A truly thick, meaty tomato sauce for home canning.
You can use this as a pasta sauce, or in casseroles, etc. Good with baked pasta dishes such as manicotti, lasagna, etc.
This appears both in the Ball Blue Book and in the Bernardin Guide.
It calls for canned tomatoes, so you can make this at any time of year.
The recipe
Jar size choices: Either half-litre (1 US pint) OR 1 litre (1 US quart)
Processing method: Pressure canning only
Yield: 3 x 1 litre (US quart) jars
Headspace: 3 cm (1 inch)
Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet)
Processing time: Half-litres (pints) 60 minutes; litres (quarts) 75 minutes
Meat Sauce
If you want a truly meaty pasta sauce for home canning, this recipe from Bernardin is it. Requires pressure canning.
Ingredients
- 2.5 kg ground beef (extra lean. Or lean ground pork. 5 lbs)
- 300 g onion (chopped. 2 cups / 10 oz. Measurements after prep. 2 medium.)
- 150 g green bell pepper (chopped. 1 cup / 5 oz. Measured after prep. 1 large.)
- 2.5 litres crushed tomatoes (canned. 9 cups / 72 oz)
- 650 ml tomato paste (2 ⅔ cups / 22 oz)
- 10 g parsley (chopped fresh. 4 tablespoons / about 2 sprigs)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons salt (or non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub
- 1 tablespoon herbs (dried. Your choice)
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
Instructions
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Brown the ground meat in batches in a frying pan. Drain excess fat off each batch, and add to a large pot about 8 litres (quarts) in size.
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Wash, peel, and coarsely chop the onion. Add to pot.
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Wash, stem, seed, and coarsely chop the green pepper. Add to pot.
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Cook stirring frequently until the veg soften a bit.
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Add tomatoes including juice.
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Add all remaining ingredients.
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Stir, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.
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Let simmer until mixture thickens a bit.
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Ladle hot sauce into heated jars, either half-litre (pint) OR litre (quart).
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Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
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Debubble; adjust headspace.
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Wipe jar rims.
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Put lids on.
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Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)
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Processing time: half-litre (US pint) jars for 60 minutes OR 1 litre (US quart) jars for 75 minutes.
Reference information
How to pressure can.
When pressure canning, you must adjust the pressure for your altitude.
See also: other pasta sauce recipes.
Recipe notes
- You could brown the ground meat by baking it on rimmed baking trays in the oven. (Side rims prevent grease from running off into the oven.) Lining the trays with tin foil will make cleanup easier.
- The canned tomatoes can be purchased, or home-canned.
- Instead of fresh parsley, you can use 4 teaspoons of dried.
- For the 1 tablespoon of dried herbs, you can use all of one herb, or, a mixture of dried herbs such as basil, thyme, oregano, etc. Or, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning.
- The ginger and all-spice might seem odd, and you can leave them out if you wish, but they really do work well in this recipe.
- The vinegar is just here for flavouring to waken the taste of the sauce up a bit, so you can use any vinegar you wish, such as white vinegar, red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, etc. You could also use 2 tablespoons lemon juice if you wished.
- People have asked: would it be safe to cut the tomato paste in half and the ground beef in half: yes, it would. You are reducing the density. In pressure canning, the big concern is the opposite: increasing the density. So don’t add more tomato paste or meat, or any mushrooms etc (combine with a jar of your home-canned mushrooms upon opening, if desired.)
Recipe source
Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 106.
Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving. Toronto, Canada: Bernardin Ltd. 2013. Page 98.
Ball says ground beef; Bernardin says ground beef or pork.
Modifications made:
- Used extra-lean ground beef instead of just lean to reduce calorie count;
- Added option of salt sub.
Nutrition
Per 1 cup / 250 ml / 8 oz:
- 491 calories, 933 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 12 points
- Weight Watchers SmartPoints®: 14 points
Sodium goes down to 175 mg per cup without the added salt.
* Nutrition info provided by MyFitnessPal
* PointsPlus™ and SmartPoints™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® registered trademarks.
Deborah Grantham
I made this recipe, followed the instruction exactly , it was very thick. My big concern is that I ended up with about 10 pints not 6 therefore I am reluctant to eat any of it as I’m concerned that there is a problem.
Please advise. I weighed the meat twice, used 9 cups of crushed tomatoes.
Healthy Canning
It is, as described, meant to be a very thick meaty sauce.
Angie
Hi, I made a meat sauce last year and cooked the meat in the sauce like this recipe then pressure canned it. It tasted burned. I’m wondering if anyone had that issue with this recipe?
Healthy Canning
Maybe it was the different recipe you used. This meat for us has never tasted burnt in this lab-tested recipe.
Jane Diane Ricciardi
Wondering if you could use ground turkey breast? That would cut the Weight Watchers SmartPoints to 0.
Healthy Canning
Jane, I hear you about the freestyle smart points! Contact Bernardin directly and see if they would recommend that as an acceptable swap.
Margie L Johnson
Can you add tomato sauce to the recipe so it isn’t quite so thick? I know it will increase the amount of the recipe, but can you just fill an extra jar (4 quart jars instead of the 3 that the recipe makes) and add it to the canner while processing?
Healthy Canning
Yes, it would be safe to thin it by adding some tomato sauce, as you are reducing the density, not increasing it.
Amanda Signorina
Loved the idea of canning my sauces until I learned only lab tested recipes were safe. So I suppose adding a bunch of fresh basil, some more garlic and letting some wine simmer away in there wouldn’t be ok. What a bummer. Guess I’m back to freezing it.
Healthy Canning
It would be the work of seconds to add those things upon opening the jar!
Donna
I was given several large #10 cans of marinara sauce. Can I use that for my sauce and add the ground beef and onion to it. And then can it. What would be the the ratio of ground beef to sauce.knowing that density can be a problem. I probably wouldn’t add the veggies just oinion
Healthy Canning
We’d recommend just following the recipe as written, and enjoy your already commercially canned marinara sauce for what it is (you can freeze leftovers from those opened large cans.)
Laura
can this be made without the onion?
Healthy Canning
Yes. The onion is just there for flavouring.
Teresa Warner
Can I substitute liquid stevia for the brown sugar?
Healthy Canning
Yes.
Brian
Can this be made and canned using half the amount of beef? (2.5 lbs)
Healthy Canning
Absolutely Brian, it is fine to leave out half the ground beef. Reducing the density is always fine in pressure canning.