This home-canned sour cherry salsa is one of the reasons you do home canning: you just can’t buy these incredible combinations of flavours.
This is a tested canning recipe from Ball’s All New book.
We present the regular version, and a sugar and salt-free version.
The recipe
Jar size choices: Either quarter-litre (½ US pint) OR half-litre (1 US pint)
Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning
Yield: 4 x half-litre (US pint) jars
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: Either size jar 15 minutes
Smoky Sour Cherry Tequila Salsa
Ingredients
- 300 g onion (diced. 2 cups / 10 oz. Measured after prep)
- 1 clove garlic (washed, peeled and minced)
- 4 tablespoons lime juice (freshly-squeezed. ¼ cup / 2 oz / 60 ml)
- 50 g coriander (aka cilantro. Chopped fresh. ½ cup / 2 oz)
- 2 chipotle chiles (from an adobo sauce tin)
- 1 serrano pepper (small red. 10 g / .3 oz)
- 2 kg sour cherries (fresh. 4 lb / 13 cups. Measured after prep)
- 125 g brown sugar (½ cup firmly packed / 4 oz) OR 1 teaspoon liquid stevia
- 4 tablespoons tequila (¼ cup / 2 oz / 60 ml)
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt (OR non-clouding, non-bitter salt sub)
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Peel and dice the onion, set aside.
- Peel and mince the garlic, add to the onion.
- Squeeze the lime juice, set aside.
- Wash and chop the coriander, set aside.
- Mince the two chipotle peppers, set aside in a small dish.
- Seed and mince the serrano pepper, add to the chipotle pepper.
- Wash the cherries. Stem and pit them, placing them in acidulated water as you work to prevent browning.
- In a large non-reactive pot (stainless or enamelled), put the onion, garlic, sugar OR liquid stevia and lime juice.
- Turn the burner onto medium heat, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the drained cherries, the fresh coriander, and the two chopped up peppers.
- Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the tequila, salt OR salt sub and pepper.
- Bring back to a boil.
- Remove from heat.
- Pack hot into ¼ litre (½ US pint) jars or ½ litre (US pint) jars.
- Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process either size jar for 15 minutes. Increase time as needed for your altitude.
- Best after at least a month of jar time.
Nutrition
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.
For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.
For salt substitute, Herbamare Sodium-Free was used as it is non-bitter and non-clouding.
More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.
Recipe notes
- For this recipe, it really is best to do all veg prep in advance because once you start the cooking there will be no time for prep in between stages.
- Instead of a serrano pepper, you can use another one of the same size or weight.
Recipe source
- Butcher, Meredith L., Ed. The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. New York: Oxmoor House. 2016. Page 170.
Safety check
Ball has given us another delicious, safe recipe, with a pH of 3.57, tested 1 month after canning.
Nutrition information
Regular version
Per 2 tablespoons
- 97 calories, 122 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 2 tablespoons, 2 points.
Sugar and salt-free Version
Per 2 tablespoons
- 87 calories, 13 mg sodium
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.
Katie
Can I use whiskey in place of the tequila?
Healthy Canning
Yes