Taco Sauce Conundrum

11 years ago

I wanted to try the taco sauce recipe on NCHFP's website, but I'm having a little bit of a translation issue. I ran the tomatoes (cherry, slicing and paste) through my vegetable strainer and ended up with about 13 quarts of juice. I boiled it for several hours to allow it to reduce and thicken. I wasn't sure I had enough tomato as the original recipe, so I backed off of the low acid ingredients. I used 2 cloves of garlic, 4 cups onions, 3 jalapeños (1/2 cup), 3 green chiles (1 cup), 2 1/2 cups vinegar. I kept the spices as listed in the recipe and let it boil for about an hour more. The recipe says the yield will be 16-18 pints but I ended up with about half that. Are my high acid/low acid ratios balanced enough to be safe? I'm pressure canning the jars for 20mins though the recipe calls for 15min water bath. Is this ok? Thanks in advance.

Here's the original recipe

8 quarts peeled, cored, finely chopped paste tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
5 cups chopped onions
4 jalapeño peppers, seeded, chopped
4 long green chiles, seeded, chopped
2½ cups vinegar (5 percent)
2 tablespoons salt
1½ tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons oregano leaves (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)

Featured Answer

digdirt2

11 years ago

Unfortunately this is one of the recipes you can't safely alter and you did in several ways. Note the warning posted on it:

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_salsa/tomato_taco_sauce.html

IMPORTANT:
The only changes you can safely make in this salsa recipe are to substitute bottled lemon juice for the vinegar and to change the amount of spices and herbs. Do not alter the proportions of vegetables to acid and tomatoes because it might make the salsa unsafe.

So about all you can do is freeze the sauce you made. Sorry.

If you wish to make it again but want to puree it rather than leave it chunky then you run it all through the mill AFTER making it but before filling the jars.

Dave

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Comments (7)

avalokitesvara
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Thanks for the response Dave. Won't be a total loss as it didn't taste all that great anyway! I'll try it again when tomatoes are in season. I was using frozen-thawed of various sizes so peeling by hand wasn't really an option. In general, I thought it was okay to reduce the amount of low acid ingredients but not increase them (which is why I cut back on the onions and peppers). Is doing so a no no because of a change in thickness/consistency? Lastly, they jars came out of the canner around 11pm last night and they have sat sealed on my counter since then. (It's less than 24 hrs so far) if I did want to freeze some of it, should I reboil the contents first or can I open them, increase the amount of headspace and then freeze? Thanks again
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digdirt2
11 years ago
In general you are right that it is ok to reduce the low acid ingredients. And in this case it would be safe to do so as well. That isn't the issue. It is the pureed tomatoes juice amount and mix - 13 quarts of juice would require more acid to be added. That they were frozen means they were diluted even more with the water from all the ruptured cells. And that they weren't paste types means even more water. More free water requires more acid.

They only add that warning to a few recipes because they are so finely balanced pH wise that there isn't any room for alterations. But had you started out with the 8 quarts of peeled, chopped paste tomatoes then yes you can reduce the amount of onions, garlic, peppers, etc. with no problems as long as you don't reduce the amount of vinegar.

Dave
avalokitesvara thanked digdirt2
avalokitesvara
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you so much for explaining it that way! That will save me a lot of wondering in the future. This will be my third year canning, and I'm doing the NCHFP self study course, but admittedly, tomatoes have always been a bit more difficult to figure out than low acid and high acid foods. Thanks for the purée tip too. I just puréed a jar of salsa and am now thinking I should just do that instead lol. Once again your feedback is greatly appreciated!
l pinkmountain
11 years ago
It' been my experience that pressure canning kind of blahs out picante tomato sauces. I freeze my sauce that is a mix of low acid vegetables and tomatoes, use it for chili and sauce for enchiladas. As for a taco sauce, you might try using a recipe for chili sauce. I made that one year, it was delish. You have to simmer it for at least 45 min. to reduce it. Here's a link to Ball's recipe. http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/grandmas-chili-sauce.
avalokitesvara thanked l pinkmountain
avalokitesvara
Original Author
11 years ago
I may set aside some freezer space for half pint jars of taco sauce that can't be safely canned. It's funny how I'm comfortable with high acid foods and low acids foods, but have trouble with the borderline tomato lol. (Especially when the recipe called for a certain number of ingredients (ie 4 jalapeños) rather than a measurement of said ingredients.)

Thanks for the recommendation for the chili sauce. I saw that sauce recipe and was wondering if it was any good. I'm looking to try more recipes outside of jams and plain fruits and veggies. Can't wait til the tomatoes start ripening!
l pinkmountain
11 years ago
My chili sauce has oil in it, a no no for safe canning, although my old BBB circa 1990 has the recipe in it. But anyway, if I was making the new chili sauce, I would sub cumin for the allspice, ground ancho chili powder for the cinnamon, oregano for the nutmeg, and powdered garlic for the cloves. I'd also use some jalepenos in place of two or three of the green peppers. Those are the flavors of my favorite chili sauce. If you don't change the amount of spices added, you can mix and match to suit your taste. Just don't change the overall measurement/amount of dried spices.