Salsa Newbie

[HoosierDaddy]

I would like to try my hand at making Salsa this year.
What are good zone 5 - 6 tomato varieties for Salsa? I'ts humid here too in SE Michigan.

Can you please direct me to some good Salsa recipies?

Wife is a wimp and likes her Salsa mild. I am more of a medium to medium-hot type. What is the key to adjusting the final "heat".

Sorry if these questions seem stupid. I know nothing about Salsa recipies and don't know enough to ask the right questions.

[oc tony]

I use a ball park figure of 1 inch of jalapeno or serano per pound of tomatoes and adjust from there. Here is a thread with a good recipe for Annie's salsa in post # 10 Difference between paste and beefsteak tomatos?

[laspasturas]

Annie's salsa is really customizable, so you could make a hotter batch for yourself and a more mild batch for your wife by adjusting the sweet:hot pepper ratio. Or make one batch with seeded jalapenos and one with the seeds.

[Worth1]

You can make salsa out of any tomato and it will turn out good.
You have to think outside the box when it come to salsa.
If you want to blow away the stuff from the store then use your imagination.
One thing that gets my goat is every time I come up with a real winner a year later I find the same thing in the store.

Try this one. Use orange tomatoes your choice I like to use Jubilee or Kelloggs Breakfast.

Red jalapeno peppers.
Peach preserves.
and a pinch of salt.

Chop it all up fine and taste.

It will make a colorful salsa you cannot buy from the store.

For a smokey flavor add a pinch of cumin.
The peach preserves will add a sweet taste to the salsa along with the hot and your wife wont be able to put it down.

In the summer I like my salsa fresh not cooked.

Try a green when ripe for a green salsa and add green Jalapenos.

things that go good in salsa are.

Cumin.
Chili powder.
Onions.
Any kind of pepper.
Garlic.
Cilantro.
Red pepper.
The hot carrots you find in the pickled peppers you buy.
Ground mustard
Ground ginger.
The list is a long one.
Another real good salsa is to use tomatoes onions cilantro habanero peppers.
for every pint of salsa you will only need about one fourth one half of the habanero pepper.
Chopped real fine.

You really have to use your imagination making salsa start simple and go from there.
To get an idea just buy from the store 16 ounces of crushed tomatoes, one small can of Hot or mild peppers one small onion and cilantro if you like.

Chop up the onion peppers and about 14 cup of cilantro.
Add 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp powdered garlic and mix it up with the tomatoes and try it.

with the price of salsa here in Texas at the store at $5.00 a pint sometimes which I will not pay I make my own much of the time.


For about $15.00 I can make several quarts of salsa.

Worth

[fortyonenorth]

I'm very partial to Rick Bayliss's Roasted Jalapeño-Tomato Salsa with Fresh Cilantro:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fo...ilantro-105450

He calls for plum tomatoes and we've had excellent luck with Black Plum. Roasting the tomatoes, peppers, onion and garlic is key to really pronounced flavors. In terms of heat, it's all about the peppers--not just the number, but the heat. I prefer smaller, hotter jalapenos to the big, mild ones because you get more bang for the buck, so to speak. The milder peppers require you to add too many to get to the desired heat and that throws off the balance of flavors, IMO. There's really no way to know without experimenting, though.

[sfmathews]

Now my mouth is watering..

[Tworivers1]

Here is the recipe for Annies salsa. You can change how much hot peppers you put in it but you need to keep the total amount of green peppers and hot peppers the same. Likewise, you need to make sure you have one cup of acid. It can be any combination of vinegar, apple cider vinegar, lime juice or lemon juice. I normally use equal parts of cider vinegar, lime juice and lemon juice.

My wife also likes it mild so I follow the recipe exactly for her and deseed the jalapenos. For myself, I usually use 9 or 10 jalapenos and leave the seeds and membranes in and it's enough to make the top of my head sweat.



ANNIE'S SALSA
8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper
3 - 5 chopped jalapenos
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
16 oz. tomato sauce
16 oz tomato paste
Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process pints for 15 minutes. Makes 6 pints

[Worth1]

Tomatoes alone have enough acid to do the hot water bath canning method as most fruits do too.BUT the fresh peppers dont.
Citric acid can also be used for this method.
4.6 is the magic number to look for. that or any thing below.

You dont want it to be too acid or it will turn your salsa to mush.

To test acidity in food just get a PH tester to make sure especially if you experiment like I do.
I dont have a PH tester but I aint dead yet.

I dont use vinegar in my salsa as I dont want it to taste like a sour pickle.
I lookd at several jars of salsa and none of them contained vinegar, they contained citric acid.

Worth

[newatthiskat]

What I do is start with the mild for me because I am a wuss with how hot my food is. I put in fooled you jalapenos (sp) and very mild peppers and then jar up mine. Then I add several hotter pepper s like sorranos (3-4) to the mix and jar up theirs. I am careful to keep them seperate
I also pressure can mine instead of a boil bath

[laspasturas]

I dont use vinegar in my salsa as I dont want it to taste like a sour pickle.
I lookd at several jars of salsa and none of them contained vinegar, they contained citric acid.

The full cup of vinegar in Annie's salsa is too strong for me, too. Last year, I saw a post that she had made about substituting bottled lemon or lime juice, so that's what we did and I thought it was much better.

[BSue54]

No knocks to Annie's Salsa - because I've not yet made it, but the recipe for "DeDe's Wonderful Salsa" at Chicken's In the Road truly IS wonderful.
I used chopped/drained roma tomatoes, and a mixture of 3 reconstituted chipotles for the smokey flavor and jalapenos with seeds for the first 1/2 cup, and 1/2 cup with the seeds and membranes removed and it was, as Goldilocks would say, "juuuuuuuuust right"... I've already had family members asking for re-runs of this for next Christmas.

http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-be...nderful-salsa/

Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 7 to 8 pints
Ingredients

8 cups tomatoes - can use three 28/29 oz. cans tomatoes, well drained (I buy petite diced when I can find them on sale)
2 ½ cups diced onion
1 ½ cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup diced hot peppers (I usually use all banana peppers)
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. canning salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
29 oz. can of tomato puree
1 ½ cups tomato sauce
Directions

Mix everything together in a large saucepan. Bring slowly to a boil & boil gently for ten minutes (or less – be sure the onions & peppers remain somewhat crisp).
NOTE: At this point you could cool & refrigerate & use without canning if desired.
Pour into hot jars, cap with hot rings & lids.
Process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Yield: 7 to 8 pints.
A happy note to add here: David (tractor57) tested this recipe after making it with commercially canned tomato products (whose label states that citric acid has been added) and the pH was 4.1 – more acidic than the required magic number of pH 4.6 for safe preserving via boiling water bath.


Bobbie in Cut-N-Shoot

[strax]

fresh salsa is the easiest and tastes the best too. with fresh salso you can use any tomatoes. i like to mix half a sweet orange like kelloggs or hillbilly with a strong flavored red or pink.

if you want salsa thats not as watery or you are canning the salsa, you should use a firm tomato. in this case, i usually stick to one of the plumb tomatoes that have great flavor and are described as 'good for canning or fresh eating' san marzano redorte and stripped roman are my favorites.

[creister]

Fresh cilantro is a must for me. Remove pepper seeds to reduce heat.

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by laspasturas

The full cup of vinegar in Annie's salsa is too strong for me, too. Last year, I saw a post that she had made about substituting bottled lemon or lime juice, so that's what we did and I thought it was much better.

I always just use lime juice. I made two batches, one with lime and one with lemon and my family preferred the lime (me too.)

[tam91]

I do something pretty similar to the Rick Bayless one, but with lime juice instead of the vinegar. And I do have to comal (for toasting the veggies) and the molcajete to grind them. It's a great authentic salsa, if that's what you're looking for.