not know the ph level nor do you know the density.
Both affect the time and temp. of a canned food.
For example, it is never safe to can pumpkin butter. However, you can safely can chunks of pumpkin in water. The difference since it is the same pumpkin ? Density.
Heat cannot penetrate the pumpkin butter.
Please, get a current copy of the Ball Blue book and follow the recipes and methods. There are some USDA books and websites that are good, too. Ball also has a website.
Not all books and things online are safe, either. If Aunt Susie posted something, you have no idea if she made it up or got from a reliable source.
One of the number one rules to homecanning is never can your own recipes.
The only safe things you can do it add dried herbs or spices to things or trade one kind of pepper for another in a salsa recipe, etc. in equal amounts.
No butter, dairy of any kind, no oil, no thickeners, no noodles, rice, barley, either are safe to add.
Not other than 1/2 tsp. butter to jams to keep down foam, a few recipes have oil for sauteeing veggies with. A very few highly acidified marinated vegetable recipes and no other vegetables can be substitued in them. For thickeners, only jams and pie fillings are safe to thicken and a few relish recipes have some added.
These are all safety tested things, done in labs.

Never oil?

Preparing and Canning Pickled Vegetables
Marinated Peppers

Bell, Hungarian, Banana, or Jalapeno

* 4 lbs firm peppers*
* 1 cup bottled lemon juice
* 2 cups white vinegar (5 percent)
* 1 tbsp oregano leaves
* 1 cup olive or salad oil
* 1/2 cup chopped onions
* 2 cloves garlic, quartered (optional)
* 2 tbsp prepared horseradish (optional)

Yield: About 9 half-pints.

This comes from:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/marinated_peppers.html

I've got 3 of these up in my cupboard...hope I don't have to pitch 'em.

Yes, we know. Boy do we know! ;) In fact this very same issue is currently under discussion in other threads here and seems to come up at least monthly.

You are trying to extrapolate from one recipe to another. NCHFP has a few severely tested and approved recipes - 2 I think - that allow for oil. But in no way can that be interpreted to mean that oil can be used in other recipes. They make that very, very clear.

With the exceptions listed by Linda Lou and the few tested and approved recipes from NCHFP, no oil [NEVER] is allowed in home canning.

The issue only seems to come up with those new to canning or those who wish to experiment rather than accept Lesson #1 in home canning - only tested and approved recipes should be used. ;)

Experimentation with home canning is something best left to the professional food scientists.

Dave

As for freezer space, it's the same question for anything else: Why bottle /anything/ when you can freeze it. In short, I don't have a walk in freezer and making this stuff up in bulk was for the purpose of not having to make this stuff every time I want pizza sauce.

There are many, many things that lend themselves to easy safe canning and hundreds of recipes that have been tested and approved exist for them. It is only when someone tries to force that method on a personal, untested recipe or some sort of experiment that it becomes an issue. Many simply can't accept that things can be commercially canned but not canned at home or that the issue of safety should outweigh the issue of convenience.

In those cases freezing is the only safe option that can be recommended.

But as we tell everyone else who insists on trying it, it's your risk to take. Just don't expect approval for it. That would be irresponsible of us. Feel free to write directly to Dr. Elizabeth Andress at NCHFP - she is a food scientist, we aren't - her contact info is available on the site.

Dave

I didn't say never, I mentioned marinated vegetable recipes. Those are the ones I was speaking about with oil. They are highly acidified to be safe and they are tested.
Elizabeth Andress will tell you the same information. She always replies with the same answer, do not can your own recipes. Most of the time it comes down to density. They test density in the labs with special equipment.
You are right, we just can't duplicate a commercial product at home.

Hey thanks both Linda and Dave. I really do respect your output here and I'm glad I have the opportunity to talk to pros. I would /never/ experiment with my own ideas...which is why I thought I'd present my question here.

Guess I'll just have to make up the batch every time I want a good pizza sauce. ;)

Again, thanks.

In addition to the books Linda Lou recommended consider picking up a copy of Small Batch preserving by Ellie Topp. Her recipes are very inventive and unique - not your everyday canning recipes in other words - so might have greater appeal for you.

Dave

Meta,

WAY TOO MUCH OIL!! A cup could definately make that recipe a very unsafe one to can, even if it were done at 15 lbs pressure and 5+ hours.. The longer this is stored the more it could build up a bad case of botulism or other unknown. Its very esy to add oil to a sauce. In fact, I spread olive oil in the prepared crust before adding the sauce and toppings.

The problem lies in where and when the recipe was 'invented'. If its handed down from great grandma, it would require some very serious consideration. If the recipe were simply posted on a web site and its author is not known has not provided a good reliable source, it too can be dangerous.

When I wanted to can my homemade tomato speghetti suace, I went to my handy-dandy ball book and checked out their recipees. They have several "spice blends" that they list and suggest that you modify the quantity and variety of dried herbs and spices to suit your taste for use in their tomato suaces - both bwb and pressure canned. Barring the cheese, which - as was mentioned earlier - can be added later, you ought to be able to modify the dried herbs you use with a proven recipee to come darn close to the recipe that you prefer.

Who knows, you might find something you like better. Kay.

Meta, believe me when I say I totally share your frustration (the "how come I can't...but Grandma always did it...I can buy it in the store and I want to make my own" kinds of questions and almost always the "No, you can't" answers).

After seriously preserving food for a number of years now, I've discovered that:
a. Some foods taste better canned (so I do it that way),
b. Some foods taste better frozen (so I do it that way),
c. Some foods I don't like canned OR frozen, and just eat them fresh out of the garden (for me, that's green beans).
d. Some officially tested recipes break all the canning goddess rules, and I have given up trying to make sense out of that :-)

And most important, the folks here are incredibly generous in sharing their experience, knowledge and recipes.

You forgot, we also share our goofs and failures.. Who me, na..

ksrogers, that comes off of the NCHFP...if I can't trust that website for the correct amount of oil, I might as well throw away my entire cupboard. :p

(I thought it was abnormal, too, when I first read it)

Yes it is an approved recipe - all of the NCHFP ones are. It is one of the few exceptions that allows for oil because it is marinated, the peppers are pre-roasted, and it contains ample vinegar.

I think Ken just didn't realize it was an NCHFP recipe. We have all been trained to avoid oil in canning recipes and most opt to leave it out even when it is allowed because of the problems with rancidity.

Dave

Yes, as mentioned before, oils could be used, but with great care, and only from approved sources. I would prefer not to use any oils in my canning. I will 'push the limit' in other ways, so I must consider these other variables as being as close to being safe as they can be. The vaiables are added acids beyond the minimums, as well as other minor changes that will not impact the outcome of the product.