a BIG goof!!!! Help!

[watsonlane]

I was making salsa lastnight and the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of salt with 20 pounds of tomatoes....about how many tomatoes would that be? I freeze them in gallon bags after cutting out bruised spots and chopping them. WAY to salty for one gallon bag...which is about 4 or 5 cups of tomatoes.

 

[journey11]

This is just a rough guess, but I weighed a one gallon bag of tomatoes on my food scale and got 3.3 lbs. Could be more or less for how many you put in, but not by too much.

I went out and bought this food scale because I found myself in the same boat as you when I made salsa. I used a food processor to do my onions and peppers and they ended up more in a cup than if I had hand chopped them, so I've been going by the weights instead of the measures from now on because weight is no-fail accurate. I think I paid about $16 for a digital food scale at Wally World. It weighs up to 10 lb at a time and has a tare button.

Hope that helps a little, good luck!

ETA: !

 

[vfem]

a gallon bag is only a few lbs, not 20 that's for sure! Defrost and weigh your bag, then cut your recipe to that weight. (Say bag is 4 lbs, divide your recipe by 5)

 

[watsonlane]

Wonderful ideas! Thanks!

 

[schmije]

A food scale would be ideal, but not everybody has one handy. The last time I made salsa, my batch was 7 lbs of tomatoes before coring and skinning, so probably 6-6.5 lbs after. It turned into about 8 cups chopped. That's pretty close to Journey's 3.3 lbs for your 4-5 cups.

By my math, 20 lbs would be in the neighborhood of 24 cups or 5-6 of your gallon bags. Am I figuring that right?

 

[bills]

By my math, 20 lbs would be in the neighborhood of 24 cups or 5-6 of your gallon bags. Am I figuring that right?

At least that many cups, I suspect even more...