Salsa, Salsa and Relish ...

16 years ago

well, I did it ... 7 1/2 pints of Annie's salsa are now cooling on the counter. 5 jalapenos (left the seeds and membranes in 3 of them).

And, I played it safe: 1/2 cup cider vinegar and 1/2 cup bottled ReaLime.

I used Roma tomatoes and was astonished at how much of the peel came off after a dunk in hot water. A lot more than I was used to with regular old slicing tomatoes. But they were much easier to seed and chop (also lost a lot less juice.)

Just waiting for that half pint to cool and go in the fridge ... Tasting things hot doesn't do it for me ... I gotta taste it at the temp it'll be used.

Earlier, I did 5 pints of Vidalia Onion Relish.

Now it's on to Peach Salsa.

thanks to all for recipes and answers to my questions.

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Comments (6)

ksrogers
16 years ago
Sometimes tomatoes that are not fuly ripened can have a difficult to remove skin. I had a few apricots that I had to blanch 3 times before the skins softened. Most were quiite ripe and these had skins that just fell off. The difficult to remove the skins were quite a lot firmer too.
annie1992
16 years ago
kay, I find that the salsa "mellows" after sitting a week or two, although I've been known to eat it straight out of the pan I'm cooking it in. Er.....I mean MY DAUGHTER has been known to eat it out of the pan, yeah, that's it. (grin)

Annie
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Annie, it did say 10 min. ? I have to confess, that I often do a search and copy and paste the recipes from places I remember having them posted... I don't have time to do all this retyping, especially during canning season. You are right, one site does say 10 min. ! Will have to check my own recipe... you all know how crazy I get this time of year. Well, worse than ususal, anyway, LOL ! OK, my own recipe DOES say 10 min. The 15 min. I found again, on another site, posted by someone else. Sooo, I guess the canning craziness has hit me already. Send the guys in the white aprons for me ! That is really a weird recipe to me. I would open a jar of zucchini relish and then a jar of salsa, mix them, and taste to see if I like it. It seems SO sweet. Sort of reminds me of that red hamburger relish you buy in the store, not salsa. Yes, Veggiecanner, it is truly amazing what you will still find people doing when it comes to food preservation and food safety in general. And then, people say they have "the flu" when often it is forms of food poisoning due to their unsafe storage of homecooked foods, leaving foods unrefrigerated. I have heard some really strange things, I tell you. Try Annie's salsa if you haven't. I like it really well. Everyone else does, too. Then, if you don't like it, send it to me ! Ha ha. The salsa recipes do say 15 min. on the food safety sites.
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I was hoping someone who'd made those recipes, or at least had more experience, who answer. I've only made Annie's Salsa, pickles, and a few relishes (just this year, we're not relish people) from Joy of Pickling. The NCHFP says about loss of liquid from jars that some is OK, but if more than half is lost the food should be refrigerated and used soon. I'm going to go with that (someone may correct me) as the rule of thumb for your situation now, since I assume you already processed them, and that the veggies had been cooked in the acid so a little sitting above is OK. Sometimes I lose liquid when doing dill spears so the tips of the spears are above the liquid even when I had enough to cover before I put them in the canner (so I don't do spears any more). But if I'm making pickles or raw-packed relish, and don't have enough liquid to make the required headspace, I mix up more brine (I've learned with pickles to mix more than the recipe calls for). If I'm only short by a little bit, the last jar (or 2, see the bean thread for my jar-filling method) get topped off with a little vinegar straight from the bottle. You could do that with the relish, salsa I don't know. And was it just your last jar (or 2)? The first ones you should have had enough liquid to fill. You didn't line all the jars up and divide the salsa/relish between them (batch filling) did you? The jars should be "sloshy" and the solids move around when you twist them, settle down a little into the liquid even if they don't become completely covered. Do those recipes call for boiling the veggies in the brine? Maybe you lost too much to evaporation?
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Wish I were in your shoes! Red peppers are so expensive here. Here are the recipes I would can if I could find cheap bell peppers: Shirley's taste-alike of Harry & David pepper and onion relish Linda Lou's roasted red pepper spread Just think it over. :-) Melissa Recipes: Pepper and Onion Relish, Harry & David style recipe by Shirley (shirleywny5) My last batch today is the last try at my H&D pepper,onion relish taste alike. I've made 4 batches of this already this season and I think I have got it about where I want it. If anyone is interested or even gives a dang, here is my recipe. I used my Cuisinart to chop all the peppers. Tomatoes were peeled, seeded and diced very small. The onion was diced using the Julienne blade of my V-slicer. 12 med Red bell peppers 10 jalapenos 5 assorted green, yellow or red hot peppers 5 large plum tomatoes 1 large onion. Any kind will do. 2 cups white vinegar 3 cups granulated sugar Remove seeds and white membrane from red peppers Remove HALF the seeds from the jalapenos Remove half the seeds from the other hots. Chop peppers in food processor Place in bowl with prepared tomatoes and onion. Sprinkle with 1 Tbls. canning salt. Let stand about 1 hour. Drain off liquid. I use my quart capacity strainer with a handle. The holes are smaller than my colander. You don't want any of the small pepper pieces falling through. Place peppers, onions and tomatoes in cooking pot and add sugar and vinegar. Cook over medium heat until thick as you like. Usually 30 or 45 minutes is plenty. You can almost tell by the texture. Ladle into jam jars and seal. Process 20 minutes in Hot water bath. Note: There was more discussion on this thread so if you have any questions let me know. For example, the red pepper skins stay on. Roasted Red Pepper Spread 6 lb. large red sweet peppers 1 lb. Roma tomatoes 2 large garlic cloves 1 small white onion 2 Tbsp. minced basil 1 Tbsp. sugar 1 tsp. coarse salt 1/2 cup red wine vinegar Roast peppers under broiler or on a grill at 425 degrees until skin wrinkles and chars in spots. Turn over and roast other side. Remove from heat.Place in a paper bag, secure opening, cool 15 minutes. Roast tomatoes, onion, and garlic under broiler or grill 10 - 15 minutes. Place tomatoes in a paper bag. Peel onion and garlic. Finely mince onion and garlic. Measure 1/4 cup and set aside. Peel and seed tomatoes and peppers. Puree in food processor or blender. Combine in a large pan.Bring to a boil over med.high heat, stir to prevent sticking. Reduce heat, simmer until spread thickens. Ladle hot spread into hot jars, leave 1/4 inch headspace. Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes. For healthy vegetable pizzas, use this spread as the sauce on a whole wheat crust. Add whatever veg you like and sprinkle with feta instead of a thick layer of mozzarella.
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Hey it's not my personal opinion. It is the reason given in the USDA/NCHFP guidelines and publications - sometimes in bold face type - that the peel is the primary source of bacteria and other contaminants so should be removed. Whether that bacteria would be spread to the flesh of the vegetable would all depend on how you peeled it but logic tells you you would be removing at least a good portion of it by removing the peel. That's why they recommend peeling carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, apples, etc. etc. I just offered it as a possible explanation in response to the question for why the BBB called for peeling. Are there other possible explanations? Sure. Tough peels, chewy peels affecting texture, color changes, pesticide content, taste and quality affects, etc. And it is hardly a new debate either. Comes up most often with applesauce, potatoes, and tomatoes in discussions here. Some just flatly refuse to peel their potatoes or carrots before canning. Others wouldn't even think of canning them without peeling. Some don't care if their tomato sauces have pieces of peel and even seeds in them. Others can't imagine sauce with either seeds or peels. Same goes for making applesauce. Include the peels? Yuck. So whether you want to accept the NCHFP recommendations or not is your choice. You want to leave the peels on? Fine. You want to remove the peels? Fine. Your choice. No need to calculate the bacterial content of 5 lbs. of large vs. 5 lbs. of small tomatoes. Large ones are easy to peel, small ones not so much. Anyway, wouldn't boiling answer most of the bacteria.... and vinegar put pay to the rest? No, sorry that isn't a valid assumption. Sounds like it should be I know but it isn't. It is kin to "pressure canning kills everything so anything can be pressure canned". It is the time of the canning process and the % of the vinegar that determine how much bacteria is killed. So if a tested recipe calls for peeling and 20 mins. processing and you elect to leave the peels on and use the same amount of time then all of the bacteria may not be killed. Same goes for vinegar. If the recipe calls for peeling and 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water but you don't peel then that diluted vinegar has more bacterial to contend with. Is that a big risk? Likely no, but it is an added risk element that needs to be considered. Dave
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kayskats
Original Author
16 years ago
yeah, Annie... it'll sit a couple of weeks (except the half pint that wasn't processed -- waste not, eh!!!!)

and now a report on the peach salsa.
My peaches were not nearly ripe enough. I had to peel 'em. And I had to simmer them much longer than Katie's recipe -- they didn't render nearly enough liquid.
I had already added a good shot of bottled lime juice diluted in water to keep 'em from turning as I chopped 'em, so didn't want to add more vinegar. The only thing I had in the house was a can of crushed pineapple. Figured that had a low enough pH to be okay. Still not enough liquid, so these'll get stored in the refrigerator for a few weeks, then I'll decide if I like 'em or not. I'm afraid there won't be enough peach flavor, but at least the pineapple will give 'em some taste.

By the way, somebody posted a picture of a Vidalia Onion chopper on one of the forums and Good Housekeeping gave it a good review. So I bought it and love it Has two blades -- one for chop and one for dice (still have to go to the knife for minced). Since I also have a mandoline for slicing, I'm wondering why I bought a food processor (even if it was a real bargain.)
melva02
15 years ago
I was searching and got worried by what I read in the post above. I chopped my peaches pretty small, maybe 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch. I followed Katie's directions exactly without thinking about how much liquid they were exuding. When I was packing it into the jars, I pressed down until I saw liquid covering the top of the fruit.

Looking at the salsa now in the jars, there are chunks of fruit and vegetables with a thin liquid flowing around them. This is not like the thinnish sauce that is integrated with the chunks in Annie's salsa. Katie's recipe only calls for 10 minutes in the BWB. Was that enough for the consistency of my salsa?

If they may have been underprocessed, would the amount of acid mean that spoilage is my only concern? Or would the presence of low-acid ingredients mean that underprocessing could put the salsa at risk for botulism? Just trying to decide whether this is safe to share, safe for me only, or not safe at all. Thanks.

Melissa
readinglady
15 years ago
It's fine. The salsa is mainly peaches, which are high-acid and there's plenty of vinegar to account for the low-acid peppers and onions.

This recipe originally came from the Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving (Canadian equivalent to Ball Blue Book) so it is safe-tested.

It is a juicy salsa with a thin liquid not a thicker sauce like Annie's tomato salsa, so your version sounds right for the recipe. The only thing you may notice is a softer texture due to the smaller pieces.

Carol
melva02
15 years ago
Oh thank you so much Carol! Maybe the pieces aren't quite that small...that's how small they look now in the jar but I guess I did cut them bigger than that. It just seemed too thick or unevenly textured.

I have to say, I do like it. The pint that I left fresh was much too hot the next day, but the leftover cooked part that didn't fill the last jar was perfect. Thanks for all the help on this one!

Melissa

Salsa, Salsa and Relish ...

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