Anything wrong with using jar marinara sauce to make meatbal

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b.chadash ↓

Yesterday at 6:41 pm

zaq wrote:

Bragging rights, OP, bragging rights. You could say the same about anything. Why do some ppl make challah from scratch (some grow their own wheat, too, but not many), some buy defrost-and-bake, and some buy ready-made? Why do some buy pizza from the shop, some buy defrost-and-bake, some buy pizza dough and add sauce and toppings, and some make it all from scratch including growing the tomatoes?

Of course there are other reasons ranging from preferring the taste of homemade to cost-effectiveness to avoiding ultra-processed foods to avoiding specific ingredients such as sugar, salt, preservatives or allergens.

There are plenty of cookbooks with names like "Practically Homemade" that rely on mostly store-bought prepared ingredients, for people who like the illusion of homemade from scratch but don't like to patchke. For example, fill a store-bought graham cracker pie crust with chocolate pudding made from a mix or bought ready-made in a tub, top with whipped cream swooshed out of an aerosol can, drizzle with chocolate syrup, et voila, "homemade" chocolate cream pie.

What I can't fathom is making kneidlach from a mix. It saves maybe ten seconds of measuring matzah mehl and seasonings, that's it. But I can understand buying ready-made kneidlach.

Love your post and I'm all for store bought anything.
But I'm gonna pick on your picking on Challa, because there's actually a mitzva to bake challa. One of the three special mitzvos for women.
So don't lump that in with the rest.
Go buy dessert. And kneidlach.

amother

↑ White

Yesterday at 6:43 pm

amother Bluebell wrote:

Following because I always use jarred Marinara and my sauce comes out thinner and oilier than I would like. Any tips?

It could be the meat your buying someplace use a higher percentage of fat. You can bake meatballs for a few minutes before put in sauce. Only problem with that is that then yoy have requests for plain meatballs....

amother

Maple ↓

Yesterday at 7:11 pm

zaq wrote:

She's being sarcastic. Surprised you didn't khap, but maybe English isn't your primary language. I thought the post was rather funny, actually

English is my primary language and I'm pretty well versed, yet I still don't get that post??

amother

Salmon

Yesterday at 7:33 pm

amother Maple wrote:

English is my primary language and I'm pretty well versed, yet I still don't get that post??

It was a joke. move on.

amother

Viola

Yesterday at 10:57 pm

High prices. I would love to use jarred sauce.

Raisin

Today at 3:53 am

I moved to a country where there was no jarred on sauce on sale at the time, and once I started making my own it tastes so much better. Its also cheaper.

Sometimes eg erev pesach I use jarred sauce and still don't like the taste, although I am sure some are better than others.

I make my sauce using chopped onions, garlic, veggies if I am in the mood, and a mixture of canned chopped tomatoes, passata and tomato paste which really handily comes in a tube here. Season and done.

yachnabobba

Today at 3:55 am

You absolutely will get sued, possibly incarcerated 🤣 you do you girl who cares what others say

amother

Coffee

Today at 4:01 am

I just did this last night and added a can of cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. I have no issues with the sauces being canned or jarred, although I am definitely the kind of person who avoids AI and other overly processed things. Hold your head high, OP.

↑ zaq

Today at 4:56 am

b. Chadash, I stand by my statement. The mitzvah is not to BAKE challah but to separate challah IF you bake, (do you understand the wording of the bracha?) and it's not specifically challah,for Shabbat or otherwise, but any to-be-baked dough made from chameshet haminim. So your kaiser rolls for Sunday brunch or your yeast buns or your Cuban bread or Southern biscuits or what have you, if you use enough flour, qualify. The difference is that most people don't make a big enough batch of breakfast biscuits and so on to require separating challah.

amother

↑ Slategray

Today at 4:59 am

amother Bluebell wrote:

Following because I always use jarred Marinara and my sauce comes out thinner and oilier than I would like. Any tips?

Try another brand marinara. I like Frescorti in the crockpot. If making in a pot I need a thinner sauce brand.

amother

Cinnamon

Today at 6:13 am

I'm a save-time kind of person, and I still use canned tomato sauce with spices for my meatballs. sometimes a splash of lemon juice and honey. mostly for taste and texture, but cost and health are secondary reasons. If there's bit of sauce in the jar, I might pour in some water and add that to my meatball sauce, but not as the primary ingredient.

amother

↑ Maple

Today at 8:10 am

amother Salmon wrote:

It was a joke. move on.

First of all this was my first post, I don't need to 'move on'. Secondly I know it was a joke, would just love if someone could explain it to me because I really didn't get it. Not sure why someone can't just break it down for those of us who didn't understand it...

↑ watergirl ↓

Today at 8:15 am

amother OP wrote:

Maybe that's the cans, but not the jars I see

You seem to be calling all of these products the same thing.

There is:
- Tomato paste
- Tomato sauce
- marinara sauce

Tomato sauce is just tomato, water, maybe salt. It comes in a can, I've never seen it in a jar. If you are looking at a jar, it's marinara sauce.

Marinara sauce comes in a jar or in a can (like the Don Pepino pizza or spaghetti sauce comes in a can).

Simple1

Today at 8:17 am

What I don’t understand is calling a tomato sauce recipe homemade when it used canned tomato products.

Aside from the added sugar I would think the glass jar is healthier than a can. Also how much sugar is in there? It’s not nearly as sweet as bbq sauce. And some brands are sweeter than others.

↑ b.chadash ↓

Today at 8:20 am

zaq wrote:

Actually , I will stand by my statement as well.

While you are right that the actual mitzva is to separate challa, and that hafrasha applies to many types of dough at any time- there is a separate inyan to BAKE challa on erev Shabbos.

There are two reasons for this.
One is because it gives one the opportunity to be mafrish challa, and two, because it is a way of honoring Shabbos.

(The mitzva of separating challa is primarily a woman's mitzva because it serves to rectify Chava's sin which happens on Friday. This is why women make an effort to bake challa specifically on Friday. )

I refer you to the Rema OC. 242.1, who says that it is "proper for a woman to bake loaves of bread on Friday, and fulfill the mitzva of separating challa. "

In the footnotes of Halichos Bas Yisroel, he quotes the Biur halacha who expands on this Rema, as follows: "A hint of this is found in the verse, 'And it shall be on the sixth day and they shall prepare what they bring, that which you need to bake, you should bake.." (Shemos 16:23), indicating that one should bake on Friday for Shabbos. In Talmudic times, this was an established custom...but due to the multitude of our sins, today many women have stopped this practice, and they buy from the baker. This is not proper, for by doing so they diminish the honor of Shabbos. "

Rabbi Neuwirth in Shmiras Shabbos Kehilchasa says similarly: "Since ancient times, it has been the custom for the Jewish woman to make a special effort, on Friday or on the day before Yom Tov, to do her own baking. This is yet another way to honor Shabbos or Yom Tov. A further reason for the custom is that it enables the woman to fulfill the mitzva of taking challa, so that, all in all, it is a custom well worth preserving."

See also Rabbi Neustadt's essay on this topic here: The Mitzvah Of Separating Challah https://torah.org/torah-portio.....mini/

In my younger years, I used to find baking challa overwhelming, so I would often buy. But since I came across this Rema, I make an effort to make challa. It's prefereble to buy dessert, kugel, or marinara sauce, rather than buy challa.

Last edited by b.chadash on Tue, Nov 26 2024, 9:28 am; edited 2 times in total

NechaMom

Today at 8:42 am

If we use the second reason "to honor Shabbos" (without the Mitzva of hafrashas challah), why isn't it "honoring Shabbos" to cook the fish, kugel, make homemade marinara sauce for the meatballs, and "bake" homemade desserts in honor of Shabbos as well?

amother

↑ Red

Today at 8:48 am

Simple1 wrote:

what cans you are referring to?
The cans/containers I buy are either fully chopped tomatoes or with some preservatives and some have a small amount of sugar in tomato pastes.

I add the herbs, garlic, spices, fried onions etc. -thats called homemade.

Marinara sauces are what comes in jars and have a whole bunch of ingredients in it. Which you just boil up and add meatballs to or add to pasta dishes. -thats called hacked.

Do you only call things homemade if you actually blanche and blend the tomatoes yourself?

↑ b.chadash

Today at 9:14 am

NechaMom wrote:

I think thats a good point.
Of course you can honor Shabbos with any food you cook for Shabbos. Any preparation you do for Shabbos is a way to honor Shabbos.

But, it's my understanding that because hafrashas challa is a mitzva in and of itself, and a mitzva that is given primarily to women to do on erev Shabbos, there's an added inyan for women to prioritize making challa over other things.

(Realistically speaking, many women are overwhelmed with the responsibilities of work, childcare, cleaning the house and also cooking for Shabbos. If there's a way that they can make life easier, they should! I have heard a wise rebbetzin say its better to make one less kugel rather coming into Shabbos like a shmatta. By the same logic, it often makes sense to buy Shabbos food rather than prepare everything yourself. But, if your time is limited and you can make just a few things, my understanding is that it's preferable to make challa and buy the rest. )

Fox

Today at 10:10 am

When marinara sauce started going for over $4 a jar, I threw a mini-tantrum and started canning my own. I buy 106-ounce cans of tomato sauce from Sam's Club, along with cases of tomate paste. Add my own onions and spices, and pressure can it. I estimate it's less than $1 per quart.

Now, that means I spent $100 on an electric canner as well as a total of $50-60 on jars and lids. So I probably haven't broken even quite yet, let alone started saving money. But I also can chicken soup, ground beef, and potatoes, and that's quite helpful.

My two daughters who live nearby are pregnant/post-partum, so I take meals to them and/or lunchbox stuff every evening. Needless to say, I use a lot of all these ingredients. Would it pay if I were just cooking for me and my husband? Probably not.

The health benefits weren't the motivating reason for switching to less-processed foods, but the more I learn, the more I realize that every step of processing that you do yourself is better. Growing my own tomatoes would be better than buying tomato sauce, but perfect shouldn't be the enemy of good.

I'm also a bit of a secret prepper, to my family's amusement. At least in the US, we tend not to realize how fragile the supply chain is. When the East Coast dockworkers were threatening a strike a couple of months ago, I started investigating all the things that would be impacted. Foodstuffs themselves weren't necessarily the problem, but a lot of the containers used by food processors come in on those docks. So the flour company, for example, might have plenty of flour to sell, but they can't get any bags to put it in.

So now I always have 30-50 lbs of flour; plenty of canned chicken soup, marinara sauce, potatoes; and ground beef; pasta (which I store in glass jars with the oxygen sucked out).

↑ watergirl

Today at 11:13 am

amother Maple wrote:

It was sarcasm.

The OP asked if there is anything wrong with using a jar of sauce for meatballs.

Someone replied sarcastically:

amother White wrote:

It's illegal in most countries. Close blinds look doors and muzzle kids.

She was joking, using a sarcastic tone to convey that of course there is nothing wrong with using jarred sauce. By saying "it's illegal in most countries, close blinds, lock doors, muzzle kids", she was implying that anyone using jarred sauce should do so in secret. The sarcasm is meant to imply that of course there is nothing wrong with using sauce from a jar.

Not everyone is able to understand sarcasm. That's ok! It's not a great way to get a point across (though personally I am kind of sarcastic in person). I can see how the meaning can get lost in print.

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