TorgerSalsa

I have made so much of this lately I practically have the recipe memorized- but if you're looking for a good salsa recipe, here you go-

Pauline's Salsa:
25 tomatoes (average size- account for small ones!)
4 bell peppers
2-4 onions
3 T salt (we do 1 of them seasoned salt)
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup vinegar
chili powder (I'm not keen on the chili powder flavor, so I put maybe 1/4-1/2 tsp, if I do any)
hot peppers (4 jalapenos for medium salsa)
1 tsp. cumin
1 T sugar (opt)
tsp. Oregano (opt)
apple (opt. this is her secret ingredient- adds volume-1 or 2 is fine)


Tom adds cilantro and 2-3 T lime juice. He likes it w/out sugar if he adds lime, it gets sweet.

Pauline just chops everything in her food processor, in small enough turns that it doesn't get mushed. Tom likes chunky salsa so he hand chops it all (some is too large, but he gets tired, duh)
I do both, hand chop the tomatoes and carefully do the onions and peppers in the processor, no way am I hand chopping jalapenos if I don't have to!

Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pot. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes (or longer, it will just thicken, depends how cooked you want the tomatoes) Pour hot into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust caps to snug but not too tight. Process 30 minutes pints, 40 minutes qts.

Drain the excess juice off the salsa before bottling, unless of course you like juicy salsa...we drain as much as possible (a.m.a.p.- why don't we say that? we say asap...) and bottle it for use in soups etc. Not all of it, because it's coming out our ears at this point but at least a few quarts...