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?

Hi ajsmama - I appreciate your comments! Very helpful.

Both these recipes are cooked before putting in the jars. In the case of the tomatillo salsa, it called for 30 minutes all together with 10 of it covered. I was careful to keep it at a low boil. It only made 2 jars (as written) so I filled them at the same time. The sloshy liquid part was less than half in both jars. (turns out I don't even like the recipe so I don't mind disposing of these.)

The 4 jars of beet relish turned out a bit sloshier but I was concerned about the amount of liquid so I refrigerated those right away.

But I really would like to know what to do in future when doing cooked a cooked salsa or relish when it's pretty clear after the mixture has been cooked that too much liquid has boiled away. I have a lot of tomatoes, tomatillos, and beets to deal with! Anyone else have some ideas?

Add more liquid in the original proportions is best. If you are down to the last couple of jars and find they don't have enough liquid then you can top them off with either the mixture or if it's just a Tbsp or so needed just straight acid used in the mixture - the little bit added won't change the taste of those jars that much. Even if a relish uses vinegar, and you're afraid of adding straight vinegar b/c it might be too sharp-tasting, 1 Tbsp of lemon juice will be fine acidity-wise and won't change the flavor much.

Thanks! My gut tells me it should be okay to add liquid in the original proportions, if needed, but I worry I'll be doing something risky after reading so many admonishments not to alter recipes. Kind of a conundrum...

I just had a chance to read through the tomatillo salsa recipe in Small Batch.

My first instinct was no way is a 1/2 cup of liquid enough for all those vegetables (none of which give up a whole lot of liquid after cooking, unlike ripe tomatoes, for instance). What I would do is double the apple juice and cider vinegar; cook it for a bit, then taste it to see if it needs some more seasonings (they are all dried, so you can add more to taste). Add more liquid (50/50 apple juice and vinegar) if it still looks too dry.

I like to have the liquid cover, as it helps prevent discoloration at the top where stuff is sticking out of the liquid plus salsa and relishes should be a little "soupy" to help with the heat penetration and acidifying.

To use up the rest of your crop, I love Ball's tomatillo salsa. I also substitute 3 cups of tomatillos for tomatoes in Annie's Salsa recipe (I really like the flavor of the tomatillos in that). It's safe because tomatillos have a lower pH than tomatoes, and I have no problems with it being "soupy" enough. Tomatillos have a lot of natural pectin, so it thickens nicely after processing and cooling.

Can't help you much with beets - I pressure can mine plain so they go lots of different ways.

If you have the Ball Complete book, there is a recipe for Red Root Relish (beets, red cabbage and horseradish) that sounds good.

Hope that helps.

Thanks so much, Malna. All of this is very helpful. Your suggestions about the Mexican Tomatillo Salsa from Small Batch sound like good ones. I didn't much care for the carrots in it so probably won't make it again but the tips you gave may help me if I encounter this problem with other recipes. And, yes, I do have the Ball Book (actually the Bernardin one because I'm in Canada) and had in mind to try their tomatillo salsa. Annie's Salsa worked really well for me so I'd like to try with your tweak of switching out some of the tomatoes for tomatillos. And my next beet relish will definitely be the Red Root Relish you mentioned. Again, thank you!