Convert to which recipe specifically? For sauce? That all depends on how much you cook it down.

NCHFP gives average conversions for common recipes. For example: For thick sauce  An average of 46 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 28 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 53 pounds and yields 7 to 9 quarts of sauce-an average of 6 1/2 pounds per quart.

Measure you sauce and tell me how many cups of finished sauce you have and how you want to use it.

Dave

Once you have followed the recipe quantities exactly, can you reduce the sauce/salsa to the thickness desired? I found a recipe that says to simmer a salsa for 10 minutes. What if I would like to reduce it for longer to make a thicker salsa?

Well that doesn't answer my original questions but no, you cannot reduce a salsa recipe further than called for by the recipe. That makes it too dense to safely BWB process. Salsa is supposed to be relatively thin for proper heat penetration. You can thicken it up if you wish AFTER you open the jar.

A plain sauce, yes, you can reduce by 1/2 or even 1/3 but not salsa since it is a mixture of low-acid vegetables.

Dave

You may find this thread helpful.

Also, remember Annie's Salsa offers the option of adding tomato paste for thickening rather than cooking down. Properly prepared it results in a fairly thick yet safe salsa.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: 8 Gallons of Puree

Dave,
Thanks Dave!
I was too tired to do anything with my mystery puree, so I froze it. I'll have to defrost when ready to can.

do you know of any recipes (annie's salsa) that are converted to a puree quantity like the KA strainer produces? seems like is the more accurate than saying "chopped and peeled" or whatever since tomatoes are different sized and have different water content.

wonder how all the people with various strainers handle it?

do you know of any recipes (annie's salsa) that are converted to a puree quantity like the KA strainer produces?

Nope, no pureed salsas. The various tomato mills and your KA attachment are just for making tomato juice and smooth tomato sauces, not salsa. There are lots of pureed tomato sauce recipes but they are usually just tomatoes and various dried spices.

Salsas are chunky, not smooth purees, and are made with either a food processor like a Cuisinart that chop or hand chopping or tools like the Slap Chop or what are called "salsa makers" like the one linked below.

Because salsas contain many different low-acid vegetables like onions and peppers they have to be chunky to be safe to can. Canning pureed low-acid vegetables of any kind is pretty much limited.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Salsa Maker

But I saw a post where readinglady mentioned "low-acid islands" - how chunky is too chunky (provided the salsa isn't a thick "puree" like tomato paste or canned-pumpkin consistency)? If the "sauce" is thin, can you have 1/2" or 1" chunks of pepper or onion in it?

I can my tomatoes - in years when I haven't planted "Big Mama" and thus have no canning tomatoes - as puree, right out of the Victorio strainer. I turn them into sauce or whatever later, when cooking.

The Ball book says 35 minutes for pints, 40 for quarts.

One of my friends purees her tomatoes, then puts them in the fridge overnight to let the solids settle. The next day she skims off the water before canning them. How safe is that?

I made a note on the end paper of my Ball Complete book about this very issue:
"Per p.261, 20 c. chopped cored peeled = 16 c. pureed in food mill, so .80 of chopped volume."

Looking back to page 261 we find the recipe for Sombrero Barbeque Sauce", which calls for 20 cups chopped cored peeled tomatoes and says "see tip at left." The the tip reads as follows: "Instead of peeling and chopping tomatoes by hand, you can put them through a food mill. Using this method, you will need about 16 cups (4 L) of tomato puree."

So, if you have a recipe that calls for you for a measure of peeled/cored/chopped tomatoes AND has you puree them or put them through a food mill, you could use this conversion to use your puree. If you're supposed to be leaving the tomatoes chopped, you can't use the puree.

Elizabeth Andress at the Univ. of Georgia will tell you that a lot of the acid is in the seeds and juice of the tomatoes. That is why I am against draining the tomatoes for Annie's salsa.

My argument again for why all canning recipes should be in weights!