Not much wiggle room, zip, I used the least amount of vinegar I could because I didn't want the acid taste, you could add more but not less. For two extra cups of peppers I'd add at least 1/2 cup juice or more, but I still can't guarantee that it's going to bring your Ph up to something acceptable. Adding more lime juice is also going to make a runnier salsa and the other flavors will be less noticeable, I think. Don't "wash out" the tomatoes and onions with lime juice!

If I wanted it hotter I'd probably just take out some of the green pepper and use hot pepper instead, and keep the proportions the same, that way you know you're safe, if you are waterbathing the stuff.

The alternative is to pressure can it, then you just have to make sure it's done for an acceptable period of time at the right pressure, and the acidity isn't such a big factor.

Good luck, I'm a heat wimp!

Annie

I love this salsa. My sister and DBIL consider a half pint a serving! I do follow Annie's advice. I do like things a little spicier though. I do take out some of the green bell pepper and use jalapenos in the same proportion. Do not go over the 4 cups, use hotter peppers instead. I also substitute some of the vinegar with lime juice. Lime juice is more acidic than vinegar but I think it blends better with the salsa. Other than that I follow the recipe exactly. I'm a BWB canner not a pressure canner.

Can you believe it Annie, I still haven't bought a pressure canner! Shame on me!

Boo

Thanks, I ended up using about 30 habaneros and 20 jalapenos (this alone was 3.5 cups) and then used 2 cups of onions and green peppers. I added an extra cup and a half of 50-50 lime juice and apple cider vinegar (2.5 cups total). It did get a little runnier(not too bad though), but I thought I'd be safe rather than sorry. I thought it was nice, but my husband insists he still thinks that it just a medium heat salsa!!!!!

So, since I seem to be falling further and further into canning, and because experimentation is fun for me I have another question. How is a recipe tested for safeness? I can easily get my hands on pH testing supplies. If the final recipe has a pH below 4.6, can I safely can using a 30 minute BWB? Is this something where I need to can and then test samples over a time period to test for botulism and microorganisms? Or is this something that I should be asking the area coop extension?

4.6 is the demarcation point for BWB but as far as processing time goes, density and jar size also play a role. That can be more difficult to determine.

Carol

zippity,

another option, if you want to stick to safety-tested recipes (which most of us do for BWB and low-acid veggies, because botulism is rare but NASTY), is to add more hot peppers at serving time. Chop up a batch of habaneros and freeze them (hot peppers freeze quite nicely) in Ziploc bags, each one holding as much as you require to spice up a jar of salsa. At serving time, you pop 'em in the microwave briefly (they won't need much because of being chopped) to defrost and then add 'em in.

Zabby

zabby, that's a very good idea, I'll remember that for the "heat loving" salsa eaters in my family.

Boo, I can't imagine that you haven't yet gotten a pressure canner, with everything else going on in your life! I'm sure, somehow, that it's going to happen eventually though.

Annie

I've never chimed in before, but I've made Annie's salsa in a version for my husband. I was going to need too many jalapenos to get to the heat level he wanted so I ditched them entirely and went with serranos, making sure I stayed in the right proportion of low acid ingredients. I never tasted his batch, but he thought it was on the high side of just right. I made a partial batch (used up the last of my tomatoes), but it was equivalent to 20 serranos. I used the pressure canning recipe, not the BWB recipe.