Salsa Anyone?

We were down to the last jar of salsa so it was my "duty" to replenish the canning cupboard. Yesterday afternoon was spent doing the tedious job of blanching, skinning, dicing and chopping.

First you have to get as many tomatoes as you can gather from whatever sources are available. Some were from my 2 plants and the rest from a local farmer.



Once they have been blanched and skinned, the dicing begins and never seems to stop. Once they have drained well it is on to adding the real flavor. Do be careful when working with the jalapeños, they can cause some uncomfortable moments!



While your canner is coming to a boil, get your salsa cooking. Make sure you time it so that you don't end up with juice instead of chunky salsa. Ladle into clean hot jars and process.



When that timer goes off, you should have............salsa!


Salsa
Source: Annie from CF (I reworked it a little bit to suit our tastes!)

8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper
3 – 5 chopped jalapenos or other hot peppers of your choice
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp ground pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ cup of bottled lime juice (this has to be bottled and not freshly squeezed)
¼ cup 5% cider vinegar
16 oz. canned tomato sauce

Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil for 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process at 10 lbs of pressure for 30 minutes for pints.....or BWB 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts after the BWB comes back up to the boiling point. Do not use quart jars; just pints or half pints.
Makes 6 pints

1/2" headspace in the jars. Be sure with boiling water bath to use the full cup of lime juice and 5% vinegar.

If you are pressure canning the salsa you use only 1/4 cup of 5% cider vinegar and no lime juice.

Yes, you can sub any kind of peppers you want as long as you keep the quantities of low acid ingredients the same.
You can do more onion, less pepper or vice versa, as long as the total amount of onions and peppers is equal to 4 cups.