Canning Ok: Im need a bit of help: canning soup

[tiredude]

Hello Ladies! I'm probably the only guy that follows this part of the forum....... and am proud to be your acquaintance. I am tired (service many States) and too lazy to look back right now over past posts. I have canned chicken and beef and pork but never anything like stew.......does anyone have a favorite recipe for this they would love to share? I am okay on storage..... just don't have the confidence on this subject and would like to put some up before summers end....... elections are coming.

Thanks in advance.

Sorry ...I was in a rush...… for the poor thread title. Don't know how to fix

 

[summerthyme]

Do you have a favorite stew recipe? The main thing to remember when canning stew is to NOT cook to "ready to eat" tenderness before putting it in the jars. The 75-90 minute (pints or quarts) processing time is your "final cooking time"... if you put "ready to eat" stew in the canner, you'll end up with seriously overcooked food.

I haven't used a recipe for years... sorry, I can't help with that. When making chicken and gravy, I dredge the chicken chunks (I figure about 1 1/2" pieces... much smaller and you can end up overcooking) in flour mixed with seasoned salt and a bit of poultry seasoning... probably 1/2 tbsp and 1/2 tsp respectively to 1 cup flour. Then l cook it in a bit of butter (or half butter and half olive oil) just until opaque.

I dump it in a kettle, and add water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook just until the chunks are cooked through... generally 15-20 minutes is plenty. I'll adjust seasonings at this point... add a bit of black pepper or whatever. Then I put in jars, leaving 1" headspace, and can (10# pressure, or whatever is appropriate for your altitude) for 75 minutes for pints. A pint of stew alone (without potatoes, carrots, etc) is just enough for a meal for us, so I never use quarts.

I basically use the same method for pork and beef, using appropriate seasonings... a bit of red pepper really gives a nice "zing" to pork, especially.

Www.allrecipes.com has been a good source for useful recipes over the years...

Summerthyme

 

[ReneeT]

See Summerthyme's post lol!

Thow beef chunks in a jar, add onion, chunks of 'tater, chunks of carrot. I use a very thinned down onion soup broth - pkg of onion soup mix plus a quart of water. Add the broth to the shoulder of the jar, wipe rim, put on lid and band. Pressure can at 10# for 60 minutes for pints, 75 for quarts. To thicken into stew when you are ready to eat it, dump the liquid into a sauce pan and add a little brown gravy or onion gravy mix; add the rest of the stew as soon as it starts to thicken; heat long enough to be safe then grab a fork and dig in.

 

[Melodi]

What Summertyme said about over-cooking - I just found another stash of jars full of now 8 year old burned flavored tomato sauce I will have to "deal" with at some point and I don't have a handyman right now like I did before to take them outside, dump the contents (probably safe but not going there) rising out and then filling with a mix of bleach and water for a day or so, then rinse put in the dishwasher.

Because jars are so insanely expensive here, we tend to do this with any "iffy" jar as well, though the couple of "total failures" I've had aka "what died in the pantry, a rat in the wall - oops, it a jar lid that unsealed" those we do usually throw away it just isn't worth it.

Now Chile I've noticed can be canned after you cook it - ditto chile Verde didn't do badly - I mean cooked to meal level and then canned but even that is BETTER if you know you are going to can it to just cook for 10 minutes, then let the pressure canning cook it the rest of the way.

 

[Melodi]

OH on a side note, even at 3 to 5 dollar a JAR, home canning still works out to be economical if you reuse the jar at least a few times (there will always be some limited breakage) the 50 cents per lid we avoid by my ordering tons of tattler lids from the US and so far the "new" Kilner Jars sold over here must be made in the same factory as Mason Jars (or was, probably in China) because the Kilner Jars are metric in size but have the same size mouths as a regular US Mason Jar.

If that ever changes, I'll have to factor in 50 cents per lid plus rings but I suspect since they've been making these for a decade now (no more shipping jars from the US and hoping they don't break) I don't think they will want to change over any time soon.

 

[Granana]

Thanks ST. You answered a question I have had. I make huge pots of chicken noodle and vegetable beef soups then I can them in quarts. They are great preps and we love them for days I don't want or am too busy to cook. I have always pressure canned my jars for 90 minutes but often wondered if I need to because the soup was fully cooked. Now I know it must always be 90 minutes. Thanks