I have a bunch of green cherry tomatoes and I am eyeing the Green Tomato Salsa recipe in the Ball Canning Back to Basics book.
The recipe calls for “2 pounds green tomatoes, finely chopped (about 6 tomatoes) or same amount of tomatillos, husk removed and cleaned.”
Since it does not mention coring or peeling does this mean it’s not needed for this recipe? Can I just chop the cherry tomatoes to meet that requirement?
Also if it calls for “1 to 2 jalapeño or serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped” do I need to remove the seeds from a safety perspective? Or can I leave them in to make the salsa hotter?
by Oh_Snapshot
5 Comments
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You can just dice the tomatoes and you don’t need to seed the jalapeños! It won’t affect the safety!
Made almost this same recipe from NCHFP for tomatillo salsa. So yummy. My tomatillos are taking off so I plan to make more! Also Tangy Tomatillo Relish is another great recipe from NCHFP that can use green tomatoes.
Okay here’s a question… is the cilantro considered a seasoning in this instance? Can it be safely omitted?
Hi – I have a different canning salsa verde recipe and another one for fresh (or from the freezer), but I thought I’d share some of my opinions.
First – Pepper seeds have no capsaicin. Many people say to remove the seeds to “reduce the heat” but the only heat is from capsaicin “oil” collected on the seeds, which are attached to the pith. I personally remove seeds, and usually pith, from most recipes for aesthetic purposes. Seeds should have zero impact when canning from my experience. This next part will be a whole bunch of extra info if you are interested…. first 1 to 2 jalapenos is very vague because their weight can vary a lot. Personally, if I wanted to up the heat I would swap out a different pepper (like cayenne or habanero – and remove seeds/pith still). So, I’d make this recipe once and weigh out the jalapenos I added, and make note of the the peppers by weight added. If successful, next time I’d use the peppers I wanted (based on heat) and go off the weight I used before). I personally adapt all of my recipes to weight as “X item” can vary so much. Same with the garlic… clove size varies a lot.
Second – I’ve tried canning with and without cilantro. Personally, I prefer to leave it out for canning and just add it fresh to the jar when I open it (if you have it available to you year round or if you grow your own year round).