Salsa is a favorite of just about everyone. You can eat it with tortilla chips or use it as a condiment for tacos or salads. It’s quite healthy too! A couple weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a nice supply of home grown tomatoes thanks to my sister-in-law. Recently, I made sixteen pints of salsa and thought I would blog the process.

Canning can be intimidating especially when working by yourself because you have many things going on at once. Making salsa is a little more time consuming because it’s a two part process unlike the dill pickles I blogged last week. With salsa, you have to make the salsa, then process or “can” the salsa. If it’s your first time, you might want someone helping you but if not, no big deal, you can do it alone. Since I usually work alone, I just start boiling water in the canner as I work through making the salsa. If you have a second person, they can be washing the jars and getting the processing part going while you are working on the salsa or vice versa.

Special Equipment

For the process, you will need some special equipment including a canner, jar lifter or tongs, clean jars with lids and rings. If making 16 pints, you will need a large (at least) 10 quart pot.

To start, fill the canner about 2/3 of the way with water, cover and allow it to come to a boil. Be sure your jars are washed with soapy water and rinsed or were washed through the dishwasher.

Ingredients

You will need a whole bunch of tomatoes, jalapeños (which came from my small backyard garden), some serrano peppers for added spice, bell peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro (not shown). This recipe makes a mild heat level salsa. If you prefer medium or hot, just add more serrano or jalapeños or both.

This recipe makes about 16 pints of salsa because I had 20 pounds of tomatoes on hand. However, you can easily half this recipe. If you have a farmer’s market nearby, this is a great time of year to purchase some beautiful produce and try this salsa.

Making the salsa

To start, blanche the tomatoes and peel them. If you don’t want to go through this step, just core and chop your tomatoes and skip to the cooking tomatoes step. I just don’t like the skin of the tomatoes in my salsa. It’s a preference thing.

I usually allow the water to come back to a boil and boil about three to five minutes.

Peeling tomatoes takes very little time if you hold the tomato at the bottom and use a paring knife to core the top. Then, simply squeeze the tomato from the bottom and it will slip right out of the skin. Very quick and easy!

Next, add a few tomatoes at a time to your food processor and chop them up to your desired consistency. I prefer almost completely pulverized.

Add the chopped tomatoes to a large saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. This steps draws out the water from the tomatoes. I prefer a thicker salsa that holds up on a chip. (If you prefer a thin salsa, like a picante sauce, skip this step and the next straining step.) If making thinner salsa, you most likely will have more than 16 pints from this recipe.

After cooking for 20 minutes, strain the tomatoes over a bowl and then return the crushed tomatoes back to a large pot (I use a 20 quart aluminum pot) and reserve the juice in the bowl.

Helpful Hint

Depending on the variety of tomato you use will directly result in the thickness of your salsa. As I mentioned, I prefer thicker salsa so I always do this strain method to control the consistency. You should do this prior to adding the other ingredients. Otherwise, you sacrifice flavor and more importantly the vinegar which is essential in the processing.

Next, rough chop the bell peppers, onions, jalapeño peppers, serrano peppers (if using) and peeled garlic cloves.

Chop those vegetables with your food processor and add to the crushed tomatoes.

I forgot to mention a couple bunches of cilantro needs to be chopped and added to the crushed tomatoes as well. (If you aren’t a cilantro fan, just skip this step.)

Now it’s time to add some pantry items like salt to the large pot.

Add a little sugar to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

Next, add some vinegar. This is a requirement as it is needed to preserve the salsa in the canning process. Make sure you add the vinegar. I prefer apple cider vinegar but a combination of apple cider vinegar and white vinegar or all white vinegar is fine too.

Tomato paste is added to give the salsa an extra thickness. For me, it’s all about how it goes with the chips.

Next, I add back some of that reserved tomato juice to the desired consistency. So add back as much as you want to make the desired thickness you prefer.

Let that simmer for about 20 minutes while you get your jars ready to be filled.

I should mention, at this point, take out a chip and taste test your salsa. Make sure it has enough salt and spicy heat. If you want more spice, you can add more chopped peppers, hot sauce or cayenne pepper at this point.

Helpful Hint: When I make a large batch, I fill several jars with the “mild” salsa. Then to the remaining salsa, I add extra chopped serranos and jalapeño peppers and allow that to simmer while processing the mild batch. This way I can make mild and hot spice levels with one batch of salsa.

Processing (Canning)

Once the salsa has simmered for a bit and you are happy with the spice level and consistency of your salsa, the jars are ready to fill and process.

Using a two cup glass measuring cup or coffee mug, dip the cup into the simmering salsa and fill the jars to about a half inch from the top. Then, using a a butter knife or a kabob stick, run it through each jar of salsa to make sure there are no air bubbles inside the jars of salsa. (Forgot to take picture of that step.) Then, wipe the lip of the jars clean so they are perfectly clear of any debris so lids seal properly.

Place a lid on top of each jar and tighten ring. Do not over tighten rings. Jars and salsa are hot at this point but able to still handle. You may prefer to use a kitchen towel to handle jars if too hot.

Add the filled jars into the canner and process for 15 to 20 minutes. I start timing once I see the water start to boil which shouldn’t take long since the salsa filled jars are already hot. Once done, remove the jars using a jar lifter and allow to cool.

You will hear the lids pop as they cool. The indented lids should seal into an inverted position. Be sure to label your jars!

Special Note

As I have mentioned, this recipe makes 16 pints but if you like thinner salsa, it may make more.

Also, if by chance one of your jars does not properly seal, just refrigerate it. The salsa is still perfectly good to use but must be kept refrigerated instead of stored in your pantry. All properly sealed jars can be stored in your pantry for use over the next year or two (if they last that long).

As always, if you have questions, please comment below!

Happy Canning!