Ball Prepackaged Mixes: Blech!
 

I've always made my pickles and spaghetti sauce from scratch when I'm canning, but last year I ran into a good deal on the Ball mixes in the closeouts at my local store. Got the pickles to do in the morning and the mix doesn't smell too bad for that, but the spaghetti just sucks, IMO!!

It doesn't even taste like base sauce... I can dress it when I open the cans to make spaghetti, but how do they manage to sell so much of that stuff?

Is it just me or does anyone here actually like this stuff?

Re: Ball Prepackaged Mixes: Blech!
 

I never have liked the mixes.

Re: Ball Prepackaged Mixes: Blech!
 

Same here.

The ball bread and butter pack is VERY good. and saves a ton of time.

The ball dill recipe is NOT good. Not very acidic, and not a ton of taste.

JMHO.

Re: Ball Prepackaged Mixes: Blech!
 

Thanks for that post.... I'm not going to waste my cucumbers then. Since I already have the mix made, I may do one jar just to taste it myself.



BTW, the spaghetti mix called for 14 cups of tomato puree; I had 18 plus about 4 cups of chopped. I had 2 packs of sauce mix, so I dumped both in since the one plus part of the other seemed bland. I then let it cook down a bit.... what I ended up with is a base that I can "dress up" when I use it, so it wasn't a complete waste.

And this, kids, is how we eliminate items we may previously have been thinking of keeping in our preps!

Re: Ball Prepackaged Mixes: Blech!
 

If you must use the mixes, use the Mrs. Wages brand; they are much better than the Ball mixes. We usually make our spaghetti sauce from scratch, but we have gone with Mrs. Wages once or twice. I do like the Mrs. Wages dill pickle mix; I get better results with that than my own recipes.

Re: Ball Prepackaged Mixes: Blech!
 

I'm glad to hear the bread and butter mix is good since those are my favorite pickles. (Though sweet and dill have many uses as relish in other recipes. Like deviled eggs. Yum!)