Mama's Salsa Recipe

Submitted by Tandy Higgins

"This is my Salsa recipe that has been adapted from many different recipes over the years. I use my food processor to eliminate alot of the work. Add more crushed red pepper to adjust the heat to your desire and less sugar if you find it too sweet. We like the mix of the sweet with the spicy. Every year the tomatoes are different, but as a rule of thumb-a 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes will yield 4 batches of salsa. This year I made 12 batches. When the kids leave for college in the fall they make sure they take plenty since there may not be any left when they come back. This year they are getting a few jars at Christmas that I stashed back!"

 

• Ready In: 12hrs 45mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 7 pints

ingredients

• 12 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 5 cups onions, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup pickling salt
• 1 cup vinegar
• 2 1⁄4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon red pepper, crushed
• 3 cups green peppers, chopped
• 10 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (5 1/2 ounce) can tomato paste

directions

1. Sprinkle pickling salt over chopped tomatoes and onions and let stand overnight.
2. In the morning drain all liquid from the veggies and place the veggies in a large stock pot.
3. To the pot add the vinegar, sugar and crushed red pepper.
4. Bring to a boil and boil for 45 minutes.
5. Add chopped green peppers, minced garlic cloves and tomato paste and boil for 20 minutes.
6. Pour into hot sterilized jars and place in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
7. NOTE: To make Sweet & Hot Salsa I removed all of the garlic cloves, reduced the green peppers to 1 1/2 cups & used 1/2 tablespoon ground (cayenne) red pepper instead of the crushed red pepper. Just a few simple changes but the flavor is amazing!