The first time I made salsa (around 13 years ago, I think), I used recipes from the Ball Blue Book (one batch of each) and some “mild” Tam jalapeno peppers. Those “mild” peppers ate through two pairs of rubber gloves and filled the house with fumes so strong that I could hardly breathe and my husband started tearing immediately as he soon as he entered the house when he came from work. The salsa was thin and watery, strong on vinegar, and not too tasty. I gave up on salsa for quite a few years – I just couldn’t put myself through that again.
Enter older and wiser me, several years ago (2006?), now with close to an acre of garden after moving out to to the country, over 20 heavily producing tomato plants, and the awesome power of the internet. It was time to try again.
I started hunting around for recipes, and came up with several that looked promising, but the one I settled on was from PickYourOwn.org. I just checked the link, and they’ve changed the recipe that’s posted, but I’ll be sticking with the one I have below. I’m so glad I saved it to my home computer. This makes a mild salsa, thick with tomatoes. I heat everything up in my 12 quart, heavy bottom stainless steel pot. It doesn’t need to be cooked, per se, but it should be steaming hot when you pack it into jars. I’ve made this every year since I found the recipe, including two batches so far this year (and hopefully one more).
Dice the seasonings fairly fine, about 1/8 inch cubes, either with a food chopper or by hand. I tried both the vinegar and lemon options, but I like the flavor of the vinegar better. The original recipe used cilantro instead of parsley, but my parsley grows well and my cilantro doesn’t, so I use what I have on hand. I generally skip the cumin. I make no claims as to this being “authentic” salsa. I’m of predominantly Eastern European descent and have lived in the Upper Midwest all my life, so I haven’t got a clue. My family and I (and our friends) like it, so it works for us. Oh, for the hot peppers I have currently been using these wickedly hot little numbers from Peru called Puriras, which are supposed to be off the Scoville scale. One seasons and entire batch (at least enough for us). I’ve never tried to eat one straight, but my husband’s old boss, who loved hot food, said he was impressed by their heat.
Homemade Salsa Recipe for Canning
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3 cups chopped onions
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1 Tablespoons of oregano
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2 cloves of garlic, minced
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1 cup diced assorted mild peppers (red, yellow, orange, banana, whatever you have)
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1/4 cup diced, fresh parsley
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1/2 teaspoon black pepper
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1/4 cup diced celery
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1 to 4 diced jalapeño peppers – I only use one because I like it mild.
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1 tablespoon sea salt
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3 (6 oz) cans of tomato paste
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1 cup 5% apple cider vinegar (or 2 cups of lemon juice)
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Optional: 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
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tomatoes into a colander or drainer, while you work on others. This helps more of the water to drain off. You may want to save the liquid: if you then pass it through a sieve, screen or cheesecloth, you have fresh tomato juice; great to drink cold or use in cooking! Next chop them up into roughly 1/2 inch size cubes. The boys were doing a lot of the chopping, so heaven only knows what size those chunks were, but it works.
Mix ingredients in the pot and bring the sauce to a gentle simmer
Start with the chopped tomatoes in the pot.
Add the seasonings and bring to a gentle simmer, just to get it hot – there’s no need to cook it; only to get it hot enough to ready it for water bath processing to kill any bacteria and enzymes.
Taste it as it cooks. If you like the sauce hotter, add 1 Teaspoon of chili powder. Here’s a shot of the wicked pepper. Sorry for the photo quality – the camera is showing its age.
I save the hot pepper as the last thing to be cut up, being careful not to cross-contaminate my cutting board. I wear gloves and minimize handling, using my knife to manipulate the pepper on the cutting board and to scrape it into the salsa.
For a thicker salsa, add 4 Tablespoons corn starch, dissolved in the vinegar before adding to the mix.
Fill the jars with sauces and put the lid and rings on
Fill them to within 1/4 inch of the top, seat the lid and hand-tighten the ring around them.
Boil the jars in the canner
Put them in the canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Keep the water boiling. Process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 15 minutes for 8 oz and pints and 20 minutes for quarts. If you have a pressure canner, use it and process the sauce for 10 minutes for pint jars and 15 minutes for quarts, at a pressure of 10 to 11 pounds.
Ta-da! A tasty batch of salsa to enjoy throughout the year that tastes a lot like a very popular national brand which shall remain unmentioned here since I don’t want to get sued.
Learn More About Homemade Salsa
Want to learn about how to all the parts of a good salsa work together? The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service has put together a great explanation of all the ingredients that are typically used in a salsa, some sample recipes and what makes a recipe safe (or not safe) to can. Check it out here.
How Hot are Hot Peppers?
The boys were curious about exactly how hot the hot peppers really were, so they dared each other to taste the pepper. They were going to take a bite and chew it, but I convinced them to just lick it instead. Even with only licking (yes, we share germs), their mouths started burning very quickly and as anyone who has dealt with hot peppers knows, water just doesn’t cut it. I set them each up with a glass of milk and they spent about a half hour sampling and giggling and daring other to try it again.
Homestead Happenings and Preparedness Challenge #24.
14 Responses to “Home Canned Salsa That Tastes a Lot Like a National Brand – Except Better!”
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Love the pictures of the boys licking peppers, too cute!
Your boys & my boys would get along wonderfully! This summer, my boys and their many friends dared each other repeatedly to bite into a red jalapeno. They must have done it once a week till I pulled the plants up LOL.
I definably think it's a boy thing. i just can't picture little girls doing this.
I've gone through some salsa recipes over the years, too; this one looks pretty reasonable and I've got ALL the ingredients – that counts! Love the pics of the guys, good help and entertainment to boot! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I used this recipe last night, added a few things I like, and pressure canned it up. Looks great, has a great texture too. thanks for the cornstarch tip. I did read in my pressure canner manual that we could use 1/2 t. citric acid instead of vinegar, but I saw it too late. I think I may try that one of these days too. Yummy recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Heidi – just make sure if you are adding ingredients that you don't add too many low acid foods, like pepper or garlic. This will modify the pH of the salsa and potentially leave it open to pathogen growth.
My family goes through a lot of salsa and I have tried making it before but the recipe wasn’t just right. I’m gonna try this one and see what happens. Wish me luck. Thanks for all the info and entertainment. lol
The earlier ones we tried for canning were too heavy on the vinegar. This is quite close to Tostidos brand, if you like their product. Thanks for stopping by and good luck!
[...] that I now use regularly for processing large batches of onions (for instance, when I’m canning salsa), is to put a small fan on the counter next to where I’m chopping. Use the fan to blow away [...]
I am curious. I want to make this salsa, however, your recipe appears to ignore their rules from the link you provided. For example, they do not recommend thickening with cornstarch and canning. They also recommend canned juices. You cannot use fresh lime or lemon juice. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks!
The recipe that I use was how the original recipe from Pick Your Own was when I did it the first time. The recipe says lemon juice as a substitute for vinegar, not fresh lemon juice. Not sure what you are referring to with the fresh lemon juice? Bottled lemon juice will provide consistent acidity. I prefer the taste with vinegar.
Although cornstarch is not generally recommended for canning, those little mix packets (as currently shown on PickYourOwn.org) contain cornstarch. If you prefer, you could use Clear Jel, which is basically more refined corn starch – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00015UC52/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00015UC52&linkCode=as2&tag=commosensehom-20“>Instant Clear Jel, 1 lb.
The problem with regular corn starch is that in some recipes (like pie fillings) it will be prone to clumping, giving you a lumpy, nasty looking end product. Because of all the acid and liquid in this recipe, the cornstarch stays in solution.
[...] I do them, I make no claims on being authentic). I chop up some leftover chicken and mix it with salsa, spread it on half of the tortilla and sprinkle it with freshly shredded [...]
[...] Home Canned Salsa That Tastes a Lot Like a National Brand – Except Better [...]
[...] round of canning yielded eight pints of spaghetti sauce, 14 pints of salsa, three pints of stewed tomatoes and 5 pints of tomato juice. (I drained some juice off the [...]