Barb, this is no thicker than the tomatoes and celery recipe in the Ball book. it is very liquid. the thickness comes from the rice after cooking it. and the tomatoes and celery recipe doesn't call for any vinegar or citric acid to make it more acidic than the tomatoes. it calls for optional salt.
I got interrupted as I was typing this ... someone wanted a peck of tomatoes for of all things hot sauce...he showed me his recipe which has been in his family for generations according to him... his grandmother made it and he is older than me. my grandma passed away at 92 12 years ago. almost an identical recipe to what I was tweaking for the fresh serve recipe. only he does open kettle canning of it....
I am not afraid to pressure can what I made yesterday but no way ever would I open kettle can it. no water bath no pressure canning of it.
I didn't see your other response until I posted this one either. I was thinking I could leave out the sugar and add that later and I didn't add any butter. I have seen pizza sauce recipes thought that called for oil... it looks disgusting in the jar and I don't understand why you would want to can it with oil floating on the top anyway. it was a Ball recipe. needless to say it is still sitting in my pantry not being used.