Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Works for me Wednesday - Backward Edition

Rocks In My Dryer is doing a backwards edition of Works for me Wednesday and I thought I would play along. My question is how do you can salsa in jars? I have a bunch of canning jars. Can I put the salsa in and then boil the jars in a large pot so they seal? How does this work? Thanks for any info. Please leave a comment with yout reply.

2 comments:

Aubrey said...

It totally depends on the recipe. There are very specific recipes for salsa that you can can (ha!) just by boiling, but otherwise you'd have to use a pressure cooker. I think the University of Georgia has some pages about specifics, but basically it's based on the tomato content, since tomatoes are acidic enough to not need a pressure canner, (just like other fruits and jam) but most veggies and the other stuff in salsa would need the high pressure.

SH said...

If you're planning to can anything start here:

The Ball Blue Book of Preserving; all the recipes I found in it for salsa are for boiling water canning.

Several Extremely Good Websites:
First, Ball: http://www.freshpreserving.com/pages/home/1.php (Go to the "Preserving Club" page to ask questions)
Second, http://www.pickyourown.org//allaboutcanning.htm#sauceschutney (VERY SPECIFIC directions, This one even has pictures to help you)

Please, Please, do your homework first. DO NOT try your own recipe or CHANGE THE RECIPES. These recipes tested many many times before being published to ensure that they are safe (i.e., won't make you and family sick!.

That being said, I've just started canning this summer and have found it a lot of fun and extremely satisfying. GOOD LUCK!