Canning Cocktail Sauce

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This bold, zesty cocktail sauce is made with fresh tomato puree, horseradish, garlic, lemon, and spices. A water bath canning recipe adapted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Canning.

Prep Time1

Cook Time30

Canning Time15

Total Time1 45

Course: Tomato Canning

Cuisine: American

Keyword: shrimp cocktail sauce

Servings: servings, makes 6 to 7 half pint jars

Equipment

Ingredients

13 Cups Fresh Tomato Puree see notes
Zest of 2 lemons
6 Tbsp Bottled Lemon Juice
3 cloves garlic minced
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup vinegar white or cider
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp black pepper
3 cups horseradish finely grated

Instructions

Prepare the tomato base: If starting from fresh tomatoes, chop about 9 pounds of plum tomatoes and add them directly to a pot over medium-high heat. Cooking immediately after chopping helps prevent separation. Continue chopping and adding tomatoes to the pot until all are added. Simmer for 5 minutes, then pass through a food mill to remove skins and seeds. You should end up with approximately 13 cups of fresh tomato puree (passata).
Alternatively, you can use about 7½ cups of tomato sauce if starting with canned tomato products.
Prepare jars and canner: Before you begin cooking down the sauce, prepare a boiling water bath canner. Wash jars, lids, and bands. Keep jars hot until ready to fill.
Cook the tomato sauce: Pour half the tomato puree into a large stainless steel pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring regularly. Once boiling, add the remaining puree 1 cup at a time, allowing it to return to a boil between additions. Reduce to a simmer and continue cooking until the mixture is reduced by about half. This should take approximately 30 minutes, depending on your stove and pot.
If using canned tomato sauce, cook for about 8 to 10 minutes to slightly reduce volume.
Add the seasonings: Stir in the lemon zest and lemon juice, garlic, sugar, vinegar, salt, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, cayenne, onion powder, and black pepper. Do not add the horseradish yet! Increase heat and return the mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
Add horseradish (off heat): Once boiling, immediately turn off the heat and stir in the finely grated horseradish. Do not return to heat after this step—adding the horseradish off-heat helps preserve its sharp flavor and heat.
Fill jars: Ladle hot cocktail sauce into hot jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe rims, apply lids, and screw on bands until fingertip-tight.
Process jars: Place jars in the boiling water bath canner. Make sure water covers the tops of jars by at least 1 inch. Process for 15 minutes (adjust for altitude below). When time is up, turn off heat and let jars rest for 5 minutes before removing to a towel-lined counter. Let cool undisturbed for 12–24 hours. Check seals, label, and store.

Notes

Use bottled lemon juice, not fresh, for proper acidification.

Horseradish is stirred in off-heat to preserve its flavor—don’t skip this step.

Store in a cool, dark place and refrigerate after opening.

Tomato Quantities and Substitutions

You’ll need about 13 cups fresh tomato puree for this recipe, which you get from 9 pounds plum tomatoes. To make fresh tomato puree, chop tomatoes, one at a time, and toss it into a pan over medium high heat. Cooking the tomato immediately after chopping is important to prevent separation. Once all the tomatoes are chopped, simmer for another 5 minutes, then remove from heat and pass through a food mill. At this point, you have what’s known as “passata” or thin simple tomato sauce.

You can also use regular “tomato sauce” which is cooked down passata or tomato puree, and most sauces are not quite half the original volume of fresh tomato sauce. For this recipe using 13 cups of fresh tomato puree, you’ll want to use about 7 ½ cups tomato sauce (or four 15 ounce cans). You’ll then only cook it down slightly, for about 8 to 10 minutes, instead of cooking it down until it’s half the original volume.

Altitude Adjustments

This recipe is tested for small jars, either quarter pints or half pints. Do not use larger jars for this recipe. Altitude adjustments are as follows:

0–1,000 feet: 15 minutes
1,001–6,000 feet: 20 minutes
Above 6,000 feet: 25 minutes

Nutrition