Carrots made into a salsa - It's true!

One of the first books that I purchased even before the Ball Blue book was The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It's still my favorite go to canning book but in those fantastic 400 plus recipes there are no "significant" pictures of what the stuff is supposed to look like in the jars. Over the last few years I have put up quite a few of them, posted the recipes, gave credit to the book, but then made sure the you the reader knew what to expect. It also gave me a measure of when I made it the next time how my first batch looked. 

Now in that 400 plus book of canning extravaganza there are some recipes that I cannot imagine that my family would eat. I even made the Mincemeat with real suet just so that I could say that I made it once.. Needless to say my neighbors and family enjoyed it more than my son and hubby! I have been blessed though to have so many followers that find the recipes I may not do very interesting and appealing to their families. Andi, one of my followers on Facebook, found a Carrot Salsa recipe in that canning book, now that I see it in the jar, I just might have to try.  

Andi says that it's delicious and that she will do another batch. 

From Andi: We kept some jalapeño seeds in it for a little kick and the brown sugar is right amount of sweetness, surprisingly I liked it. It's not a chip and salsa, salsa, more like a relish.

Thank you Andi for sharing your amazing pictures so that together we can bring to life that recipe in the Ball Complete Book! Enjoy!

Carrot Pepper Salsa

Yield 5 half pints

6 cups coarsely chopped cored peeled tomatoes

3 cups coarsely grated peeled carrots
1 ½ cup cider vinegar
1 ¼ cup lightly packed brown sugar
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped seeded jalapeno peppers
1 ½ t. salt
½ t. freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped cilantro

Preparation: Prepare 5 half pints , lids, and rings. Sterilize the jars and keep them in the hot water till it’s time for processing. Make sure to fill your water bath canner and get the water to a simmer. Prep the tomatoes, carrots, onions, and jalapenos. 

Cooking: In a stainless steel saucepan, combine tomatoes, carrots, vinegar, brown sugar, onion, jalapeno peppers, salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally until thickened about 1 hour. Stir in cilantro and cook for 5 minutes. 

Filling the jars:  On a dishtowel place hot jars and ladle salsa into hot jars to ½ headspace in the jar.  Remove air bubbles and adjust head-space , if necessary, by adding more salsa. Wipe rim with clean cloth or paper-towel, center lid on jar, screw band down till resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Processing: Make sure your rack is on the bottom of the canner and place the jars in the water bath making sure that the water covers each of the jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add hot water to the canner if it doesn't measure up. Cover the pot and turn up the heat under the canner and wait for the water to start boiling. Once the water has come to a boil start your timer for 15 minutes. When complete turn off the heat and remove the cover and let the jars sit for another few minutes. Remove the jars and place them back on the dishtowel in a place that they will sit overnight to cool. Do not touch or move them till the next morning.

Sealing: Sometime in the next hour your jars will be making a "pinging" or "popping" noise. That is the glass cooling and the reaction of the lids being sucked into the jar for proper sealing. Some recipes may take overnight to seal. Check your lids and reprocess any jars that did not seal.

Labeling:  Make sure to label your jars after they have cooled with the name of the recipe and the date canned.  

Andi's Carrot Pepper Salsa!