Recipes and Reviews

To each his (or her) own. Somehow I doubt that you speak for "most people", though you certainly are allowed to speak for yourself.

Some people do have trouble with high-acid foods, but the truth is that most people that think they have acid problems are really having problems with not enough acid in their stomachs. For those that do have troubles with stomach acid, according to a Stanford study, the acidity of the food has virtually no impact on the acidity in your stomach, the problem has to do with eating too much at one sitting.

While canning you want acidity to keep from getting botulism. Tomatoes are a borderline acid food, so if you are going to water bath or steam can them, you NEED to do something to lower the PH, especially when you are making the sauce with a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes. I pressure can, so I don't really have to add the acid, Like I said, I'm taking extra precautions.

The thing is, I don't notice the lemon juice flavor in the canned sauce, and I find the canned sauce to be as tasty as the fresh version of this sauce. Have you tried it with this recipe? I cannot comment on your recipes, but with this one, I find that there is no noticeable difference in flavor. But if you want a sweeter flavor I would suggest going with brown rice vinegar rather than adding honey, that way you are adding a rather sweet acid. Though there really isn't any need to add sweetness, as carmelizing your tomatoes in the oven adds a lot of sweetness as it is.

As for the alcohol taste, I tried simmering a batch for an hour and I could still taste it. Since I rarely drink anymore, I might be more sensitive to the taste, but I make this sauce for me, so I simply avoid using the alcohol. If you like that flavor, go ahead and add it.

By the way, don't mistake this for a marinara, there aren't any anchovies in it. Ir's a simple tomato sauce.