Interesting thing happened with ym canned salsa

[nathan125]

I canned a batch of salsa like two day ago. followed a recipe and added copius amounts of vinegar to play it safe. water bathed it for 45 minutes.
some of the pepper seeds, i think they were pepper seeds, inside my canned salsa have started to push through and those little white sprouts emerging from them..
The lids popped and the water was boiling....Anyone have this situation before.
I hope i didn't ruin the batch....

[Worth1]

Tell us the recipe.
45 minutes is way over kill big time.
Was the salsa hot when you packed it.

[nathan125]

I figured 45 minutes wasn't too bad considering that i used quart jars and my elevation is 300 ft.
I used the Ball salsa recipe minus the cilantro.
It's actually one stray sprout in the jar, the other 6 jars are good.

[Worth1]

If you followed a Ball recipe there was no need to add extra vinegar to be safe unless you like vinegar.
Personally I would never use vinegar in salsa but that is just me.
I prefer Ball citric acid powder.

I dont think you have anything to worry about.
No you ((dont)) have anything to worry about.
Enjoy.

[coronabarb]

Nathan, did the Ball recipe call for canning in quarts? As far as I know, there are no tested recipes for salsa in quarts, only pints. Most salsa recipes call for 15 mins in a boiling water bath. Did you make any other changes to the recipe besides jar size, amt of vinegar and time of processing?

I don't know how seeds would survive to sprout. Did you just pick the peppers and were they perfect ripe or overripe?

[Worth1]

The more dense the product the longer the process time.
I would think that the crushed tomatoes with no added liquid at 45 minutes would be fine for a substitute.
Whole or halved tomatoes are at 85 minutes at 1000 ft or below.
Much of this has to do with how hot the product is when it is put in the jar.
If the acid is right you dont have anything to worry about from botulinum toxin.
Understanding botulinum what kills the toxin and what kills the spores is very important.
We are constantly ingesting the spores almost everyday but the acid in our stomachs wont allow them to hatch and reproduce.
The reproducing of the bacteria and growing of the spores is what causes the toxin.

As for the lids popping and the water boiling in the jars.
Water boiling point is lower in a vacuum, you pulled the jars out they went on a vacuum and boiled.
This boiling lets off steam steam cause pressure.
This is why they have different pressures for elevations.
It simply has to be a higher pressure to get to a certain temperature.
This is why you cant boil and cook potatoes at 20,000 feet or even less.
The water boils away without getting hot enough to cook the potato.

For hot water bath we dont have the option of pressure we have time.
Time and temperature kill bacteria and the spores which in high acid foods the acid takes care of.
The lower the temperature the longer the time.
The higher the altitude the lower the boiling point the longer the time to process.

One last thing before I stop babbling.
Lime juice from a bottle in salsa is a much better option than vinegar in my opinion.

You might find this link interesting.
http://nchfp.uga.edu/papers/2004/04i..._combined.html

And this one.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...75c61EuQeYodBQ