So I've made jam and love it. I decided last year to start canning more. We canned pears and it was a huge hit. We tried peaches and they weren't freestone so it was a disaster. Apricots bombed too. It's been a live and learn experience. Hence, I needed to rebuild my confidence and at the beginning of summer canned more jam and syrup.
So, with confidence back up I decided to try salsa. We consume huge amounts of salsa in our house, but I have always been scared away from anything that involves vegetables when it comes to canning. I don't have a pressure canner as of yet, and I didn't want to try my luck with my pressure cooker and hope I was measuring the pressure correctly. When I discovered canning salsa could be done safely with a hot water bath I jumped in.
Now this is my first attempt meaning I researched and looked for recipes hoping not to come up with something that would end up not tasting well or would be a complete failure. I came across a recipe at
food.com that looked promising and decided to give it a try. HOWEVER, I have researched enough about canning salsa that I knew it was not advised to go over a 50/50 ratio between tomatoes and other veggies, and this recipe is a little vague in the measurements. Hence, I tried to be a little more specific in the measurements of what I did, which I'll list below. Also, I used roma tomatoes so I lost a little more liquid than I would have had I used the plum tomatoes that the recipe called for. I processed mine in multiple batches experimenting with heat from the jalapenos. You can adjust as you see fit. For a mild salsa I seeded the anaheims and the jalapenos. For a medium heat I left the seeds in the anaheims and in a couple of the jalapenos. The peppers are completely interchangeable and you can use bell peppers, yellow peppers, whatever you prefer.
20 cups firm tomatoes, chopped and seeded
Pickling salt
1 small can tomato paste
6 cups onions, diced
3 cups cilantro, chopped
1 cup garlic, minced
7 cups anaheim peppers, chopped
3 cups jalapeno peppers, chopped and seeded
3 Tbs lime juice for every pint jar (I didn't use fresh limes...I was too cheap and lazy)
With the roma tomatoes it took about forty tomatoes to get a twenty cup yield. I peeled the tomatoes dropping them in boiling water for about thirty seconds and then placing them in an ice water bath. This was so easy my eight and eleven year olds ended up peeling most of the tomatoes for me. The tomatoes were then cored and chopped and laid on a cookie sheet. I LIGHTLY sprinkled pickling salt on the tomatoes after the cookie sheet was covered and then repeated after another layer of tomatoes filled the sheet again. The tomatoes were then placed in colanders to drain off excessive liquid while I started the water in my hot water bath and began chopping the rest of the veggies. I usually sterilize my jars through a hot water wash and heat dry cycle about now also.
When it looked like the water bath was close to boiling I sterilized my lids and rims in a small pot on the stove top. As soon as the hot water bath is ready and the dishwasher has run through it's cycle so the jars are hot, I added a small amount of tomatoes and the tomato paste to my pot and stirred until there were not lumps in the paste, then I added all the vegetables. DO NOT add the lime juice yet. Stir the ingredients together and bring to a boil.
I had one batch of tomatoes I used that were a little riper than I would have liked. They were good quality tomatoes, but they lost a little more juice when I was draining them. I remeasured these before mixing them together and adjusted down my vegetables just to be safe. I honestly don't know if this is necessary, but I do know you can't go wrong safely canning salsa with more tomatoes in the recipe and you can go wrong with too many other vegetables...let's just chalk this up to better safe than sorry.
As soon as the salsa reaches a boil, add 3 tablespoons of lime juice to your pint size jars, 6 tablespoons to your quarts. Fill the rest of the jar with salsa, leaving one inch of head space. Wipe the rims clean and seal your lids. Once you have enough prepared to fill your waterbath, place the jars in the water bath and return it to a boil. You want about one inch of water covering the jars. I processed my jars for fifteen minutes and I am about twelve feet above sea level. This was from the
FDA guidelines. They recommend twenty minutes 1,000 - 6,000 feet and twenty-five above 6,000 feet. Do not start timing until the water has returned to a boil.
When the jars are finished processing, remove from the water, and set aside until you hear that wonderful popping sound.
So far so good, and I'll let you know if I find any others worth sharing, but so far it was a positive experience. I plan to do some more research and try some other recipes just because this is a very chunky salsa and only appeals to about half my crew. I'll need to work on adding another more blended salsa to the pantry so everyone is happy!
