Bulk Spaghetti Sauce

I have one of those large electric cookers / crock pot that is big enough to cook a large turkey in. Let me tell you, even though it was pricey at the time, (and I see that they are now half the price of what they used to be) it has paid for itself over and over again.

It is useful for cooking for a crowd, especially in the summer when it’s too hot to cook inside. I can put that thing out on the picnic table and let it cook a turkey, or 2 dozen cobs of corn or a mega pot of chili. With some of our family get-togethers, there can easily be 20 to 30 people at once. If we are doing a neighbourhood barbeque, we can be feeding even more than that.

I also like using my cooker for bulk cooking. One of the things that cooks up well is my homemade spaghetti sauce. Once I’ve got a big batch made up, I freeze them in zippered freezer bags flat on a cookie sheet until they are frozen. The flat package stack well and I can just take out what I need and thaw for a quick meal. 

I usually allow 2 cups of spaghetti sauce per person. 4 cups of sauce fits in nicely to those quart size freezer bags. You can get 12 cups of sauce into one of those large size freezer bags for if you get sudden company you need to feed in a hurry.

Making bulk spaghetti sauce is much cheaper than buying it pre-made or even making smaller homemade batches because you can take advantage of the price of buying ingredients in the institutional size cans. Mac’s eyes always light up when he sees me opening those big cans because he’s got a million ideas of what you can do with them.

BULK SPAGHETTI SAUCE

2 - 100 oz cans of Pizza Sauce (or Tomato Sauce)

2 - 48 oz cans of Tomato Soup (or 10 small cans)

10 lbs of lean ground beef, browned in a large skillet

6 onions chopped up fine

1 large head of celery chopped up fine

3 lbs of fresh mushrooms chopped up fine

6 large green peppers chopped up fine (optional)

1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled and chopped up fine.

2 tbsp salt

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp oregano

1 tbsp black pepper

Put everything in large cooker or in two large roasting pans and stir well. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally as it heats, then turn down to  275F and cook with the lid on for 4 hours. (If you are using roasting pans, put in the oven at 350F and cook for 4 hours)

Let cool  and portion into zippered freezer bags. Close bags with as much of the air removed as possible and freeze flat on cookie sheets. Makes approximately 50 cups of sauce.