Herdez Salsa Casera

Herdez is one of my go-to store-bought salsas. I guess I have been buying this brand for over 35 years. I first discovered it living in LA. I think it was from an Alpha Beta supermarket across the parking lot from where I worked. I didn't make a lot of money and it had a low price, so I tried it.

Herdez Salsa Casera comes in Mild, Medium, and Hot varieties and there is a very noticeable difference in these. Mild is truly very mild, medium is probably about right for most folks, and hot can often find me going for milk. I like spicy foods but sometimes I will mix these varieties to get just the heat level I want.

The difference in Herdez and lot of other brands is instantly noticeable once you pour it into a bowl or, better yet, a molcajete bowl. Not that it'll make it taste any better but it looks better than in a cereal bowl. Herdez is not as pasty as many store salsas and appears more like a fresh salsa you might make at home. The list of ingredients on the medium variety are as follows:

Tomatoes, (tomatoes, tomato juice, citric acid, calcium chloride), onions, jalapeno peppers, less than 2% of salt, cilantro, pectin, citric acid.

If memory serves me, this is a bit different than the ingredients listed 20-30 years ago. Perhaps the recipe has changed a bit or the labeling laws. If someone connected with Herdez happens upon this blog and wants clue us in, this would be great. Oh yeah, this salsa used to be labeled "Product of Mexico", but it doesn't seem to appear any longer. It would be interesting to find out if its production location has changed.

My son and I have coined the term "diposity", the ability of salsa to cling to the chip with minimal loss of the contents. Herdez, at least this Salsa Casera variety, unfortunately does not have a very good diposity rating. Due to the chunkiness of the salsa and the thinness of the base, it requires a certain amount of finesse to deliver the goods to the palette without spillage. This being said, it is one of most fresh-like salsas I have found yet in a jar.

Herdez Salsa Casera is often on sale at a local Kroger Market for around $2.09 for the 16-oz. jar. For you weight watchers, a serving is listed as 2 tablespoons at only 5 calories.

You may visit the Herdez website here: https://www.herdeztraditions.com/

[Edit]

I have since discovered many posts on the Net stating that the Herdez recipe has changed and is no longer as good as it used to be. This may well be the case since I don't recall citric acid and pectin being among the original ingredients and I'm pretty sure it used to contain Serrano peppers and not jalapeno.