Hey d, welcome to harvest. The short answer to your question is no, that's not safe, but you CAN safely can salsa with a tested recipe. You are correct that canning does not always require vinegar in such products as green beans and corn, but these require a pressure canner! Also, tomatoes need some added acid. One of the harvest forum's greatest hits is Annie's salsa, which can be canned in a pressure canner, or in a boiling water bath if you add extra acid. I use a boiling water bath so I need 1 cup of acid, and I use about equal parts of cider vinegar, lemon juice, and lime juice.

So no, making salsa with an untested recipe & canning in boiling water is not safe. Use a tested recipe and process as directed. The crucial elements are the amount and type of acid, the proportions of acid (tomatoes) to low-acid (onions, peppers, etc) ingredients, and the processing method and time.

Annie's put a lot of time and testing into her recipe, so try it, if you like. One of the threads with her recipe is linked below, but there are many similar threads with good information, so you can search "Annie's salsa" in this forum to find more. May I offer some of the tips that are hidden in these many threads?

ACID: Vinegar must be 5% acidity. Lemon juice and lime juice must be bottled, not fresh (except in jam which is already high-acid). You can always sub lemon/lime juice for vinegar, but you cannot sub vinegar for lemon/lime juice (vinegar is lower acid/higher pH).

LOW-ACID VEG: You can substitute low-acid veg for each other, e.g. you can replace 1 cup of bell pepper with 1 cup of jalapeno or onion. You can't increase the total amount in the recipe. Having enough acid is important because too little will allow botulism to grow. This is very bad food poisoning that is usually undetectable in the jar, and in fact is the only kind of food poisoning that scares me.

SPICES: You can add spices to a recipe as you like. Herbs too, within reason, but probably not an extra cup of cilantro, you know?

SALT: For most canning, you want canning salt, which has none of the anti-caking agents and iodine that make your products turn colors and taste weird. For Annie's salsa, Carol (readinglady) has said you can use any kind of salt since it is for taste not safety.

PROCESSING: Only high-acid foods may be processed in a BWB. Low-acid requires a pressure canner, and you still have to follow a tested recipe. Read up on the correct ways to use your method of choice, e.g. vent the pressure canner before weighting it, start the BWB time from when it returns to a boil, etc.

d, I'm sure you know most of this since you are already pickling peppers, but I figured I would share for anyone else who'd like to try Annie's salsa. Let us know how it goes! There are other recipes available too, e.g. in the Ball Blue Book of canning or on extension office websites.

Melissa

Here is a link that might be useful: one of the many annie's salsa threads

Melissa, what an excellent summary. Only two minor additions. If I were adding fresh herbs above and beyond the original amount, I'd count it as part of the low-acid total. It might not be absolutely necessary, but it's a nice safety precaution.

And yes, in a pinch I do think table salt can be used in the salsa, but pure salt is always preferred in canning and absolutely critical in pickling. Those anti-caking ingredients do alter color and can also leave a bitter aftertaste for those sensitive to it.

Carol

Carol,
I agree with you. When I made Annie's salsa this week, I increased the cilantro to 1/2 cup (because I love cilantro) and I only used a cup of green bell peppers instead of 1 1/2 cups. (Bell peppers make me burp.) But I also had just slightly more onion so I figured I had about the right amount.
Melly

This is in reference to Annie's canned salsa recipe. Please tell me if you use paste tomatoes like Romas or slicing tomatoes and which is better to use. This year will be my first year pressure canning salsa. I'm going to use Annie's recipe for sure. Thank you.

I don't know if Annie's online tonight or not, but I can tell you many different kinds/varieties of tomatoes have been used with equally good results. With the juicier tomatoes Annie just "thumbs out the goo" and then continues with the recipe.

Carol

All depends on whether you like your salsa chunky or runny!

Any kind will taste great. Paste tomatoes will make a thicker salsa, though not by much if you remove the watery "goo" as Carol suggests.

I make it with whatever I have that's fresh and good!

Zabby

Same here, I use whatever is ripe at the time. I do like a thinner salsa, though. I usually use the meatier types for sauce like spaghetti. Lori

Instead of vinegar, the use of bottled lime juice will also work and give a nice flavor twist to a salsa. I agree that plum type tomatoes offer a bit more 'meat' compared to many regular types. This year, no plum tomatoes for me, as I have a ton of jars already. Instead, I decided to start some beefsteak types. Wish the weather would get warmer though. Today temps in the 50's and damp.

Ken, you are welcome to our warmth!

It's been hot and sticky here since I got back two days ago. We were travelling in the midwest, which by rights is where it SHOULD have been more hot & humid, but it was lovely in Chicago and Columbus.

Luckily, my tomatoes, some of them just poppped in the ground before we left on the 1st, got a dousing of rain a few days later, so they have been OK in the heat without me around to water. Gave 'em a good soaking as soon as I got back. They all look good, and grew quite a bit in the 10 days I was gone.

Got a good mix of beefsteaks, small "canners," pastes, and cherries.

One early variety planted out a bit earlier has a couple of baby toms already --- yay! Should have a ripe one by early July.

Zabby

Zabby

my word, Zabby ... I'm hoping we have local tomatoes by the fourth of July here in Maryland... but the field I'm watching as I drive by doesn't look like it. We've had heat lately, but a real shortfall of rain.

It was 45 degrees this morning after I picked up the rest of the crushed debris of what was left of my 7th replacement mailbox and post. It was hit again last night, by a speeding car that veered onto the sidewalk and slammed into the concrete post I made for it. Wish I had been able to fill it with cement before it happened though. But at least it left a nice heafty bit of damage to the car that hit it, as I found the Mercury car hood emblem, and some of the headlight lens pieces the crazy driver left behind... There are crazy nuts on the road!