Earlier this year we were discussing a favorite Garden Web recipe from the Harvest Forum for Annie's Salsa, and some people were not happy with the fact that there was vinegar in the recipe. Among those less-than-happy folks was my own DH, who liked Annie's Salsa just fine except for the vinegar in it. I couldn't just 'drop' the vinegar because its acidity was needed to make the recipe a safe one. (It is an extension service-approved safe recipe for canning.)
I did a search on the Harvest Forum for Annie's Salsa and found a billion and one old threads and began reading through them. I learned you could safety substitute BOTTLED (not fresh-squeezed) lemon or lime juice for some or all of the vinegar if you didn't like the vinegary flavor.
In a couple of the batches I made this week, I used 1/3 C. bottled lemon juice, 1/3 C. bottled lime juice, and 1/3 C. apple cider vinegar instead of 1 C. of vinegar. How did it turn out? Perfect! Tim pronounced it perfectly wonderful and suggested "we" (which means me) only make it this way from now on, and so I shall. I might even experiment a bit more and try making a batch using only the lemon and lime juices and no vinegar at all.
I was so excited about finding this approved 'tweak' to the original recipe I'd been using.
I've linked the thread below that details all the approved 'tweaks' that can be made without affecting the safety of the salsa. On the linked thread, if you go down about 10 or 12 posts, Malna posts the recipe with all the allowed tweaks added as comments.
I'm making more salsa today as I'm trying to use up all the ripe tomatoes I picked that I thought might be in danger of splitting or cracking because of the recent rainfall.
Dawn
Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Salsa Recipe and Tweak Thread
