Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

I have a recipe that uses fresh tomatoes that are then cooked and
canned for furutre use.  I will send the recipe along to the group if that
is what you are looking for.
Here goes:
 
Spaghetti Sauce with Meat. 
The recipe makes about nine pints or 5 quarts, a pint is about a half
liter and a quart is close to a liter. 
 
Start with 30 pounds of ripe tomatoes
2 1/2 pounds of ground beef or sausage
[lean is best but medium or extra lean meat will work].
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup of chopped green bell pepper or celery or a mixture of both
to make up the one cup
1 cup of chopped onion, white are best, red or yellow will work
optional:  1 pound or about half a kilo of sliced mushrooms
 
4 tablespoons of fresh parsley, [Italian is best, Chinese will work]
1/4 cut of lightly packed brown sugar, [dark brown provides the most flavor]
2 tablespoons of dried oregano
4 teaspoons of salt, [l use a heaping tablespoon and call it good enough]
2 tablespoons of finely ground black pepper, [white ground pepper will also work[
 
Start by washing the tomatoes.  Remove the stems and and brused parts.
Remove any discolored areas and any under ripe areas as well.  Core and
quarter the tomatoes and place the ripe graded tomatoes into a large stainless
steel sauce pan.  Slowly bring the sauce pan to a boil.  Stir frequently and
use a potato masher to mash the tomatoes down and make them juicy. 
Starting with a few tomatoes and adding to the mixture is best.  What ever
you do, stir well to prevent scortching.  When you have all 30 pounds of
tomatoes quartered, cored and skinned, [blanch for a few seconds in boiling
water to remove the skins] turn the heat down to low and gently boil the
sauce until the tomatoes are soft and the sauce starts to thicken, about
10 minutes.
Strain the tomatoes through a food mill or blender, or a fine sieve.  Discard
the peels and the seeds.  If using a food mill there is no reason to scald the
tomatoes to remove the skins before cooking them down.  I personally do
not like skins in cooked in the sauce, so I always blanch the fruit to remove
the skins. 
Prepare clean jars and heat in a dishwasher or boiling water bath.  Start a
pressure cooler with a weighted pressure gauge. 
In a seperate sauce pan, brown the meat  using medium heat and do not ;let
the meat burn.  Break up the meat with a fork to make sure the peices are
small and so the meat will go into the sauce evenly.  Cook until all the pink is
gone.  Drain off the fat.... Add garlic, ground pepper, onions, salt, green pepper
or celery and mushrooms.  Saute until the vegetables are tender.  This usually
takes three of four minutes.  
Now add all the ingredients together, including the brown sugar and oregano.
Add the parsley at the same time.  If the sauce is too thick, thin with water, but
I like the sauce to be thick.  Boil the sauce for about 5 minutes and make sure
that all ingredients are well combined, and heated throughout. 
Ladle the sauce into hot jars.  Leave just 1 inch of head space.  Remove all air
bubbles using a metal knife  One inch is about 2.5 cm.   Add hot tomato
sauce to the jars if needed to keep the head space about right. 
Put lids on the jar and screw down until finger tight. 
Place the jars into a pressure canner.  Adjust the water level to be about 1 to 1 1/2 inches over the jars themselves.  Bring water in pressure cooker to a boil over medium to
high heat.  Went for about 10 minutes and then set at 10 pounds of pressure and provess for 60 minutes if using pints or 70 minutes if using quarts. 
Great sauce and the spices can be adjusted to taste furing the next batch. 
Hope that helps....
JJ .  .   
 

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