There was the same subject covered recently. Unfortunately that topic has not been indext yet, so a search won't show much. As far tomatillos, they are ripe when dry and tan color husks. They tend to be puckery when under ripe. Add them as you would add tomatoes, or in place of some. Most are light green yellow. These, when cut open when ripe, will look a bit lie a very dry green tomato. The 'core' is just a small portion of the stem base, and should be removed. These usually are at the size of a golf ball or larger. If yours are not that size they need more growing and good fertilizer. The papery husks split open and give way to a slightly sticky surface on the fruits. Neem spray can help with bug problems. Treat these like tomatoes as to support, and care. Not many of these per plant however.

This is our favorite. We use just regular green tomatoes.

Tomatillo Green Salsa
Yield: 5 pints

5 cups chopped tomatillos
1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped long green chiles
1/2 cup seeded finely chopped jalapeños
4 cups chopped onions
1 cup bottled lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp ground cumin*
3 Tbsp oregano leaves *
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot salsa into pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner 15 minutes at 0-1,000 feet altitude; 20 minutes at 1,001-6,000 feet; 25 minutes above 6,000 feet.

You may use green tomatoes in this recipe instead of tomatillos.

IMPORTANT: Follow the directions carefully and exactly for each recipe. Use the amounts of each vegetable listed in the recipe. Add the amount of vinegar or lemon juice listed. You may decrease 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. After you open a jar to use, you may pour off some of the liquid or thicken with cornstarch.

As a side note to Linda Lou, A small amount of Clear Gel is the only safe option for a thickener for use in any acidic home canning. Also, bottled lime juice is good as opposedto lemon or citric. I like using Nellie & Joes lime juice.

Sorry Ken, but NO thickeners are safely allowed in salsa or any other tomato product before canning. You need to remember, I teach food preservation safety.
This says AFTER you open the jars you can thicken it before you serve it.

Salsa and plenty of acid, a stable modified food starch suitable for home canning?? Hmm, I wasn't aware of it causing any safety issues. Clear Gel in this case is used just to absorb a little of the excess liquids (again acidic). Then if being unsafe is the case, ALL thickened (even more) pie fillings sold, and home made with the stable Clear gel would also be unsafe to can? Thicken after opening, how? Cooking it again to set a thickener has a negative effect on its texture and taste. Not meaning to undermine you, but in some cases people can really get OVERL 'phobic' about home canning safety. PRESSURE CANNING a commonly made 'acidic' salsa should be safe. Unless there is substantal proof of a safety issue, I would not have any worries. But as you rashly say, everyone must do it your way or face some 'deadly' safety issues if things go wrong.

I know this isn't quite what you asked, but I like to make a tomatillo/chicken soup. Yum. Cook onion, garlic and maybe a jalapeno in some olive oil, add some ground cumin, S & P, add chicken stock and tomatillos, cook until soft, blend with stick blender, and add in shredded chicken meat. I like to make little crispy fried tortilla strips for a garnish and add a dab of sour cream.

Also, put them in the crockpot with some browned pork roast, few cans of green chilis, onion and garlic. Let go until meat is shreddable, and use in tacos with lettuce, sour cream, and cilantro.

They are yellow green when ripe and that is when I harvest them. I had so many from two plants last year that I was totally overwhelmed, and had to start filling gallon freezer bags with them and freezing them whole after rinsing the stickyness off, because I couldn't deal with the overwhelming abundance. That's why I came up with some alternative uses for them besides green salsa. I still have some in the freezer from last year in fact and occasionally pull them out when making a soup, the whole frozen ones work great.

One thing that was nice, is the plants did not seem to be adversely affected by the numerous walnut trees on my property, unlike my tomato plants.

Ken, it states the safety issue right in the salsa recipes.. Clear Jel is still a cornstarch. The only things you can safely thicken are pie fillings, jams, and a few relishes. Never salsa, soups, or any tomato products are safe to thicken before canning.
IMPORTANT: Follow the directions carefully and exactly for each recipe. Use the amounts of each vegetable listed in the recipe. Add the amount of vinegar or lemon juice listed. You may decrease 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. After you open a jar to use, you may pour off some of the liquid or thicken with cornstarch.

The difference is recipes like pie filling are tested with the ClearJel, so the processing time allows for that. The tested processing time for salsa does not include thickening and it can't be added without changing the product in ways that haven't been accounted for.

I have not (yet) found a canned Salsa Verde I like, and I was especially unhappy with the green tomato version. It's a good example of how preferences vary.

This may or may not be helpful, but if you find a red tomato salsa that sounds appealing, you can sub ripe tomatillos for the tomatoes.

Carol

I simply give up on your extremely biased comments. Its obvious to me that home canning safety is way too overstressed here. The heat processes used in home canning an item are obvioulsy the key factor. Also, its obvious to me that the perfect, sterile, home canning process, cannot be achieved without sterilzing a whole kitchen, its contents, all tools and equipment, as well as having an bacteria free enviornment. An eldery lady I knew, home canned, 40+ years ago, and always wore a lint free coat, gloves, hair net, and all kinds of methods to protect a simple and safely canned product. Going overboard for the basics was her own choice.

Thanks for the recipes/information! The tomatillo/chicken soup sound delicious. With the number of tomatillos on the plants, I'd welcome any other uses. For Linda Lou's recipe, what are the long green chiles? Is that a variety? Will another green pepper work as a substitute? I have a ton of sweet peppers (bell and others), plus my huge collection of hot peppers. I'd hate to go out and buy the one pepper I didn't plant!

And thank you for all the safety information. I prefer to be over-cautious when it comes to canning. I want to do this for a long time.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what ingredients I want in the recipe. I only know that I want it to taste like the salsa verde I had in a little Mexican resturant in San Francisco. I may try a bunch of freezing recipes, too, then see if there is a salsa canning recipe that is similar and do the tomatillo substitutions.

In any case, thanks for everyone's input!
Bellatrix

The recipe provided by Linda Lou is a pretty basic salsa verde recipe and looks similar to one I have used. I was happy with mine except for its being somewhat more sour than I like, but that seems to be the rule these days with BWB processing.

"Long green chiles" probably refers to any mild green chile such as Anaheim or NuMex. I think you could use any of the milder green chiles, Poblanos, Chilacas or whatever. Personally, I would substitute a few hotter ones because I like things a little picante.

Good luck and enjoy!

Jim

I'm surprised no one has mentioned green enchiladas. Is that a Texas thing? Sorry I don't have measurements.

Saute onions and garlic, add cut up tomatillos in chunks and stew down with a little water or chicken stock. I use cumin, ground coriander seed, chile powder, oregano, and a little Tony's season salt. Once good and cooked (soft) you can blender/food processor it.

Use this to sauce enchiladas (corn tortillas) filled with cheese, onions and cheese, or chicken, chicken onion, chicken cheese, squash and cheese, etc. Can also do casserole style in stead of rolling.

The first time I had these was at a restaurant and they served them with fresh shredded lettuce and chopped tomato all over the top. Can add cilantro, sour cream, and salsa too. YUM. I'm going to make them tonight because I'm craving them now.

That recipe was not for canning.

LL,
Ok, You win. I'll bend a little, but still feel that Clear Jel can be useful in a VERY SMALL amount when only a watery liquid benefits by SLIGHTLY thickening. Most all salsa's are acidic as their base as far as I know. If the salsa is watery, it can also be thickened by adding more dried vegetabes, but that now changes the density even more.

One important ingredient not listed in the recipes above is fresh cilantro. I make fresh salsa verde with my tomatillo crop by eyeballing it, but just use tomatillos, fresh cilantro, peppers(I like jalepeno or serrano, but you can use anaheim if you don't like it hot) white onion, garlic clove, salt, pepper, cumin and a little lime juice and throw it all in the food processor. I don't core the tomatillos, but I do take out the stem section. Serve it straight with chips, mix with sour cream for a real treat! Have never tried canning it, but the whole tomatillos freeze well.

Yes, the cilantro must be fresh. After even two days in a salsa its unique taste and smell are nearly lost. I flavor seems to last a bit longer if its added to the salsa at serving time.

Hi,

I am planning to make a batch of both Linda Lou's Tomatillo Green Salsa and a batch of Annie's Salsa today (pints).

Linda Lou's recipe calls for a boiling water bath for 15 min. and Annie's calls for pressure canning 30 minutes at 10 lbs.

My question is could I process both batches together in a pressure canner or would doing Linda Lou's salsa for 30 min. at 10 lbs pressure ruin the texture of her salsa?

Since IÂm only doing a single batch of each today, IÂm hoping I can process both batches together. I have a brand new 21 quart All American Pressure Canner and have been itching to break it in for a while now!

Bill

Generally speaking Bill, the type of processing is NOT interchangeable. Your best results will be obtained by sticking with the tested recipe's instructions.

That said, PC of products that call for BWB 'may' be done in some cases but yes, it will definitely affect the texture so it isn't recommended. As an alternative, do the pressure canning first and then just use your PC as a BWB canner for the ones calling for BWB by covering the jars with water and not locking down the lid or putting on the counterweight. Many use their PC as a BWB. ;)

Dave

Thanks Dave,

My gut told me as much but I thought IÂd double check.

In a comment I saw from Annie, she also says you can safely process her salsa in BWB for 15 minutes if you bump up the vinegar. Not having tried either recipe before, IÂll stick with BWB for both and see how they turn out.

Oh well, no excuse to use the new pressure canner today. LOL

Bill

Bill, with processing, the important part is getting it hot enough for long enough. Since the pressure canning process for Annie's salsa is hotter and longer than the one for Linda Lou's green tomato salsa, I don't think there would be a safety issue with doing them together. The texture would probably be affected though.

I find it too stressful to make two recipes at once. If I were you, I would make the PC version of Annie's salsa, because I think the taste is perfect with the PC amount of vinegar. (Never made the BWB version though, so maybe I'd like that just as much.) Then while the water is still hot, I'd add more hot tap water to the pressure canner and use it as a BWB, letting it heat up while I prepared the second salsa. I like to use wide-mouth pints, so I need to use my pressure canner to fit seven pints. My biggest BWB pot holds 7 regular square-sided pints but only 5 wide-mouth pints.

Have a good day of canning!

Melissa

Thanks Melissa,

Yes, I know that temperature, duration and heat penetration are the critical safety factors. I was thinking I might be able to get away with the higher temperature for the longer duration without adversely affecting the texture of the salsa.

Your comments regarding the recipe being perfect with the PC amount of vinegar (plus the rain, breeze and 60F temperature outside) gave me pause and I decided to follow AnnieÂs original (reduced vinegar) recipe processed in the pressure canner tomorrow! I just did Linda LouÂs Tomatillo Green Salsa today in a BWB. Looks and smells great, canÂt wait to taste it.

Thanks for the feedback,

Bill

I posted this on the tomato board but thought you all might like to know that I grew Tomatillo "Cisneros" this year and wow! Twice the size of regular tomatillos and plants just loaded top to bottom. I also grew "Maje" which was supposed to be larger also but my plants did not do that well and the size was not significantly bigger.

Brokenbar - Where did you get your seed for "Cisneros" tomatillos?

I was very happy with "Green" tomatillos from Sand Hill Preservation Center - large, tasty and abundant. I also grew "Mexican Strain" from Territorial Seed, but wasn't as happy. They had great flavor, but were small. Also, about a week ago they developed wilt. The "Green" variety planted right next to it is fine.

Bellatrix

BellaTrix:http://www.tomatogrowers.com/tomatillos.htm

I have always made my salsa and froze it because I did not want to add any vinegar or too much lemon. My question is if I pressure can my recipe, can I treat it like stewed tomatoes as far as time and pressure. The ingredients are:tomatillos,serrano peppers,onions, garlic, salt, water,oil, and cilantro. My husband filled my freezer with a moose and I grew my own ingredients for this salsa so I want to pressure can this.Help? pint size... 19lbs. 20min.?