Is my self canned tomato sauce safe to eat?

[DelcoMama82]

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!!!!!!

 

[Beekissed]

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!!!!!!

Lids tight and not bulged at the top? Nothing growing on top of the sauce? Smell? Smell like sauce? I've found if I use certain spices in my canning of tomato sauce that it can give it a weird flavor, sometimes bitter, sometimes just an odd sweetness that shouldn't be there.

If mine smells right, looks right and tastes right, I eat it....if it has an off flavor that shouldn't be there, I dump it. Haven't had to do that very many times in all my canning life, but if you've canned long enough and know what to expect out of the jars, you pretty much know when things are not right by the smell, appearance or flavor. When in doubt, throw it out is always a good motto when it comes to canning.

 

[flowerbug]

well if you are still alive and not sick then it is ok.

seriously, if you had something like botulism in there you'd know it soon enough.

the key for canning is high enough acid if you are only doing boiling water bath processing.

if you are pressure canning and have done your prep work right and got the time correct on processing then it should be safe until you open it again as long as the seal has held up.

older acidic enough contents should be ok even if they don't quite smell like what you'd expect, yet after about 2yrs i prefer to just give those jars to the worms and use something else if i have it. we rarely get anything here lasting longer than 2yrs (we give a lot of jars away).

we had a jar of salsa and another of tomato juice come back from some cleaning we did at a relative's place that was quite old, i opened them and they smelled ok and tasted ok, but i just decided that i did not want to risk getting sick over something like that so i fed them to the worms.

we also won't be giving them any more stuff. it is work to put up and we can use it instead of them - people wasting food is one of my pet-peeves. i get rather cranky about things spoiling as it is (we run a pretty good ship here in that regards, very rare to have anything spoil or get thrown out).

 

[flowerbug]

...
When in doubt, throw it out is always a good motto when it comes to canning.

yes! especially anything not very acidic. botulism does not smell or give off obvious signs so that is what makes it so dangerous.

 

[Beekissed]

well if you are still alive and not sick then it is ok.

seriously, if you had something like botulism in there you'd know it soon enough.

the key for canning is high enough acid if you are only doing boiling water bath processing.

if you are pressure canning and have done your prep work right and got the time correct on processing then it should be safe until you open it again as long as the seal has held up.

older acidic enough contents should be ok even if they don't quite smell like what you'd expect, yet after about 2yrs i prefer to just give those jars to the worms and use something else if i have it. we rarely get anything here lasting longer than 2yrs (we give a lot of jars away).

we had a jar of salsa and another of tomato juice come back from some cleaning we did at a relative's place that was quite old, i opened them and they smelled ok and tasted ok, but i just decided that i did not want to risk getting sick over something like that so i fed them to the worms.

we also won't be giving them any more stuff. it is work to put up and we can use it instead of them - people wasting food is one of my pet-peeves. i get rather cranky about things spoiling as it is (we run a pretty good ship here in that regards, very rare to have anything spoil or get thrown out).

You dump jars over 2 yrs of age???? Sorry, if folks wasting food is one of your pet peeves, you've missed a step. We've used canned tomatoes that were 8 yrs old without giving it a second thought....tasted just like they were put up the day before. Two years is a pretty short cut off for canned goods. We rotate older stuff to the front each year so we don't get that issue, but have occasionally missed a jar here and there that got older than 3-4 yrs in the cycle....depending on what it was, we eat those just the same. Mostly, if I'm canning and find that certain things canned are not getting eaten each year enough to keep the rotation fresh, I no longer can as much or even can that particular thing at all so that doesn't happen.

 

[flowerbug]

You dump jars over 2 yrs of age???? Sorry, if folks wasting food is one of your pet peeves, you've missed a step. We've used canned tomatoes that were 8 yrs old without giving it a second thought....tasted just like they were put up the day before. Two years is a pretty short cut off for canned goods. We rotate older stuff to the front each year so we don't get that issue, but have occasionally missed a jar here and there that got older than 3-4 yrs in the cycle....depending on what it was, we eat those just the same. Mostly, if I'm canning and find that certain things canned are not getting eaten each year enough to keep the rotation fresh, I no longer can as much or even can that particular thing at all so that doesn't happen.

it's very rare we have anything that old around here now. we did a large give away a few years ago to clean out the closet (which is our pantry) and gave away about 15 cases of things that were getting beyond a year old to make sure we had room for what was coming in that season.

we have one jar of tomato chunks left from last year. everything else i have left now are dill pickles and those were put up last year so those will be good for another year ok - i won't throw those away - but we won't be doing any dill pickles this year either.

these dumped jars were 5 or more years old and not stored by us so i don't know how they were treated, and they weren't off, but i'm just not gonna risk getting sick especially this time of the year with what else is going on. i need to be healthy and able to get outside not laid up. pretty much just wanted the jars back so we can reuse 'em.

one thing about botulism is that you can deactivate the toxin by boiling the food for a long enough time period, but the whole idea of that just is wrong to me. when in doubt throw it out is ok for most items. as when i throw stuff out it ends up being worm food and fertilizer for the next generations of garden veggies. it really isn't wasted. not much of anything organic ends up in the trash that gets hauled away. that's all valuable material to me. i bury it if i can't find something else to do with it.

 

[BarredBuff]

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!!!!!!

If looks right, smell right, and tastes it is probably alright.

I have things in my pantry that are 10+ years old that are still wonderful. Usually, fruit and pickles don't hold up the best, but they are still usable. We ate some vegetable soup from 2009 the other day and it was fantastic. Tasted fresh made...

 

[DelcoMama82]

Lids tight and not bulged at the top? Nothing growing on top of the sauce? Smell? Smell like sauce? I've found if I use certain spices in my canning of tomato sauce that it can give it a weird flavor, sometimes bitter, sometimes just an odd sweetness that shouldn't be there.

If mine smells right, looks right and tastes right, I eat it....if it has an off flavor that shouldn't be there, I dump it. Haven't had to do that very many times in all my canning life, but if you've canned long enough and know what to expect out of the jars, you pretty much know when things are not right by the smell, appearance or flavor. When in doubt, throw it out is always a good motto when it comes to canning.

No buldging, no mold, no moisture buildup inside, nothing floating on top of sauce. The taste is not what I remember making, however it had been sitting a bit longer than I intended. Might try a bit again today... and hope for the best!
Thanks for the help!

 

[DelcoMama82]

You dump jars over 2 yrs of age???? Sorry, if folks wasting food is one of your pet peeves, you've missed a step. We've used canned tomatoes that were 8 yrs old without giving it a second thought....tasted just like they were put up the day before. Two years is a pretty short cut off for canned goods. We rotate older stuff to the front each year so we don't get that issue, but have occasionally missed a jar here and there that got older than 3-4 yrs in the cycle....depending on what it was, we eat those just the same. Mostly, if I'm canning and find that certain things canned are not getting eaten each year enough to keep the rotation fresh, I no longer can as much or even can that particular thing at all so that doesn't happen.

8 year old tomatoes????
Was that using pressure canning or regular canning?
I’m new to canning and so this was a project to preserve ample tomatoes from the garden in a new way. I typically make tons of “sun” dried tomatoes in a very low oven, but then freeze them in ziplock bags.

 

[DelcoMama82]

If looks right, smell right, and tastes it is probably alright.

I have things in my pantry that are 10+ years old that are still wonderful. Usually, fruit and pickles don't hold up the best, but they are still usable. We ate some vegetable soup from 2009 the other day and it was fantastic. Tasted fresh made...

2009????
Oh my god! I’m freaked out about trying things just a couple of years old. I’m amazed canned items hold up that well for that long!