new canning experience: salsa

after i'd done my share of juicing and was at a lull in the roasting i set my sights on salsa.

i didn't even like salsa until 2005 when i made my own salsa for the first time. i traditionally rely on green zebra tomatoes, red or yellow bell peppers, a jalapeno (never more), cilantro and red onions. i always like it but i never profess to be any sort of salsa aficionado. i like the colors and its not too spicy.

but this pico de gallo isn't appropriate for canning. to can salsa you must cook it, and with that i mind i hit up my Ball Home Canning Guide and picked the salsa which had the fewest ingredients of which i had the most of in my house.

the winner? 'Zesty Salsa' by the Ball Home Canning Guide.

10 cups chopped, cored tomatoes (about 6 pounds)
5 cups chopped and seeded long green peppers (about 2 pounds)
5 cups chopped onions (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 1/2 cups chopped and seeded hot peppers (about 1 pound)
1 1/4 cups cider vinegar
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons cilantro, minced (optional)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon Tabasco Green Pepper sauce (optional)

• Place prepared ingredients into a large saucepan, adding hot pepper sauce, if desired. Bring mixture quickly to a boil over high heat.
• Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Have clean canning jars and new lids and rings prepared for use. Let lids sit in a shallow dish of very hot water for 10 minutes until use.
• Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe rim of jar with a damp paper towel. Place lid on evenly and adjust ring onto jar.
• Process jars for 15 minutes using boiling water canning method.

Yield: about 6 pints.

note: you get to choose your own hot peppers. wee!

i ended up using three bulgarian carrots, three yellow wax, and a few drying red chilies. i'll admit, at this point in the season i am buried in peppers and i'm hard-pressed to remember what most of them are.

due to my own fear of heat and the very perceivable heat of the bulgarian carrot (the burning lips and pads of my un-gloved fingers as a testament to their painful potential) led me to stop at 1 cup of hot peppers. yes, the recipe said not to change things for fear of changing the acidity, but it then went on to say to taste before canning and add more peppers if more heat was needed.

so i had 1 cup peppers and 3 tablespoons cilantro.
i'll let you know if i die of botulism.

tasted some of the extra today at lunch, not too spicy but had a little kick which i am convinced would grow with increased consumption. so all in all i am pretty happy with the endeavor and have 7.5 pints of salsa to show for it—which is more than enough for this little sissy girl.