Makin 7 or 8 gallons of spaghetti sauce. What have I left out?

[struggle4progress]

20 lbs or so ground beef, cooked and degreased
25 lbs or so canned tomato (half diced, half crushed)
huge yellow onion, chopped
half a celery, with leaf, chopped
parsley bunch, destemmed, chopped
two each: red, green, yellow bellpepper, chopped
oregano
basil
rosemary
thyme
dried red pepper flakes
minced garlic

[Warpy]

1. I'd use more onion, but I like onion.

The only other thing I like in spaghetti sauce is fennel, but not with sweet peppers. You could add a few bay leaves, but you'd have to find them to fish them out later. Hot pepper would also be good in this one.

Except for the skimpy amount of onion and a can or two of tomato paste to turn it from veggie stew into sauce, you've got it covered. One great thing about spaghetti sauce is that once you start with tomato and meat, it's always going to taste like spaghetti sauce.

[struggle4progress]

4. It was a pretty big onion: 8-incher or so. I'll check and maybe add some dried onion flakes.

Tomato paste is a good idea. I like adding it as a thickener, but I'm not serving until Sunday evening, so that would go in later, so I don't burn the sauce reheating it

I'll think about hot pepper. I really love the stuff but there are some picky eaters in the crowd, so I'd have to be very careful not to overdo it

Fennel sounds delish: I'll try that sometime

[Warpy]

6. A little hot pepper can really pick up a sauce

and people don't even know they're eating it.

Fennel is really great but it doesn't play that well with peppers.

[GoCubsGo]

5. I'm with you on the fennel and bay leaves.

And, if you have some Parmesan or Peccorino rinds, toss those in, too. I'd skip the peppers, too. That's something that could be added later, along with mushrooms. I feel that way about the ground meat, too. The sauce is the base, to be built on later, especially if you're making large quantities of it to store for future use. You can always saute some peppers or mushrooms, or brown some meat, depending on what you feel like that day.

My grandma always cooked her tomato gravy with a piece of pork or veal, which got fished out in the end. She ate that herself in another meal. Boy, it was good stuff! I miss it almost as much as I miss her.

[Mojorabbit]

11. I add some chicken breasts to poach

and some italian sausage and meatballs. I fish them out when getting ready to serve and put them on a platter. I learned that from an old Italian lady about thirty years ago. It is great cause it usually leaves leftovers that can be turned into all sorts of things. I am also on board with adding fennel. It along with the fresh basil adds that extra something to the sauce.

[grasswire]

2. Warpy and I both had the same initial reaction.

More onion.

It may be too late for that.

My other indication would be to pour a whole bottle of cheap red wine into it.

Did you salt the meat?

[struggle4progress]

3. It's not too late to add: it serves Sunday PM. No can do the red wine: it serves

a mixed group -- including families with kids, and a number of folk on the wagon

Thanks for the reminder about salt. I try to add that last, to taste, since the canned tomato can be salty

[kurtzapril4]

9. The alcohol would cook off n/t

[NMDemDist2]

12. actually no it doesn't

as one of those 'on the wagon' folks, i have researched this


:think:

edit to add link http://www.ochef.com/165.htm

[Tesha]

14. Actually, it does.

Even the most-pessimistic numbers on the page you linked to
suggest that the alcohol would be reduced to negligible levels
after several hours of simmering, and remember: we're starting
from very low levels to begin with. One 750 ml bottle of wine
mixed-in to eight gallons of spaghettis sauce means that we're
talking about a 1/3% of alcohol or so even before any cooking!

That's less than in "near beer" and any cooking will reduce
that further.

[Ohio Joe]

15. But that is not no alcohol

The point of things for people who no longer want to drink is to not have ANY. The point is not don't get drunk, the point is to avoid alcohol completely. My mom is in AA and it took me a long time to "get" this point but it is very important and very imperative to those that want to stop.

[Tesha]

16. Suit yourself. But we're talking levels that are far below *ANY* clinical effects.

You understand that lots of foods have background amounts of alcohol?
Many fruits, for example?

Tesha

[Ohio Joe]

7. Mushrooms

Wine... Cholula sauce... Swap out 10lbs of the beef and put in 5lbs of ground pork and 5lbs of ground buffalo (or maybe turkey)... Lots more onion... Get rid of the parsley, vile stuff... mince up some broccoli and toss it in... That should about do it.

[Ohio Joe]

8. oh... and about the onions...

If it is not too late, saute them in butter before adding them to the sauce, makes them a bit sweeter and offsets the acid of the tomatoes.

[pscot]

10. No pork chops?

No italian sausage?

[Tesha]

13. If its not vegan...

chicken thighs, a chunk of pork, and some sausages
I brown them first, then cook low and slow in the sauce.

and like many foods - its best the second day.;-)

[1monster]

17. You forgot black olives, celery seed, mustard seed, tumeric (healthy spice), and bay leaves!

And oregano, marjoram, and thyme. And tomato paste (I like Contadina paste and whole tomatos when making spaghetti sauce).

[LaydeeBug]

18. tomato paste, and a pinch of sugar since your tomatoes are canned. :) nt