PS. Does anyone know how to get a recipe officially tested?

Do you mean routinely? No. Not unless you have a handy-dandy food scientist in your pocket with access to all the special equipment and the $$$ to pay for the testing. ;)

I know Annie's had her salsa done so she can likely give the details.

But routinely using untested and unapproved recipes when canning isn't safe and really isn't necessary as there are plenty of approved ones available. And routinely making changes in approved recipes isn't the safe way to go either.

As Linda Lou often says, "there is cooking, and there is canning" - and the 2 aren't interchangeable. You can safely experiment with cooking but not with canning.

The pickle recipe you list is not a safe ratio of vinegar to water. Refrigerated they would likely be ok for a short time but bacteria and molds will be able to grow in that brine. It is one of those pickle recipes that will quite likely go cloudy-brined on you fairly quickly. JMO

Annie can best advise on the Salsa recipe you posted. The salt and sugar are for taste rather than safety but you are leaving out other ingredients as well, if I recall her recipe correctly, and so changing the volume of the total and changing the density. I wouldn't presume to say doing that would be safe.

Dave

So, if I understand correctly, reducing the low acid ingredients is actually a problem because of the change in density? I thought the problem with changing recipes was with adding too many or different low acid ingredients, not in reducing them. It's hard for me to understand why less would be unsafe. If anyone could go into more detail on the science behind why, it would help me wrap my brain around it.

Unfortunately, there isn't an aproved tomatillo recipe that doesn't call for a large amount of green peppers. The taste is different from what I would call salsa verde. Looks like I'll be freezing.

I had a feeling the pickle recipe wasn't OK, but the family that gave it to me has been using it for 30 years. I thought maybe the total refrigeration made it OK. Maybe you're suppose to eat them within 24 hours?

Thanks for the info, that's why I come here!
Bellatrix

I thought the problem with changing recipes was with adding too many or different low acid ingredients...

That is only one of the potential problems. ;) Density is another and the effect the density change can have on the pH and the processing time is a third consideration. It can even affect the type of processing required. And this is especially true of salsas since they are eaten raw - they don't have the added safety factor of cooking before consuming.

Change anything that changes any of them and you have invalidated the processing time with no way to know what it should be.

That's why playing around with tested canning recipes is not recommended. You do so at your own risk and for most of us it simply isn't worth the risk when it is so easy to can the approved recipe and then fine tune it as needed prior to serving. Freezing is the only other approved option.

Dave

Bellatrix, maybe Annie or Linda Lou will comment on the proposed changes to Annie's salsa. Here is some info:

swapping tomatillos for tomatoes: As Carol posted in the other thread, this is ok, because tomatillos are more acid than tomatoes and similar in texture.

omitting the salt and sugar: From the thread at http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg0808435219855.html
Linda Lou said: "Sugar does NOT preserve foods, not other than a full sugar jam where you have over 50 % or more sugar. It makes no difference at all in the safety of a spaghetti sauce, chili, or canned fruit, etc. It is for FLAVOR only. So, she did not need sugar in the sauce. Same for salt, it does not preserve foods,unless for a dried jerky or for fermenting foods. Not in canned veggies or spaghetti sauce, etc. Again, only for flavor and can be left out. Both sugar and salt can be left out in most all canned foods. Valereee, don't worry about the sugar not being in your sauce."

trading cilantro for green peppers: Probably not ok...cilantro seems like it has a lot less water, but maybe Linda Lou knows better. Generally you can't increase the amount of fresh herbs, but you can freeze cubes of cilantro to add to the salsa later, which will avoid the faded flavor you get after cooking and processing.

omitting the green peppers: You are reducing the amount of low-acid ingredients which is ok in terms of acid. You are changing the density, which can affect heat penetration, but since you are ending up with proportionally more liquid and less solids which is less dense, this may be ok, let's hear from our Master Food Preserver LL. Hmm I'm not sure dense is the right word here because water is heavier than produce but it has better heat transfer properties, although probably greater heat capacity. Maybe viscous is the right word? Salsa is definitely more viscous than vinegar (which of course is mostly water so has similar properties to H2O). But which property is the best determinant of safety--is it density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, convection heat transfer coefficient, emissivity?! Is plum salsa safer to process than peach because it is closer to a blackbody? Speaking as an engineer who didn't learn a whole lot in heat transfer class, I think you can see why they use empirical testing rather than differential equations to figure out which recipes are safe. Math is hard, let's go to the farmer's market. ;-)

As for the pickles, botulism doesn't like fridge temperatures, so you are only at risk for all the usual fridge science experiments. If you are young and healthy and willing to eat raw eggs, these pickles are probably ok, but if you have kids, you would be better off with a more official source for a refrigerator dills recipe. You might want to look up listeria, I think that is a possibility with some types of fermented pickles, not sure about those refrigerated immediately. I know this paragraph sounds obnoxious, but I really mean it about being young and eating raw eggs. I myself eat things I wouldn't serve to pregnant guests or even to my dog. But only if I think it's worth it...there are a lot of other pickle recipes out there.

Melissa

Lots of great info, Melissa!! You are a treasure for taking the time to put it all together. :^)

Dave

Thanks Dave. :-) Sorry I geeked out on the density thing but now I really think density is the wrong word. I'll just can by the book so I don't have to talk about it, whatever it really is. ;-)

Now back to my double batch of Annie's salsa! I will have plenty to give to rock bands!

Melissa