CANNING SALSA HOW TO

CANNING SALSA HOW TO

New to canning? IвЂ™m not going to give a lot of details about how to prepare your jars, secure the lids, and boiling water bath canning in general. As the original recipe is supposed to make вЂњ about 6 pintsвЂњ, and this recipe makes 10+ pints, using weight vs cups has increased the volume in this case, so my proportions are not the same as the original recipe. My measurements below are вЂњ ready to go into the potвЂќ weights, not fresh vegetables before they have been cleaned and chopped weights. Is that about 6 pounds of CHOPPED tomatoes? Or do you start with 6 lbs of tomatoes, and by the time youвЂ™ve skinned and cored them, you end up with about 10 cups chopped? They never clarify. I hate it when directions say вЂњ10 cups of chopped tomatoes (about 6 pounds)вЂќ. Note, because I use a scale all the time for soap and bread recipes, I have adapted this recipe to weight rather than вЂњcupsвЂќ of ingredients. It is based on the Zesty Salsa recipe found in the 2003 edition of the Ball Blue Book, with a few minor tweaks. So, this is currently my вЂњgo toвЂќ recipe for canned salsa. IвЂ™m WAY in the safe zone, even if the pH adjusts upward after processing, as the vegetables release more liquid. When I tested my salsa with a pH meter today before it was canned, using citric acid, the pH was 3.2 вЂ“ 3.3.

I personally feel comfortable adding citric acid to salsa instead of vinegar, though it is more difficult to find this type of recipe from an extension office or other вЂњofficially sanctionedвЂќ source. And you see tested salsa recipes that add tomato paste to increase the thickness. ItвЂ™s easy to find canned tomato recipes that substitute citric acid for vinegar or lemon juice in the recipe. However, the ingredients are chopped very fine, and are still very juicy, even without the addition of the vinegar. By reducing the liquid (vinegar) in the recipe, I am also increasing the density of the product. To equal the pH of one cup vinegar, use 2 teaspoons citric acid.ДЄnother part of what makes a canned product safe has to do with the density of the food in the jar. ItвЂ™s a powerful acidifier with a neutral flavor. I have citric acid on hand, as I use it in a couple of different toiletry products. And then I ran across information on substituting powdered citric acid for vinegar in canning recipes (on the NCHFP site). Making salsa is a lot of work, and to end up with a watery product that isnвЂ™t as good as what you can buy in the store put me off making salsa for a lot of years. But who wants to waste all those lovely vitamins and great flavor filled juice, after all that work? Not to mention the mess every time you open a jar. Recipes suggest you drain before using if the watery texture bothers you. (Commercial salsa makers get around this by pressure canning their salsa вЂ“ something often not available to the home canner). Adding that much vinegar to your already juicy salsa makes it very watery. This is all well and good, except for one thing. So in order to ensure that the salsa is acidic enough to be safe, recipes call for a lot of added vinegar. By combining these vegetables, you end up with a product that is above the pH 4.6 threshold. This is because while tomatoes are acidic enough (below 4.6) to can without much added vinegar (or lemon juice), salsa has a lot of added vegetables (namely onions and peppers) that are not acidic enough to water bath can (see this handy chart). If youвЂ™ve ever researched salsa recipes using the Ball Blue Book or county extension publications or the National Center for Home Food Preservation ( NCHFP) site, youвЂ™ll notice one thing. My husband thinks of salsa as a food group, so we go through a lot of salsa. But the number one thing we do with tomatoes (and chilies and onions) is make canned salsa. There are a lot of things you can do with home-grown tomatoes to preserve them for the rest of the year, from drying them to roasting them into fantastic freezer sauce to putting them up in pints and quarts to making barbecue sauce. WeвЂ™re knee-deep into tomato season, and IвЂ™m putting up salsa 20 cups at a time.

Canning salsa