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Making Annie's Salsa Recipe from Frozen Tomatoes

14 years ago

I still have many gallon ziplocs of tomatoes in the freezer from last summer. However, I just chucked them in whole with no prep first - I was overrun at the time.

What I've been doing is thawing them in the oven, then putting them in a strainer and breaking them open so a lot of the water drains away. Then I've run them through my chinoix (I have a Roma now) for sauce.

I'd like to use this sauce/toms to make Annie's Salsa. The recipe calls for 8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained and 16 oz. tomato sauce. Do I just use 10 cups of my squished toms?

Thanks so much!

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Comments (7)

ruthieg__tx
14 years ago
I think she used the tomato sauce and paste to get the particular taste/thickness she was striving for. I'm not an expert but I would think that you could just use your tomatoes...

I've just used the last of my tomatoes to make pasta sauce. I did them pretty much the same way...just put them in a bag as they were. For the pasta sauce I was concerned because I hadn't peeled them but I strained them after defrosting and cooking a bit and pureed the skins and added them back in and the sauce was delish.
annie1992
14 years ago
I agree, I'd just use the tomatoes. Squishing them all up would result in a paste like texture, not the chunky salsa that I make.

In fact, I'd probably just chop 'em up and not worry about the skins, or slip the skins from the frozen tomatoes and chop them up, maybe drain a little.

You will probably get a thinner "sauce" instead of the thick and chunky salsa, but it would still be good.

ruthie, you are right, I just added the sauce and paste for texture, I wanted that thick/chunky salsa, not what we call "taco sauce" here, which is more runny and has smaller chunks of the veggies, or no chunks at all.

Annie
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Charcuterie, I've made this recipe many times and the amount I get varies from about six pints to about eight pints. I think it probably depends mostly on how watery the tomatoes are. Roma tomatoes are usually very meaty, and the fact that you got less than eight cups from 5 1/2 pounds suggests yours were quite meaty (I usually find about four pounds gives about eight cups). So my guess is that the liquid from the canned diced tomatoes is what made it have so much volume. If you had added more fresh tomatoes, they would have cooked down. Since the tomatoes you added were canned they were already cooked down, so they wouldn't have shrunk as much in cooking, if you see what I mean. I do think your salsa should be safe to eat. The added extra peppers is actually the one thing that goes against standard safety recommendations---peppers are a low-acid food, so if you have more peppers total compared to tomatoes than a recipe is tested for, you don't know for sure that it's acidic enough. But those cans of peppers in adobe are small, and you added extra acid, AND I know that Annie's recipe has a generous margin of error of extra acid. So while the standard answer is "you should never change anything in a tested recipe," I know that I, personally, would feel very happy eating your salsa. I'll be right over, in fact. ;-p Good luck, Zabby
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Yes, of course you can use commercially canned tomatoes, but I'd drain them well so your salsa isn't too runny. I'd use the same processing times, you still have the peppers, onions, etc. in there, it's not all tomatoes. Annie
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This is refreshing! ;) Usually what we get here is folks wanting to convert a cooking recipe to a canning one. For fresh eating, no you don't have to do any cooking, but this is a lot of salsa for fresh eating unless you are having a large party or cut the recipe in 1/2 or quarters. It won't store safely for long in the fridge without cooking and put in some form of containers. So if you want it for normal rate of salsa eating, just make it as is including the cooking and then freeze it in freezer containers? Then you can thaw a container, keep in the fridge as use as desired. Dave PS: we need to note to avoid future confusion that this posted copy of the recipe is the one for pressure canning only and the processing time has since been increased to 25 mins. There is a separate recipe for BWB canning for 15 mins. that requires 1 cup of vinegar. Bottled lemon juice or bottled lime juice may be substituted for all or part of the vinegar in either recipe.
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Lakeaffect, the page just kinds of jumps around as I'm trying to use it, so it might have been the search bar when you started typing! Judy, I've never frozen it, I raise grassfed beef, pastured chickens and organic pork, so freezer room is at a serious premium. It's mostly saved for meat, although I freeze berries in the summer and make jam later, which allows me to make room for whatever meat is being processed in late fall/early winter. I would think it might become watery, although liquid could be drained off, but it might retain a nice fresher flavor. Some people are vehemently opposed to the acid, whether it be vinegar or citrus, and freezing it would allow you to use little or no acid ingredient. If you try it, let us know how it is, please? Happy Canning (and/or freezing, LOL) Annie
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robin_d
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you!

If I wanted a thicker salsa and didn't mind it 'chunkless', how many cups of 'mater squishin's would I use per batch?
gardnpondr
14 years ago
I would love to have Annies salsa recipe. Is there a link to it some where?
I have some tomatoes planted that I sure hope makes me loads and loads of them. :)
gardnpondr
14 years ago
Ok I found it on here. Nevermind. :)
annie1992
14 years ago
Robin, that's a $50 question, because you're going to change the density of the product, which could impact the processing.

If I were going to do it, and I can't guarantee either safety or success, I'd reduce the tomatoes by at least a cup, or bump up the vinegar/lemon juice by another 1/3 cup or so.

Annie
robin_d
Original Author
14 years ago
I understand, Annie - I think I'll just go with your first suggestion:

"I'd probably just chop 'em up and not worry about the skins, or slip the skins from the frozen tomatoes and chop them up, maybe drain a little.

You will probably get a thinner "sauce" instead of the thick and chunky salsa, but it would still be good."

Thank you very much for taking the time to weigh in on this.

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