I made the most delicious mango salsa to go with some wild salmon. I'd love to make a cannable version while mangoes are on sale. I'm posting Linda Lou's recipe for green mango salsa below, but I want ripe mango salsa. Ripe mangoes are more acidic than green, right? Below the recipe I propose some substitutions, what do you all think?

Mango Salsa

6 cups diced unripe mango (about 3 to 4 large, hard green mangoes)

1ý cups diced red bell pepper

ý cup finely chopped yellow onion

ý teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger

1 cup light brown sugar

1ü cups cider vinegar (5%)

ý cup water

Caution: Handling green mangoes may irritate the skin of some people in the same way as poison ivy. (They belong to the same plant family.) To avoid this reaction, wear plastic or rubber gloves while working with raw green mango. Do not touch your face, lips or eyes after touching or cutting raw green mangoes until all traces are washed away.

Yield: About 6 half-pint jars

Procedure:

1. Wash and rinse half-pint canning jars; keep hot until ready to use. Prepare lids according to manufacturer's directions.

2. Wash all produce well. Peel and chop mango into ý-inch cubes. Dice bell pepper into ý-inch pieces. Finely chop yellow onions.

3. Combine all ingredients in an 8-quart Dutch oven or stockpot. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce to simmering, and simmer 5 minutes.

4. Fill hot solids into clean, hot half-pint jars, leaving ý-inch headspace. Cover with hot liquid, leaving ý-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids.

5. Process in a boiling water canner half pints only, 10 min.

proposed changes:

change unripe mango to ripe, same amount

change bell pepper to jalapeno and reduce amount

leave out crushed red pepper and ginger

leave out sugar and water

change vinegar to equal amount lime juice (I can't remember which way is ok to substitute and which way is not)

add enough salt to make it a little salty

Looks like I'm only going in the direction of more safe, not less. Anyone see a big problem with this, or have a tested recipe that's similar? Basically I'm going for a fresh taste with lots of lime and salt, mostly just mango chunks with a little bit of other flavors. I couldn't find anything with a search of this forum, and nothing in the Ball complete book or small-batch preserving. Would this freeze better instead? Eliminating the sugar would decrease the amount of liquid/syrup, so maybe it would be too dense to can?

I will be making some more this weekend when I hope to find some Copper River salmon. The season opened on Thursday so it should be getting from Alaska to Virginia soon.

Melissa