Salsa for a crowd

LAURIE's Note:

Great way to use those tomatoes at the end of the season. Can be canned if you can keep it around that long.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 2 mins
• Prep Time: 40 mins
• Cook Time: 22 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 13 pints

• 20 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 8 cups onions, chopped
• 3 green peppers, chopped
• 7 banana peppers, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 teaspoons chili powder
• 5 tablespoons salt
• 2 1/2 cups white vinegar
• 4 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 cups cornstarch

Directions:

1. Combine all but the corn starch in a large kettle.
2. Cook on low 20 minutes.
3. Stir in corn starch.
4. Stir and cook another 2-3 minutes.
5. Pack in pint jars and refrigerate or process in water bath, or freeze if desired.

Reviews

[Jewelee]

This salsa is WONDERFUL! I had been looking for a great recipe like this, and I especially liked it because it used banana peppers. Anyone who plants a garden with a couple of banana pepper plants knows how much they yield, but what do you do with the things? I tried this recipe in the summer, 2003 and we loved it. Last summer (2004) I canned two batches, and now this summer (2005) I hope to can at least 3 batches. My daughter loves to mix a little sour cream with the salsa and eat it with tortilla chips, and I have to admit that it's delicious. I am going to give some pints of this salsa to relatives & friends for Christmas. This recipe is GREAT. Thank you, Amy. (NOTE: to those who may not have ever used cornstarch, you just can't dump the cornstarch into the hot salsa--you have to mix it with some water first and stir it to make it smooth and then add it to the salsa. If you just dump it in, you will have a mess of clumps in your salsa.)

[enigma535]

I didn't have banana peppers so I used Jalapenos and did not use cornstarch at all. I didn't want the salsa to get pasty after it had sat in a jar for awhile. Turned out pretty good.

[Patressa Smelser]

This is wonderful salsa! I doubled the recipe and canned it. I didn't quite double the amount of cornstarch, though, as I didn't want "gummy" salsa. This tastes great, and has just the right touch of sweetness. Yum! And thanks, Laurie!