Is my self canned tomato sauce safe to eat?

[mischief]

Honey that has been taken from the hive with all cells fully capped and stored where it cannot reabsorb moisture will keep amazingly well.
Its hydroscopic and will absorb moisture from the air. Its also this same property that is what helps you heal when applied to wounds. It literally sucks the moisture out of bacteria causing it to fail.

I'm looking forward to making Tomato sauce and pastes again. I still have my nanas old recipe for it. I find it interesting that her contains no sugar, its just tomatoes, apples and onions with a bit of salt....cant remember if there is anything else at the moment.

We found a box of vinegar type pickles after she passed. One was Beetroot and onion slices....so old they were brown and fell apart so we had to spoon it out of the jar. So delicious, unfortunately, there wasnt the recipe for that one and mine never tasted as nice. Same with her Plum Sauce, one day it ran out, so if any one has a nice recipe for this I'd love to try it.

 

[BarredBuff]

The seals are different now. Only made to last 18 months. Although the food is safe for as long as the seal holds (if it has been packed and processed correctly). If you stock up on canning lids, keep them rotated. They degrade in storage and should not be stored for over a year.

@DelcoMama82 your confidence in your canning will grow with experience. Follow the National Center for Home Food Preservation, check your processing time each canning season because they may change, if you use a dial gauge pressure canner get it calibrated yearly. Follow recipes exactly, and if you ever decide to forge your own path for water bath canning acidic foods you can buy pH test strips specifically for canning to be sure your food will turn out safe.

When was that change made?

 

[tortoise]

2 years ago one brand increased from 12 to 18 months. I don't remember which brand, but I figure competitors will be all over that to keep up.

 

[flowerbug]

Amazing.
That wasn’t my canning though! Haha.
I’ve only done it a handful of times so I’m still not 100% confident in my abilities to not kill whoever eats what’s inside!

the most important things are acidity and decent prep skills where you are removing any potentially hazardous things before they get put into the jars. if you are making anything with low acid chunks in it (in a higher acid brine or tomato sauce) those need to be cut small enough or cooked so thoroughly that there is no risk of botulism in there. since we do not can anything low acid at all there is very little risk from what we do. we don't can meat or meat sauces, we don't can potatoes, etc. those are things that really should be done in a pressure canning set up.

please read up on these topics there are many good web-sites from the government that cover safe canning techniques.

if something higher acid goes off it usually is just a fermentation from lactobacilli which are very common and on almost any garden vegetable. they are what make pickles and saurkraut when those are fermented naturally.

if you are in doubt ask, but also keep studying and learning as it is so nice to be able to have confidence in what you are doing and to stop worrying.

in the ancient days when Mom was canning a lot of low acid things she was using techniques recommended back then and none of us got sick from the things she put up, but it took a lot of energy and a long time of processing to get there. i don't consider those results worth it, i would rather eat things fresher and not so mushy. so they can be frozen or pressure canned if it becomes that big of an amount of things to put up now.

 

[flowerbug]

being stored in a stable temperature and a low humidity area would keep honey so yeah, Egypt in a tomb would be about perfect.

honey for wound care must be monitored carefully! botulism forms in low oxygen situations and a coating of honey on a wound and then wrapped up in a bandage might be just the right spot for botulism to get going.

there is also a warning about feeding raw honey to infants for a reason that the digestive system of an infant may not be acidic enough to ward off the botulism making bacteria that can be present in raw honey.

 

[BarredBuff]

2 years ago one brand increased from 12 to 18 months. I don't remember which brand, but I figure competitors will be all over that to keep up.

I always took that as the suggestion anyway. Ball has on its packaging 18 months strong now.

 

[flowerbug]

I always took that as the suggestion anyway. Ball has on its packaging 18 months strong now.

i think they're fine for years once sealed and not abused. i think it's just a marketing thing really. like the constant changes in amounts and packaging and then claiming "Now X% more!", etc. uh, who me cynical? heh...

 

[Hinotori]

BWB tomatoes....we never PC tomatoes. We've also consumed 30 yr old raw honey...best honey I've ever eaten.

I have 2 quart jars of honey from the 80s left. Its from my great grandpa's hives. Honey doesn't go bad.

This is just alfalfa honey. I scrape out a spoon of the crystallized stuff for my tea. I don't like to liquify the honey as it's basically cooking it and it recrystallizes pretty quick anyway. The jar of local blackberry honey I have melted but that is because I use it when cooking or baking. Half a gallon just takes me time to get through.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

I had plans last night to try some of our canned tomato sauce last night. However when we tasted it, there were some strange flavors like beef bouillon or Worcester sauce.
It didn’t taste sour or bitter, however it is likely to be 2 or 3 years old.
Any advice?
Thanks!!!!!!

High-acid canned foods such as onions, tomato sauce, fruit and pickles or other vinegar-based foods are good for one year. ... If the food has been properly cooked, there are no obvious signs of mold or spoilage, so if the food tastes good, it will be healthy to eat, although the contents do not taste fresh.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I have some peaches that I found from 5 years ago. I went to throw them out but they smelled good and looked ok. I tasted them "a tiny bit" and they taste fine. No foamy, no slimy, nothing wrong with them except they are a little dark.

Not brave enough to eat the whole jar. Chickens loved them!