Annie's Salsa is very popular, for good reason! It is excellent. Here is they was I have it saved with her comments.

Salsa
8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and seeded (I just used my fingers and kind of "popped" the seeds out)
2 1/2 cups onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups green peppers or green and red mixed
1/2 cup jalapeno peppers, chopped (more if you like the heat)
6 minced cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin (more if you like it hotter, I used fresh cumin)
2 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 12 oz. can tomato paste
1/2 cup vinegar
2 tbls lemon or lime juice (I used lemon in this one, and lime in my green tomato salsa)
Mix all ingredients and bring to a slow boil. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Pack hot in hot jars and process in hot water bath 10 minutes for pints. Makes 6-8 pints
This gets hotter as it sits, so be careful. My girls say it "tastes like summer". I made 27 pints and it is ALL gone. I think one of the reasons mine tastes "fresh" is because I grow all my own vegetables. When I'm ready to make salsa I go out, pick the vegetables, clean them and make salsa right then.
If you don't have a traditional "canner", just fold a towel, place in the bottom of a big soup pot or large kettle and fill with water to cover the tops of the jars by at least one inch. Bring the water to a boil, lower the filled jars into the water and let them boil for 10 minutes.

"Here is they was I have it saved with her comments"

That should be "Here is the way I have it saved....." Sorry - I should definitely have coffee before I try typing LOL!

Alexa

Here's another vote for Annie's Salsa. I've canned hundreds of jar of it over the years. Everyone loves it! The only changes I made are I substituted Real brand bottled lime juice for vinegar (this lime juice has more acidity than vinegar so it's safe for canning). I also use raw sugar in lieu of white sugar.

I dont do canning did once found I was nervous if I did it right and aborted the mission....but would like to make this recipe....what do I do with the canning salt use regular in the same amount???? Help please! TIA

Another vote for Annie's salsa.
Caliloo - what is the green tomato salsa? Is it Annie's with green tomatoes? How do you keep the green colour with the tomato paste and sauce? I was all excited to use my yellow tomatoes one year, did it, and then was "Oh, it's still red." Yeah, I forgot about the paste and sauce before getting all excited about it.

cookie - I have no idea LOL! I copied the recipe exactly as she posted it, with her comments, and I've only ever made the red one. I'm sure Annie will check in at some point, I would love to hear how she makes the green one too!

Alexa

Annie's salsa is not green salsa, it's red, made with ripe tomatoes. There are two ways to make green salsa, one is to use tomatillos, and the other is to use green tomatoes. I do not like green tomato salsa. Also, please be aware that you cannot sub green tomatoes for red tomatoes in a salsa recipe for canning, becuase they do not have the same level of acid. Below is a link to the Web site of the National Center for Home Preservation, they have several salsa recipes on there, including tomatillo salsa, which I have made. There are recipes for green tomato salsa out there, but you need to use "approved" recipes for green tomato salas, meaning recipes you have gotten from a source associated with a lab and testing facilities, like the Cooperative Extension, the Ball Blue Book of Canning, or the USDA. There are also some other good canning books out there written by people with a background in food science, if you really want to get into it. There are also a lot of home canners on this forum for advice, and if you really get obsessed you can join the Harvest Forum, which is all about canning and other methods of food preservation.

Be careful, canning is addicting!

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Preservation - Canning Salsa

Yep. I use Annie's recipe, too. As does my neighbor and another girlfriend!

I use a little less sugar in mine, but other than that, I follow the recipe to the letter!

Linda

Thanks LPink. I do have green zebras growing and wasn't even thinking of using unripe tomatoes although now that it's brought up, I will look into it. Looks like a good link as I'm always afraid when I'm canning that I am messing it up somehow. I love canning but my family hates as it makes such a stink! I should get a side burner on the bbq so I can do it outdoors. Sorry for the hijack.

Eileen, use plain table salt if you like, or kosher. The measurement on kosher is a bit different, so taste before you add more. The only reason I used canning salt is because that's what I have for canning. If you are making pickles, you don't want to use table salt because the additives will sink to the bottom of the brine and make a residue that's ugly. Not harmful, but ugly. In salsa, you can't see it anyway. Use whatever you have. As for being nervous, don't be. First, even if you mess up, you can't really poison anyone with fruits, jams, jellies, fruit butters or pickles/relishes from approved recipes. Vegetables that aren't pickled and all meats/fish have to be pressure canned, those are the things that can harbor botulism and really hurt someone. My salsa recipe was tested and approved as safe by the extension service here, although now the USDA is working on new salsa guidelines and more vinegar might be called for as an additional safety "buffer", but they haven't done that yet. As long as you use approved recipes with the appropriate amount of acidity, it's perfectly safe. Probably a lot safer than the commercial stuff, no one really knows what's in THAT!

Cookie, my green salsa is, indeed, made with green/unripe tomatoes, and it's a different recipe altogether. I have to tell you, though, that I didn't much care for it, it was too tart, although my mother greatly enjoyed the mix of green tomatoes and lime juice. Tomatillos are too expensive around here to bother to can and I haven't been very successful at growing them yet. I'm still trying.

If you'd like the green tomato salsa recipe, I'd be glad to find it for you, but if you have Green Zebras that are ripe there is no reason you can't use them to make salsa using my original recipe.

The link is to the NCHFP, the official government site for canning and preserving, lots of information there.

But it causes your kitchen to stink? Really? I love the smell of salsa cooking, or simmering apple butter, or sweet pickles on the counter. The only thing I've ever canned that really stinks is fermenting sauerkraut!

Happy canning...

Annie

A few more questions: white vinegar? what size are the chopped pieces for chunky salsa? yellow onions?

A towel in a pot?

I use cider vinegar because I like the flavor better, but either is fine depending on what you like. Just be sure your vinegar is at least 5% acidity and you can use any type you like. I like my salsa thick and chunky, so I make chunks about 1/2 inch dice, give or take a bit. I use whatever onions I've grown, you could use yellow, white, sweet, red, doesn't matter.

Just don't change the proportion of vegetables to acid ingredients (vinegar/lemon or lime juice). You can add more sugar or less, more salt or less, leave the cilantro out or put it in. The sauce and paste are strictly for texture, so if you don't have those you can leave them out too, but the salsa won't be as thick.

I like nice chunks of vegetables that will stay on a chip, so I do them a bit bigger and I always chop them by hand because the food processor makes them too small, or makes all different sizes, but if you aren't as picky about that, stick 'em all in there and whirl away.

when I first started canning, I didn't have a canner. Sometimes a jar will break if you put it directly on the bottom of the pot next to the heat source, so I put a dish towel folded up in the bottom of the pot. Now, it will float up so some people have a problem with that, I didn't. I've known people who use the rack from their pressure cooker and some that made racks out of canning rings wired together, and some just put a cake rack into the pot, anything that keeps it off the bottom of the pot will be fine. Just be sure the pot is deep enough to cover the tops of the jars with water by about an inch or more.

Annie

Thanks so much for your help, Annie!

I almost never use anything on the bottom of the pot (like a towel, canning rack, the jar lid rings wired together, round cake cooling rack, etc.) While I don't recommend it, I will say that I have never had a jar break on me in over 15 years. The worst thing is the jars rattle the whole time you are boiling them. That's the reason for using something on the bottom, because they rattle around from the water pressure and if they bang up against the bottom of the pot or each other they could break. At least that's the theory. Like I said, mine haven't broken yet, but it does happen. I just add this because I wouldn't let that deter me from canning. Just use a towel to be on the safe side, it works FINE! I have canned for years without the fancy equipment. The reason you are going to want all the fancy equipment is because it makes canning easier and more FUN. The most important canning gizmo is a jar lifter and lid lifter with a magnet. I used salad tongs once and dropped the jar back into the boiling water and it splashed up on me and scalded me. But that was my own darn fault, they were lucite salad tongs and they came apart at the hinge. I have some metal meat tongs and tongs with rubber ends that work fine.

I had some friends over a couple of days ago & wanted to make fresh salsa. I had never made salsa before, but remembered I had saved Annie's recipe. I wasn't really sure if I should cook it a bit since this was for a canned salsa, but I didn't. Everyone liked it, of course guests have to say that. I thought it was really good. My son tried it later & announced it was rather weird, but good. Of course it was "weird", he has never had fresh stuff before. I noticed he almost finished it off, probably would have but he ran out of chips :)

ngraham, I've never made it "fresh", I've always cooked it a few minutes to be sure all the flavors are well married. I'm glad to know it came out well entirely fresh, occasionally I've thought I should just make a big bowl for a family cookout or something, but I've not done it.

L, I've found that even with a towel, the bubbles from the bottom knock the jars against each over, sometimes even knock them over. I've never had one break that way, though, my breakage is usually thermal shock, from putting a jar of cold stuff into a hot pot of water. That's why I like to pack things hot, LOL.

Annie

Annie

My only breakage has come from droppage, lol! But I have my own little technique for "hot packing." I put the clean jars in the boiling water bath as I am bringing it to a boil, and then boil the jars for 10 min. in the boiling water bath, to sterilize (which is not necessary or called for, but what the heck, I do it). Then I pack the hot salsa or jam or whatever, into the hot jars and then put the jars back into the BWB for the required time. That's why I always laugh at people who are afraid to eat their home canned foods. Unless you don't wash your produce or don't clean your kitchen, you can home process stuff that is produced under a much higher cleanliness standard than any factory!