How to make and can homemade salsa with cilantro, from fresh tomatoes - Easily! With Step-by-step Directions, Photos, Ingredients, Recipe and Costs

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How to make and can homemade salsa with cilantro, from fresh tomatoes - Easily! With Step-by-step Directions, Photos, Ingredients, Recipe and Costs

Recipe and Directions for Home-Canned Tomato Salsa with Cilantro

Yield: 8 pint jars Yield: 8 pints (in 8 pint jars or 16 eight-ounce jars)

Click here for a PDF print version!

Making and canning your own salsa is something families remember years later. This zesty recipe includes cilantro for that fresh kick! No store bought salsa, even if it is shipped from Texas, compares with the taste of that made from your own tomatoes from your garden or fresh-picked from a local farm!  In the middle of the winter, you can have tortilla chips and your salsa and taste the summer flavor of fresh tomatoes.

Here's how to do it, in easy steps and completely illustrated.   This method is so easy, ANYONE can do this!  It's a great thing to do with your kids!

Ingredients

• Tomatoes - 10 cups peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes, which takes about about 8 lbs (yes, quite a few - you remove the skins, seeds and a lot of the water, so it takes a lot to start.)  If you only want to make a single jar, see this page instead!
• 4 to 5 cups seeded, chopped long green chile peppers (about 2 lbs worth - less if you want a milder salsa)
• 1/4 cup seeded, chopped jalapeno peppers
• 5 cups chopped onions (about 1.5 lbs)
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1.5 cups cider vinegar or lemon juice (see this page for an explanation)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin*
• 1 tablespoon oregano leaves*
• 2 or 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro*
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Equipment

• 1 water bath canner (a huge pot to sanitize the jars after filling (about $30 to $35 - $30 at mall kitchen stores and local "big box" stores.  Note: we sell canners, supplies and kits through our affiliates: click here or see the bottom of this page) Tomatoes are on the border between the high-acid fruits that can be preserved in a boiling-water bath and the low-acid fruits, vegetables  and meats that need pressure canning.
• Pint (or smaller) canning jars (Ball or Kerr jars can be found at Publix, Kroger, Safeway and local "big box" stores - about $13 per dozen 8-ounce jars, more for quilted design or larger jars, including the lids and rings).   
• Lids - thin, flat, round metal lids with a gum binder that seals them against the top of the jar.  They may only be used once.
• Rings - metal bands that secure the lids to the jars.  They may be reused many times.
• Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars) 
• Lid lifter (I like the lid rack that holds 12 lids or you can pull them out one at a time with the lid-lifter that has a magnet from the almost-boiling water where you sanitize them. ($4 at mall kitchen stores and local "big box" stores, but it's usually cheaper online from our affiliates)
• 1 large pot.
• Large spoons and ladles,
• Jar funnel ($3-Grocery stores, like Publix, Kroger and Safeway and local "big box" stores; sometimes even hardware stores)

Directions - Step by Step

IMPORTANT: Follow the directions carefully for each recipe. Use the amounts of each vegetable listed in the recipe. Add the amount of vinegar or lemon juice listed. You may change the amount of spices, if desired. Do not can salsas that do not follow these or other research tested recipes. (They may be frozen or stored in the refrigerator). Do not thicken salsas with flour or cornstarch before canning. Thickening makes it harder for the contents to reach the right temperature during processing and impacts safety. After you open a jar to use, you may pour off some of the liquid, add tomato paste or thicken with cornstarch. reference: Reference: the University of Missouri.

 

Process - How to Make Salsa from Fresh Tomatoes

Step 1 - Selecting the tomatoes

It's fun to go pick your own and you can obviously get better quality tomatoes!  

At right is a picture of tomatoes from my garden - they are so much better than anything from the grocery store. And if you don't have enough, a pick-your-own farm is the pace to go!  At right are 4 common varieties that will work:

Top left: Beefsteak	Top right: Lemon Boy, yellow
Bottom left: Roma, paste-type	Bottom right: Better Boy

The picture at left shows the best variety of tomato to use: Roma; also called paste tomatoes.  they have fewer sides, thicker, meatier walls, and less water.

Also, you don't want mushy, bruised or rotten tomatoes!

 

Step 2 - Removing the tomato skins

Here's a trick you may not know: put the tomatoes, a few at a time in a large pot of boiling water for no more than 1 minute (30 - 45 seconds is usually enough)

then....

Plunge them into a waiting bowl of ice water.

 

This makes the skins slide right off of the tomatoes!  If you leave the skins in, they become tough and chewy in the sauce, not very pleasant.

Step 3 -  Removing seeds and water

After you have peeled the skins off the tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in half.  Now we need to remove the seeds and excess water. 

 

 

Step 4 - Squeeze of the seeds and water

Just like it sounds: wash your hands then squeeze each tomato and use your finger or a spoon to scoop and shake out most of the seeds.  You don't need to get fanatical about it; removing just most will do. Another way to do it is to cut each tomato in half, across it, instead of lengthwise. Then just shake the seeds and juice out.

 

 

 

Step 5 - Drain the tomatoes

Toss the squeezed (Squozen? :) 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! By draining the water off now, you will end up with a thicker spaghetti sauce in less cooking time! And that preserves vitamins (and your sanity).

FYI, the 20 pounds of raw, fresh, whole tomatoes you started with should produce about  7  - 9 pints of "squeezed" tomatoes

 

 

Step 6 - Get the jars and lids sanitizing

The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a "sanitize" cycle.  I get that going while I'm preparing everything else, so it's done by the time I'm ready to fill the jars. 

Be sure to let it go through the rinse cycle to get rid of any soap!

Lids:  Put the very hot (but not quite boiling; around 180 F, steaming water is fine)
water for at least several minutes. 

Note: everything gets sanitized in the water bath (step 7)
anyway, so this just helps to ensure there is no spoilage later!)

Step 7. Make your own seasonings?

I use an electric chopper (food processor) to dice the seasoning ingredients fairly fine, about 1/8 inch cubes.

• 4 to 5 cups seeded, chopped long green chili peppers (about 2 lbs worth - less if you want a milder salsa)
• 1/4 cup seeded, chopped jalapeno peppers
• 5 cups chopped onions (about 1.5 lbs)
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1.5 cups cider vinegar or bottled lemon juice (Note: The recipes that were first developed and tested (in labs) used vinegar. The commonly used acids in home canning are vinegar, lemon and lime juice. Lemon and lime juices are more acidic than vinegar, but have less effect on flavor. Consequently, you may safely substitute an equal amount of lemon juice for vinegar in recipes using vinegar.
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin* optional
• 1 tablespoon oregano leaves* optional
• 2 or 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro* optional
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt* optional
• Chili powder or hot sauce - 1 teaspoon * optional

* Optional Spices: The optional spices add flavoring to salsas. The amounts of spices and herbs may be altered in these
recipes. Cilantro and cumin are often used in spicy salsas. You may leave them out if you prefer a salsa with a milder taste. For a stronger cilantro flavor, add fresh cilantro just before serving the salsa. Cilantro is easy to grow.  See this page for simple cilantro growing instructions.

 

Step 8 - 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 (180 F, if you have a thermometer). Keeping it at 180 F for 30 minutes prior to water bath processing kills any bacteria and enzymes. Adjust the heat to maintain 180 F and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taste it as it cooks. If you like the sauce hotter, add 1 teaspoon of chili powder.

Step 9 - 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.  

Be sure the contact surfaces (top of the jar and underside of the ring) are clean to get a good seal! 

 

Step 10 - Process (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 pint (or smaller) jars in a boiling-water bath for

• 15 minutes at 0-1,000 feet altitude;
• 20 minutes if you are at 1,001-6,000 feet; OR
• 25 minutes if you are above 6,000 feet.

 

 

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This document was adapted from the "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA, revised 1994.

Reviewed June 2006.

 

Step 11 - Done

Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight)  You can then remove the rings if you like, but if you leave them on, at least loosen them quite a bit, so they don't rust in place due to trapped moisture. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok.

 

 

Home Canning Kits This is the same type of  standard canner that my grandmother used to make everything from applesauce to jams and jellies to tomato and spaghetti sauce. This complete kit includes everything you need and lasts for years: the canner, jar rack, Jar grabber tongs, lid lifting wand, a plastic funnel, labels, bubble freer, and the bible of canning, the Ball Blue Book. It's much cheaper than buying the items separately. You will never need anything else except jars & lids! To see more canners, of different styles, makes and prices, click here!For more information and current pricing:

Answers to Common Questions

Q. What did I do wrong if my jars spoil?

Tomatoes are a borderline acid / low acid fruit (see this page about tomato acidity for more information) - adding lemon juice helps, processing according to the specified times (determined by the USDA) in the water bath canner almost eliminates spoilage.  You should boost the acid level of the sauce, by adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per quart of sauce. (or half that, for pint jars)

Q. Can I can my own salsa recipe, that is, a recipe different from that above, one I made up or inherited from Grandma?

Probably not.  According to the USDA's National Center for Home Food Preservation:

"Salsas are usually mixtures of acid and low-acid ingredients; they are an example of an acidified food. The specific recipe, and sometimes preparation method, will determine if a salsa can be processed in a boiling water canner or a Pressure Canner. A process must be scientifically determined for each recipe. "

The USDA does accept that if you take an approved, tested recipe and make minor alterations to ingredients that does affect the preserving properties, that should be ok.  But there are a lot of if's in that statement.  For example, substituting 1 teaspoon of ground chili spice for 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper is probably fine, but substituting 1 cup of apple juice for 1 cup of lemon juice would not be.  Unless you really know what you're doing, you should probably stick to the approved recipes.  The preserving recipes I publish, like the one above, are all from the USDA, universities or established canning authorities. Granny probably never did lab cultures and bacteria counts to test that her recipe was safe; you were her test guinea pig, and that's not as reliable as a culture (next time you might get sick)

Here are some Salsa Guidelines from Penn State University:

• Do not substitute vinegar for lemon juice, but you can substitute lemon juice for vinegar. Lemon juice is more acidic.
• Do not reduce the amount of lemon juice or tomatoes.
• Do not add extra peppers, onions, or garlic. You can reduce the amount of peppers, onions, or garlic.
• Canned chilies may be used in place of fresh.
• You can substitute one type of pepper for another. For example, hot jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, yellow peppers, banana peppers, chili peppers and cubinal peppers may all be susbtituted 1 for 1.
• The key is not not increasing the amount of low acid ingredients in relation to the amount of high acid ingredients

Q. My question is about salsa. I was going to borrow a pressure cooker to make salsa this year (for the first time). My grandma told me that I didn't need the pressure cooker, I could just make salsa using the "inversion" method like I did the blueberry jam. Can I do this?

A. Well, Grandma may be sweet, but a lot of her generation died of cancer from smoking, heart attacks from eating too much saturated fat... And food poisoning! :) Jam should get 5 minutes in the boiling water bath, too.

Tomatoes have enough acid to require only a water bath for processing; but by the time you add the other ingredients which have no acidity, you've got a food that can spoil easily. That's why most salsa recipes include a couple of cups of vinegar or lemon juice (both very acidic).

Even so, a Pressure Canner affords greater safety that a boiling water bath, and is more versatile. But if you follow my recipe and use vinegar or lemon juice as stated in the recipe, the boiling water bath will work fine.

And let Grandma make the cookies rather than the preserves! :)

Q. Do you know how long that will be good for once it is canned? All your other recipes have expiration dates - well, at date ranges. I'm trying to be careful with the labeling so I don't have problems in March like, 'Was this bottled last year or three years ago?' (I'm ashamed to say, it has happened...)

A. Yes, salsa, tends to be at peak quality for about 6 months, then ok for another 6 months. After that, the USDA says it is still safe to eat as long as the seal is intact, but it darkens and becomes mushier than most people would like! So, if you have an older jar, and there's no leakage, a good seal, and everything looks ok, open it and try!

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Feedback and Comments:

• A visitor writes on August 24, 2014: "I grew my own tomatoes and love salsa but have never cared for the preservative taste I detect in store bought salsas. We followed your recipe and direction (my first time canning) and it is wonderful. Thank you so much!!"
• Comments from a visitor on July 25, 2010: "Hi, I made Salsa today in record time. Your recipe is outstanding. I precisely followed the instructions, but added fresh cilantro because we like the taste. I filled 8 Jars exact like you suggested. Thanks for the tip to sterilize the jars in the dishwasher. There is an other trick I used: I did not peel my tomatoes, I chopped them (as well as garlic and onions) in the food-processor, no skins to see or taste! Thanks again, great website! Linda"

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