Lou McLeod: Home Canned Salsa Recipe – Plus 10 Tips for Safe Salsa Canning

The following article Home Canned Salsa Recipe – Plus 10 Tips for Safe Salsa Canning See more on: Total Survival

This home canned salsa recipe rates an “Awesome!” from friends and family alike. To keep the salsa “canning friendly”, it contains a higher proportion of tomatoes than most fresh salsa recipes, plus added vinegar to lower the pH. (More on Safe Salsas for Canning at the end of the post.)

The taste and texture of this salsa recipe is similar to a popular commercial brand we used to use, but canning with your fresh local produce at the peak of ripeness really makes the flavors sing.

Organic spices are great if you can get them. To me, the flavors and aromas seem more intense than their conventional counterparts. More grocery stores are starting to stock bulk organic spices, allowing you to stock up on a quality product at a great price, or you can buy them online.

Cilantro gives you a more authentic flavor, but my parsley grows much better than my cilantro. I’m also one of the people who think cilantro tastes like soap, so I usually use parsley.

You may use whatever sweet peppers you have on hand – red, yellow, green, orange, banana – just don’t exceed one cup chopped per batch. We used to use only one hot pepper when the kids were younger, now we use four. Meaty paste tomatoes are best, but slicing tomatoes will do in a pinch.

Home Canned Salsa Recipe

Ingredients

20-22 pounds of tomatoes
3 cups onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup fresh cilantro or parsley, finely chopped
¼ cup celery, finely diced
1 cup assorted mild peppers, finely chopped
1 – 4 hot peppers, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon dried oregano leaf Buy oregano online.
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin (optional, but recommended) Buy cumin online.
1 cup 5% apple cider vinegar
3 6-ounce cans tomato paste (optional, for thicker salsa)
¼ cup Ultra Gel (optional, for thicker salsa) Buy Ultra Gel online.

Directions

Blanch and skin the tomatoes. To blanch tomatoes, place them in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds, until the skins start to split. As soon as the skins start splitting, remove the tomatoes and place them in a cold water/ice water bath. This stops the cooking so they don’t get mushy, and makes them cool enough to handle for peeling. Slip off skins.

This home canned salsa recipe rates an “Awesome!” from friends and family alike. Hot or mild - you choose! Enjoy your fresh, local produce year round.

A photo from several years ago, with my boys skinning tomatoes.

If you are working alone, you can squeeze the tomatoes and put them to drain in a colander while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. In our kitchen, the boys chop tomatoes while I prep the rest of the ingredients.

The boys, chopping tomatoes then and now.

To finish the tomato prep, dice the tomatoes into small chunks and place in colander to drain off excess juice. We prefer to scrape out most of the seeds and squeeze out excess juice for a thicker salsa. If desired, juice can be strained and consumed, or canned separately for later use.

Finely chop onions, garlic, cilantro (parsley), sweet and hot peppers.

Caution: Use gloves when handling and chopping hot peppers. I leave the hot peppers until last to minimize risk of spreading the hot pepper juice around my work area.

Prepare canning jars, two piece canning lids and water bath canner or pressure canner. Your canner will need time to heat up for processing.

Place all salsa ingredients except vinegar and Ultra Gel in a large stockpot. Dissolve Ultra Gel (if desired) in vinegar, add vinegar mix to stockpot. Mix salsa thoroughly.

Heat the salsa to a gentle simmer. There is no need to cook it; you just want to get hot enough for canning.

Fill the jars with salsa, allowing 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims for any spills. Seat the lids and hand-tighten the rings around them.

To water bath can the salsa: Put the jars in the canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Keep the water boiling. Process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 15 minutes for 8 oz and pints and 20 minutes for quarts.

To pressure can the salsa: Fill canner with water according to manufacturer’s directions. Process the salsa at a pressure of 10 to 11 pounds, 10 minutes for pint jars and 15 minutes for quarts.

Makes around 12-13 pints.

Note: I usually run my jars through the dishwasher and try to time it so they are done and warm when I’m ready to fill jars. Never fill cold jars with hot salsa! The difference in temperatures may cause the glass to break.

Home Canned Salsa

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

This home canned salsa recipe rates an “Awesome” from friends and family alike. Hot or mild – you choose how spicy you like it.

Author: Laurie Neverman

Ingredients

20-22 pounds of tomatoes
3 cups onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup fresh cilantro or parsley, finely chopped
¼ cup celery, finely diced
1 cup assorted mild peppers, finely chopped
1 – 4 hot peppers, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon dried oregano leaf
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
1 cup 5% apple cider vinegar
3 6-ounce cans tomato paste (optional)
¼ cup Ultra Gel (optional)

Instructions

Blanch and skin the tomatoes.
To blanch tomatoes, place them in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds, until the skins start to split. As soon as the skins start splitting, remove the tomatoes and place them in a cold water/ice water bath. This stops the cooking so they don’t get mushy, and makes them cool enough to handle for peeling. Slip off skins.
If you are working alone, you can squeeze the tomatoes and put them to drain in a colander while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. In our kitchen, the boys chop tomatoes while I prep the rest of the ingredients.
To finish the tomato prep, dice the tomatoes into small chunks and place in colander to drain off excess juice. We prefer to scrape out most of the seeds and squeeze out excess juice for a thicker salsa. If desired, juice can be strained and drunk, or canned separately for later use.
Finely chop onions, garlic, cilantro (parsley), sweet and hot peppers.
Caution: Use gloves when handling and chopping hot peppers. I leave the hot peppers until last to minimize risk of spreading the hot pepper juice around my work area.
Prepare canning jars, two piece canning lids and water bath or pressure canner.
Place all salsa ingredients except vinegar and Ultra Gel in a large stockpot. Dissolve Ultra Gel (if desired) in vinegar, add vinegar mix to stockpot. Mix salsa thoroughly.
Heat the salsa to a gentle simmer. There is no need to cook it; you just want to get hot enough for canning.
Fill the jars with salsa, allowing 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims for any spills. Seat the lids and hand-tighten the rings around them.
To water bath can the salsa: Put the jars in the canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Keep the water boiling. Process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 15 minutes for 8 oz and pints and 20 minutes for quarts.
To pressure can the salsa: Fill canner with water according to manufacturer’s directions. Process the salsa at a pressure of 10 to 11 pounds, 10 minutes for pint jars and 15 minutes for quarts.
Makes around 12-13 pints.

Notes

I usually run my jars through the dishwasher and try to time it so they are done and warm when I’m ready to fill jars. Never fill cold jars with hot salsa! The difference in temperatures may cause the glass to break.

What is Ultra Gel?

Ultra Gel is ultrafine cornstarch, which is used to thicken the salsa. It is now the preferred product for thickening when canning. I recently purchased Ultra Gel, which is GMO free. Clear Jel is a similar product. When I first made this recipe, it called for cornstarch, but Ultra Gel and Clear Jel are now recommended over corn starch for canning.

Click here to purchase Ultra Gel Online.

What Makes a Salsa Safe for Canning?

Want to learn about how to all the parts of a good salsa work together? The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service has put together a great explanation of all the ingredients that are typically used in a salsa, some sample recipes and what makes a recipe safe (or not safe) to can.

Some safe salsa canning tips include:

Add acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar, to lower the pH. For water bath canning, pH should be ≤ 4.6.
Lemon may be substituted for vinegar, but vinegar may not be substituted for lemon. (Vinegar is less acidic then lemon.)
Use purchased vinegar with 5% acidity (homemade vinegar may be less acidic)
Use ripe, firm tomatoes, preferably paste tomatoes. Don't used fruit that is overripe or rotting.
It is safe to add additional dry spices such as salt, pepper or ground cumin. Do not add extra low acid fresh ingredients such as peppers or onions.
Do not use flour or cornstarch for thickening, only canning safe thickeners like Ultra Gel.
Store canned salsa in the refrigerator after opening.
Store any jars that did not seal in the refrigerator and use within a week.
Do not eat home canned salsa with bulging lids, off smells or any other signs of spoilage.
If you want to store your favorite salsa recipe but are not sure if it's safe for canning, try freezing instead, or refrigerate and use within a week.

Check it out at Safe Salsas for Canning for additional information.

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P.S. – My History With Canning Salsa

This post has been updated from a post originally published in 2009, which included more of my salsa canning fiascoes. For the curious, I've included part of that original post below.

The first time I canned homemade salsa (around 13 years ago, I think), I used recipes from the Ball Blue Book (one batch of each) and some “mild” Tam jalapeno peppers. Those “mild” peppers ate through two pairs of rubber gloves and filled the house with fumes so strong that I could hardly breathe and my husband started tearing immediately as he soon as he entered the house when he came from work. The salsa was thin and watery, strong on vinegar, and not too tasty. I gave up on salsa for quite a few years – I couldn’t put myself through that again.

Enter older and wiser me, several years ago (2006?), now with close to an acre of garden after moving out to to the country, over 20 heavily producing tomato plants, and the awesome power of the internet. It was time to try again.

I started hunting around for recipes, and came up with several that looked promising, but the one I settled on was from PickYourOwn.org. I just checked the link, and they’ve changed the recipe that’s posted, but I’ll be sticking with the one I have. I’m so glad I saved it to my home computer. This makes a mild salsa, thick with tomatoes. In 2013, we made seven batches. The boys love salsa. They are much bigger now than when this post was first written.