Thread: I've been doing it wrong (and a story)

Wife bought a half a bushel of tomatoes to can and asked me for a salsa
recipe. I gave her my USDA recipe; told her it was deceptively simple,
so read it through before she starts. And I got out the small boiling
water bath canner (speckled blue Granite Ware with a wire rack, and a
big chip in the bottom from dropping it and a dent in the lid; you know
the one)

I got home from work yesterday (about 7:00) and she had scalded ALL
those tomatoes and had peeled enough for one batch and it was in the
biggest stainless pot ready to ladle into jars. "I thought you'd like
to do the canning part. Oh, and the recipe says pint jars but I want to
use quarts" and she start scooping it into quart jars. Sigh. Every
large bowl or stockpot that we own was dirty or full of
need-to-finish-peeling tomatoes, and she leaves because she is working.

I wolfed down a sandwich and proceed to clean up enough of the mess so
there's room to work. Got out a big canner, took the lids off the jars
and simmered them, wiped the tops of the jars, and did that BWB thing
for 25 minutes (recipe just says 15 minutes for pints) Meanwhile she's
bringing bowls of tomatoes back "so you can make a batch of that hot
stuff you like" I started peeling tomatoes... Measured out 5 pounds,
then got me a beer. It's getting pretty late. We have plenty of onions,
but not enough fresh peppers. I got some jalapeños out of the deep
freeze, and between them, the storebough jalapeños and a couple of bell
peppers, I have enough. So I chopped everything up and cooked it, found
enough pint jars and lids, and canned 8 pints.

*HERE COMES THE DOIN' IT WRONG PART*
It's kind of amazing that using the same recipe and basically the same
ingredients hers is very mild and mine is firey hot. The recipe calls
for 2 pounds of peppers, and it says to roast and peel the peppers if
necessary, and remove the caps and seeds. I've been weighing out 2
pounds of chopped peppers. D'oh! The 2 pounds in the ingredient is
supposed to include the caps, seeds, stems, blemishes, and skins, which
are discarded! (I actually use the seeds from green jalapeños or
serranos.) At most it's probably supposed to be 1.5 pounds of prepared
peppers, and likely closer to one pound. No wonder mine is too hot and
looks like it has too much peppers.

I had to run to Walmart and buy more peppers and onions and lids. I
didn't get to bed until 2:00. She's working on salsa again today and I
have no idea what to expect when I get home, but at least I won't be
blindsided this time.

--
Bob