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condiment Salsa canning questions

Howdy folks. Got a question regarding canning salsa for shipping, but I am finding a lot of conflicting information online.
 
I have this cilantro lime salsa that I make that comes out really nice, but a lot of recipes I find online call for vinegar to make sure it's acidic. However, whenever I test the pH of my salsa it's around 3.6 (well below the 4.6 threshold for low-acid food). However there seems to be a lot of folks calling for rigidly following a recipe and not deviating.
 
If my stuff reads below 4.6, shouldn't I be okay to jar it for later?
 
Question. Did you use fresh tomatoes, or canned, because those have citric acid and could be what is helping you with pH here. Also is this cooked or kept fresh before canning/packaging? I'll let experts chime in but I think this will help them. Thanks
 
Normally tomatoes by themselves are acid enough to just hot water bath can. The vinegar is added because you can't guarantee the other veggies in your salsa will be preserved by the tomatoes acid.
 
 The Hot Pepper's questions are relevant, especially the cooked bit. If it's cooked, and the PH is below 4, then yes it should be safe.
 
Thanks for the tips, ya'll. They are fresh tomatoes so I imagine they should be acidic enough (though store-bought, so who can really tell). I'll find out next week if I get botulism or not when I test it out!
 
Keep in fridge? I don't know all the rules to canning but if you measure the salsa, what if there are large chunks of other veg, like onion? What is the pH of that onion? Does it have to be a certain size to be considered part of the overall salsa? These are things I don't know, so good question, and maybe SL is around lol.
 
Malarky said:
nice garden! new place?
 
 
Same place! I just made 6 more beds at the house and kept the church garden, though I am decidedly at the church garden less. I think I might give it up since I have plenty of room at the home.
 
DaQatz said:
Normally tomatoes by themselves are acid enough to just hot water bath can. The vinegar is added because you can't guarantee the other veggies in your salsa will be preserved by the tomatoes acid.
 
 The Hot Pepper's questions are relevant, especially the cooked bit. If it's cooked, and the PH is below 4, then yes it should be safe.
 
 
Coup said:
Thanks for the tips, ya'll. They are fresh tomatoes so I imagine they should be acidic enough (though store-bought, so who can really tell). I'll find out next week if I get botulism or not when I test it out!
 
 
Tomatoes USED TO BE  acidic enough to home can using a HWB/BWB (boiling water bath).  But commercial tomato growers have been breeding the acidity out of tomatoes for generations.  Most commercial tomatoes no longer have enough natural acidity to be safely processed with a BWB.  Some heirloom tomatoes may have enough acidity, I don't know the specifics on that.
 
Current processing methods on the canning websites and Extension service websites no longer suggest just a BWB.  They recommend adding some vinegar, lemon, or citric acid to the jars of tomatoes, or doing a full on pressure canning.  
 
 
The other question regarding pH readings is....when the sauce is newly made, the saucy part may have more acidity from the vinegar/lime juice/whatever, but as was mentioned above, the veggies do not have that acidity.  Testing just the juice will not give an accurate pH reading of the whole sauce.  If a small portion of the sauce is completely blended to as smooth a sauce as possible and left to blend for a couple days, a fairly accurate pH reading could be had.  
 
Think of it like making pickles.  The cukes are stuck in a jar and covered with vinegar brine.  If the pickle flesh is tested for pH a day or 2 after being stuck in the jar, the cucumber flesh will still show a very high pH as the vinegar hasn't penetrated the flesh of the cuke and the whole jar has not come to an equilibrium.
 
2 weeks later...the vinegar will have penetrated the cucumber flesh and lowered the pH of the cuke, making it pickled and safe.
 
The vinegar/acids in the chunky salsa will eventually penetrate the flesh of the veggies but it will take some time to achieve that equilibrium.  Blendering the snot out of a small bit of the salsa will help speed up that equilibrium process.  
 
 
 
Another option is to pressure can the sauce.  Anything can be pressure canned and be safely stored in the pantry.
 
salsalady said:
Tomatoes USED TO BE  acidic enough to home can using a HWB/BWB (boiling water bath).  But commercial tomato growers have been breeding the acidity out of tomatoes for generations.  Most commercial tomatoes no longer have enough natural acidity to be safely processed with a BWB.  Some heirloom tomatoes may have enough acidity, I don't know the specifics on that.
 
Interesting I have never tried to can store bought tomatoes, only those i've grown. Their PH has always been fine without modification. Makes me want to start PH testing store bought tomatoes to see how many have a too high PH. 
 
Walchit said:
Anything? Lol
 
as in....anything can be pressure canned and be safe for the pantry?  Pretty much~
 
well, fresh milk may curdle during the pressure canning process....  
but there is canned and condensed milk......
 
 
 
 
 
(EDIT) deleted other comment.... :lol:
 
DaQatz said:
 
Interesting I have never tried to can store bought tomatoes, only those i've grown. Their PH has always been fine without modification. Makes me want to start PH testing store bought tomatoes to see how many have a too high PH. 
 
It's not just store bought commercially grown tomatoes.  Newer hybrid tomato seeds are some of those that have been bred for low acid.  If someone were to grow an heirloom tomato variety and a newer variety of the same kind, I'd be really interested what the difference would be in the acidity.
 
Maybe a university has done a study or something.  That would be cool to see.
SL 
 
Is the thought here that acid contributes to decay and therefore, tomatoes won't last as long on the shelf? So then we remove the acid, and taste, just so we have a tomato that looks like a tomato, can stay on the shelf for weeks, and will never fully ripen since it doesn't have the right acid? But hey, as long as it looks like a tomato.

Rhetorical questions here...
 
No, it's more along the lines of--- foods with a lot of acidity are a problem with sensitive tummies.  Acid reflux and such. 
 
 
sooo... lower the acidity of the tomato used in the spaghetti sauce, the consumer won't get indigestion....more sales.....
 
 
 
 
or something along those lines...afaik....
 
 
 
 
Density of a salsa also plays a very critical role in safety for BWBing. If it's too thick, the heat from the BWB won't penetrate the contents of the jar completely in the "standard" time for BWB (usually 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude).

I don't know the first thing about pressure canning, so I can't comment. I can't say it enough, but salsa is one of the riskiest foods to attempt BWB canning when you're not using a tested and approved recipe.

Not trying to be a "Debbie Downer" here; I'd just hate to see anybody get sick, that's all. Botulism has no detectable taste or smell.

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