SALSA (fresh or canned)

From Julia Whitehead

(Originally from Raelynn Ibarra)

16 cups (4 qts) tomatoes peeled & diced

(No need to blanch and peel the tomatoes if you are eating the salsa fresh)

4-5 small jalepenos peeled & diced

(You can roast on a baking sheet at 350 for a couple minutes if desired. I have added them without peeling or roasting when the peppers are small or when I am not going to can the salsa.)

6 C. white onions diced (about 4 onions)

1 1/3 C. white vinegar

1 Tbsp. sugar

3 Tbsp salt

1 ½ Tbsp. garlic salt

About 1/3 bushel cilantro, chopped (optional).

I add diced green chiles to mine.

When I'm making it fresh, I add all of the ingredients above to taste how I like it.

Put all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to boil. Simmer about 30 min. Fill pint jars. Process 15 min. For half pint jars I have decreased the processing time to about 10 min.

Here is a chart showing how much of each ingredient you would need based on the amount of tomatoes you have once you get them cut up. I didn’t always plan on making a batch with 16 cups tomatoes so I reduced it. Some of the fractions came out a little weird. You can just add as many jalepenos as you can stand!

TOMATOES	2C	4 C	6 C	8 C
JALAPENO	5/8 of a jal.	1 ¾	1 7/8	3 ½ jal
ONION	3/4 C.	1 ½	2 ¼ C.	3 C.
VINEGAR	1/6 C.	1/3	½ C.	2/3 C.
SUGAR	1/8 T.	¼ T.	3/8 T.	½ T.
SALT	3/8 T.	¾ T.	1 1/8 T.	1 ½ T.
GAR. SALT	3/16 T.	3/8 T.	½ T.	¾ T.
CILANTRO to taste