I have a jar of the moist minced garlic (refrigerated). It states to use a 1/2 teaspoon for every clove of garlic. Would this work and still be safe??

Thanks :)

Lesa

You are SO gonna love this salsa! Nice score on the tomatoes!!

Deanna

ANNIE’S SALSA
8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2 ½ cups chopped onion
1 ½ cups chopped green pepper
3 – 5 chopped jalapenos
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vinegar (1 c. for BWB, may use combo of lemon or lime juice and vinegar)
16 oz. tomato sauce
16 oz tomato paste
Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process at 10 lbs of pressure for 30 minutes for pints.
Or BWB for 15 minutes for pints.
Makes 6 pints (or 7 sometimes).

Annie, thanks for sharing! I was looking for a good recipe and stumbled upon yours here! I am forever thankful (and so is my family)!

I should have enough Biker Billy jalapeños red ripe next week to use. This variety can have very decent heat & sweet. The green peppers I assume are bells?

What kind of onions work best?

The first time I try a recipe I try to do as close to the original as possible. Then I have something to compare to when I screw it up later by subbing ingredients.

Has anyone made it both ways? (BWB & pressure processing) How much difference did the different amts of vinegar make taste-wise?

I've been wanting to make this for a long time!

jt

dinkans, to answer your question first, no tested processing times have been developed for quarts of salsa, either Annie's or any other salsa recipe I know of. Pints are the limit. This has come up before on this Forum as other members have wanted to know about canning in quarts. Sorry we can't give you a different response.

Chef2Chef says 2 1/2 pounds of tomatoes yields 3 cups chopped and drained. Green peppers are Bells. I've only used Walla Walla sweet onions in salsa (correction - once I used red onion); it's whatever you have. I pressure can mine so can't speak to the increased vinegar though I know some Forum members prefer it that way.

Carol

Not looking forward to peeling 16 rather smallish tomatoes. Boiling water for 30 seconds and then ice water for 5 min, right? I never peel tomatoes for anything else as the skin always floats to top in stews etc if I quarter them.

Another 100° afternoon (I do all cooking outside) so might wait until morning.

Just how many Annie's Salsa threads are there anyways?

jt

Back to the minced garlic for a moment ---
That stuff is packed in oil, right? Because of that I'd assumed I shd avoid it for canning. But perhaps I can assume it's such a small amount it isn't a problem (like the 1/2 tsp of butter you sometimes add to jams to keep the foam down)?

jt,
I do 30 seconds in boiling water and as little as a minute in the ice water --- seems to do the trick. Doesn't take too long since the skins slip right off --- you may need to "start" them by nicking with a knife.

I use ordinary cooking onions, and I ALWAYS substitute sweet green or yellow bell pepper with sweet red in any recipe. Life is too short to eat unripe bell peppers.

Since I have a lot of tomatoes and usually have home-canned sauce in the pantry, that's what I use, but store-bought works fine, and I use bought tomato paste (I've investigated making it myself and decided it's more trouble than it's worth).

There are always several Annie's salsa threads around tomato harvest time, and rightly so!

There are a lot of salsa recipes out there, but this is the only one I've come across that is safe for BWB and hits a good combination of tomato-yness and other ingredients, texture, and tang. I think because tomatoes are borderline for acidity, and a good salsa calls for a good quanitity of low-acid ingredients too, it's a challenge to get one that does this. Annie was up for the challenge!

Happy salsa-making.

Zabby

So...........are ya done yet? :+)

Deanna

I've been the last 3 hours making Annie's Salsa. I peeled the tomatoes and was a piece of cake! Just like Zabby said. Ended up with only 7 cups drained so will add some in a can that I bought in case of emergency. Just finished chopping the fresh cilantro and am on the cumin. Do I add cumin seeds or grind them? Going with seeds until hear different.

I did make some hot pepper and sweet pepper subs although am using 3 ripe jalapenos. Combo red onion and Vidalia. Added 2 ripe Bhut Jolokia pods so this should turn out HOT!

I think am going to BWB in 1/2 pints. Will for sure be doing the extra cider vinegar, lime & lemon juice even if pressure process. No sugar.

jt

Varieties of things are pretty much as you please, sweet onion vs. yellow onion vs. red etc.... I generally use poblanos instead of bells, but last year I used Melrose peppers (sweet italian frying pepper) instead of bells. That was excellent. The cumin is supposed to be ground, but I don't think that matters, it's to taste. I generally double the cumin anyway, but skip the cilantro (personal preference).

Another thing I do is do all the chopping etc..., mix together and cook, then I put it into the fridge over night to chill and taste it cold before I add the sugar, and paste. That way I can taste it the way it'll be served, and check for taste and texture. I then add whatever I think it needs, bring to a boil and cook for the 10 minutes and then do the processing. The extra cooking tends to thicken it a bit more.

Another variation that I am doing a lot of is to substitute a quart of peaches for a quart of tomatoes. When doing the peach version, I leave out the sauce, paste and sugar (generally, this year's tomatoes are not as sweet as usual so it gets maybe a tablespoon of brown sugar).

Annie has done both the pressure canned and water bathed version. She says the 1/3 cup of vinegar in the pressure variety is necessary to get the right taste, but not necessary for safety. She does notice the extra vinegar in the water bath version and prefers the pressure canned recipe. I have not done the pressure canned variety, but I use only cider vinegar, and even the full cup is not overpowering, so I am happy to water bath.

Once you get the salsa "rules" down, Annie's recipe is very versatile, and pretty much "no fail." No matter how you do it, you'll like it.

Petro

Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh........I NEED TOMATOES!!!!
Peppers, onion, cumin, cilantro I've got.

I'm rationing the last pint or so of last years batch(es)......

Deanna (living vicariously through other salsa making adventures...)

It still astounds me, that salsa recipe seems to have taken on a life of its own, somehow.

I still like the version with the 1/3 cup of vinegar, pressure canned. Still, if you want to water bath, the 1 cup of vinegar isn't bad either. What the heck, it's all good.

Oh, and I taste a lot, so I only get 6 pints. Um...I mean ASHLEY tastes a lot, so I only get 6 pints. Yeah, that's it. (grin) And we/she eats some of it before we even cook it at all, it's yummy!

Petrowizard, have I mentioned that I'm glad to see you back? LOL I am....

Carol, I'm officially "back in town", but have not been released from federal subpoena, so I might be back "out of town" next week. Who knows?

Annie

Annie

OH! I get it!!! Elery is gonna be your new scapegoat!!??!?!?

DARFC...................................... deanna

And good that Annie's back from --- what did you say, federal prison? Oh, dear, wonder what she's done now...

I think jt is goin' with all the vinegars because he likes things tangy --- and HOT!

Deanna, my toms are starting to come in, but it was slim pickings on the peppers. I've got some nice hot peppers ripe (no Bhut Jolokia for this wimpy chick, but some lovely Hot Portugals, some Anaheims, some undersized (because pot for plant too small) Jalapenos, but I don't grow sweet bells myself, and the THREE farm stands I visited only had a few pretty sad specimens of slightly red shepherd or of chocolate between them. Still early in the season for ripe red bells here. And I SO prefer the ripe ones to green. I had to get a hothouse one for backup. Got everything else lovely and fresh, though --- looking forward to making my first batch of the season.

Annie, it really has taken on a life of its own, hasn't it? As someone pointed out recently, it pops up on the major recipe sites (usually uncredited, alas). You have made a truly useful contribution to the world --- not many of us can say that!!!!!

Zabby

As a matter of fact, I just finished batch #3 and #4 of Annie's Peach Twist Salsa (pretty cool name huh?) this afternoon. I'm now up to 23 pints this year, and I haven't done any regular yet. My brother got into the taster left over from the first two batches and pronounced it stellar.

I don't think it's surprising that Annie's recipe is now immortalized. That's what happens with a quality product. As for lack of credit, well how many people know who invented the zipper? At least we can say we knew Annie way back when before she became famous.

Petro

Made 11 jelly jars (12 oz ea) of it yesterday. Jals and habs for the heat and Spanish Spice for the bells. SS has taken the place of all bells, Cubanelle and Gypsy peppers in my garden.

The last 5 jars I kicked up a notch with additional hot peppers.

Pretty much ruined the chances of a very hot salsa by processing at 15# for 25 min. Still resulted in a slow to build burn that was quite tolerable for even a moderate like me. The 6 tbs cider vinegar, 4 tbs lemon juice, 4 tbs lime juice and 2 tbs key lime juice was almost right. A little more acidity would have been OK. I did not add the sugar.

Texture was better than had hoped for. I was worried abt the cilantro because in taste test before processing seemed a bit strong. Turned out OK.

Next time a higher ratio of lemon juice and will BWB.

Thanks, Annie!!!!

jt

Ah, I THOUGHT that if anything you would want MORE vinegar.

Tell me about Spanish Spice peppers and why they have won your heart; are they v. easy to grow? how long is the season? I have yet to find a bell pepper that yields well enough in my conditions to be worth my while, though Gypsy came close.

Also, that's interesting about the pressure-canning taking down the heat. (Remember, you can always add a little hot sauce, or some finely chopped hot peppers of your choice, upon serving if you like...) I have been told that the heat of something made with hot pepper --- or at least hot pepper SAUCE --- often INcreases upon cooking, but I don't have any personal experience to support that. Is it an old wives' tale, in your opinion?

Yes, the texture is a nice suprise, isn't it? Not quite comparable to a fresh salsa (I do love a wee bit of crunch and an uncooked tomato), but better than any other home-canned salsa I've tried, and the compromise is well worth it in order to have it on hand, just a jar-lid-twist away at all times!

Will be interested to hear how you find the BWB version (which is what I do) compares with the pressure-canned, especially texture-wise and heat-wise.

Zabby

Thanks for sharing your experience of the heat loss. I am tempted to try some experiments now.

Bernardin and the (only, now) U.S. canning-jar company, Ball/Kerr, are now both owned by the same company, and there is a great deal --- and more and more as time goes by --- of the same stuff in the Bernardin book and the Ball Blue Book. But each does have some stuff not found in the other; I like having both!

Welcome to the forum!

Zabby

Carol

Spanish Spice pepper isn't as productive for me as Cubanelle or Gypsy, but has a flavor that I find just right whether green or ripe. It does better for my mom in West Central Minnesota. It's a hybrid and the only pepper that I will pick and use when green. Great raw in salads or cooked.

Capsaicin (the heat in hot peppers) gasses off somewhere around 150°. I have a friend who suffered a chemical burn from the fumes while making a hot sauce out of a very hot variety called Trinidad Scorpion. Anyways the longer capsaicin is heated the less heat will be left in a sauce.

Side note.. I dehydrated one of the jars of salsa for powder and the cilantro completely took over the flavor. Going to have to learn more abt using it. Threw it out.

jt

Carol

Lesson learned.

Deanna

Marcia

I agree! Half pints are too small & just finished batch of 6 pints that I BWBd. 6 Biker Billy jalapeños, 3 Chocolate Habs and 2 tsp CaJohn's Frostbite hot sauce (capsaicin aquaresin) for heat. Only 1/8 cup chopped cilantro this time and hope not too much. 1/2 cup ea apple cider vinegar and RealLemon for acidity.

You are dead on abt roasting. Nothing like it to bring out flavor.

Love your screen name/userid. Just Netflixed their 2 disc DVD.

jt

Carol

Salsa does seem to need that sort of flavor though. What to substitute? I'm going to dehydrate the remainder of the cilantro and maybe it will be easier to control that way.

I still like the results, just not as 'perfect' as I want.

I used 2 tsp cumin seeds in all my trials. Should they have been roasted or otherwise cooked first? I might be thinking abt another seed.

Mexican Oregano might help. I've grown it for maybe 6-7 years and is another herb that I like only a little of per dish and don't use all that often, but is very popular in Tex/Mex. My original plant is a sturdy 4' bush and I need to dry some of the leaves soon. It's difficult to grow from seed and I usually take cuttings to share with other growers.

And I would like to come up with a novel label design for "Annie's Salsa". Google Imaged 'Annie' and Annie turned up naked all too often. LOL! I was thinking more of a "Grannie".

A jar from my last batch of her salsa is going to be a major part of my only meal of the day again tonight. And a burrito yet to be named. Hungry like the wolf here.

jt

I'm gonna keep doing some half-pints of that salsa alright, because there are only two of us, with irregular schedules --- often on the road for craft shows, sometimes eating out a lot (then sometimes hardly at all for months) --- and I find if we open a jar and don't finish it right away sometimes it sits in the fridge while we're gone and I CAN'T STAND to think of that happening to any salsa!

I can a lot of pints, too, and since I'm expecting to serve a lot of this stuff at the barbecue the night before my wedding, I might do some in crowd-pleasing 24-ounce jars....

(I do my jams mostly in little 4-oz jars for the same reason! Better to open several if I have company than let any get mouldy...)

jt,
I think cilantro is an acquired taste (so are hot peppers, LOL!). I didn't used to much like it, ESPECIALLY the smell, and it's grown on me to the point where I love it now.

Until you acquire it, I might recommend instead you try a combo of some parsley and some of that Mexican oregano. (I used some myself from a plant grown from your cutting the other night, because I didn't have quite ENOUGH cilantro. Made a very nice addition.)

I would suggest you toast and grind the cumin first so you aren't encountering little seeds when eating the salsa. The amount in the recipe refers to 2 tsp ground cumin, so if you used 2 tsp of whole cumin you used considerably less (since ground is more efficiently packed); you might want to up that to get more flavour as well.

Z

lonewolf

Until you acquire it, I might recommend instead you try a combo of some parsley and some of that Mexican oregano.

Zabby,

You are so right about hot peppers being an acquired taste! I was in my early 20s before discovering the joys of heat. Shashlik while stationed in Germany and curry during my several visits to London during the same tour of duty got me started.

Anyways, I find Mexican oregano much the same as I only like a little in my cooking still. Needed for an authentic taste I think and enjoyable unless too much is used. I might go with celery and MO in my next batch. Not real keen on parsley either.

What irritates me is that I could have reduced the amt of cilantro even lower than the 50% I used that recipe called for and added more if needed after cooking sauce for 10 min. And maybe the taste will mellow after a couple weeks storage.

A half pint salsa is just abt right for one serving for me unless plan to make the salsa the entire meal.

Picked a half gal bag of MO this morning and have in the dehydrator. It will dehydrate to almost nothing and I hope to get two shakers full of flakes. Two trays of cilantro been in for two days at 95° and have upped the temperature to 120° and might go up another 5. The humidity is so high here that I could dehydrate forever at low temps and the herbs still would not flake or powder.

jt

John, have you SEEN our Annie? Here's the pic she posted of herself. Grannie ain't gonna do it!!

Turn THAT into a label!

DARFC,
Deanna

Deanna,

WOW! It just goes to show how wrong I can be when mentally imaging people by their screen-name. She's hot! I had thought she was a grandmotherly type. Kinda my age.

jt

Not sure how old you are, but Annie IS a grandma....just not your stereotypical grandma! :+)

I, on the other hand, have had short, brownish-gray, curly hair for almost 10 years....I just turned 44.
Second from left........at my daughter's wedding in April. Yeah, I dyed my hair back to brown!!

It's fun to actually "see" people after imagining them for so long!

Deanna (anxiously waiting to see the Salsa Label you create!!!

Here’s a couple of mine…….images from Internet.

44 and looking good! Did anyone else notice any similarities between the two lucky men?

I still think (my) Annie's Salsa label might end up looking more like Granny Clampett. Way too much on my to-do list before get to label making any time soon. Bought some great looking local-grown Kirbys and stringbeans this morning and going to start some new ferments. A chile-head friend of mine sent me a couple 1 1/2 liter bail-type jars that am dying to put to use. Much better than the Ball jars that are similar.

Almost bought some more tomatoes (Roma... aargh!) for another batch, but came to my senses just in time. The cilantro in my dehydrator is about ready.

Don't think I'll be posting my picture anytime soon. LOL

jt

Made another batch of the salsa this time using the BWB. I tasted the batch before canning and in it I could taste the extra vinegar and prefer the pressure canned version. I haven't tried it after canning it as they all sealed. Maybe the extra vinegar mellowed after cooking? I also put up 7 quarts of tomato juice, so I was one busy gal yesterday.

My husband often inquires why I want to put myself through so much work canning for no more than I get. I tell him the salsa is more like a treat and then I ask him why do I bother to cook Thanksgiving dinner?

I can say that I am very proud of those finished jars and I know come this winter with each jar I open the work will pay off :)

I ordered 25# of canning tomatoes last night (pick up tonight) and my DH said: "Why do you do this? We can buy tomato stuff so cheap!"

I said: "NOT that tastes like THAT!!!"

He said: "True" and shut right up!! (grin)

I'll be picking up the tomatoes for salsa and soup tonight. 'Nuff said.

Deanna

Great colour for mother of the bride --- my mom (MUCH older than you --- *I* am 42 --- but just as proud & happy!) will wear her outfit of a v. similar lavender for my wedding in September. (My little sister got married in July and she wore it then, too --- she says once she put together a great outfit like that darned if she isn't going to get as much use out of it as she can, LOL.)

Zabby, who sure doesn't look as good as Annie but will try to get a photo of her in wedding dress (dark red silk) with her wedding-reception tomato platter to share with y'all.

It is fun to put faces to screen names. This is my recent self portrait. I can also be described as having short curly brown/gray hair. I admit to enhancing my eye color with photoshop. They are more gray/blue but didn't stand out enough when I made the rest of the picture b&w.

Since everyone is posting photos, here is a link to my myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/lesa01

Enjoyed my visit to your myspace! Another lucky husband out there.

Still thinking abt an Annie's Salsa label. Getting closer

And I have a picture too:

Basil might work, Ken. I'm not big on basil either, but would be better than cilantro. I opened up a jar on Saturday that had had some time to blend/mellow and thought the cilantro was even stronger. Maybe celery? I like celery.

jt

Cute, John, real cute! Your "photo" looks like ya been eatin' good! (grin)

I like the Annie label. You need to put in WonderWeiner!! Her doxie she lost this past year. What a tribute to the little guy!

Laura lea:
Welcome to the forum. We do have lots of fun here!!! Even in the winter, we live vicariously through our Aussie and New Zealand members!! There's always something RIPE here! Conversation, mostly.

Deanna

Welcome! You'll have lots of fun here. Always a new idea around the corner.

Annie's Peach Twist is just like Annie's Salsa near the top of the thread, but substituting a quart of peaches for half the tomatoes.

1 quart tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 quart peaches, skinned and diced
2 ½ cups onion
1 ½ cups peppers
3 to 5 jalapenos
6 cloves garlic
4 tsp cumin
2 tsp pepper
2 tbs salt
1 cup cider vinegar
Brown sugar to taste

My tinkers are to leave out the paste, sauce and cilantro, and double the cumin. I think the paste and sauce have a tendency to overwhelm the peach flavor, which is very subtle. I dislike cilantro, but like cumin.

I wouldn't worry about the sugar if I were you. I am having to add sugar this year too, mostly because my garden tomatoes are not developing much sweetness, even the varieties that are usually very sweet. It's been slightly cooler here this season, and that's the only reason I can come up with. I can't explain the salt issue. I've never had that experience, but everyone's taste is different and what is just right for me may be too much for you. I guess if I were you I would cut way back on the salt next time you make it, chill it overnight and then add the salt so that it pleases you. Then bring it back up to a boil and can as per the recipe.

Petro

BTW, what was the concensus (how DO you spell that word?) on the cumin ... toasted? ground? last time I just smashed the seeds in my mortar and pestle.

Culantro tastes pretty much like cilantro to me. Looks quite different, though, short and spiky. My sister in Florida grows it. I LOVE cilantro, but mine never seems to grow at the right time or quantity for when I need it. I sometimes put some oregano into the salsa just to fill in a bit for cilantro, which I rarely have. I know this sounds funny, but we don't actually purchase much food, so we work with what we have because we compost a lot of produce as it is.

I have been putting lots of cumin in my salsa. We made the peach/tomato roasted hot salsa today, 7 jars plus one jar that is mostly the thick liquid left at the bottom of the pot which we will label chili sauce. REALLY TASTY with our organic homegrown tomatoes, onions, and garlic, but of course every drop was needed to fill the 8 jars (mostly 24 oz. size, one smaller, a couple bigger.) So I had to make do with wiping the bowl and canning funnel and so on off with my finger while eating chips, and then eat some of a different batch of salsa that was in the fridge.

About Led Zep Rules, well, they do, but the thing is all the clever garden names I tried when I signed up were taken already, organic girl and so on. Thus I went another direction entirely, as I do love Led Zeppelin. Got tickets to their final tour just when John Bonham died, so no go there. Finally saw them as Jimmy Page and Robert Plant twice, decades later. They were awesome concerts and extremely Led Zeppelin-like.

Besides all the almost Annie's salsa, hubby and I canned 11 jars of pickled asparagus today, too, and some pickled jalapenos last night. Whew!

Marcia

Marcia: Try freezing some cilantro when it's mature for use in salsa later. Mine is always ready the first part of July and no tomatoes until now....I just chop, measure and freeze in those little ziploc snack sized bags. 1/4 cup each (amount for one batch of Annie's salsa). I can pull out as many as I need. It loses some volume and a little flavor, but it's better than nothing and sure is handy!!

Deanna

Thanks for posting the "twist" recipe again and I appreciate your comments. Always helps to hear or see something that confirms a concern. What is the take on using cornstarch to thicken?

Thanks again,
Laura

Cornstarch is not recommended for thickening; the only approved thickener (with the exception of about two tested mustard pickle recipes) is ClearJel. I don't think you'd want to thicken the peach twist salsa anyway. I'm guessing you'd find the viscous texture disappointing.

Carol

As for hubby, I am using the royal we a bit there, he did all the pickled peppers himself, most of the asparagus, and at least half of the salsa. He leaves the jam and fruit sauces to me, but salsa and pickled things are mostly his purview, in that he knows how to do them and doesn't have to worry about something setting. He canned 3 quarts of tomato sauce today. Lest you think he is completely fabulous, I should mention he doesn't clean up very well after himself.

Marcia

I love Cilantro but absolutely detest Bell peppers. They give me terrible indigestion even if cooked.
Will subbing with Poblanos or Anaheims work? They don't bother me.

Yes, you can sub any kind of peppers you want as long as you keep the quantities of low acid ingredients the same.
You can do more onion, less pepper or vice versa, as long as the total is the same.

Same thing with the acid. You can use any combo of vinegar (at least 5%), lemon or lime juice (bottled only for consistency, not fresh).

This is some good stuff! And flexible enough that you can make it to your liking.

Deanna (just a couple hours south of ya).

Another option would be to play with hot pepper sauce, dried pepper powder (i.e. plain chile powder) or even cracked black peppercorns for a different sort of heat, if those are tolerable.

Carol

Sure, leave out the jalapenos, and if you like you can add a wee bit more of sweet pepper or herbs or onion --- whatever you DO like --- since it will keep the low-acid ingredients the same!

People who like a lot of heat use LESS bell pepper and MORE hot pepper.

Zabby

Deanna

When and why did Annie add these? What difference do they make?

Carol

One brand of chips is Solena and the other is Calidad. Both obscure brands but closest to Arizona Mexican restaurants that I can find here. Chipolte fast Mex restaurant also has outstanding chips. Their food in general is wonderful to my taste. Mexican food is very different in different parts of the Southwest. AZ, NM, CA, TX all have very different tastes. It is really different up here!

Carol

Deanna

I love Chipotle, too! They don't seem to have any here in Canada, but we go to Cleveland once a year for a craft show and my fave thing about that trip is that the place we stay is right near a Chipotle. I could eat those chips with salsa and guacamole all day....

I met my BF when he lived in New Mexico and I sure did appreciate the food there when I visited. Now he's moved way up north to be with me, I'm growing anaheim peppers so I can cook some of our fave things, maybe one day I'll even surprise him with the "national questio of New Mexico": "red or green?" ;-)

Welcome to the forum. Keep us up on all your harvest adventures!

Zabby

jt

I really hate cilantro too! Really, really. I just leave it out. There is no safety consequence, it's not a high acid ingredient. After you make it without the cilantro, you can taste it and decide if you want to add the tomatillos.

Petro

Do chopped tomatillos directly replace part of the chopped tomatoes to keep the recipe safe for BWBing? I might add up to a cup if I like how they taste.

jt

It's nice your neighbor left tomatoes, but I'm sorry to hear most sound good only for the compost pile.

Carol

Made this motorized basket a few years back especially for roasting pods. Turn on the rotisserie burners plus the bottom burners and there is some serious heat in a hurry. Blister the skin on all sides until starts to split and throw whole mess into a papper bag or other container that can be closed and let set until the skins are easy to peel.

Hope to get started in 30 min or so. Don't want to run out of steam like Zabby. :)

jt

Zabby asked if the minced garlic was packed in oil and therefore if it was safe to use ... I don't think anyone answered that (although I may easily have missed the answer), so I am curious .. are they packed in oil?

Do you all really not use cracked tomatoes? Mold I can understand, but usually with cracked tomatoes I just cut away the exposed area and use the rest. Is this a bad practice?

Ann, who loves all the discussions of Annie's salsa !

The minced garlic is a great timesaver and I use it in anything that calls for garlic :)

Lesa

I still have 3 lbs of peaches and about 4 lbs of store-bought tomatoes to skin and dice. This might turn into a 2 day project, because not sure have enough sweet peppers. Plenty of hot peppers, onions etc. I just might have to work around the sweets. And have .71 lbs tomatillos want to work into at least one batch. And will slowly add parsley in place of the cilantro.

Blah, blah, blah... just taking a break and rambling on. I have a couple of old Julia Childs DVDs where she would now be having a glass of wine I think to unlax a little. It's a Miller Lite for me. And what do you think Graham Kerr would be doing now?

Back to 'work'.

jt

I wish I had a neighbor to give me a bunch of tomatoes. It sounds as if you are really really busy :) I'm envious you know :)

Work, work, work now, but this winter you will be very pleased :)

Lesa

Plunged the peaches into boiling water & then into icewater just like the tomatoes and the skin did not loosen like I expected it to. What did I do wrong? Boiled 3 or 4 times longer than would have for tomatoes.

Going to just knife peel the rest so can get on, but just thinking about next time.

jt

Deanna

DH is excited to try this salsa. We made some many years ago that was awful and haven't tried again. Going to have to buy tomatoes though. We don't have many that are ripe.

BWB is boiling water bath, I think. A canning process.

Welcome to the forum! Jump right in, this a great group!

Yes, BWB is boiling water bath. A process where jars filled with food and capped are placed in a large pot and covered with 1-2" of water and boiled for a specified amount of time heat and seal for shelf-stable storage. Sometimes called HWB or Hot Water Bath too.

Pressure Canning is a different process.

Deanna

SO, how did the salsa turn out?

(I agree that the peaches were prob. not ripe enough if the skins didn't come off. You can use a veggie peeler if need be but what a mess!)

I chopped the onions and toms for another double batch last night while my tomato sauce was processing --- gotta get it made soon as we're leaving for the weekend this evening.

Ann and Lesa, thanks for re-asking and then answering my query about the garlic --- I always just assumed it was packed in oil, never even checked the ingredients list on what I buy, DUH! I usually chop/grate my own fresh if I'm making something to be used uncooked, but if cooking it for a while anyway I find the pre-chopped just as good!

Cheers,

Z

Just because something is sealed, doesn't mean it's safe.
Lot's of people did it for years. Lot's lived to tell about it, but why take the chance?

Just follow a tested recipe from a reliable source and you'll have no worries!

Deanna

Carol

The whole cloves (Spice World) peeled garlic that I buy in 3 lb containers aren't packed in anything. The minced garlic (I don't buy anymore) is packed in olive oil. Garlic remains the only thing that I have been unable to ferment by itself. Really convinced me just how good its anti-bacterial qualities are.

Salsa......

Subbing chopped parsley leaves for the cilanto really helped for me.

Yesterday batch #1

4 cups tomatoes
4 cups peaches
1 1/2 cups sweet onion
1 1/2 cups green bell pepper
1 Biker Billy jalapeño
2 Bhut Jolokia peppers (very hot)
7 garlic cloves
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/8 cup parsley
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup lemon juice
15 oz can tomato sauce
12 oz can tomato paste
BWB for 15 min = 6 pints

Batch #2

8 cups tomatoes
4 cups peaches
2 1/4 cups green bell pepper
2 tbs manzano pepper powder (hot)
10 garlic cloves
3 1/4 cups sweet onions
1 tbs cumin seeds
1 tbs fresh ground black pepper
3/16 cup canning salt
3 tbs parsley
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 cup lemon juice
15 oz can tomato sauce
12 oz can tomato paste
BWB for 15 min = 7 pints and aprox 2 for the fridge to be frozen today.

I forgot the tomatillos and will just chop them into the 2 or so pints that I'm going to freeze. Or I might pressure process them.

The peach skin didn't seem to hurt a thing. The peaches were a bit hard, but I liked the flavor and they sure diced nicely in my new onion dicer. Tomatoes are the only thing that I have to dice by hand and they took forever as I am so stinking slow at things like that.

Thanks again, Annie!!

jt

John, I love the label. And just for the record, I'm 52, that picture was taken this April. Yeah, I'm the grandmotherly type. (grin)

And yesterday I canned 18 pints of my own salsa. No matter what Deanna says, I get 6 pints. I made a triple batch and sure enough, 18 pints total!

Annie

Either that or Ashley was there to blame it on!
. .
. .
. .
. DARRFFC (Ducking And Running Really Fast For Cover)
Deanna

I made labels, but all they do is list the ingredients. (so far)

Ended up adding 1 1/2 cups ea diced tomatillos & onions along with some niblets corn to the refrigerated extra from batch #2 and pressure canned. Made 4 12 oz jelly jars.

And yesterday got a box of home-grown tomatillos from a chile-head friend in Maine! Cisneros, Toma Verde & a third kind with no name. 2.25 lbs of them. That will be abt 3.2 cups when diced. So will be making more salsa today or tomorrow. Going to use turtle beans and corn in this batch, but haven't worked out the recipe yet. I think black bean salsa is traditionally made with shoepeg corn.

jt

We let our 5X batch boil for about 40 minutes. We'll put them through the pressure canner process for about 25 minutes.

Always makes for great salsa! And it's been tested by a food safety lab here on the West Coast. It passed with flying colors! The pH was right on the money (3.81). Standard Plate Count test came in at less than 100. No pathogens to speak of.

Seems hard to believe we've been canning this recipe for going on six or seven years....