You may want to add some lime juice seeing as how you have pineapple added. Dried herbs are fine in most any amount as they soak up the acidic liquid, as would the raisins and crans. I wouldn't bother with raisins though as they tend to 'complicate' the tastes. Its really hard to tell about how much acid is in tomatoes and peaches, so adding more acid may be necessary.

Ken,

Ended up delaying the salsa for 1 day because had no water pressure much of yesterday. All the ingredients are ready to go.

This time I think can easily tell the acidity of the diced peaches and tomatoes because I used institutional size cans of Contadina diced tomatoes in tomato juice and Del Monte sliced cling peaches in light syrup. All I had to do is drain the tomatoes and dice and drain the peaches. The peaches won't brown and took very little time to run them through my onion chopper mandolin thing. If recipe turns out I can use fresh tomatoes or tomatillos next time.

Calibrated my meter with 4.01 buffer solution. The peaches are pH 4.53 and the tomatoes a surprisingly high 4.83! It's a good thing that I measured. So that means that the peaches are high acid and the tomatoes aren't. Right?

OK, Ken, I'll skip the raisins this time. There was also a recipe that used dried apricots and I hope to try them in a recipe soon. I do have lime juice on hand.

If you or someone else would take a stab at how much vinegar, lemon & lime juice to use I would appreciate it.

jt

Usually the lower the pH number the more acidic, so the tomatoes would be slightly less acidic compared to the peaches. Sometimes its nice to combine flavors for a salsa, but when your dealing with tomatoes and all the rest of the standard ingredients, its always a good idea to taste a small batch of it before adding more flavors to the whole batch. It could become too complex and you could lose the primary goal of a spicy salsa. Apricots are good, but at some point though, your heading towards a sweet and sour sauce, which is more fruity. Tomatillos and pineapple, as well as some hot green peppers are a good combo as it has a totally different color compared to one with tomatoes.

Ken,

I really appreciate your help with this one. Just finished a few minutes ago. Ended up with 12 pints plus nearly a pint for the fridge. I'll wait a few days before opening up one of the canned jars and will post the recipe in a new thread if I think results good enough.

Taste test before actual canning was super. Then I decided to tweak it and think messed up a little. Added another 1/2 cup lemon juice and should have used lime. The Craisins I don't think did anything significant either plus or minus. The honey was a real winner. Will double the pineapple next time. Heat was disappointing. You would think that as much as I cook with hot peppers that I would know how much heat is lost during cooking. Not bad, just not what I was shooting for. Was really impressed with the Del Monte peaches.

Thanks again!

jt

I think that when acid is high as well as mixing a lot of complex flavors, the heat of peppers drops some. Its not the case, however, when I pickle the pepperoncini. They tend o be quite bland when eaten fresh, but once pickled are quite a bit hotter, just about my maximum. Craisins are sweetened, and if you make this again, you may want to use fresh crans instead. Pineapple flavor is quite strong, and can over power other flavors a bit. If I were to make a unique salsa, I would start with the basic hot peppers and add a little mango, papya, and pineapple for one flavor direction. For a peach flavor, add the dried apricots and of course hot peppers. A green tomato and tomatillo salsa with all green peppers. etc.

Just sampled two of the jars one from each batch. The 2nd batch I added 1 tsp pure manzano powder just before canning. All in all not bad for a first effort, but have several ideas for next time.

There was too much going on for one thing. I think next try will stick with just 1 thing to acidify. Either all lime, all lemon or all cider vinegar. In this batch I used 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup lemon juice & 1/2 cup lime juice. Peaches, tomatoes, tomatillos, pineapple, cranberries... maybe just two at a time would be better. The 3 tbs honey ended up being too much even though seemed OK before actual canning. Needed salt (again).

Texture was fantastic! I was really impressed with the peaches and will use again for sure. The whiteness of the diced garlic was unsightly to me & I'll mince next time.

No where near an "Annie's Salsa" and I'm not going to post the exact recipe until get it better.

Look at these beautiful manzanos that a pod-head buddy (Voodoo) sent me from San Diego:

I'm thinking a tomatillos/peach/green bell/manzano salsa for my next try. The 1 cup parsley in last recipe was bland and just might try a little cilantro even though I don't care for very much. Diced celery might work. Used fresh ground cumin seed for last recipe and think I like whole seeds better. Will stick with coarse sea salt, but more of it. I might go diced dried apricots instead of peaches. And might want to work the crushed pineapple into it too, but not sure.

Rambling again....

jt

Cilantro tends to loose its delicate taste in a very short time. If it were canned, it would just be flavorless green stuff in there. Would be better to add it fresh at the time of serving

What a difference even a day makes. The salsa tastes much better today except for the obviously too much honey.
I think will run to town this morning and get the ingredients for a half batch/6 pints. It's going to be tomatillos/peaches/pineapple/celery/greenbell/manzano/onions/vinegar. Can prepare while watching football on the deck.
If this turns out then will work on a canned tomatillo/tomato salsa that can add canned shoepeg corn and turtle beans to just
before serving. The salsa could be BWBd for good texture, but the corn & beans need lengthy pressure processing.

Yes, sometimes adding fresh or frozen to a jar will give it some interesting texture and tase. I always seem to add or 'tweak' a mix of some kind. My hot and sour soup, for instance, started out as a dry powder. Would have been pretty plain without the added stuff..

> My hot and sour soup, for instance, started out as a dry powder.

Very interrresting! I've been toying with the idea of putting my dehydrated hot sauces and pepper ferments into 5 oz woozys for gifts. Make a fancy label & instruct to add vinegar and refrigerate.

Yes, you are the master of dried foods. Add a bit of dry cheeses and you have an unusual mix! How about flour, and dried sourdough culture. Mix it all up and you have a sourdough cheese and pepper bread! WOW!