I want to can some soup - split pea, veg. beef, chicken noodle and anything else that I can find recipies for. I am a terrible cook but I really want to learn. I am reading all of your post on "What's for Supper" and getting inspired. Thank you all for posting.

Anyway, I need to know EXACTLY how to can soup with meat in it. Do I cook it all first? Will the veggies be "soggy" after canning? Any instructions, tips and advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-- Rebecca Gallant (rebeccagallant@earthlink.net), April 01, 2002

Answers

We can vegetable soup and all kinds of vegetables and fruits, We also can chicken, deer, fish and another meat we happen to get. BUT CAN IT SEPERATELY. Meat takes much longer to can than most vegetables and fruits. We pressure can everything we can. The water bath method used to be ok for high acid things like tomatoes but they have bred the acid out of most tomatoes to make them taste better but they will not can as well in the water bath. Get you a blue book by ball and if you are canning a mixture of vegetables can as long as the longest time given for any of the indivudial vegetables. If you try to can the meat in the vegetables you will cook the vegetables to goo before the meat is processed long enough. In the winter we get out four quarts of vegetable soup, a quart of okra, a quart of corn, two quarts of chicken,(containing 2 leg quarters in each) mix together in a large pot, bring to a boil for 10 minutes, fix a pone of cornbread, some green onions, life is good.

-- David in North Al. (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), April 01, 2002.

I am always so glad when someone wants to start canning. I also highly recommend the Ball Blue Book. They are easily found at Wal- mart, K-mart or even the hardware stores locally. They probably have a website too. I will look. There are a lot of good recipes in the book. It is well worth the money... If you do can soup, I would leave out the potatoes. Everything else does OK, and it is easy enough to add the potatoes to the soup right before cooking.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 01, 2002.

David is right, leave the meat and the vegie's in seperate jars. Meat can take from 90 mins to 180 mins depending on which kind it is.

I also suggest you follow melissa's advice and buy a ball blue book. It has very good directions , with pictures for "new" canning members. Kristean in Indiana.

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), April 01, 2002.

I pressure can potatoes all the time......why would you leave them out? Ball Blue book is a cheap and wonderful investment for the home canner. I cook my soups and can them all the time, with meat and without. You just pressure can at the LONGEST time for any one ingredient (like if you were doing just veggie soup you would use the time for the veggie that required the longest canning time). My soups are almost as good canned as they are fresh, but not quite. :>)

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 01, 2002.

I leave them out because they do seem a little mushy to me. However I rarely can soups, I usually just do jars of seperate vegetables, then when I want soup I just mix it all together. I like to make big pots of soup, and they still don't last long! One quart jar would not do much for supper around here! I can see how it would be very good for small families, singles, or people without children.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 01, 2002.

This has been a nagging question of mine for a couple of years now. I remember my mother canning beef vegetable soup, fully cooked, hot pack, and processing it for about 10 minutes @ 5 or 10 lbs pressure. While she had done this for years without anybody becomming ill I wont try it until I see the processing time and pressure in print. The Ball blue book as well as other food preservation books recomend much longer times and higher pressures often exceding an hour or more for soups with meat.

I have to wonder if the recomended processing times are for fully cooked soups? I will not can meat products until I am sure I wont make my family ill! My mother is irritated and thinks her methods are not good enough for me and can point to years of canning without a single illnes as proof her methods work.

How do you process your fully cooked meat soups?

-- Brian N. E. Ohio (brilas@hotmail.com), April 02, 2002.

we have many quarts of veg/beef soup and ham /bean soup that we have put up again this year. have been doing it for may years we always process it for quarts 90 min at 10 lbs pressure. we can all kinds of meats and veggies. if we don't care for the texture of something that we can we don't do it the next year. We pay very close attention to the time, preparation and pressure to give us the best chance of not having food that spoils

-- ron in n.y. (ronmister@hotmail.com), April 03, 2002.

I follow the instructions on time to the letter. What your mother may not understand is that there are many new pathogens, diseases, bacterias etc... than there were many years ago. And really many stomach "flus" are really just food poisoning!

I think that the people who test these recipes know best as they have labs that can check the product for safety better than we can! Why risk your families health for the relatively small cost of the extra electric, or propane? (or practically no cost if you are using a wood cookstove)

I know many older people who have done this for years, but I have many amish friends who go by the latest methods also. If you are going to depend on these products to get you through the winter and help with your food budget, I think it just meakes sense healthwise and finacial-wise to prepare it in the absolute safest way possible!

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 03, 2002.