I want to put up barbecue sauce this year. Its been quite a few years since I've done any canning and need to know if I should use a water bath or pressure canner. There is no meat included in the recipe, just the usual barbecue sauce ingredients. . . tomatoes, brown sugar, molasses, condiments. The recipes I've looked at say water bath canner, but I want to be sure.
Canning question
I've never done it, but the National Center for Home Food Preparation says water bath also. Maybe someone here has done it?
Link:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_03/bbqsauce.html
Using the safe canning guidelines (USDA), I can my clear broths/stocks using a pressure canner. I also follow their recommendations to can tomatoes in a pressure canner since today's tomatoes are iffy as to acid content.
No way would I can a BBQ sauce in a water bath. I might lacto-ferment one though.
I think I'll use the pressure canner. When in doubt, do it the safest way. Thanks for both of your replies!
Ceil from CT
Hey, being safe/cautious never hurts where food pathogens are concerned!
I agree on the question of tomato acidity. Also the proportion of tomatos to the other ingredients. Pressure canning gets my vote.
I am fanatical about canning and spend a lot of time researching the topic. You may can any tomato product with seasonings in a water bath canner. Unless you are buying commercially raised tomatoes there should be little or no concern about acidity. Current canning instructions advise adding lemon juice to canned tomatoes. I advise you follow these instructions but truthfully I don't as I've been water bath canning tomatoes for two decades before this advice came out (that amounts to hundreds of quarts of tomatoes) and it's an old dog/new trick thing. Most BBQ sauce recipes include vinegar which will substitute for the acidity with an even lower pH. The sugar component also acts as a preservative. There is nothing in the ingredients mentioned that would suggest a need to pressure can. If you are including any vegetables or meat stocks, aside from tomatoes, spices, and sugars you will need to look at safe recipes and then pressure can. Don't know what you mean by "condiments". The only advantage to pressure canning tomato products in a pressure canner, IMO, is a bit of time savings and not as much steam in the house.