I have found a great recipe for (crockpot) salsa and I want to hot water bath the jars, but now I'm concerned that there won't be enough acid in the recipe to deem it safe to can. The recipe has a dozen roma tomatoes, onion, green chiles, jalopeno and spices as well as a tablespoon brown sugar and 1/4 cup of vinegar. How can I tell if the recipe will be acidic enough to be safe to can using the HWB method?
Looking at the ball canning book it appears that if you have at least 3/4's cup of acid you should be ok for water bath of 15 minutes. This acid is vinegar or lemon juice
Patience is worth a bushel of brains...from a chinese fortune cookie
To queenmushroom: Would that be 3/4 cup of acid from vinegar or 3/4 cup (total) from tomatoes AND vinegar. Is it your opinion that 12 roma tomatoes and 1/4 cup of vinegar would be an ok amount of acid for HWB canning? I have done a LOT of hot water bath canning, but its all been in jams and pickle relish. I've never canned tomatoes before.
Coleen, it sounds to me like it should be fine. That's a lot of vinegar with the tomatoes and should be totally acidic enough. If you REALLY want to know the PH, go to your pharmacist and ask if they will sell you PH strips and test the salsa to check the PH. If it is 4.6 or less, then it is plenty acidic.
Safe Canning Question
Posted - Sep 25 2012 : 1:45:43 PM
