Spaghetti sauce too sweet

Question

Trying to make spaghetti sauce and this is too sweet:

2 each 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (low salt)
8 oz can tomato paste
1 red onion diced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 garlic cloves
1 lb 97% fat free beef

Brown the beef and simmer everything for 3-4 hours.

It just comes out too sweet.

Salt and sausage (fat) would make it less sweet but also less healthy.

I am thinking about poblano peppers and / or cilantro.

How to make this spaghetti sauce less sweet, without adding fat or salt?

Answer 1

The tomato paste in your recipe is a large contributor to the sweetness. You could reduce the amount you are using or substitute with tomato sauce.

The addition of an acid would also help balance the sweetness. A splash of vinegar or wine for example.

Answer 2

About a teaspoon of Balsamic vinegar would not only make the sauce less sweet, but will also add depth to the flavour of it, in my opinion.

Another option, from my own recipe, is to add a splash of red vermouth after the meat is done, so it simmers with everything.

Answer 3

I tend to use very little salt in cooking, and wouldn't add any directly to this recipe (and there would be none at all added to the tomatoes). There are a few things you could add that would contain a little salt (such as Worcester sauce, marmite, or even soy sauce - be sparing if you use any of these so they don't take over the flavour). What they have in common is umami. That link has a list of foods high in umami; one that stands out here is mushrooms.

There are other things you can do though. More onion would help, as would more herbs and black pepper. This recipe might benefit from some red wine, in place of any water you might add during simmering. A little celery or bell pepper can help a lot, even dried and powdered. Vegetable stock powder is a good source if you can get it without salt (I can). You can buy seasoning that's made mainly from powdered dried onion, garlic, celery and peppers with no added salt (though the one I have - "season-all" - might come in a little sweet for your use). Lemon juice can also help.

Personally I'd use several of the things I list, to avoid any single one dominating.

Answer 4

Simple way to avoid sodium and still have salty taste is use salt substitute. Personally I've tried using potassium chloride as substitute. It is less salty and more bitter than regular salt, but this makes it work even better for de-sweetening food.

I heard a lot of good about using bitter salt as a salt substitute, too. Haven't tried it myself, but if you are taking magnesium supplements anyway, swapping them for bitter salt in your food may be a good idea.

For fat, there are fat substitutes all right. I used maltodextrin and pectin in the past, when I needed thickener. Sadly, first one is rather sweet. Pectin is not (in my opinion, at least) and change to mouthfeel may help to combat "too sweet" feeling. I find it highly personal, for one person it will feel less sweet, for another it may feel more. For most it's just thicker. Only way to know is to try, I'm afraid.

---

Answer 5

Solution 1:

If you need to really remove sugar instead of masking it as with the suggestions proposing acidic additives like vinegar or lemon juice, you could add yeast to the sauce and simmer it for several hours on the lowest setting you have. The yeast will eat the sugar and as long as you properly vent it (no cover on the saucepan) you won’t get any alcohol buildup. When enough sugar is gone, bring the sauce to a quick boil and kill the yeast culture.

Solution 2:

Use more real tomatoes instead of tomato paste and simmer the sauce for several hours to reduce the water content of the tomatoes which will thicken the sauce. Of course you will still have all of the sugar from the tomatoes.

Solution 3:

I assume you are using the paste to thicken the sauce. Why not just use a neutral starch like tapioca instead of the tomato paste?