I'm new to canning, with the exception of jams. I made a batch of Fresh Vegetable Salsa from Bernardin's Complete Book of Home Preserving. The recipe just calls for "chopped cored peeled tomatoes" but doesn't specify variety. I used the large type tomatoes (probably Early Girl and Fantastic) and blanched, peeled, cored, and seeded them. They were still pretty juicy so I drained them too. The recipe did not call for removing the seeds and pulp nor did it call for draining. Have I made this recipe unsafe by doing so? Original ingredients as follows:

Fresh Vegetable Salsa

7 C. chopped cored peeled tomatoes
2 C. coarsely chopped onion
1 C. coarsely chopped green bell pepper
8 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (156 m.) tomato paste
3/4 C. white vinegar
1/2 C. loosely packed finely chopped cilantro
1/2 t. ground cumin

I'd be grateful for your help as I'm preparing to make another batch.

Removing the seeds and seed cavity pulp, if you did it before you measured, means more tomatoes were added than called for. That is good for the pH but increases the density. Measure first.

Draining them increases the density even more. That juice is "assumed" in the recipe. It is fine to drain off some if you must but fully drained? No.

Type of tomatoes used makes no difference.

So the issue is if it ended up too thick. Salsa is supposed to be "sloshy/soupy" going into the jars. It can be drained AFTER opening the jars if needed. It should move about freely in the jars when tipped or rotated, have a liquidy appearance, not be solid.

It is your call. How does it look in the jars? Has it been more than 24 hours since done or can it be redone if necessary?

Dave

Thanks so much for the reply. Sounds like I made a mistake in measuring after draining. It was really pretty soupy when put into the jars and in the jars, there is definitely liquid that moves when tipped. I think I'll assume it's okay. It's been a week since this was processed so reprocessing probably isn't an option.

When I make this recipe next, I won't drain. I decided to do Annie's Salsa today and since it calls for draining, I won't need to worry about that aspect and can just follow the directions as written.

Thanks again.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm making Annie's Salsa today. I'm referring to the post called "Annie's Salsa Recipe and Notes 2012". In the notes, it mentions that tomatoes should be measured after chopping and draining. When I read your original reply, I assumed that measuring tomatoes after draining is generally the wrong thing to do but now I'm wondering if I misunderstood.

Dave

specific gravity (density ) of tomato is very close to 1 (Like water), because they are bette tan 90% water.

considering the other ingredients (onions, bell peppers, tomato paste) your tomato selection and processing should have negligible effect and if any, it could be over come by adding a few minutes to processing time. But when you remove seeds, skin, core, actually you are reducing the density more than increasing it by taking some juice out.

Calling thing like pepper, tomato , etc "SOLID" is erroneous, in my opinion because they are more than 90% water. So the heat penetration/transfer/conductivity is not much different from any apparent liquid.