Salsa question

[esquared]

I grew up on home canned food. I did my first two batches of marmalade this year and it turned out awesome. I made orange and lemon marmalade with the fruit from my own trees.

Part of my starting to can my own at 52 years old is salt. I am at a point that I have normal blood pressure at half the daily allowable intake of salt but at the daily limit it goes way up. So to eliminate salt I am going to can my own foods like sauces, tomatoes and salsa. I no longer eat outside my home or anything I didn't cook.

So my questions are all the salsa recipes call for vinegar, do you taste vinegar in the finished salsa or does the smell and taste go away? Can I get away with less salt than a recipe calls for?

 

[medtran49]

I've never canned salsa so can't answer your question about vinegar taste, but you have to be careful changing amounts in home canned recipes and should really only use reputable sources. You can Google "low salt canned salsa recipes" (without quotes) and come up with lots of recipes. Just be careful which one(s) you pick. Here's one that looks pretty reputable to me though. https://www.nwkidney.org/recipe/tomato-salsa/

 

[Steve Kroll]

I've been canning for almost 30 years now, including salsa. There are a lot of good recipes out there (Ball's website is an excellent source). However, if you have a recipe you prefer, there's a little more to understanding how the canning process works.

Successful canning, especially when using the water bath method, is all about sterilization and creating an environment that's hostile to bacteria. Although salt will inhibit bacteria to some extent, it's not as important in home canning as you might think. The more important consideration is pH, because botulism won't grow in a medium where the pH is below 4.5.

Although we often think of tomatoes as being acidic, they actually have a relatively high pH - somewhere between 4.6 and often over 5. This is why botulism is a concern with canned tomatoes. You have to add an acid to the salsa to lower the pH to a safe level. Vinegar is the most common ingredient, although I've seen recipes that use lime or lemon juice to accomplish the same thing. Food grade citric acid also works well. So if vinegar isn't your thing, there are other options.

I'll also sometimes go so far as to add a little bit of potassium metabisulfite (available in any home brewing supply store) when canning. It's a great antioxidant and bacterial inhibitor that works hand-in-hand with acidity to stop bacteria.

If you really want to be scientific about your canning, I would suggest investing in a pH meter. The one I have is a desktop model that cost about $150 new. But you can find portable models online for less than $100. Don't use pH test strips. They're very inaccurate.

I know it seems like an advanced topic and overkill, but having equipment you can use for testing gives you the flexibility to create some of your own recipes that are safe. For example, you might have a great family salsa recipe, but you won't know for certain if it's suitable for canning unless you know where the pH is.

More info here:
http://www.healthycanning.com/ph-meters-and-home-canning/

Here's a video from South Dakota State University that shows how to measure pH in your canning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nnI6PXKLjs

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Here are two salsas, one red and one green, that have no vinegar:

Salsa Picante​

Ingredients:

½ cup onion, coarsely chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, coarsely chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
1 Tbs cooking oil
1 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp oregano
¼ tsp chili powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Instructions:

Heat the cooking oil in a sauté pan until it shimmers. Add the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeño and sauté until the onions are softened but not browned. Add the garlic and continue to sauté until fragrant, 45 to 60 seconds. Add the canned tomatoes with juice, stir and reduce the heat to a simmer. Stir in the cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper and continue to simmer the salsa for 10 minutes. Remove the salsa from the heat and gently fold in the cilantro. Move to a serving bowl and serve at room temperature.

Hatch Chile Salsa Verde​

Ingredients:

2 Tbs light olive oil
½ cup chopped onion
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 Tbs cornstarch
4 Tbs water
¼ tsp cumin
¼ tsp black pepper
1½ cups vegetable broth
1 cup Hatch chiles, roasted, peeled and chopped
¼ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp salt

Instructions:

In a medium saucepan, heat the light olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until the onions are translucent, but not browned. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 to 45 seconds more, just until fragrant.

Mix the cornstarch and water together. Slowly pour in the broth, then add the cornstarch and water, whisking constantly so that is stays smooth. Add all the remaining ingredients to the onion and broth mixture and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should be thickened just enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add more broth to thin it out if it is too thick. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Those recipes look great and are probably a real hit when sitting around the dinner table on Taco Tuesday, but if they aren't acidified in some way, they're not suitable for water bath canning.

 

[GotGarlic]

Those recipes look great and are probably a real hit when sitting around the dinner table on Taco Tuesday, but if they aren't acidified in some way, they're not suitable for water bath canning.

+1.

Also, if you do use lemon or lime juice instead of vinegar, use a bottled one. They are diluted to a specific acidity level, while fresh fruits vary in the acidity level and so can be unsafe.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Low acid foods, like many salsa recipes, and fresh veggies to be canned can be safely canned using a pressure caner. USDA offers the safe canning techniques for canning low acid foods, with the pressures and time required to properly can you home made salsas and sauces. It also works for fresh veggies.

Since salsa is fairly easy to make, I simply make the amount I need for a get together, or for my own use, and refrigerate. It's not shelf stable, but as it will be quickly consumed, it doesn't need to be. It simply requires you refrigerator.

I hope to one day start a side business of selling my salsa, as it is unique, and really hot. But I've been told by several people that it's the best salsa they've ever eaten. (makes my head swell a bit)

Enjoy learning the in's and out's of canning. Just do it right, because doing it wrong can be fatal, or make you seriously ill.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[GotGarlic]

Marisa McClellan of Food in Jars has reliable water-bath canning recipes. I have two of her books. Here's one for red salsa and green (tomatillo) salsa. Both use lime juice.

https://www.mrswages.com/recipe/food-in-jars-basic-tomato-salsa/

http://foodinjars.com/2013/09/small-batch-roasted-tomatillo-salsa/

 

[esquared]

It sounds like my best bet is a pressure canner so I don't have to worry about vinegar ruining the flavor and then I can make it the way I want to make it. I look at the salsa recipes offered and I would not like any of them due to how small the amounts of spices and veggies are in them. I made salsa for the week last night and it has a 1/4 cup of Mexican oregano, a tablespoon of cumin, 1/4 cup of red chili powder, two bunches of cilantro, 6 cloves of garlic and 4 limes. I used a 29 ounce can of Contadina crushed tomatoes with 2 white onions, 6 jalapenos, 2 serranos, 2 pasilla chili, one Anaheim chile and 2 green bell peppers. It is very chunky and has bold flavors with all the spices. I already had two neighbors come over for chips and salsa this morning. The same neighbors have me help them cook for parties and I do their salsa and guacamole for them. This is what I want to can so it sounds like a pressure canner will be needed so I will order one.

So when pressure canning do the jars with product being canned still need to be near the boiling temp as they are going into the pressure canner or does it matter if they cool off some waiting for their turn under pressure? I make a lot of food when I cook. I use a 4 or a 6 gallon stock pot to cook in and I am always a inch from the top. I am planning on doing everything in pint jars except for chicken stock which I will do in quarts.

 

[caseydog]

I've made salsa many times, usually at the end of backyard pepper growing season. I don't have a recipe with amounts. I just wing it.

As for vinegar, I use apple cider vinegar, and add a little at a time. I like a little vinegar "zing," but not too much.

CD

 

[sparrowgrass]

I hate to be the canning police, but you really need approved recipes to be safe, even if you pressure can.

The original question was about salt. In most recipes, salt is optional and is just added for flavor, not preserving qualities. The only place salt matters is in pickles, where a larqe quantity is added.

 

[jennyema]

I hate to be the canning police, but you really need approved recipes to be safe, even if you pressure can.
QUOTE]

Someone needs to be the canning police!

Canning has to be done BY THE BOOK, otherwise it can be very dangerous.

Salsa freezes well, by the way

 

[GotGarlic]

Agree with sparrowgrass and jennyema. There are a lot of variables other than just the processing method that determine whether a specific recipe can be safely canned.

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/thinking_of_using_your_own_canning_recipe_think_again

I suggest you keep looking for a tested recipe that more closely resembles your recipe. Here's more information and links to even more: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/factsheets/salsa.html

 

[Steve Kroll]

I'm going to disagree, in part, about using your own recipes.

In general, people seem to make home canning out to be this mysterious, risky practice that will almost certainly result in death if you don't use "approved recipes." That simply isn't true, and is undoubtedly one of the reasons canning has waned in popularity over the last 50 years or so. It appears to be one of those cases where if you repeat something often enough people will begin to accept it as fact.

The truth is, if you understand a few basic concepts and have a modicum of common sense, home canning is a VERY safe activity. It's no more risky than cooking fresh food. And, believe it or not, YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN RECIPES AND STILL BE SAFE.

As mentioned, I've been canning for a long time, and I use a lot of my own recipes. In addition, I also spend several days throughout the year judging wine and preserved food at various competitions and fairs throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. Everything entered in these events is made by amateurs, yet not a single one of these competitions makes me sign any sort of waiver. They simply don't have problems. And truthfully, if I really felt as if I were taking my life into my own hands, I wouldn't do it. I have more concern eating restaurant food stored in buffet warming trays.

Let's talk about botulism, since that's the bogeyman most people are worried about. In the US every year there are typically less than a half dozen cases of botulism that can be directly traced to home canning (source). By contrast, 50 people are killed on average every year in the US from lightning strikes, but it doesn't stop people from going outdoors.

Just use common sense:

• Use sterile practices with all your equipment and keep your work area scrupulously clean.
• Measure your pH. Food with pH of 4.5 or below is almost certainly safe.
• Don't let the cooked food sit for too long before putting it in the jars.
• Follow processing guidelines for the foods you're working with. If you're processing food that has several ingredients, use the USDA guide to find individual processing times, and err on the side of caution by using the longest time.
• Use common sense. If you open a jar of something and doesn't look right, or is bubbling, throw it out. In fact, as a general rule, when in doubt, throw it out.
• Avoid canning anything with dairy. Dairy doesn't can well, period.

The USDA Home Canning guide is a fantastic resource:
National Center for Home Food Preservation | USDA Publications

Here is another website I like:
Healthy Canning - Home preserving that's as good for the body as it is for the mind

 

[GotGarlic]

Steve, some of my concern comes from the fact that the OP is just starting out with canning and already wants to know if it's okay to take shortcuts, like not keeping the jars hot enough before canning. I would recommend that anyone who is starting with a new skill like this follow established recipes and procedures, to get comfortable with the process and experience some success, before branching out. Because making mistakes can be very costly.

The NCHFP is the ultimate source of excellent information on canning, since it's the primary place where home canning recipes and procedures are tested. They even have a downloadable self-study course. Highly recommended.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Steve, some of my concern comes from the fact that the OP is just starting out with canning and already wants to know if it's okay to take shortcuts, like not keeping the jars hot enough before canning. I would recommend that anyone who is starting with a new skill like this follow established recipes and procedures, to get comfortable with the process and experience some success, before branching out.

You're right. I absolutely agree with that, and was going to add something along those lines to my post but it timed out before I had a chance.

Yes, you should first get comfortable with tested recipes. But at the same time I don't want people to think that they can't eventually develop their own recipes once they learn the ropes.

 

[GotGarlic]

You're right. I absolutely agree with that, and was going to add something along those lines to my post but it timed out before I had a chance.

Yes, you should first get comfortable with tested recipes. But at the same time I don't want people to think that they can't eventually develop their own recipes once they learn the ropes.

Like

 

[Addie]

esquared , you have received some very valuable information. And the right information. If you want to stay alive along with your family, you will listen the them. You may have grown up on canned food, but that doesn't make you an expert.

Follow the advice you received here from some very smart people who know what they are talking about. You can download the Ball Bluebook on canning if you choose not to listen to these folks. The Ball people know everything there is to know about canning.

Welcome to DC.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

The following sites give a great description of what causes botulism, and how to prevent the activation of C. Botulinum spores, and the growth of the bacteria. The first site also explains why honey and corn syrup should not be ingested by infants and toddlers.

FSHN0406/FS104: Preventing Foodborne Illness: Clostridium botulinum

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/foodborne-illness-and-disease/clostridium-botulinum/ct_index

C. Botulinum is found virtually everywhere, in soils and water around the world. You can't escape its presence. So why are we not all affected by the toxin produced by the bacteria?

First, the bacteria is anaerobic, that is, it doesn't like oxygen. Places like sealed cans, and sausage casings produce an anaerobic environment in which the spores can activate and become living, multiplying bacteria.

Second, they don't like acidic environments. Our digestive system, starting with our stomachs, are very acidic and destroy, or at the very least, inhibit the spores from activating in our anaerobic guts. But infants have not yet developed their digestive systems enough to protect them from the spores activating.

Though honey and corn syrup both will kill the bacteria, the spores will lay dormant until given the proper environment to become active bacterial. That is why you can't give raw honey or corn syrup to babies.

You will find these spores on the skins of fruits, on veggies, on meats and sea foods, just about everywhere. With proper pressure canning techniques, following the guidelines provided by scientific and government sources, you can safely, and confidently can and preserve salsas, green beans, tomatoes, fish, meats, and other edibles.

Heat is the key to killing the spores. A pressure caner is required to provide enough heat.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[taxlady]

A pressure canner is only required for foods that are not acidic enough. A pressure canner can be used for food that is sufficiently acidic to be safely canned by the hot water bath method.