Salsa Success!

27 Pounds of Tomatoes Cored and Ready to be Skinned

Today was salsa making day.  What a job.  First 27 lbs of tomatoes were cored, plunged into boiling water for about 30 seconds and then plunged into ice water.  They were then skinned and seeded.  This took me two hours and I felt like I was stuck in some sort of tomato Twilight Zone from which I would never escape.  But escape I did and the task continued.

Cored Tomatoes Were Plunged,
First Into Boiling Water and Then Into Ice Water 

The tomatoes were placed in a large stock pot along with eight finely-chopped onions, two pounds of finely-chopped, seeded (very mild) jalapenos, 1/4 cup ground cumin, 1/4 cup ground garlic, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, three tablespoons of salt, three tablespoons of ground cayenne pepper, and the juice of seven fresh limes.  A hand blender was used to adjust the texture to the desired consistency - just slightly chunky.   Then the  salsa was simmered on the stove for about three hours, ladled into sterilized, pint-sized canning jars and processed in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.  All the jars sealed themselves immediately.  Hooray!

Twelve Pints of Picture Perfect Salsa

We had just shy of eight cups of salsa left.  This means that 27 pounds of tomatoes equaled 16 pints of salsa.  I am going to freeze a quart of it just to see how it tastes after being frozen for a few months.  Everything I have read on the subject indicates that the texture of the salsa goes downhill after being frozen.  Being who I am, I will have to prove it to myself in order to believe it.

Almost Eight Cups of Salsa Leftover to Enjoy

Now it's time for dinner.  I'm thinking tacos and refried beans...and, since I've worked up a fierce thirst - maybe a Cuba Libra - yes!