Aunt Connies Garden Fresh Salsa For Canning Food

EASY HOMEMADE SALSA FOR CANNING

Steps:

• A note about peppers: Remember to use caution and always use gloves while handling. I always remove the seeds from mine before chopping but if you like hotter salsa feel free to leave them inches.
• A note about tomatoes: you do not have to peel them, but most people prefer doing so. To quickly and easily peel them: give them a quick rinse to wash them off. Then drop them into a pot of boiling water for about a minute or until you see them crack and peeling. Remove with a slotted spoon into a large bowl of very cold ice water. Now you can easily remove the peel and the core. I usually put the chopped tomatoes into my 2 quart pitcher to measure the tomatoes.
• To make salsa: Put all ingredients EXCEPT cornstarch and water into a large stock pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil over low heat for 10 minutes.
• Mix together the cornstarch and warm water in a small bowl. Make sure the mixture is very smooth- you dont want any corn starch chunks in your salsa.
• Add the corn starch liquid to the big pot of salsa, stirring while pouring.
• Boil on low for 10 minutes, watching carefully so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot.
• Pour into prepared canning jars, leaving about 1" for head space. Seal according to your favorite method.

BIG BATCH SALSA (FOR CANNING)

Steps:

• Fill roaster with tomatoes, crushing with hands or with an emersion blender as you add them to the pan.
• Add onions, jalapenos, garlic, vinegar, sugar, salt, and tomato paste. (Note: Sometimes I need to let the tomatoes cook down before adding the sugar, vinegar, and tomato paste so that it will fit in the roaster.
• Simmer 2 to 5 hours to desired thickness. Stir occasionally, scraping sides of roaster so that it does not burn. Adjust salt, sugar, and peppers to taste. You can add tomato juice if it becomes too thick.
• Ladle hot salsa into jars, leaving ¼-inch head space.
• Clean rim with damp cloth. Adjust two-piece caps.
• Place jars in a hot water bath. Process 15 minutes (pints) or 20 minutes (quarts), after water comes to a boil.
• Remove jars from hot water bath. After 12 hours, check seal, remove bands, and label.

SALSA FOR CANNING

Steps:

• Prepare the jars and lids:
• Wash all jars and lids thoroughly with soap and water and rinse well. Fill your canner with enough water to cover the jars by at least 1 inch and bring to a simmer. Using a pair of canning tongs, lower the jars in gently, tilting them to fill with the hot water. In a small saucepan, keep some water warm but not boiling; place the lids in the water. Have an additional kettle of water on to boil.
• Peel and core the tomatoes:
• Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Have a large bowl of ice water at the ready. Gently lower the tomatoes into the boiling water and blanch them for 60 seconds. Remove with a strainer and transfer them to the ice water. Once cool, slit the skins; they should peel off easily. Remove the cores with a small paring knife. Discard skins and cores.
• Chop the vegetables:
• Wearing latex or plastic gloves, chop the jalapenos finely, removing veins and seeds if you wish to reduce the heat. (If you wish to reduce the heat further, replace some with regular green peppers, but do not increase the total weight of peppers in the recipe.) Chop the onion finely. Chop the tomatoes coarsely. Add the peppers, onions, tomatoes, lemon juice and salt to a large saucepan.
• Cook the salsa: Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
• Fill and close the jars: Using canning tongs, remove the jars from the canner, carefully pouring the water back into the canner. Set next to the salsa in the saucepan. Turn the heat under the canner to high. Use a ladle to pour the salsa into the jars through a canning funnel, leaving 1/2-inch headspace at the top. Run a clean chopstick around the inside of the jar to dislodge any trapped air. Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp paper towel. Place the lids on, and screw on the rings until just finger-tight.
• Seal the jars:
• Using canning tongs, gently transfer the jars to the canner, taking care to keep them vertical. When all the jars are in the canner, there should be at least 1 inch water covering them; if you need more, add water from the kettle until the jars are sufficiently covered. Bring the water to a full rolling boil, and process for 10 minutes.
• Remove and cool:
• Using canning tongs, gently remove the jars from the canner and transfer them to a kitchen towel or cooling rack, again keeping them vertical. Do not set hot jars directly on to cool counter surfaces. Leave to cool, undisturbed, for at least 12 hours. If any of the jars do not seal when cool, reprocess using the method above, or refrigerate and use immediately.
• Label and store:
• Add a label to the lid or side of your jar, noting the date it was canned. Remove the rings and store jars in a cool, dark place for up to one year. Refrigerate after opening.

HOMEMADE SALSA FOR CANNING

Steps:

• **Weargloves or cut chiles under cold running water, leave the seeds if you want, chile pepper heat comes from a vein in the flesh of the chile not the seeds.
• Peel, seed and chop tomatoes.
• I leave the tomatoes in large chunks for a chunkier salsa.
• You can plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for about 30 seconds then run under cold water to make peeling easier.
• Place chopped tomatoes into a colander to drain for 30 minutes.
• You will want about 14 cups of chopped tomatoes.
• Chop chiles.
• Remove seeds.
• You want about 4 cups total chopped peppers.
• Set aside.
• Chop onions, mince garlic and chop cilantro.
• Place tomatoes into an 8 quart Dutch oven or a large sauce pan.
• Bring to a boil.
• Boil 30-45 minutes or until desired consistency.
• I boil for 20 minutes, we like chunky.
• Add peppers, cilantro, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar.
• Return to a boil.
• Fill hot sterile jars 1/2 inch from top.
• Wipe rim off with clean towel, place lid and screw band on and tighten to finger tight.
• Set each jar into water bath canner right after filling.
• Bring water bath canner back to boil and bath for 35 minutes.
• Remove jars and cool on a wire rack or towels.

ZUCCHINI SALSA FOR CANNING

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients except vinegar and cornstarch in a large stockpot and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Stir occasionally to keep from scorching.
• Mix about 2 T. vinegar with the cornstarch and pour into pot. Add the rest of the vinegar and stir, until mixture thickens. If you would like for it to be thicker you can add a little more cornstarch and vinegar.
• Ladle into hot jars and can as usual, about 10-15 minutes (depending on your altitude---you can learn about this at The National Center for Home Food Preservation's web site.).

WHOLE FOODS GARDEN FRESH SALSA

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients; mix well.
• Cover and refrigerate until serving time.

CHIPOTLE SALSA (FOR CANNING)

Steps:

• Blanch the tomatoes, remove the skin, and then chop. Measure 8 cups.
• Mix all ingredients except the cilantro in a large pot and simmer until desired thickness is reached, approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Ad the cilantro just before you are ready to pour into jars.
• Fill into hot, sterilized pint jars and top with hot, sterilized canning lids. I do not process in a canner and have never had a problem, but you may process in a hot-water-bath canner at this point for 20 minutes if you are concerned about food safety.
• If you buy a half-bushel of tomatoes and adjust the rest of the ingredients accordingly you get about 6 batches and 36 pints.

AUNT CONNIE'S GARDEN FRESH SALSA (FOR CANNING)

Steps:

• Put all ingredients in a very large pot and simmer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile wash jars, lids and rings. Get your hot water bath pot going. Put the jars in the the hot water pot for 10 minutes prior to the salsa being done. In a small pan put the lids in water and warm them, but do not boil them. Take the jars out of the hot water and place the jars on the counter, fill with hot salsa, wipe rims, put lids on, rings on (just finger tip tight) and then hot water bath the jars for 20 minutes. Take out and set on towel and leave undisturbed for 24 hours. After 24 hours check that all the jars sealed. Take off rings wipe down jars and then put rings back on and store in a cool dry place until ready to enjoy. Should yield approx 10-15 pint jars. You should have a little left and you can put that in a bowl and eat it right away or just put it in the fridge and eat it in the next few days. If a jar does not seal just put it in the fridge and eat that one first.
• Happy Salsa making!
• Note: To peel the tomatoes drop them whole in boiling water let sit for 1 minute, transfer to bowl of ice water, core and peel. Also, if you don't like the consistency after you've cooked all ingredients for 30 minutes you can continue to cook and it will get thicker. Use your jalapenos to adjust the heat we added 6 this last batch we made and it was nice and hot.