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Home / Meals / Meat Sauce

Meat Sauce

Filed Under: Meals, Seasonal Winter Tagged With: Pasta Sauce

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

A truly thick, meaty tomato sauce for home canning.

You can use this as a pasta sauce, or in casseroles, etc. Good with baked pasta dishes such as manicotti, lasagna, etc.

This appears both in the Ball Blue Book and in the Bernardin Guide.

It calls for canned tomatoes, so you can make this at any time of year.

Contents hide
  • 1 The recipe
  • 2 Meat Sauce
    • 2.1 Ingredients
    • 2.2 Instructions
  • 3 Reference information
  • 4 Recipe notes
  • 5 Recipe source
  • 6 Nutrition

The recipe

Jar size choices: Either half-litre (1 US pint) OR 1 litre (1 US quart)

Processing method: Pressure canning only

Yield: 3 x 1 litre (US quart) jars

Headspace: 3 cm (1 inch)

Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet)

Processing time: Half-litres (pints) 60 minutes; litres (quarts) 75 minutes

4.43 from 7 votes
Print

Meat Sauce

If you want a truly meaty pasta sauce for home canning, this recipe from Bernardin is it. Requires pressure canning.

Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Keyword Beef, Pasta Sauce, Tomatoes
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes
Yield 3 x 1 litre (quart) jars
Calories 491 kcal

Ingredients

  • 2.5 kg ground beef (extra lean. Or lean ground pork. 5 lbs)
  • 300 g onion (chopped. 2 cups / 10 oz. Measurements after prep. 2 medium.)
  • 150 g green bell pepper (chopped. 1 cup / 5 oz. Measured after prep. 1 large.)
  • 2.5 litres crushed tomatoes (canned. 9 cups / 72 oz)
  • 650 ml tomato paste (2 ⅔ cups / 22 oz)
  • 10 g parsley (chopped fresh. 4 tablespoons / about 2 sprigs)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 4 teaspoons salt (or non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub
  • 1 tablespoon herbs (dried. Your choice)
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground allspice
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
Metric - US Customary

Instructions

  1. Brown the ground meat in batches in a frying pan. Drain excess fat off each batch, and add to a large pot about 8 litres (quarts) in size.
  2. Wash, peel, and coarsely chop the onion. Add to pot.
  3. Wash, stem, seed, and coarsely chop the green pepper. Add to pot.
  4. Cook stirring frequently until the veg soften a bit.
  5. Add tomatoes including juice.
  6. Add all remaining ingredients.
  7. Stir, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.
  8. Let simmer until mixture thickens a bit.
  9. Ladle hot sauce into heated jars, either half-litre (pint) OR litre (quart).
  10. Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
  11. Debubble; adjust headspace.
  12. Wipe jar rims.
  13. Put lids on.
  14. Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.)
  15. Processing time: half-litre (US pint) jars for 60 minutes OR 1 litre (US quart) jars for 75 minutes.

Reference information

How to pressure can.

When pressure canning, you must adjust the pressure for your altitude.

See also: other pasta sauce recipes.

Recipe notes

  • You could brown the ground meat by baking it on rimmed baking trays in the oven. (Side rims prevent grease from running off into the oven.) Lining the trays with tin foil will make cleanup easier.
  • The canned tomatoes can be purchased, or home-canned.
  • Instead of fresh parsley, you can use 4 teaspoons of dried.
  • For the 1 tablespoon of dried herbs, you can use all of one herb, or, a mixture of dried herbs such as basil, thyme, oregano, etc. Or, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning.
  • The ginger and all-spice might seem odd, and you can leave them out if you wish, but they really do work well in this recipe.
  • The vinegar is just here for flavouring to waken the taste of the sauce up a bit, so you can use any vinegar you wish, such as white vinegar, red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, etc. You could also use 2 tablespoons lemon juice if you wished.
  • People have asked: would it be safe to cut the tomato paste in half and the ground beef in half: yes, it would. You are reducing the density. In pressure canning, the big concern is the opposite: increasing the density. So don’t add more tomato paste or meat, or any mushrooms etc (combine with a jar of your home-canned mushrooms upon opening, if desired.)

 

Recipe source

Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 106.

Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving. Toronto, Canada: Bernardin Ltd. 2013. Page 98.

Ball says ground beef; Bernardin says ground beef or pork.

Modifications made:

  • Used extra-lean ground beef instead of just lean to reduce calorie count;
  • Added option of salt sub.

 

Nutrition

Per 1 cup / 250 ml / 8 oz:

  • 491 calories, 933 mg sodium
  • Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 12 points
  • Weight Watchers SmartPoints®: 14 points

Sodium goes down to 175 mg per cup without the added salt.

 

* Nutrition info provided by MyFitnessPal

* PointsPlus™ and SmartPoints™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® registered trademarks.

 

Tagged With: Pasta Sauce

Filed Under: Meals, Seasonal Winter Tagged With: Pasta Sauce

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Deborah Grantham

    September 24, 2020 at 5:26 pm

    I made this recipe, followed the instruction exactly , it was very thick. My big concern is that I ended up with about 10 pints not 6 therefore I am reluctant to eat any of it as I’m concerned that there is a problem.
    Please advise. I weighed the meat twice, used 9 cups of crushed tomatoes.

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 24, 2020 at 5:33 pm

      It is, as described, meant to be a very thick meaty sauce.

      Reply
  2. Angie

    September 18, 2019 at 8:14 pm

    Hi, I made a meat sauce last year and cooked the meat in the sauce like this recipe then pressure canned it. It tasted burned. I’m wondering if anyone had that issue with this recipe?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 18, 2019 at 9:42 pm

      Maybe it was the different recipe you used. This meat for us has never tasted burnt in this lab-tested recipe.

      Reply
  3. Jane Diane Ricciardi

    May 10, 2019 at 4:51 pm

    Wondering if you could use ground turkey breast? That would cut the Weight Watchers SmartPoints to 0.

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 09, 2019 at 1:51 am

      Jane, I hear you about the freestyle smart points! Contact Bernardin directly and see if they would recommend that as an acceptable swap.

      Reply
      • Margie L Johnson

        July 12, 2020 at 10:15 am

        Can you add tomato sauce to the recipe so it isn’t quite so thick? I know it will increase the amount of the recipe, but can you just fill an extra jar (4 quart jars instead of the 3 that the recipe makes) and add it to the canner while processing?

        Reply
        • Healthy Canning

          September 22, 2020 at 1:56 pm

          Yes, it would be safe to thin it by adding some tomato sauce, as you are reducing the density, not increasing it.

          Reply
    • Amanda Signorina

      July 16, 2020 at 2:20 pm

      Loved the idea of canning my sauces until I learned only lab tested recipes were safe. So I suppose adding a bunch of fresh basil, some more garlic and letting some wine simmer away in there wouldn’t be ok. What a bummer. Guess I’m back to freezing it.

      Reply
      • Healthy Canning

        September 24, 2020 at 6:08 pm

        It would be the work of seconds to add those things upon opening the jar!

        Reply
  4. Donna

    March 25, 2019 at 10:32 pm

    I was given several large #10 cans of marinara sauce. Can I use that for my sauce and add the ground beef and onion to it. And then can it. What would be the the ratio of ground beef to sauce.knowing that density can be a problem. I probably wouldn’t add the veggies just oinion

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      September 11, 2019 at 2:06 pm

      We’d recommend just following the recipe as written, and enjoy your already commercially canned marinara sauce for what it is (you can freeze leftovers from those opened large cans.)

      Reply
  5. Laura

    June 12, 2018 at 9:50 pm

    can this be made without the onion?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      June 19, 2018 at 8:18 pm

      Yes. The onion is just there for flavouring.

      Reply
  6. Teresa Warner

    February 26, 2018 at 12:49 am

    Can I substitute liquid stevia for the brown sugar?

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      February 26, 2018 at 2:52 am

      Yes.

      Reply
  7. Brian

    December 18, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    Can this be made and canned using half the amount of beef? (2.5 lbs)

    Reply
    • Healthy Canning

      December 19, 2017 at 12:18 am

      Absolutely Brian, it is fine to leave out half the ground beef. Reducing the density is always fine in pressure canning.

      Reply
If you need FAST or relatively immediate canning help or answers, please try one of these Master Food Preserver groups; they are more qualified than we are and have many hands to help you. Many of them even operate telephone hotlines in season.

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