Tomato sauce

[slkinsey]

What kind of storage space do you have?  If I didn't live in a Manhattan apartment with no storage space and already packed to the gills I would make a gigantic recipe of basic sauce on a quarterly or semiannual basis and put it up in quart Mason jars for future use.

Soon enough, a big basement plus an additional freezer (and probably fridge, too) will be added down there.

So storage room isn't a problem. (Though someone else--read: SO--might have something to say on this! )

Dude, you should definitely invest in some canning supplies, then. Think about how easy (and cool) it would be if, every time you wanted to have some sauce you could just nip downstairs and bring up a jar of your own basic sauce! It's much easier to do that kind of cooking on a daily basis when you only cook up two gigantic batches of sauce a year. I suggest this because, in my house at least, 4-5 quarts of tomato sauce doesn't last a very long time -- hardly long enough to be worth the trouble of freezing part of it.

Also... you could do as most Italian families do and jar a zillion fresh tomatoes in the fall.

[MatthewB]

Dude, you should definitely invest in some canning supplies, then.  Think about how easy (and cool) it would be if, every time you wanted to have some sauce you could just nip downstairs and bring up a jar of your own basic sauce!  It's much easier to do that kind of cooking on a daily basis when you only cook up two gigantic batches of sauce a year.  I suggest this because, in my house at least, 4-5 quarts of tomato sauce doesn't last a very long time -- hardly long enough to be worth the trouble of freezing part of it.

Also... you could do as most Italian families do and jar a zillion fresh tomatoes in the fall.

I've been thinking the same thing.

Since I generally do best by first reading up on something new, I should find the 1 or 2 or 3 best books in English on canning, preserving, etc.

Anyone want to make that reading list for me?

Edit: The reading list exists. Me =

Edited November 11, 2003 by MatthewB (log)