Green Salsa

Yield: 5 pints

5 cups chopped green tomatoes
1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped long green chiles
1/2 cup seeded finely chopped jalape�os
4 cups chopped onions
1 cup bottled lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp ground cumin*
3 Tbsp oregano leaves *
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

--

You see that the recipe does not specify fresh or dried oregano. I assumed it meant fresh... but then when it was too late I thought maybe that was wrong.

I also subbed 1/3 lime thyme for some of the oregano, green bell pepper for the hot peppers, lime juice for the lemon juice (I see the pH is about the same).

And, the possibly tricky part, some of my green tomatoes were turning orangish, maybe 1/4 of them. At the time I thought that was ok, because by TASTE they seemed more acid than the green ones, but then later I thought to look it up. Oops. I did not find a pH value for green tomatoes online, but found many comments that they are more acid than ripe ones. Or, I presume, semi-ripe ones.

I did put a little extra lime juice, using up the bottle.

So, do I need to freeze this instead of canning it?

Thanks, folks :). And, BTW, this salsa recipe is very tasty! I recommend it :).

Dave

Turns out there is another problem, though. I used plastic-lime juice, and I have no way to find out what the brand was.

So, NOW do I gotta give up and freeze it?

It is still waiting in my fridge... tomorrow (Friday) is when I have to time to do whatever it is I am going to do with it.

I found a few more green tomatoes. I could add them and a bit of vinegar?

Dave

In this case you have a mixture cooked (and thus acidified) in undiluted bottled lime juice, which is even more acid than vinegar.

However, it's always your call. If you are uncomfortable then pick the choice you can most easily live with.

Carol

Dave

Carol

The salsa thickened up in the fridge and didn't thin again when reheated for canning. I guess it has a lot of pectin? I added some 5% cider vinegar to thin it down to something like its previous consistency, in case that was needed for good heat penetration, and canned it :).

-

Oh, dang, do I now have another problem with this what was supposed to be simple salsa?

I put it in 4 oz canning jars. I'd never used them before, but 8 oz jars tend to go bad before they get used up around here.

The jars are cute as the dickens :). But they popped instantly -- one even before i tightened the rings, and I have no idea which one it was. The others, immediately after tightening.

Do I have to recan them, and tighten each jar as I take it out?

Gah.

No, I don't mean that.

They were pretty tight when I put them in, and VERY loose when I took them out.

When I took them out, they were so loose that, if a cold jar had a ring that loose, I would not pick it up by the ring and walk across the room. I would expect the slight jostling of walking to move it just enough that the jar would fall out of the ring and onto the floor. So I thought I HAD to tighten them.

Also, what does it mean when canning directions say to take the jars out of the canner and 'adjust lids'? I thought that meant 'fix any egregious problems' ;).

For someone who learned how to can as a kid, I sure mess up a lot, don't I? I went and read the beginning canning page at NCHFP -- but it does not mention the 'adjust lids' phrase.

--

This salsa is worth the bother, though. I had some of the leftovers with lunch -- tres piquant! If I have to recan it in bigger jars that might be ok.

So... the rings are only to hold the lids on while underwater, and not to hold them close to the jar rim while sealing?

And, at this point should I recan this dang salsa?

Let the jars sit undisturbed while they cool, from 12 to 24 hours. Do not tighten ring bands on the lids or push down on the center of the flat metal lid until the jar is completely cooled.

Now, not to complicate this whole thing even more with yet another issue but you made this on Tuesday and didn't can it until Friday? We are just ignoring the 24 hour rule???

Granted it is somewhat less of an issue with pickled foods than with non-pickled foods but food to be canned isn't supposed to sit in the fridge for 3 days. It is either canned within 24 hours of preparation or it is frozen. So in the future, when in doubt, freeze it. After 24 hours it is "left-overs".

I had assumed you went ahead and processed it after the first post and that we were now discussing eating already canned produce.

Dave

I thought it would be better to do the specified boiling time on the day of canning?

Just to drive all of us completely insane, I will mention again that it thickened up while in the fridge and I added ACV when reheating, to make it sloshy. It has now cooled and thickened again in the jars. If I were to reprocess, would I need to add EVEN MORE vinegar?

::bangs head against wall::

Any bacteria that may have developed in the fridge has now been boiled for 10 min. so any possible toxins were destroyed. And given the acidity now nothing more can grow. Just keep the 24 hour in mind in the future. Either process it or freeze it, ok?

And don't bang your head against the wall. You'll just get a headache and might damage the wall in the process. Then you'll have to fix the wall and the patch will show and the paint will never match so then you'd have to re-paint the whole room and the headache will just get worse from the paint fumes! :-)

Dave

It is difficult to imagine that mixture sitting in the fridge already cooked and suffused with lime juice is going to develop any sort of problem over the [few] days it sat in the fridge. If you had prepared a small batch and planned not to can it at all certainly three or four days refrigerated is entirely reasonable.

There is a quality issue, though, in that there will be textural changes (i.e. softening) resulting from the extended refrigerated time. As you also discovered, the solids absorbed much of the liquid. Adding vinegar is fine, though it may (slightly) alter the flavor.

You've already received advice on the rings issue. Just get those jars out of the canner and let them rest. Don't touch the rings or re-tighten no matter how much they slop around. (Re-iterating for emphasis, LOL.)

It's fine. Enjoy the salsa.

Carol

No need to do anything to the lids/bands on new 2-piece types to get them to seal - in fact, the opposite - you want to leave them alone until fully cooled after which they should be sealed and you can remove the rings.