I seem to recall having read somewhere that homemade tomato sauce is to be sterilized and canned properly if one is to store it. Do you have to do this even if you don’t plan to store it very long?
I’ve been thinking about making a homemade tomato sauce more regularly, and in sufficient quantity to last about a week. If I store this in a glass jar (with a lid, of course) in the fridge, is safety a concern if I plan to eat all the sauce within a week?
a week in the fridge is just fine after ordinary cooking and ordinary washed jar.
sterilizing jars or pressure canning is for when you want to store unrefrigerated for months.
You’re confusing canning requirements with making something to be stored in a refrigerator.
Ah, thank you both for fighting my ignorance. I thought it best to be on the safe side by asking this anyway.
I used to be a microbiologist, and IIRC - tomato sauce is acidic enough to suppress most contaminants - particularly if refrigerated. My rule of thumb is that if I can’t see anything growing on it, it is ok to consume.
I once interviewed for a QC position in a tomato sauce cannery and they only worried about 2, non-pathogenic contaminants. It was steam sterilized and ‘canned’ in 55 gallon drums that were stored unrefrigerated.
Tomato sauce also freezes very well, so if you don’t eat it all within a week, just throw it in the freezer.
This is what I was going to post. I make batches of the stuff, and they least at least a week in the fridge, and two months in the freezer. Most tomato based sauces can be frozen, but large chunky sauces don’t work as well. For example, bolognese sauce freezes well.