Homegrown Home-canned Salsa {Recipe}

Home-canned salsa. It sounds so simple and yet many people struggle to make something that's "just right". The first recipe I tried was too watery. The next was too bland and the third had a too-cooked texture.  These were all a disappointing use of homegrown tomatoes and peppers!

Then finally last year my friend Jenn (who also shared celery powder with me) passed along this recipe. It is thick, richly-flavored, and has a pleasing chunky texture.

There are several tricks that make this recipe work. First is the preparation of the produce. I carefully remove the seeds and watery pulp with my thumb from each section of tomato and drop that into a bowl for the chickens. I chop the remaining flesh with skin on into a colander to drain away any further juice. I measure the tomato pieces into a large measuring bowl and then move on to chopping the peppers, garlic, and onion.

Next up is seasonings. Dry spices like cumin and coriander add an aged, smokey flavor that differentiates this salsa from fresh pico de gallo. Our own touch is some of last season's homegrown and house smoked ancho peppers.

Two elements contribute to the perfect salsa texture: a quick cooking and processing time and the addition of tomato paste. Overcooked salsa has the taste and texture of tomato soup, which isn't what we prefer. Tomato paste (we can our own each year) thickens the salsa while adding a rich, dense tomato flavor.

I like to can salsa in squat half pint jars manufactured by Kerr, found locally at City Folk's Farm Shop. The short and wide dimensions allow for dipping right out of the jar.

If you, like me, have been searching for the perfect tomato salsa recipe, try this one. 

Home-Canned Salsa

Makes: 10 half pints

8 cups chopped, seeded, drained tomatoes 2 cups finely diced red onion 1.5 cups chopped peppers (use a mix of sweet and hot peppers for a medium heat salsa) 6 cloves garlic, minced 1/3 cup lime juice 1/3 cup vinegar 1 tablespoon kosher salt 2 teaspoons ground cumin 2 teaspoons ground smoked ancho peppers 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds 1 teaspoon black pepper 8 ounces tomato paste

1. Stir tomatoes, onion, peppers, and garlic in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add in lime juice, vinegar, kosher salt, cumin, ancho peppers, coriander, and black pepper.

2. Bring to a simmer on the stove. Cook for 5-10 minutes until onions begin to soften. Meanwhile, heat 9 half pint jars in a boiling water bath. Wash rings and new lids in hot soapy water.

3. Stir in tomato paste and return salsa to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

4. Ladle salsa into sterilized jars. Fill to a head space of 1/2 inch. Center lid and tighten rings.

5. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. Remove from hot water, allow to cool completely, label, and store.

A note about canning salsa safely: Keep the proportions of tomatoes, onions and peppers to lime juice and vinegar consistent. This recipe keeps the ratios of pH tested recipes which rely on juice and vinegar to add acidity and balance the lower pH of onions and peppers. You can use fewer peppers and onions or spice up the salsa with additional dried peppers but do not increase the amount of peppers and onions or you might create a finished product without a low enough pH to be safely canned in a water bath.

Homegrown Home-canned Salsa {Recipe}

Home-canned salsa. It sounds so simple and yet many people struggle to make something that's "just right". The first recipe I tried was too watery. The next was too bland and the third had a too-cooked texture.  These were all a disappointing use of homegrown tomatoes and peppers!

Then finally last year my friend Jenn (who also shared celery powder with me) passed along this recipe. It is thick, richly-flavored, and has a pleasing chunky texture.

There are several tricks that make this recipe work. First is the preparation of the produce. I carefully remove the seeds and watery pulp with my thumb from each section of tomato and drop that into a bowl for the chickens. I chop the remaining flesh with skin on into a colander to drain away any further juice. I measure the tomato pieces into a large measuring bowl and then move on to chopping the peppers, garlic, and onion.

Next up is seasonings. Dry spices like cumin and coriander add an aged, smokey flavor that differentiates this salsa from fresh pico de gallo. Our own touch is some of last season's homegrown and house smoked ancho peppers.

Two elements contribute to the perfect salsa texture: a quick cooking and processing time and the addition of tomato paste. Overcooked salsa has the taste and texture of tomato soup, which isn't what we prefer. Tomato paste (we can our own each year) thickens the salsa while adding a rich, dense tomato flavor.

I like to can salsa in squat half pint jars manufactured by Kerr, found locally at City Folk's Farm Shop. The short and wide dimensions allow for dipping right out of the jar.

If you, like me, have been searching for the perfect tomato salsa recipe, try this one. 

Home-Canned Salsa

Makes: 10 half pints

8 cups chopped, seeded, drained tomatoes 2 cups finely diced red onion 1.5 cups chopped peppers (use a mix of sweet and hot peppers for a medium heat salsa) 6 cloves garlic, minced 1/3 cup lime juice 1/3 cup vinegar 1 tablespoon kosher salt 2 teaspoons ground cumin 2 teaspoons ground smoked ancho peppers 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds 1 teaspoon black pepper 8 ounces tomato paste

1. Stir tomatoes, onion, peppers, and garlic in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add in lime juice, vinegar, kosher salt, cumin, ancho peppers, coriander, and black pepper.

2. Bring to a simmer on the stove. Cook for 5-10 minutes until onions begin to soften. Meanwhile, heat 9 half pint jars in a boiling water bath. Wash rings and new lids in hot soapy water.

3. Stir in tomato paste and return salsa to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

4. Ladle salsa into sterilized jars. Fill to a head space of 1/2 inch. Center lid and tighten rings.

5. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. Remove from hot water, allow to cool completely, label, and store.

A note about canning salsa safely: Keep the proportions of tomatoes, onions and peppers to lime juice and vinegar consistent. This recipe keeps the ratios of pH tested recipes which rely on juice and vinegar to add acidity and balance the lower pH of onions and peppers. You can use fewer peppers and onions or spice up the salsa with additional dried peppers but do not increase the amount of peppers and onions or you might create a finished product without a low enough pH to be safely canned in a water bath.

Our Worst Canning Accident Yet

My students at canning classes frequently express concern about botulism. I ease their fears about that rare occurrence by assuring them they should worry about burns instead. Hanging around boiling water, hot jars, and simmering sauces is a recipe for a brush with hot stuff, one I experienced today.

My friend Kate of Kate On The Way and I were canning sauced tomatoes in quarts. During the water bath phase, one of the lids loosened and tomato sauce seeped into the boil. No problem, we kept the other jars in there to finish processing.

Kate removed a jar after the finished time. As she went to tighten the ring a bit (a necessary step for Tattler lids), the lid flew off, creating an explosion of tomato. We both were covered in the spray of boiling sugary puree.

We ran for cool water and eventually made our way outside to harvest, chew, and apply plantain poultice. Our left arms have a series of first and second degree* burns with Kate suffering more than me.

Alex was kind enough to pull the remaining jars from the canner after they cooled a little. By then, three of the remaining jars had also lost their lids, the contents mingling with the water bath.

Learning From A Canning Accident

Since neither of us were hurt badly, we moved pretty quickly into the "how did this happen?" phase. Kate and I have each canned hundreds of jars of food before, if not thousands.

We referenced a canning book and filled the jars to the right head space. We heated the canning bath to a simmer so the jars weren't rattling in a raging boil. We used a proper canner with a  rack on the bottom. We have done all of these things many times.

We concluded that the lids must have been the issue. Although they were tightened according to directions, and Kate and I both have used them before, the Tattler process failed this time. Will we ever use Tattlers again? Kate says yes, I'm less sure.

Additionally, I experienced why it isn't a good idea to hover when someone else is pulling jars out of the water bath. I can't remember exactly why I was near - I might have been getting ready to grab something out of the fridge - but I shouldn't have been so close. While the Tattlers might be responsible in this case, glass failures and drops can also occur when jars are moved from the water bath to the cooling place. Someone standing nearby can be in the line of fire.

Finally, we were reminded that even experienced canners must remain vigilant to the risks at hand. We feel fortunate that the liquid exploded onto our bodies and not our faces, and that no pets or children were caught in the splatter. We lost some home-grown goodness and in a little bit of pain, but ultimately realize this could have been much worse.

We'll continue to put up food using water bath and pressure canning, with these lessons learned:

• Use caution if you use Tattler lids with liquidy sauces
• Stand back when removing hot jars from the hot water bath
• Keep children and pets at a distance when canning
• Have a plan in place for treating burns
• *Identify some plantain in your yard. By all accounts, we should have blistered burns but thanks to plantain we don't. Kate details a little more about using plantain to heal.

What's your worst canning disaster? What did you learn from it?

How To Open A Sealed Canning Jar {Video}

Here's a quick tip to use at home and share with recipients of home-canned gifts:

Yes, this video was recorded way back in July at our old house and I did cut the video short at the end because a certain little girl and her little dog interrupted the last sentence during the umpteenth take. Making and editing videos is hard for me!

Vintage Canning Images Part 1

My grandmother gifted my mother her small collection of vintage canning booklets kept in perfect condition. These three illustrations come from a pamphlet published by the General Foods Corporation in 1945.

Do you like these? If so, I'll post more vintage cooking images in the coming weeks.

Really, Rugelach? {Wordless Wednesday}

Lil and I made Mrs. Wheelbarrow's rugelach for a cookie exchange last week. Lil loved rolling peach, blueberry peach, and sour cherry preserves with almonds in the rich butter and cream cheese dough. She even made her own creation, chocolate with no nuts.

The recipe is time consuming and made me break up with my food processor but the results are outstanding. This is the perfect cookie for me - not at all sweet but full of flavor from homemade jams. Mrs. Wheelbarrow's recipe also suggests a bacon jam version which a friend made and paired with scotch. Yum!

Great Grandma's Apple Butter {Recipe}

My Great Grandma Davis, mother of my father's mother Joyce, was an old school home cook. She grew a large garden and Grandpa fished to feed themselves fresh and cheap food. Grandma later used her kitchen experience to serve as a school cook for many years in the decades where everything was prepared from scratch on site. Because Grandma lived into her nineties, I grew up knowing her. I remember eating a breakfast of biscuits and jams at her house in Missouri as a very young child. Sadly, she died before I was interested in food and could learn from her depth of home cooking knowledge.

I do know that Grandma put up everything she could, including apple butter. For years, I hesitated to remake her recipe because I was afraid I could live up to her version. But for you, dear blog readers, I sifted through recipe cards at my parents' house and pulled out Great Grandma's Apple Butter.

Just reading Grandma's handwriting stirs up sentimental feelings of opening birthday cards and Christmas gifts lovingly addressed by her hand. Click on the card image to see it larger. I love that she simply wrote 'seal in jars' as if every woman of her day would know exactly how to do that. I consulted the National Center for Home Food Preservation to find the proper canning time.

I suspect I will never alter this recipe because there is a certain nostalgia in making apple butter exactly as my great grandmother did. Not knowing Leona, however, you might want to substitute some brown sugar for the white and change the spices. Ground ginger would play nicely with the other flavors, as would nutmeg. I did reduce quantities and update the recipe to make it slow cooker friendly.

My father made this recipe a few years ago and noted that he would prefer less vinegar. I think the iteration I made with Liberty Pink applesauce and homemade cider vinegar had a perfect balance. We suspect that the variety of apple makes all the difference and you may wish to taste before adding all the vinegar.

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Great Grandma's Apple Butter Recipe

makes 6 half pints

4 pints applesauce, or 8 cups stewed and pureed apples

3 cups granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup cider vinegar

1. Stir all ingredients in a slow cooker or oven safe pan.

2. Cook on high uncovered, or 200 degrees F, for 4-6 hours, or until reduced by half.

3. Fill jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. As the apple butter is very thick, jiggle the jars or stir with a chopstick to release any air pockets.

4. Wipe rims and place two part lids on jars. Place in water bath canner and process for 5 minutes.

5. Remove jars from water and allow to cool for 12 to 24 hours. Prepare and store for up to one year.

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More Davis/Tayse family recipes:

Rhubarb Crunch

Gingersnaps

Rapid Cannning Trick

Step 1: Put out a call on Facebook that you are canning. Tell friends you will teach them. Step 2: Offer to entertain their kids with paper mache when friends respond.

Step 3: Breathe deeply as chaos ensues when friends and kids come over.

Step 4: Enjoy the chatting as you work together to peel and slice ~30 pounds of peaches.

Step 5: Give your friends canning confidence as they help fill jars with peach pieces and make jam from the scraps.

Step 6: Relax as you realize that you just canned in a third of the time as normal. Think about sharing a jar or two with the friends who helped you.

Now, who would like to help mop the floor?

PS. Intrigued by the glass peaches pictured? They are part of the Franklin Park Conservatory's Hungry Planet exhibit opening August 20.