# How long do you cook your sauce?



## thaiblue12 (Feb 14, 2007)

The chili thread has me thinking about a long standing ( but friendly) argument between me and my best friend. How different each of us is in our ingredients and such. 
My spaghetti sauce is cooked for 20 mins. Sauce, Garlic, Onion, Oregano, Basil and etc go into it plus a bit of sugar for the acid. She cooks hers for 2 HOURS! She has to stir it often and it takes forever. I told her if I had to cook mine for that long we would never have pasta period. She swears that her family as well as her in-laws all cook it that long. I tell her that half of my family is Italian and my grandparents ( right off the boat) never cooked it that long. 
Well also argue about "soft butter". She leaves her butter out on the counter and it gets all gross and soft. I say since it is a milk product and it says keep refrigerated that it should not be left out. I refuse to eat it at her house and she complains that I give her "hard butter" when she is a my house. She does not believe me when I tell her that spreadable butter actually spreads. 
I tell her PA people in her area must be weird and resistant to food poisioning, lol. 
She thinks I am nutty because I have some uncooked rice in my salt shakers so it will not stick or clump up in them and because I put a piece of bread in my bag of brown sugar so it will not harden. 

How long do you cook your spaghetti sauce for? 

Do you do anything kitchen wise that others think odd? 

(Feel free to share any great tomato sauce recipes, that do not require an afternoon commitment, lol.)


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## TxCloverAngel (Jun 20, 2005)

Your like my mother.... she simmers spaghetti sauce for maybe 30 min.
I however, think the longer, the better! It's not uncommon for my sauce to simmer for 4-6 hours!! It helps meld the flavors and gives you an incredibly thick rich sauce.. mmm mmm mmm now I'm hungry!

I leave butter out... but it never lasts longer than 2 days around here, so there is no chance of it going bad.

The argument at my house is ketchup. I keep it in the fridge... Hubby thinks it should be a jailable offense! lol


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## Jen H (Jun 16, 2004)

My spaghetti sauce is cooked for a couple of hours. Husband's sauce is cooked for maybe half an hour. His is good, but mine tastes more complex and stronger.

I *hate* hard butter. Being presented with a dish of icy, hard butter pats for my bread is one of my pet peeves. I grew up leaving it on the counter, and that's what I do now.


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## Oggie (May 29, 2003)

I make a quick spaghetti sauce when I need to.

But, our favorite is with meatballs. And it's better if the meatballs can soak up some of the flavor in the sauce. That takes an hour or two. Or the sauce and meatballs can be frozen for later with the same result. By the time they're thawed and heated, the flavors have penetrated.

Tomato/basil sauce without meat doesn't need much time to cook.


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## jer (Sep 2, 2003)

Unsalted butter should be refrigerated and Salted butter can be left out. Salt is the preservative! Spaghetti sauce can be made quickly but it is thicker and the flavor is better if it is simmered 2-4 hours.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

I do both depending on my mood.

Sometimes I like the long, slow cooked rich consistency, and sometimes I like a bright, fresh style, that I cook for 15- 20 mins or less.

To me thay are 2 different animals, and both good.

For the short cooked style I'll sometimes put in kalamata olives and capers for a putanesca style, but I leave out the anchovies.


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## Micahn (Nov 19, 2005)

My family likes the sauce even better the next day. A lot of times I will cook it one day for a hour or so and then put it in the frig for the next nights dinner.


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## AmberLBowers (Nov 28, 2008)

Tiempo said:


> I do both depending on my mood.
> 
> Sometimes I like the long, slow cooked rich consistency, and sometimes I like a bright, fresh style, that I cook for 15- 20 mins or less.
> 
> ...


Same here. They are two different things. I usually prefer the shorter cooking fresher flavored sauce but if I have the time and am in the mood for a rich sauce, I'll let it cook for a while.


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## All country (Dec 23, 2003)

"Sauce" needs to simmer all day to thicken and for that rich, full flavor. A good batch of sauce is started early in the morning then slowly simmered all day. That's how Mom learned to make it, and how she taught me. 

We like fresh tomatoes and vegetables, chopped, heated until just tender, then served over pasta, but we don't call that sauce, then it's just "vegetables & pasta." 

Butter only last a day or two around here, so we leave the butter dish out. We hate getting hard butter.

A bottle of ketchup will last a long time here, so we refrigerate it.


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## copperpennykids (Sep 6, 2004)

Simmer sauce for as long as possible. This goes for chili, soup, anything complex with spices and lots of variable ingredients.

We vote for soft butter! Butter only lasts a day or two here as well, so no problem.

Catsup/Ketchup goes in the cupboard. I need refrigerator space for more important things!


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## Loriann1971 (Sep 1, 2005)

I like to simmer my sauce for a while. Sometimes I cook a fast batch and then freeze it, only to let it simmer all day in the crockpot the day I decide to use it.

I put my butter on a covered butter dish and then put it in the frig. About a half hour before dinner, I put it on the table so it will be spreadable when we sit down. If I need a quick bit to spread during the day, I just use smart balance margerine. My mom always left it uncovered, on a saucer in her pantry. Granted we lived on the coast of California, where the weather was never really hot, hot, but it still got pretty soft and soggy in there.

Now pancake syrup is the arguement in our house. I grew up leaving it in the cupboard so it wouldn't get hard. Dh likes to refrigerate it and then heat it up in the microwave in individual portions.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

I start my sauce first thing in the morning!
I take the frozen tomatoes out of the freezer and set them to cook off all of the offending watery juices leaving a thick, rich, flavorful sauce by evening.

In the summer when I am making a 'light' pasta sauce with fresh veggies I do a quick sauce so the flavors are sharp and bright.

I hate, hate, hate hard butter! I try to set it out before I need it and in the amount that I will need so that it is pliable.


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## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

My sauce takes about 30 minutes

I leave the butter out, but admit that DS has a real problem with this LOL I have a nice covered dish and keep my house cool.

I never fridge my tomatoes and my mom always does.


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## via media (Jun 3, 2005)

Quick sauce and sauce sauce are two different things in our house. Sauce sauce requires hours of simmering while quick sauce is just chunked tomatoes and spices heated through. I tend to make the long simmering sauce in the winter and the quick sauce in the summer.

Butter, catsup, syrup and almost any other questionable goes in the fridge. The big exception in my book is tomatoes! They get mealy. 

/VM


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## thaiblue12 (Feb 14, 2007)

Well my friend is never going to see this thread! I could never again tease her about having "rancid" butter 
I use Land o Lakes spreadable butter for toast and such and it works well and stays in the fridge. We do not use that much so it would go bad in my house if it sat out. 

I am surprised to see how many cook sauce for so long. I would have to make months and months of it if it took me that long. 

Peanut butter and syrup are kept the in pantry at my house. My husband thinks they should be in the fridge.


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## Elffriend (Mar 2, 2003)

I cook tomato sauce for hours when I'm getting ready to can it, because I want to evaporate a lot of the liquid. When I'm turning it from a jar of plain tomato sauce into spaghetti sauce, I saute all the veggies first (garlic, onions, peppers, mushrooms), then add the sauce and some herbs and simmer 20-30 minutes.


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## Valiantone (Oct 9, 2008)

Hmm I'm glad I'm not the only one who leaves the butter out! Never been sick from it yet. Or have I????

I like to let sauce and chili simmer for hours............and hours........

Mmmmmmmmm


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## Aponi (Dec 21, 2008)

Sorry, Thaiblue, I prefer to cook my sauce for a couple hours as well. When I'm really in a time crunch I'll cook it for 30 minutes or so, but whenever possible I like to let it simmer for at least 2 or 3 hours. 

My husband and I have had the butter argument as well. I prefer to keep some butter out that is soft and spreadable for bread. He insists it should be kept in the fridge. I compromise and keep it in the fridge except for when I bake bread. Then some of it has to be soft for me. I absolutely hate trying to spread hard butter on bread, and we rarely buy margarine. Even the "spreadable" butter is too hard in my opinion.


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## chickenmommy (Aug 24, 2004)

Depends on whether I am using canned or fresh tomatoes. Fresh simmer for hours, canned gets started when water gets put on to boil for the pasta. 
Butter---I only buy unsalted so that MUST be refridgerated until ready to use. I pull one stick out at a time to the fridge. The rest is kept in the freezer. I have had butter turn green and moldy when I wasn't looking!
Syrup is room temp but peanut butter is fridged because we can't eat it fast enough to get it gone before it turns rancid.


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## jbowyer01 (Aug 4, 2008)

We simmer our sauce for long periods just seems to taste better (also makes the whole house smell yummy) as for the butter I have a small butter crock that sits on the kitchen counter so it easily spreadable but since I live in Ga. I am unable to leave it out during the summer because it looks like I stuck it in the microwave and melted it.


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## coalroadcabin (Jun 16, 2004)

I can my own sauce from our tomatoes. It's simmered for 3-4 hours before I put it in jars and process in a pressure canner. So, if you count that time, my sauce goes for 3.5-4.5 hours. If you only count the time from when I take it out of the jar - only about half and hour.


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## Kim_NC (Sep 5, 2007)

I grew up in PA...LOL, with weird food ideas like your friend apparently. (Live in NC now.)

Spaghetti sauce is something we cook for 2-3 hours, to blend the flavors as others have mentioned. We often add onions, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, herbs, etc in the last 45 min of cooking.

Marinara sauce however, is different to us. We only cook it about 30 minutes. It's thinner, 'fresher flavored', and we typically have larger pieces of tomato in it.

I dislike hard butter for my bread, pancakes, vegetables, etc. I want it to spread and/or melt at my will.  We typically have salted butter. We leave it out on the counter to soften in Fall/Winter/Early Spring. In Summer, it's too warm here, even with the AC running for me to be comfortable with that. Then we set it out about 30 min before meals to let it soften, return it to the refridgerator after the meal. 

All things such as ketchup, mustard, steak sauce, dressings, etc are all kept in the refridgerator here. We tend to set them out ahead of meals to let them come close to room temperature.


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## Snakeoil (Mar 13, 2005)

Each summer I can at least 50 jars of spaghetti sauce. I cook mine for at least two hours.


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## MushCreek (Jan 7, 2008)

You can soften butter in the microwave in about 10 seconds- problem solved.


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

my sauce takes 3 to 6 hours to simmer and gets better the longer it simmers, butter is in the fridge as well as ketchup (because it says so on the bottle)


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## Jen H (Jun 16, 2004)

None of us eat ketchup, so that isn't an issue in this house. What is an issue is mustard. I leave it in the pantry. Husband refrigerates it. Ditto maple syrup - I leave it out, Husband refrigerates it.

With leftovers, Husband likes to leave them on the counter for a couple hours till they're room temp before packing them up and putting them in the fridge. I'm a pack them into the fridge right away kinda person.


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## Murray in ME (May 10, 2002)

Tiempo said:


> I do both depending on my mood.
> 
> Sometimes I like the long, slow cooked rich consistency, and sometimes I like a bright, fresh style, that I cook for 15- 20 mins or less.
> 
> ...



Tiempo has it exactly right. They're really two different sauces. For a lighter, fresher tasting sauce, cook it quickly. For a richer sauce with more well developed and blended flavors, simmer it for a long time. I usually simmer mine for 2-4 hours. Sometimes more. I do sometimes make light, quick tomato sauces though. They're both good. Just different.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

The key ingredient in making a spagetti sauce is time. I cook all my ingredients up and put it in the crockpot in the morning and let it simmer on low for at least 7 hours. It allows the flavors to mingle and it doesnt hurt to let it sit overnight in the fridge, then reheat the following day.  
As to cold butter.......... Butter is indeed a dairy product but it doesnt need refrigerated any more than cheeze does. Ice cream gets yucky when not cold but butter and cheeze are both much better served at room temp.


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## chris30523 (Jun 11, 2005)

jbowyer01 said:


> We simmer our sauce for long periods just seems to taste better (also makes the whole house smell yummy) as for the butter I have a small butter crock that sits on the kitchen counter so it easily spreadable but since I live in Ga. I am unable to leave it out during the summer because it looks like I stuck it in the microwave and melted it.


I think it depends on where you live. We like soft butter but can't leave it out cause it gets too soft,PB,catsup,anything that might spoil if it gets too warm must go in the fridge as for the sauce I dump out the Prego and heat it.Although seeing so many people who make their own is making me think about trying it.


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## amwitched (Feb 14, 2004)

My sauce takes all day to cook. I start it in the morning, using an electric frying pan, and just simmer it until it's time for dinner.

I leave my butter on the counter. My Dad prefers his straight from the fridge.


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## alpacamom (Jan 28, 2007)

Butter is in a butter bell on the counter. Before I got the butter bell, it was in a dish on the counter. I love my butter soft and spreadable and it doesn't last long in our house. I use it in everything. 
Ketchup goes in the fridge because the bottle says to put in there.
Peanut butter and syrup go in the cupboard at our house.


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