Canning Homemade Salsa

ByKendra Stamy Updated on Home and Garden
Canning homemade salsa is pretty easy to do and so tasty. This salsa recipe can be canned or enjoyed fresh!

Late summer finds me in the kitchen canning homemade salsa. We eat so much salsa during the year that it would be insanely costly to buy it.  If you know how to can and don’t mind chopping onions and hot peppers you can also can homemade salsa.

My homemade salsa is one that mother and I have been making for years. However, each year it tastes a little different. In fact, the salsa I can, tastes different than the salsa mom cans.

Why the difference? Well, we don’t get our ingredients from the same garden for starters. The other thing is peppers and onion vary in hotness from one summer to another.  Just keep that in mind when you are canning homemade salsa. Taste testing is important!

Canning homemade salsa is pretty easy to do and so tasty. This salsa recipe can be canned or enjoyed fresh!

Canning Homemade Salsa:

Let’s start with the basic recipe:

  • 1 pound of chopped onions
  • 6 gloves minced garlic
  • 1/3 pound chopped jalapenos
  • 1 pound chopped sweet banana peppers
  • 5 pounds chopped tomatoes
  • 1/3 cup raw cane sugar
  • 4 teaspoon cumin
  • 3 tablespoons salt
  • 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 quart tomato sauce
  • 4 ounces chopped fresh green chilli peppers
  • 1/4 cup minced cilantro
  • 3/4 cup clear jell or corn startch

Mix the clear jell with the tomato sauce first, making sure there are no clumps. Then mix everything all together.

Next comes the tasting. Your salsa will actually “cool” when you can it. So when tasting your salsa, you want to make sure it’s just a bit warmer than you would like. If my salsa is not hot enough I will add more banana peppers first and then just a smidgen more jalapeno.  If the salsa is too hot, add a few more tomatoes.

canning homemade salsa

Pour your salsa into clean pint jars and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

Makes approximately 10 pints of salsa.

~To enjoy just as a fresh salsa, leave out the clear jell.

Hot water bath method for canning homemade salsa:

Pour salsa into clean pint jars, top with new lids and tighten with canning rings.  Place jars into a hot water bath canner and cover with water. Turn the heat to high.

Once the water begins to boil, set your timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, slowly lift your jars out of the water and set on the counter to cool.  It’s helpful to make sure there is no cold air blowing directly onto the area where your jars are, as the cold air could cause the hot jars to break.