Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Home Can Peppers & Tomato Sauce

Can peppers and tomato sauce at home.


Preserve your peppers and tomato sauce to enjoy all year round. By canning a large batch, you will have peppers and tomato sauce readily available at any time of year, without having to spend long hours in the kitchen cooking. Cook and can them once and enjoy them multiple times, or prepare the jars for gifts or sale by adding tags or decorative elements.


Instructions


1. Prepare the recipe for your peppers and tomato sauce. Once cooking is completed, keep contents at a simmer until ready to place in canning jars.








2. Prepare the canning jars, lids and rings. Boil jars 10 minutes in water deep enough to cover completely jars. Wash rings and lids. Do not boil the lids, as it will prevent proper sealing when they are used on the jars. Allow them to stand in water just under the boiling point until use. Drain the jars on a cooling rack to remove excess water.


3. Place peppers and tomato sauce in the jars, allowing one-inch headspace. Use a non-metallic spatula to remove air bubbles from the tomato sauce. Clean the rims of the jars to remove any spills or debris.


4. Place a lid on each jar. Next, screw on a ring and turn until fingertip tight. (Fingertip tight means to turn the ring, using only your fingers and stop when unable to turn any longer without force.)


5. Put the jars in the canner, prepared according to canner manufacturer's directions. The amount of boiling water will vary depending on the type of canner. Allow canner to vent steam for 10 minutes before adding the weighted gauge or closing the vent, depending on canner type. Count processing time once proper pressure is reached. Colorado State University Extension recommends processing pint jars of peppers at 11 pounds of pressure for 35 minutes. (At high elevations, you will have to adjust pressure and processing time.)


6. Remove the canner from the heat source, once the processing time is reached. Allow the canner to cool down, and the pressure to return to zero on dial gauge canners. Remove the jars. Allow jars to stand for between 12 and 24 hours.


7. Press the center of the lid on each jar. When properly sealed, the lid should be concave and unmovable. Label the jars with the date and contents.

Tags: peppers tomato, tomato sauce, peppers tomato sauce, processing time, Allow canner, canning jars