Trinidad Scorpion Pepper Canned Salsa
I grew Ghost Peppers a few years ago and can tell you the Scorpion plants are much smaller and faster-growing. As far as peppers go, the Scorpions have a slightly smoky flavor, whereas the Ghost Peppers are much fruitier.
I made some Ghost Chili Salsa that year and it remains one of my most popular recipes. So what does one do to follow up an almost-famous recipe? Make an even hotter one.
Trinidad Scorpion Pepper Salsa Canning Recipe
- 5 cups blanched, peeled and chopped tomatoes
- 2 scorpion peppers, chopped (more or less to taste but be careful, these babies are hot)
- 1 jalapeno, chopped
- 2 cups chopped bell pepper (I used a mix of red and green)
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3/4 cup cider vinegar
Makes 3 pint jars
Sterilize canning jars, lids, and bands; keep hot until ready to pack salsa.
In a large pan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so that the salsa is still simmering and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.
Pack hot salsa into sterile jars leaving 1/4 inch of headspace, wipe rims clean and seal with sterile lids and bands. Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, making sure water is at a full boil before adding jars of salsa. Also, be sure that water covers the jars by at least an inch.
When processing time is up, carefully remove jars and place on the counter. Leave undisturbed for at least 24 hours.
Just like my Ghost Chili salsa, this stuff is crazy hot, although this is honestly hotter. Great flavor and fun to give as gifts.
Another fun idea to do with Scorpion Peppers is to make my homemade hot sauce with them. Both the salsa and the hot sauce are great ways to preserve your peppers and they’re both delicious.
Enjoy!
Did you use quart jars for this?
No, these are pint jars.
Is this a “hot hot” salsa or is it something you can add an extra pepper and kick it up a notch? My man is dead set on canning these peppers as if they are wax peppers in a tomato based sauce such as he is a whiz of preparing, and albeit his ambition is quite impressive but I know that his creation will be the death of himself or the waste of too many canning jars! I have found that a great and powerful hot salsa (that isn’t like some dare or a challenge to win money) would be a much better fill for a ‘hot tooth’ person!🌶️ I just know his creation will be so un-enjoyable just as one he made a couple years back that others begged for something less hot every time he gave them a jar! We STILL have a few jars that remain untouched, lol, saying more by their presence than absence, and these friends were hot pepper enthusiasts! And they were NOT these type of hot peppers!
*I want and need a recipe that will satisfy his need today, or tomorrow, if I can convince him to wait, for a bulk amount and possibly two rounds in a full canner if need be. Or maybe this and another recipe you might have to mention quick so I don’t go down the rabbit hole as I often do on these things!! It would really help to use these up in a varied manner. There are 25 of these little devils (scorpions) to use up and I saw this and recommended it as who doesn’t love salsa?? It is versatile in our own household and friends would love it as a gift, so, let me know if this can be kicked up or if the peppers are too much to just treat like that. I am not a connoisseur of hot peppers and I don’t much fancy, nor do I have a lot of desire to feel pain from my food so I am not one to know or judge on these matters. So, any tips for the skills in convincing a fella to consider one’s ideas(such as this recipe to possibly quadruple to use quarts versus pints and fill the canner) and any other suggestions on using up these peppers in the most effective and efficient manner without destroying one’s gut and colon for days is appreciated and considered. Thanks, 😏, from this mild and mannered sort of mess.
This is definitely a hot salsa already, because of the scorpion peppers used! But it can absolutely be made hotter by the addition of more peppers if you (your husband!) desires. Just be sure to taste the salsa after each additional pepper, to prevent it from going from “very hot” to “inedible for most”! 🙂