I've lost my salsa recipe!

[Mary Ann]

I so can't believe it. I used to can salsa all the time, and now I can't remember where the recipe came from. Anybody have some good ones? I skimmed about ten pages of this board and came up with nada.

Help, the tomatoes are coming fast and furious!

[Kit]

I was going to say DH LOVES the sauce for the pineapple pork tacos. I make extra and he uses that for salsa... then I saw that you have tomatoes.

I googled "tomato salsa recipe" and came up with a BUNCH of recipes.
Cooks.com had about 5 pages.
great-salsa.come also had several, from alligator pear salsa to watermelon pico de gallo.

[KarenN]

I make my own, but not from a recipe, just whatever seems to taste right. I chop tomatos, jalapenos, anahiems, bells, onions, garlic, cumin and lots of cilantro till it all seems to be to my taste.

[Mary Ann]

Karen, I may just do that. Salsa seems to be one of those very individual things; what one person loves, another person finds kind of *meh.*

Do you recall your processing times? Or do you just process like tomatoes?

[Newfygirl]

I make it like Karen does, only I freeze mine. I'm too afraid of processing.

[Vicki]

www.pickyourown.org/salsa.htm

This is the link to the salsa recipe I somewhat follow. It also uses lemon juice instead of vinegar for thikening. Step 9 says the head space should be a 1/4 of inch. My Bell Blue book says salsa should be 1/2 inch from top. The first time I went with a 1/4 of an inch and a couple of jars did not seal. For the next batch I used 1/2 inch and they all sealed. The site also gives processing times based on elevation.

Here's what I modified my recipe to:

14 cups chopped tomatoes
3 1/2 cups chopped green peppers
1 chopped jalepeno
1 cup cilantro
4 chopped garlic cloves
2 12 ounce cans tomatoe paste
2 cups bottled lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cumin

It made approximately 7 pints. We put most of it in 1/2 pint jars....just enough for one serving.


just modified the tomatoe paste amount

[Mary Ann]

Vicki and Karen, do you do cold packs for yours? Or hot packs? And how long do you process?

[Vicki]

I hot pack. I cook all the ingredients in a pot until it bubbles, "just to get it hot (180 F, if you have a thermometer) there's no need to cook it; only to get it hot enough to ready it for water bath processing to kill any bacteria and enzymes.. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally." (from the above link in my post)

Here is the processing time table from the link:
Recommended process time for Tomato/Tomato Paste Salsa in a boiling-water canner.
Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack Jar Size 0 - 1,000 ft 1,001 - 6,000 ft Above 6,000 ft
Hot Pints or 8 oz jars 15 min 20min 25min

The link really does break down each step with pictures really well. I have only been cannign for a couple of years. I re-read it every year. I have it printed and need to re-read it as DH picked more tomatoes last night. This should put us up to 21 pints of salsa just in the last week and a half.

[Mary Ann]

Thank you soooo much!

[Vicki]

Oops I messed up on the tomatoe paste it should read two 12 ounce cans!

Not a problem enjoy! All my batches taste a little different as I keep modifiying the recipe to my taste buds and what I have on hand at the time As you can tell, I like my salsa sweet, not spicy with tons of cilantro!

[KarenN]

Just like Vicki - sorry, I've been uber busy this week - no time on-line!

[Mary Ann]

Karen, you are forgiven. It's very hot at your house right now, and even making brain cells exercise is too much.