Spaghetti sauce help

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laceyp

Assistant Cook
Joined
Oct 4, 2022
Messages
1
Location
Utah
Last week I canned 4 quarts of spaghetti sauce. The recipe said to water-bath can for 10 minutes . All my jars sealed and are still sealed and the contents look fine. Well today I went to make more and noticed my recipe was for pints not quarts. I decided to look up the processing time for pasta sauce and found for my altitude I should process quarts for 45 min. And pints for 40. Are my jars from last week unusable? Can I reprocess them today in my canner? Help.
 
No one in good conscience could tell you, they are usable, or that you can reprocess them today after a week.
Consider it a learning experience. Check with the approved recipes on NCHFP and university extension offices, those are available on the internet and process according to those directions.
There are many resources out there that are more focused on canning. Facebook has a good group called Canning and Preserving with Love. https://www.facebook.com/groups/canningandpreservingwithlove

Best wishes
 
If you have room in your freezer, just freeze the jars as they are. I freeze sauce, since I have limited pantry space, and have no problem taking sauce out of the freezer and then thawing it overnight, or longer, in the refrigerator.
 
I too would not trust what you under processed. However, if you want to save space, you can dry your sauce on a sheet pam in a low oven, them vacuum seal, or in a dehydrator. The dried tomato sauce is shelf stable. It's like making fruit leather. If you have the storage space, start over again and use certified canning technique.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
If people don't trust the way it was canned to reprocess it, then I don't understand how they believe it can be safe to dry or freeze it. If I had done that, I would be cursing and throwing it out and as blissful wrote, chalking it up to a learning experience.
 
The problem with the under canned tomato sauce, is that from the time it was under canned until now, it sat at room temperature. Any unpreserved foods kept in the food safety danger zone for more than 2 hours (is that right?), which is between 40 and 140 deg F, has time to produce bacteria and toxins.
I can't prove it did or did not produce bacteria or toxins, nor can a person always 'see' the bacteria, or 'smell' the bacteria, or 'taste' the bacteria. A person really won't know until they eat it and that might be dangerous.
(is it 2 hours or 4 hours in the danger zone?)
 
If people don't trust the way it was canned to reprocess it, then I don't understand how they believe it can be safe to dry or freeze it. If I had done that, I would be cursing and throwing it out and as blissful wrote, chalking it up to a learning experience.
I agree. For drying, or freezing, I was talking about newly made sauce, not the questionable sauce. Sorry for not being more clear.
 
If you have room in your freezer, just freeze the jars as they are. I freeze sauce, since I have limited pantry space, and have no problem taking sauce out of the freezer and then thawing it overnight, or longer, in the refrigerator.
They've been kept at room temperature for a week and are not shelf-stable. It's too late to freeze them.
 
The problem with the under canned tomato sauce, is that from the time it was under canned until now, it sat at room temperature. Any unpreserved foods kept in the food safety danger zone for more than 2 hours (is that right?), which is between 40 and 140 deg F, has time to produce bacteria and toxins.
I can't prove it did or did not produce bacteria or toxins, nor can a person always 'see' the bacteria, or 'smell' the bacteria, or 'taste' the bacteria. A person really won't know until they eat it and that might be dangerous.
(is it 2 hours or 4 hours in the danger zone?)
It's two hours.
foodzone1.jpg
 
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