Canning question--BBQ sauce

[newbymom05]

Has anyone canned this themselves? I want to make some BBQ sauce, but my Bell's book has recipes using seeded tomatoes--I want to make it easy and use canned tom sauce and then doctor it up. That shouldn't make a difference, right? I'm thinking tom sauce, spices, vinegar, etc, process for 20 minutes...that'd work, right?

[velochic]

When I am water bath canning anything, I always follow the TNT recipe to a T. I think your way would be fine if you pressure can it. The problem is that in these recipes, the call for the amount of vinegar is very precise in relation to the other ingredients so that the pH is right on target for water bath canning. I wouldn't change it, but I am VERY, VERY careful about my home canning.

[newbymom05]

Originally Posted by velochic

When I am water bath canning anything, I always follow the TNT recipe to a T. I think your way would be fine if you pressure can it. The problem is that in these recipes, the call for the amount of vinegar is very precise in relation to the other ingredients so that the pH is right on target for water bath canning. I wouldn't change it, but I am VERY, VERY careful about my home canning.

Thanks. BTW, what's TNT? I was thinking what w/ the acidity of the tom sauce, the vinegar amount wouldn't be crucial, but I certainly don't want to poison us! So you think if I use the same amount of commercially canned sauce in place of the of the fresh cooked down toms and followed the rest of the recipe as written, I'll be botulism free?

[velochic]

Originally Posted by newbymom05

Thanks. BTW, what's TNT? I was thinking what w/ the acidity of the tom sauce, the vinegar amount wouldn't be crucial, but I certainly don't want to poison us! So you think if I use the same amount of commercially canned sauce in place of the of the fresh cooked down toms and followed the rest of the recipe as written, I'll be botulism free?

There is no way to know. Unless you can test the pH. That's why it's important to use Tried and Tested (TNT) recipes. The vinegar is actually making up for the lack of acidity in the rest of the ingredients.

ETA: You could pressure can it. You would pressure can for the ingredient requiring the longest process time and highest pressure. Probably the peppers, which would be 10pp at 35 minutes (at sea level) for pints.

[newbymom05]

Originally Posted by velochic

There is no way to know. Unless you can test the pH. That's why it's important to use Tried and Tested (TNT) recipes. The vinegar is actually making up for the lack of acidity in the rest of the ingredients.

ETA: You could pressure can it. You would pressure can for the ingredient requiring the longest process time and highest pressure. Probably the peppers, which would be 10pp at 35 minutes (at sea level) for pints.

Huh, wasn't going to use peppers, just commercially canned sauce (toms, salt), vinegar, spices, maybe molasses and/or honey. I'll take your advice and pressure can to be safe. Or I'll just get out my Sweet Baby Rays.

[velochic]

Originally Posted by newbymom05

Huh, wasn't going to use peppers, just commercially canned sauce (toms, salt), vinegar, spices, maybe molasses and/or honey. I'll take your advice and pressure can to be safe. Or I'll just get out my Sweet Baby Rays.

Sorry, I assumed when you said "Bell's" that you meant "Ball's" as in Ball's Blue Book of Preserving when you said you were going off of the recipe, which has peppers and onions.

Especially if you are planning to add sweet and not follow an exact recipe, yeah, I would pressure can it to be on the safe side. That's just me, though. There are plenty of people here that would advocate using the old, unsafe method of open-kettle canning, let alone water bath canning. It's just that I can A LOT and everyone is eating it, so I take every single precaution I am able to with home canning. I'm kind of a safety nerd.