Tomato salsa

[TrixC]

Hi, I’ve been given a recipe for tomato salsa by an American friend. As it’s an American recipe it specifies water bathing, is this definitely necessary for salsa? Do I need to buy special jars or can I reuse commercial ones as I do for jam? I was looking at Kilner jars but they are £22 for 12 of the 250ml ones.

[Nicos]

Just bumping this thread for you TrixC as I notice no one has responded.

I’ve never made it apart from fresh, so sorry- I’m not much help

[MelanieSW]

I would definitely water bath them and ensure the glasses get a proper vacuum seal, otherwise they'll have to go in the fridge to be safe and won't last that long.
The only thing these days I maybe would consider not water bathing is high sugar jam.
I use both saved jam jars and specially bought ones. And reuse lids once or twice provided they are not damaged (unless its the kilner style disc lids, there you can only reuse the rings not the disc seals). But for standard size jars you can also get replacement lids e.g. from Lakeland.

[TrixC]

I would definitely water bath them and ensure the glasses get a proper vacuum seal, otherwise they'll have to go in the fridge to be safe and won't last that long.
The only thing these days I maybe would consider not water bathing is high sugar jam.
I use both saved jam jars and specially bought ones. And reuse lids once or twice provided they are not damaged (unless its the kilner style disc lids, there you can only reuse the rings not the disc seals). But for standard size jars you can also get replacement lids e.g. from Lakeland.

Do you find saved jam jars are tough enough to withstand the boiling water bath? That’s not what I’ve read elsewhere. I don’t mind the concept of boiling the jars but I am quite put off by having to spend a lot of money on special jars when I have a big box of recycled ones.

[MelanieSW]

Do you find saved jam jars are tough enough to withstand the boiling water bath? That’s not what I’ve read elsewhere. I don’t mind the concept of boiling the jars but I am quite put off by having to spend a lot of money on special jars when I have a big box of recycled ones.

I think the only jar to ever break on me was an expensive Kilner one . Most saved commercial jam jars would have had contents that have been heat processed originally. So they really should be ok in the water bath if they are undamaged.