Using vegetable powders in canning

8 years ago

Has anyone used dehydrated vegetables that are ground into powder in any canning recipe? I would like to use some ground kale and ground tomato powders to thicken my spaghetti sauce before canning. Pressure canning or hot water bath?

Thanks,

Lee

Featured Answer

digdirt2

8 years ago

First understand that the cooking down has a dual purpose - not only to thicken but to remove as much free water as possible since water has a pH of 7+ and dictates the pH safety.

So if you leave all that water in and artificially thicken it with powders your pH is way out of the safe range and could only be adjusted by adding lots of acid like vinegar or bottled lemon juice.

If you used the kale you'd be adding low acid ingredients and that would change the pH even further depending on how much you used. You cannot seal a low acid food in a jar without long term pressure canning. If you used tomato powder then the pH of the solids wouldn't be affected much but the overall pH is still out of line.

If you are just making up your own spaghetti sauce recipe you are already in trouble for canning and if you don't eliminate as much of the free water as possible the hole gets deeper. Unfortunately there are no short cuts in canning that don't affect the safety in some fashion.

Why not just make your sauce as you wish and freeze it. Then you don't have any safety concerns.

Dave

Approved Spaghetti Sauce instructions:

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/spaghetti_sauce.html

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Comments (6)

digdirt2
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
It's a double edged question without knowing the exact recipe you are using. Normally using dried vegetable powders in small amounts is no problem but larger amounts can change the pH. So the safety would depend on the specific recipe for the sauce you are using and how much it can compensate for in pH.

Plus density always becomes an issue if something is overly thickened prior to canning. That's why so many approved recipes stipulate no added thickeners. It's always best to do that AFTER opening the jar if necessary. So again it depends on the recipe and the amount of liquid it contains.

Since approved spaghetti sauces have to be pressure canned anyway because of the low acid ingredients in them you have a bit of wiggle room but not a lot.

Dave
lgtung
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I was asking because all the recipes I see say to cook down to thicken. I was thinking I could thicken by adding a powder instead of cooking it down to thicken it. It would end up being the same thickness either way, but add more nutrients and save on cooking down time.
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lgtung
Original Author
8 years ago
Yes that is the recipe I use. I did switch to opalka tomatoes which are much more meaty and higher in acid. That saved on the cooking down time somewhat. If I don't use mushrooms, is there anything else that is approved to take it's place? I didn't think about the water PH but that makes sense.
digdirt2
8 years ago
"f I don't use mushrooms, is there anything else that is approved to take it's place?"

Not really. Leaving out the mushrooms gains you an extra margin of pH safety but we can only sub like for like - ex: sweet peppers for hot peppers but not peppers for onions, things that have the same pH and density. I can't think of anything like mushrooms one could substitute. And the caution note in that recipes - "Caution: Do not increase the proportion of onions, peppers, or mushrooms". Lets us know it is riding a very fine line to begin with.

Something you might consider in the future are the suggestions we often discuss here about freezing and then draining the thawed tomatoes or roasting them first to reduce the cooking down time.

Dave
lgtung
Original Author
8 years ago
Ok thanks for the explanations! I never have enough room in the freezer for all the tomatoes. I harvest around 300 pounds a year, so I am constantly making and canning sauce or salsa etc, just to have room. Would be nice to do them all at once, but it's just not possible! Even 30 pounds wouldn't fit.