Making canned salsa hot

I am struggling to make my canned salsa hot. I made batch #3 last night and still it doesn’t appear to be very spicy.
Last night I amped up everything again.
1 Large anaheim chili pepper as usual.
Jalapenos increased from 3 to 4 large ones. Left most seeds in.
3 Habeneros (up from 1).

This is only for 5 pints of sauce. Does the tomato or apple cider vinegar neutralize the heat?
Maybe they will get hotter after sitting for a few weeks? This last batch has a nice mouth feel so you know there are peppers in there but I wanted it to sting right away. So far all batches have been very sweet. I suppose that is from my vine ripened home grown tomatoes. Taste is very good on all three batches. Just not spicy.

I stick to fresh salsa, but I am amazed that it’s not hot with those peppers in it. Are the jalapenos hot? I ask because some years, the ones I grow are barely more than a bell pepper, but some years, they are quite hot. This year, I have very hot jalapenos.

Do you chop the seeds up? Last batch I made, I threw the seeds and membranes in my food processor and pulverized them before adding. I thought it was great, but my wife thought it was way too hot.

i would think it will get hotter as it sits longer! and Ralph, i’ve had the same experience!

Yup. If you’re pitching the seeds and membranes in the compost pile you’re throwing away the heat. Try a couple ghost peppers leaving the seeds in them when you chop them up if you want heat….wear gloves! While the ghost peppers are a form of habanero they are hotter than the everyday habanero.

On a side note, I have a pile of jalapenos from the garden so I’m chopping them up seeds and all with some sweet onion [about equal quantities] and will lightly simmer this is a heavy simple syrup, then drain a bit and put in small jars hot with canning lids. The heavy sugar syrup will preserve the pepper/onion, no real canning needed but I do store the couple jars this makes in the back of the fridge out of the way. Keeps for forever. This makes a super warm-up relish for hotdogs.

Yes. The jalapenos were hot. Even the chili was hot. I also chopped seeds but did remove most membranes. Next time I will just cut the stem off the peppers and start chopping.
Hoping I will be pleasantly surprised this winter. I will flip jars periodically to mix things up.

Go pick up a bottle of this (I get it at Cub) and add it when you open a jar. It’ll add some heat!

Remember – it’s the membranes, not the seeds that give off the heat. Do not throw out the membranes.
Yes, the salsa should get hotter as it “cures”.
Sugar or any carbohydrates can neutralize the heat, so if your tomatoes are extra sweet, that could also be the culprit.
Taste your sauce as you go, it will give you an indication of the overall heat before you can it.

I have been dehydrating my habs and jalapeños then crushing them in the blender. Transfer to pint jar and cover with vinegar…add a bit more vinegar the next day to make the mix a bit more wet if needed. Add 5 tbsp of pepper mix to 2 pints of salsa when you have it on the stove top. Pretty good heat coming out of that, and the right vinegar taste for salsa. Keep pepper mix in fridge and use for salsa all summer/fall, add more dehydrated peppers as they come in. Just watch out when you take the cover off the blender because that pepper dust will bring you to a knee.

I think I am done for the year. I put up almost all of my tomatoes, plain and salsa. Even the mild salsa is very good. I intend on sharing with others as gifts so mild is easier to give away. I appreciate the info here and vow to make some hot stuff next year. Or I may try one more time if our weather allows enough new tomatoes to mature. If i get it right I will label it murder salsa.