Soup Canning Question
 

I'm starting to prep my turkey soup for canning. I normally use lots of egg noodles in the recipe. However, the Ball Blue Book recipe does not include the noodles. In another thread, someone suggested adding the noodles later.

I think I'm going to split my batch and do half and half. But I'm just looking for feedback on whether anyone cans soups with noodles in them with acceptable results. Any suggestions appreciated!

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

I second the idea of adding noodles later.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

I've never canned soup, but it seems reasonable to me to can just the soup base and add noodles later. I would think that the noodles would likely be overcooked and soggy if you can them. They take up valuable canning space in the jars. They can be stored in oxygen free mylar bags separately and added to the soup when it is reheated, cooking them at the same time.

But like I said, I've never canned soup.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

We put ours in on the front end. Works fine.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Never doubt anything you have to say Andy; but I'd bet it depends on the noodles. A week or so ago, I made chicken stew in my solar oven and threw the macaroni noodles in along with everything else at the beginning. By the time the potatoes and celery were cooked, the macaroni had disintegrated. Macaroni noodles take about 8 minutes to cook -- they'd be a bad choice for canning soups, IMHO. So, tell us Andy, what kind of noodles you're using. It does make a difference.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

You could be right. We use curly egg noodles.......uncooked, put in the jars with the soup ladled over them, and processed, 60min for pints.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Pressure canned for 60 minutes?

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Thanks for the replies. I use the curly egg noodles, too. However, I added them in to the soup before I canned them. Habit, I guess. I split the batch, canning 5 quarts without noodles and 7 with. I'll try adding them uncooked next time.

Anyway, my first canning session with my All-American pressure cooker went okay. No broth on the bottom, no broken jars, and I got a good seal on 10 of the 12 jars. I could tell something wasn't right with those two when I took them out of the cooker. The contents of the 10 that sealed were still boiling as I removed them from the cooker, and they continued to boil in the jar for nearly an hour after I pulled them out. The two that didn't seal were not boiling, indicating an absence of low pressure in the jar.

Not sure why they didn't seal. The headspace looks okay, but I'm thinking I may have gone a little too tight on the bands. I hear it's an art form to know just how tight to get them!

Since I'm not going to go through the trouble to redo two quarts, I'll find out soon enough how the noodles fared during the cooking process.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

If that's for me, yes, pressure canned 60 minutes for pints.....anything with a meat product ( 90 min quarts )

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Man I forgot how much effort it takes to can. Since I was sick for a couple of years and another year for recovery it has been four years since canning anything. I just put up 21 quarts this weekend of ham and bean soup. Spent Friday night after work cutting the veggies and ham. Spent today cooking the soup and then canning. I'm thinking about Andy's setup next time, another pressure cooker using a turkey fryer setup w/ propane. Getting older need to get the canning done in less time.

Andy, is there a brand of turkey fryer you would reco or does it matter?

BTW, as I was retrieving jars I found a jar of ham and bean soup I made in 2004, it tasted just fine.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

If I was canning with the noodles I'd use very thick noodles and add them to the jar uncooked, next time, otherwise they will soak up all the soup broth and get way overcooked in a 60 min pressure canning session. I have to add water and bullion to those to use them up.

I've got making noodle down pat now, so I like making them fresh. It takes about 15 min. plus another 10 or 15 cooking time.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

What's your noodle recipe and procedure thrifty bob? I'd like to give it a try.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

I love homemade noodles but my hips don't need anymore noodles.


Anyone know ways to clean the minerals off a pressure canner (something natural)? I tried adding white vinegar to the last batch but still a lot of mineral stains that just wont come off. Don't want to use an abrasive. any ideas? thanks.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

It took waaaaaay tooooo long to can this weekend. Anyone know how long it should take for a 17 qt pressure canner to get to 10 pounds of pressure? If I have the heat too high to speed up the process you can hear the jars rattling and I don't want them to break. Also, anyone by new Ball jars then find a coupld of the rim cracked so they can't be used for canning? Wondering how often that happens. I bought golden harvest jars years ago and no jar integrity issues. also the prices of jars/lids/rims have more than doubled in the last 4 years.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showp...5&postcount=16

"from allrecipes.com

1 cup flour
1 ex-large egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp baking powder

I just put the dry ingredients in the food processor and mixed it, then added the wet and pulsed it a few times. Then i took it out and made 4 lumps to run through the pasta maker, and after thinning it real thin, I floured them and put it through the fetuccini cutter, and laid them out (what a hassle) on a towel to dry for a few hours. They were excellent flavor and texture. I just need to find a better way of getting them off the cutter so I don't need to separate and lay them out individually. I saw one recipe where they said to roll the sheet into a roll and then slice off noodles 1/4 to 1/2" thick off the end. I may try that next time instead of the cutter."

PS: the solution for the cutter was to turn the handle till a few inches of noodles came out, then cut across them with sissors and toss them straight into the water.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

My 22 quart canner on the stove-top takes 15 to 20 minutes to get up to temp, which includes five minutes of free-steaming. My 41 quart on the propane cooker is faster. The jar rattling might be caused by having too much water in the canner: if your jars were half-floating they would bang around a lot more. Too much water would also stretch out the time to get up to steam.

I usually take a good look at the jars before I buy, so I've managed to avoid cracked jars -- but it is common to find that some of the rings are too bent to use. The packaging they use now, where all the jars are just shrunk together by the plastic-wrap, really sucks. It is normal for the jars to have taken some damage from rubbing against each-other. Since the same company is making all the jars these days, there isn't much one can do about it.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Thanks for the reply. When I have all the jars (7) in the canner the water just covers the top of the jars. I thought I read the water should just cover the jars. I fill the canner to almost half then add the filled jars.

The Ball jars came in a case and they had lids/rings on so I could not see the crack in the neck of the jar. yep they were all shrink wrapped and probably more likely to get damaged.

It took up to 45 minutes to get to 10 pds pressure and the same time after cooking for 1hr 15 min. to come back down. I would have been thrilled for 15-20 minutes up to pressure.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Gal ... are you pressure canning or hot water bath?

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

pressure canning (Presto 17 qt canner).

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Only need 2 -3 inches of water for pressure. I canned 4 chickens and 15 lbs of beef this weekend. I was planning to do a ham and beans run soon..... I love the stuff. Mine is easy .... beans .... add ham ... salt to taste ... and some powdered garlic.

What is yours ... will give it a try :-).

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

So with a pressure canner water doesn't have to cover the jars is what I'm hearing from you guys. Maybe that is the reason for the extra time.

My recipe is from a cook book, it is called Senate Bean Soup (like they need more gas). I also add some diced carrots, adds a little color. Here are a couple of examples:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/bea...r/bl30105i.htm

http://www.senate.gov/reference/refe.../bean_soup.htm

wow, you were busy. I will try to use less water next time. the ham was on sale ($1.89/lb) so that was my motivation. I have been scared to can any other meats but I would like to - do you follow the Ball Canning book for the chicken and beef or do you add some RighG flare?

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Nope .... cook (boil) chicken about 1/2 - 1/3 done .... pull meat from bones add to clean jars. I use hot water to cover the chicken in the jars ... and not the stock ... I want more of the chicken taste .. add salt to each jar.... process chicken.

Put the bones and scrapes back in stock ... add some bullion cubes and cook stock more..... when ready strain stock through cheese cloth and can the chicken stock. Man I have a bunch of chicken stock. :-)

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

awesome, thanks.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

For pressure canning you only need enough water to keep from running out, i.e. if the bottom of the canner is still covered when you are finished, you had enough. On my 22 qt. Mirro I found that 1/4 inch was sufficient as long as the gasket didn't leak. When the gasket did leak I ran out of water and wrecked the canner. Now I put about 1 inch of boiling water in before adding the jars -- and I'd abort if faced with a serious gasket leak.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Is 5 minutes of free-steaming enough? The stuff I've read says to go with 10 minutes in the bigger canners. Being the wimp that I am (I don't like botulism!), I've always used 10 minutes of steam venting in my 23 quart Presto before cranking up the pressure.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

I've usually seen five minutes mentioned, although I think the book that came with my 41 quart All American suggested a longer period. For many years I had forgotten the "free-steaming" detail, and put the weight on as soon as the lid was in place: and I never had anything go bad on me. What is the free-steaming supposed to accomplish, anyway?

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

The point is to evacuate all the air from the canner so there is nothing left but steam. Then, you can be sure that the proper pressure and temperature will be reached.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

thanks everyone for your feedback.

anyone know what can be used to clean the aluminum canner safely to remove the water(mineral) spots?

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

Hey...sorry, didn't mean to ignore your question.....somehow I didn't get back to this thread until today....

I'd say ANY of the turkey cooker burners are fine....I think I got mine at Home Depot.

Got another 2 burner deal I like real well too, came from Northern Tool by way of China....it's a "base camp stove" or something like that....anyhow, has a set of removable steel legs you stick in the holes in the bottom of the unit when you pull it out of the box, so it stores in a fairly compact box...the you simply hook a 20lb bottle to the hose/regulator like the turkey cooker, and you have basically the same thing as the turkey cooker, except it sits a little higher ( like about 30-32" versus about 18" on the turkey cooker unit ) and you have two burners, which is handy for putting a pressure cooker on one , and a pot of boiling water for sterilizing lids/rings on the other. I set it up in the garage for BIG BATCH canning in the summer. And the burners on it will flat put out the heat....couple of cast iron burners, probably put out 15-20,000 BTU ( a "power" burner on most gas stoves is like 12-14,000 by comparison )

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

thank you Andy. I found one at Target for about $60 made in China, has a regulator. Hesitated to buy, much of my China experiences have ended in disappointment.

That two burner job sounds heavy but nice to have two burners for just the reason you state. Northern tool only availble online or in stores?

Not sure if I reported but I canned 21 quarts of ham/bean soup. Have already given away 6 quarts.

Look forward to everyone's canning experiences as we enter the summer and harvest seasons.

Re: Soup Canning Question
 

I wouldn't worry too much about the China thing with a propane burner....basically, they are just a hunk of cast iron or steel with a bunch of holes for the jets....not much they can screw up. The regulator would be the only weak point, but they are cheap if you need another.


I got my two burner at the local store here....here it is in the catalog:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...7038_200317038

I don't recall paying near that much for it.....I was thinking it was in the 50-60 buck range, but that was also about 5-7 years ago too....

Anyhoo....says it has 2 -- 30k burners...which is more than I said above.....I know it REALLY cranks out the heat when you want it.....