Why would you want to eat store bought salsa when you could use all those delicious garden vegetables and you can make them yourself at home? There is an art to canning sauce and it is important to only follow recipes that are proven to work. If you get the wrong mix, you risk making yourself and others seriously ill, so the following article is designed to educate you on the proper procedure so you can avoid poisoning yourself or your guests.
The ingredients you will need include fifteen pounds of tomatoes, skin and seeds removed. Three-quarters of chopped, prepared tomatoes make eight pints of sauce, and you can use pre-packaged sauce seasoning mixes or make your own, depending on your preference. If you make your own salsa canning seasoning, you’ll need two cups of lemon juice and if you’re using a prepackaged mix, you’ll need vinegar.
Go to your garden and pick the juiciest, best looking tomatoes you can find, they are so much better than anything you can get at a grocery store. If you don’t have a garden at home, you can even visit a farmers’ market to buy some delicious tomatoes to make your own salsa. You can use the Beefsteak, Roma and Lemon Boy or Better Boy varieties and be sure to avoid the ones with bruises, which are soft to the touch and avoid the rotten ones at all costs. You want the best tomatoes you can find to make the most delicious sauce!
The equipment needed to can the sauce includes a bain-marie canner, which is a large pot used to sterilize the jars after filling them with the sauce. The sauce contains tomatoes which are a borderline high-acid and low-acid fruit, meaning it must be kept in a boiling water bath. You’ll also need some pint-sized canning jars, flat metal lids with a gummy wax binder, rings that fit the lid on the jar, a jar holder, a lid lifter, a large pot, large spoons and ladles, and a pot. funnel for jars
Put a bunch of tomatoes in a pot of boiling water for less than a minute, then plunge them into a bowl of ice water. Blanching them causes the skins to slide off the tomatoes, and if you don’t get rid of the skins, the sauce will be chewy, tough, and taste bad. Once the skins have been removed from the tomatoes, cut them in half and remove the seeds and excess water by squeezing with a finger to get rid of what you don’t need. Dice the tomatoes and drain in a colander, saving the liquid for a delicious base for soups or some Bloody Mary’s.
The next step is to sanitize the jars and lids, which is fine if done in the dishwasher. If you don’t have a dishwasher, you can always use clean, soapy water and rinse the lids and jars thoroughly, be sure to remove all residue to avoid contaminating your sauce. Put the lids in a boiling water bath for several minutes to kill any germs or bacteria, everything is sanitized in a water bath to make sure it’s clean and doesn’t spoil the sauce.
Are you going to use pre-mixed sauce condiments or are you going to go all out and mix up your own tasty combination? It’s not that hard to mix the seasonings together to make a tasty sauce, it’s basically just cornstarch, salt, onion powder and other seasonings. In addition to being lower in sodium and healthier, using fresh herbs and spices in a canning sauce recipe is more flavorful and also allows you creative control over your concoction. Once you’ve mixed all the ingredients, it’s important to combine them and bring them to 180°F, hot enough to be ready for the water bath, which will kill any bacteria. Reduce the heat and simmer the mixture for about half an hour, stirring occasionally.
Once the mixture has cooked properly, fill the jars with sauce and put on the rings and lids, fill to within a quarter inch of the top and put on the lid and gently tighten the ring around the jar. Make sure contact surfaces, tops of jars, and under the ring are clean for a good seal. Place jars in a canner and keep covered with at least 1-2 inches of water and keep boiling. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, you can safely change the amount of herbs and spices in a canning sauce recipe, but the amounts of acidic vegetables must stay the same or you could make the sauce unsafe and never substitute vinegar for vinegar. lemon juice, as it ruins the whole recipe.
After completing the water bath, lift the jars and allow them to cool without touching or pushing them. You can remove the rings once the jars have cooled, but you should check that the seal is intact by making sure the lid has been suctioned off. If the lid opens up and down and makes a popping sound, it’s not sealed, but if you put the jar in the fridge, it’s still fine. You should never put the lid back on and reprocess the sauce jar that is over 24 hours old, it may still mean the sauce is contaminated and should not be used.
Whether following a proven canned salsa recipe or using your grandmother’s salsa recipe, homemade canned salsa is a delicious treat and can be enjoyed for months after summer is over. Be sure to observe all of the rules listed above and give it a try, while canning salsa is an art, it’s not something impossible to learn. What are you waiting for? Grab a pot, clean up your garden and get to canning, it’s something you and your whole family will enjoy just as much as eating!