I know that I should pressure can my salsa so I did. Did you know that with getting the water to boil, evacuating the canner, getting it up to pressure and cool down that the salsa cooks for an hour? I turned nice fresh salsa into Tostito’s salsa.
Considering that in addition to the citric acid in the canned tomatoes (I don’t use fresh) I add more citric acid because of the other ingredients, is there any reason (e.g. do I need to worry about botulism) that I can’t water bath can it?
On what basis are you stating, “I know that I should pressure can my salsa”? Most people I know make fresh salsa because they want to consume it within an hour or a day. Why do you feel that it needs to be canned?
Because it won’t keep for 4 months until you want to eat when there aren’t any fresh tomatoes on the vine.
Many people can their winter and spring food supply in the fall.
And if the flavor is good, what is wrong with “tostitos salsa” just homemade?
You can water bath salsa, you just have to add a little more acid in the form of lemon or lime juice. The recommended amount is usually 1 Tablespoon per pint or 2 Tablespoons per quart.
Sure in four months there won’t be any fresh tomatoes from a vine outdoors in Eastern Connecticut, but there will be fresh tomatoes in the supermarket from a vine in a greenhouse in British Colombia, or a vine on a farm in California or Florida. Sure, these tomatoes won’t be quite as good as the ones from the farm stand down the street but surely salsa made fresh from supermarket tomatoes four months from now will be better than salsa that was made four months previously and pressure canned.
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Moving thread from General Questions to Cafe Society.
Years ago, I water bathed my canned salsa and it turned out like Tostito’s that way, too. I gave up on canning salsa because there doesn’t seem to be any way to do it without cooking it. If you find one, please let me know!
Canning it will turn any salsa fresca into Tostito’s. It’s the price you pay for wanting to eat home-grown tomatoes in February without a greenhouse.
This. The whole point of canning is that you seal the jar up, and then basically sterilize what’s in the jar afterward with heat, so that there are no germs inside, and no way for them to get in.
Problem is, that pretty much cooks anything that you can.
I’d freeze it, myself. I think it would keep for a few months if properly packaged, and would be fresher than canned salsa.
Apologies for the hijack, but Margaritaville makes a fine fresh salsa. If it’s available here in the boonies, it’s probably everywhere. Their chips are good too.
I froze some tomatoes this year, for salsa later, but since they were blanched before freezing, I don’t have high hopes for salsa made from them.
What they said. If you can salsa, you’re getting a cooked version. I use the water-bath + extra acid method, myself.
What if I used extra acid and hermetically sealed the jars without cooking the salsa? With the high acid/low oxygen would little buggies continue to grow?
Not at all recommended. You can easily get mold and other nastiness (including vinegar fermentation) without killing what’s in there and removing more oxygen via canning. I would freeze salsa fresca or make it in small batches.
Yes you can water bath salsa. It does cook the tomatoes a bit,but the fresh tomatos have always retained the tomatoey garden flavor. Because of the extra acid from the lemon juice I just drain the bottles when they are opened. My salsa is hundreds of times better than tostitos. I have a group of people who actively wait every year for my salsa so I must be doing something right.
My SIL freezes salsa for this reason.