• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Stone Family Farmstead

Home | Garden | Crafting

  • HOME & HOMESTEAD
    • HOME
    • HOMESTEAD
    • GARDENING
    • PRESERVING FOOD
    • RAISING PETS AND LIVESTOCK
    • HOME REMEDIES
  • HANDMADE
    • CREATE A HANDMADE HOLIDAY
    • HANDMADE HOLIDAYS
    • ALL CRAFTING
  • SEASONAL
    • WINTER
    • SPRING
    • SUMMER
    • FALL
  • RECIPES
  • Our Products
  • Your Links
    • VIP Resource Library

How to Make the Best Salsa {Recipe for Canning}

Stone Family Farmstead is an Amazon Associate and uses Amazon and other affiliate links to earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more.

July 7, 2020 by Kristi Stone 16 Comments

salsa in a jar, salsa recipe for canning
fresh tomatoes and a jar of home canned salsa, salsa recipe for canning
home canned salsa in mason jars, salsa recipe for canning
salsa with peppers
salsa ingredients, home canned salsa

Summer is a fantastic time for not only eating delicious salsa made from your huge tomato harvest, but for canning salsa too! This is the best salsa recipe for canning, and is wonderful to make for your shelf every year. It has been tested and found to be safe when you follow the given instructions, so you don’t have to worry that you’ll mess up!

Photo courtesy of Canva.com

Part of the goodness of having a tomato harvest is that you can make so many different products out of them. With your ripe tomatoes, you may try your hand at canning them whole, making tomato sauce, pizza sauce, or as in we will learn in this post, canning salsa. You can even make salsa with green tomatoes, but for today, we will be canning the following delicious salsa recipe.

The Best Salsa Recipe for Canning

This recipe is from the Ball Blue Book. All canning recipes from this book are tested and found to be safe when directions are followed carefully. It has a lot of steps, but that is because I break up each step so it’s easy to follow. Just take canning this salsa step-by-step and you will have beautiful salsa on your shelf in no time for use in your chilis, with your chips, to season your burrito filling, or wherever you love to use salsa.

This post is going to assume that you understand the basics of water bath canning, but if you are doing this for the first time, or are not quite sure you have the basics down, you can refer to my post, “How to Can Food for Beginners”. It’s a fantastic article that takes you step-by-step through both canning processes. This time you will only need the information under the headings of Steps Before Processing, Water Bath Processing, and Steps After Processing.

Home Canned Salsa (fresh)

taken from the Ball Blue Book
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 hr 30 mins
Processing Time 15 mins
Total Time 1 hr 45 mins
Course Condiments
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 6 pints

Ingredients
  

  • tomatoes 6lbs
  • jalapeno peppers 6
  • dried hot chili peppers 9
  • diced red onion 3 cups (or 2 medium)
  • chopped cilantro tightly packed, 1-1/2 cups
  • garlic 15 cloves
  • salt 1 Tbsp
  • crushed red pepper 3/4 tsp.
  • red wine vinegar 3/4 cup

Instructions
 

  • Fill up a stock pot about halfway with water and bring to a boil. Do step 2 while you are waiting for that to happen.
  • Remove all of the stems from tomatoes. Fill up a clean sink with water and dump all of your tomatoes in. Swish around and drain.
  • This step will need to be done in separate small loads. Add about a quart of tomatoes at a time to the boiling water and allow to blanch (boil in the water) for 30 seconds to one minute. While you are waiting for the first load to finish, put some ice in a big bowl and fill up with water. Set on the counter near the pot you are using for the tomatoes.
  • With a slotted spoon, remove the tomatoes from the boiling water and place them into the ice water for a couple of minutes. This will stop the cooking process. Remove from the ice water and place in a bowl for later. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until all of the tomatoes have been blanched, cooled, and moved to the bowl for later.
  • With a knife or a tomato corer, remove the stem end and slip the skins off the tomatoes. You can use the scraps to make tomato powder later if you have a dehydrator. At this point, you can cut your tomatoes into halves or quarters, or leave them whole.
  • Dice tomatoes into 1/4-inch pieces.
  • Remove stems and seeds from jalapenos and dice those too. (Use rubber gloves just for good measure.)
  • Dice the red onion.
  • Pour boiling water over chili peppers just to cover, then cover the bowl they are in for about 15 minutes to steep. Drain half the water off and puree chili peppers until smooth (about a minute).
  • Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened.
  • Fill your hot jars with salsa, leaving a 1/2-inch head space. Remove air bubbles with a bubble remover, and clean the jar rim.
  • Center the lid onto the clean jar rim and screw on the band only fingertip-tight. Repeat steps 6-9 until all jars are filled.
  • Place jars into the simmering water in your canner. Water must cover jars by at least 1 inch. Adjust heat to medium/high and cover the canner. Wait until the water boils. Once water is boiling, set your timer for 15 minutes.
  • Once processing time is finished, turn off the heat and uncover the canner. Allow canner to sit for 5 minutes, then remove jars with the jar lifter to a towel on your counter. Allow to cool for 12 hours. Test seals, label, and store jars

Notes

Makes about 6 pint jars. It is not recommended to process in quart jars.
Adjust for High Altitude Canning
  • 1,001- 3,000 5 minutes.
  • 3,001- 6,000 10 minutes.
  • 6,001- 8,000 15 minutes.
  • 8,001-10,000 20 minutes.
Keyword canning recipes, water bath canning
jars of home canned salsa

Looking for a much easier salsa recipe with fewer ingredients for canning? Try this one!

PIN FOR LATER

salsa ingredients, home canned salsa

Filed Under: FEATURED SEASONAL POSTS, HANDMADE, HOME & HOMESTEAD, RECIPES, SEASONALTagged With: HANDMADE HOLIDAYS, PRESERVING FOOD, SUMMER

Previous Post: « How to Make Fruit Wine at Home: Second Ferment
Next Post: How to Make the Best Fermented Garlic Dill Pickles »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. linda spiker says

    October 17, 2018 at 7:24 pm

    Thanks so much for this. I never can because I am always afraid I am going to poison the family! This is so helpful.

    Reply
    • Kristi Stone says

      October 19, 2018 at 2:28 pm

      Hi Linda! Nope, you sure won’t if you follow the directions I’ve given in this and my “How to Can Food for Beginners” post. You totally can do this!

      Reply
  2. Karon Warren says

    February 7, 2021 at 6:45 am

    Can you substitute can tomatoes in this recipe and it still be safe for canning? If so, how many cans of tomatoes it would take to equal the amount in recipe?

    Reply
    • Kristi Stone says

      February 8, 2021 at 12:48 pm

      Yes you can! Here is a great page that confirms this, plus gives a bunch more great information on canning tomato salsa in general!
      https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/canning-tomato-based-salsa

      Reply
  3. Laura says

    February 18, 2021 at 8:06 pm

    Hello! I really liked your post/tutorial. I have never canned before and am working up my nerve to get started. I was wondering how long is the shelf life of canned salsa? I don’t know if I missed it in the post.

    Thank you

    Reply
    • Kristi Stone says

      February 19, 2021 at 7:27 am

      Oh! I should add that if I didn’t already!

      The shelf life for canned foods is usually a year, but could be used after that. Some people keep canned foods for years, but I understand that nutritional value/quality diminishes over time. Ours never lasts a year, so I’m not sure it the flavor is different, though!

      Reply
  4. Catherine says

    August 5, 2021 at 7:59 pm

    How many jars does this receipe make and what size?

    Reply
    • Kristi Stone says

      August 10, 2021 at 6:46 am

      6 pint jars!

      Reply
  5. Stacy says

    August 28, 2021 at 12:21 pm

    How hot/ spicy is this recipe? There’s a lot of hot peppers in it!!

    Reply
    • Kristi Stone says

      October 15, 2021 at 4:45 am

      Hi Stacy! You know, I find that spicy is relative to the person! I don’t find it very spicy, but if you are not used to eating hot peppers, it will probably be for you!

      Reply
  6. Holly says

    April 27, 2022 at 9:09 pm

    Hi! What kind of dried peppers do you use?

    Reply
  7. Jenny says

    May 12, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    Hi. It seems to have a good bit of garlic. Is the garlic supposed to be minced or diced? Do we add it whole to the pot to simmer? Thanks for your guidance.

    Reply
    • Kristi Stone says

      May 12, 2022 at 4:45 pm

      Hi Jenny! Either way would be fine, unless your family realllly doesn’t like to bite into small pieces of garlic. Sometimes I use the minced garlic from the store instead of doing it myself, and that works just fine, too!

      Reply
  8. MK says

    June 27, 2022 at 4:54 pm

    Can these be kept in the pantry?

    Reply
  9. Chelsea says

    June 28, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    Can you reduce the amount of peppers? I am wanting to do about 1/2 of the jalapeño and chili pepper

    Reply
  10. Lisa says

    August 22, 2022 at 8:11 am

    how many cups of tomatoes is 6lbs? I already peeled, cored and seeded my tomatoes. I found your recipe after I prepped them. Thank you.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Search This Website

Image Title

Hi, I’m Kristi!

A little about me….For the past 6 years, we have lived on a scant acre in Southern California. I am the wife of the greatest guy ever….also a veteran ex-homeschooling mom of 3, grandma of 1, and fur mom of many!

Besides writing, my hobbies are gardening, herbs, crafting, scratch cooking, food preservation, goat breeding, and teaching all of these things here, to you, on Stone Family Farmstead’s website.


Learn more here.

  • Home
  • Work With Me
  • Privacy
  • disclosures
  • Let Me In

Copyright © 2023 · Midnight theme

Copyright © 2023 · Midnight Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in