Canning Salsa 101

We go through a lot of salsa in our house. We mix it into mashed avocado for quick guacamole, we spoon it into tacos, we use it in chili, and, of course, we make chips and salsa a regular snack, too!

With how much salsa we plow through in a year, it’s a good thing that canning salsa is stupendously easy to do. Before the end of summer, I like to have at least three dozen pints of my go-to salsa stashed away in our pantry. Canning salsa is a wonderful beginner canning project, and we’re going to show you everything you need to know to have your own stockpile of salsa.

What’s the best salsa recipe for canning?

We’ve tried multiple different salsa recipes over the years, and we keep coming back to the standard Ball® Canning salsa recipe—Zesty Salsa. It’s easy to make, the flavor is spot on, and you can customize the spice level by changing the chile peppers you use. It’s the recipe we’ll use in this post!

Tell me about canning salsa!

The process for canning salsa is similar to canning jam or canning pickles—just with a bit more chopping:

1. Prepare your canner, jars, and lids, as we talk about in our intro to canning post.
2. Blanch and peel your tomatoes. We cover how to do this extensively in our post on canning diced tomatoes.
3. Dice the peeled tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic.
4. Combine tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, vinegar, cilantro, and salt in a soup pot or Dutch oven.
5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cook, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly.
6. Ladle into prepared jars, remove air bubbles, wipe the rims of the jars, and then fit with lids and rings.
7. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes (adjusting time for altitude). Turn off the canner, remove the lid, and let the jars sit in the canner for 5 minutes.
8. Transfer the jars to a spot to cool and seal. Check seals after 12-24 hours.

Do you have to cook salsa before canning?

We highly recommend it! Cooking tomato salsa before canning helps improve the quality of the final product in a few ways:

• It melds the flavors of tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and other aromatics together to create a more refined flavor.
• It helps to reduce and thicken the salsa, making for a more intensified flavor and less liquidy texture.
• It helps break down the structure of the tomatoes so you get less separation between the juice and solids during canning.

Does salsa need to be pressure canned?

Tomatoes are right on the border between high-acid foods (which can be safely water bath canned) and low-acid foods (which need to be pressure canned for safety). Because of this, it is vitally important to follow only tested salsa recipes when you want to water bath can—and follow them closely. The recipe we have listed out below is a tested recipe courtesy of Ball® Canning for water bath canning.

Do you have to put vinegar in canned salsa?

Vinegar works as an acidifier and it adds a wonderful tang to your salsa. Without vinegar, your salsa would not be acidic enough to safely water bath can.

Can I use lime juice instead of vinegar?

Because vinegar and lime juice do not have the same pH (acid) levels, they are not interchangeable in equal amounts in this recipe.

What are the best jars to can salsa in?

Salsa is pretty flexible on what jar it wants to live in! Here, we’re canning in Ball® Regular Mouth Pint Canning Jars. I find that the pint size is really good for salsa—it’s enough to have for a family snack or two without having so much that it gets lost in the back of the fridge. It’s also similar to the size of store-bought salsa jars, which make it easy to swap in for recipes.

I’ve also done salsa in the Ball® Collection Elite Pint in the past. Regular mouth, wide mouth, straight sided, jars with shoulders—they all work for salsa!

What are the best varieties of tomatoes to use for canning salsa?

A lot of people will answer this question saying that Roma or paste tomatoes are your best bet because of their low amount of seeds and thick flesh, but we have a different philosophy—the best tomatoes to use for canning salsa are the tomatoes you have!

I’ve mixed cherry tomatoes, Romas, heirlooms, beefsteaks—everything—into salsa with great results! Canning salsa is a great way to use up a hodgepodge of tomatoes.

Do you have to peel tomatoes before canning salsa?

You don’t have to, but we recommend it. Depending on the tomato variety, sometimes the skins can become very tough during the canning process. We figure, better safe than sorry, and recommend peeling tomatoes first. Our method for peeling tomatoes outlined in our canning diced tomatoes post makes quick work of it!

Can you freeze homemade salsa in jars instead of canning?

Sure can! Although you will see slight reduction in the quality of texture. Make sure to use freezer-safe Ball® Jars though, and only freeze up to the line identified on the jar. We recommend Ball® Wide Mouth Pint Jars for freezing.

How long can you keep canned homemade salsa?

Properly canned and sealed salsa has a shelf life of 18 months in a cool and dark spot. After that time, you might see a slight degradation of quality (taste, color, or texture), but as long as it is sealed well, it’s still perfectly safe to eat.

Feel free to multiply or divide the recipe below—but I’ll warn you, no matter how much salsa you put up, you’ll wish you had put up more! It’s amazing how quickly these jars seem to disappear in our house. Happy canning!

Looking for more beginner canning recipes?

• Strawberry Jam. Put those sweet summer berries to good use with this classic strawberry jam.
• Tomato Sauce. When it comes to putting up tomatoes, we never skip tomato sauce. It’s just so versatile!
• Bread and Butter Pickles. Only four ingredients? Yup! This beginner pickle recipe is as simple as can be.
• Diced Tomatoes. Canning diced tomatoes is a regular part of late summer in our house. Learn how to make this pantry staple!