Is It Safe To Can Your Homemade Chili, Soups, and Stews?
I’ve heard a lot of other people saying that they like to whip up a huge batch of their favorite chili or soup and can the leftovers for a stash of easy convenience foods in a jar. Jackie Clay from Back Woods Home has said that it’s safe to can your own recipe of chili (beans and all) as long as you process it in a pressure canner at 10 lbs pressure for 90 minutes for quart sized jars.
I guess I’m wondering though, how do you know what is okay to can? I know there are some things that aren’t too tasty to put in a jar, like broccoli for instance. Sometimes the flavor changes after being canned. Sometimes things just turn to mush. Would I just have to learn through trial and error?
Does anybody know any “rules” about canning your own recipes for quick convenience meals? Would I just base my processing times on the ingredient that needs to be canned the longest (like, if there’s chicken in the soup then I would process the jars for as long as chicken by itself needs to be processed, since meat needs more time than veggies)?
How do you experienced canners do it?
Does anybody have a favorite chili, soup, stew or chowder recipe that you love to can and always comes out delicious? Please, people, share what you know!
I’ve been wondering the same thing. I look forward to seeing what the more experienced canners can share.
I teach canning classes and do quite a lot of canning of home recipes. There are a few hard and fast rules that I follow, such as:
No dairy.
No rice or pasta.
Barley is okay, such as in veg-beef soup.
Always pressure can, never water bath.
Do not thicken soups or stews when canning. Do this when serving.
Pre-soak and partially cook beans before canning. 1/3 of the jar is beans, 2/3 is water.
Spices and herbs increase in strength over time, so go light with them or add at service.
Never can a recipe that includes the herb sage. It becomes bitter when canned.
Try canningusa.com and paulnoll.com for step-by-step instructions, pictures, and videos. The Nolls use a steam canner. Would not recommend that.
Yup to what Kris said.
My own fun tidbit? Beware of over-cooking. I’ve tinkered with my MIL’s spaghetti sauce recipe – she simmers it for 4-6 hours on the stove. I have to more simmer it for 30-some minutes and *then* can it, otherwise it tastes burnt upon opening it later on. Ah, good ole trial and error.
Thank you Kris! That was exactly the kinda info I was looking for
What I do every year is make a vegetable soup base. I will cook tomatoes and frozen mixed vegetables together. I keep my jars in the oven to keep them warm and put the soup in the jars and seal. I just let the heat from the soup make the seal. We don’t put meat in it AT ALL. I will make a chicken, roast or some form of meat and add the leftovers of it, to the soup mix and make a pot of soup. This works great on those nights that we are out working and don’t have anything really “planned”. I have had great success with this….
I can everything and I have for years. I have ham and beans, spagetti sauce, baked beans, beef stew, lamb stew with barley, whole chicken, beef cubes, sausage patties, chili, beef stock, chicken stock,pinto beans, kidney beans, navy beans, smoked trout,tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, beef vegetable soup, apple pie filling, cherry pie filling, peach pie filling…if it fits in my jar, I’ll can it. You can find canning information just by Googling. I use my favorite Amish cookbook…even tells you how to make leaf lard and pie crust for 100 pies and bushel baskets of cookies!
I can tomatoes with veggies to use in soup. Example, tomatoes, peas, carrots, onions. You do use the food with the longest canning time to process. Only pressure canning. I have not canned meat. I freeze it instead. Barbara
I would get the latest Ball canning book. They err on the side of safety so you would be sure of the food you are serving your family.
I love canning chicken… I used Wendy Dewitt Youtube videos and checked the information with my canner instructions and … well all of the links are listed in this post:
http://vansteaders.blogspot.com/2010/10/canning-chicken.html
I’m going to can more next week!
Whenever you’re canning things like soups, where you have several things jumbled together, always set your processing time for the most low-acid ingredient in there. For example; if you’re canning chili, your main ingredients are going to be tomatoes, beef, and other vegetables. Since you’ll be canning meat, you definitely need to pressure can your creation. Find out the processing time for beef; and then add on an extra 10 – 15 minutes for good measure.
Hope that helps!
Lynda,
Could I please have the name of your Amish Cookbook? It sounds just like the one I had and I loved it dearly, I moved and I haven’t found it yet and I really miss it!!
The one I had, had recipes just like your describing and also stories and such,like what you would need for a wedding of 100 guests etc.
Thanks!!
Dana
Dana: It’s called *Amish Cooking* compilied by a Committee of Amish Women…Deluxe Edition Herald Press Scottdale, Pennsylvania Waterloo, Ontario. I also use my 1974 copy of Stocking Up and my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Hope that helps.
Check out these ladies. They can everything!
http://paratusfamilia.blogspot.com/
Enola Gay just wrote an article in Backwoods Home about canning bacon! She also cans cheese and lots of other stuff! Her family is still alive and thriving!
http://www.rural-revolution.com/
Check out her latest refried beans canning adventure!
I love to can chili. It is so nice to just pour it out of a jar instead of trying to thaw it out from the freezer.
We use this USDA canning guide as the definitive guide as to what we are able to can and processing times. Very handy resource, considering our tax dollars paid for all the research. It is a pretty thick book and the recipes are not too bad either.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html
The Mrs and I can most everything. What’s most popular with the teenagers and myself is the chili (both beef and chicken), beef stew, ham & bean soup, meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, whole chicken, pears, peaches, and spiced apples. There’s no better place for an old retired layer than in a batch of chicken chili. The boys won’t even wait for it to be warmed up – they devour it right out of the jar.
Kendra keep up the good work – I love this place! You and your readers are a wealth of information…..Thank you.
Another great canning book is “Putting Up” by Steve Dowdney. He is coming out next month with a second volume of this book and he has a website http://www.puttingup.com. Thanks for a great informative website!
What can you tell us about dehydrating, such as pasta, veg, and meat.?
Have you ever made your own Mountian House packet where ou just add water and let sit for few minutes??
Shirley,
I am still somewhat new to using my dehydrator, and have only experimented with a few things. I was just wondering the other day how I could make something like Ramen noodles though! I’m sure there’s a way to do these things yourself.
to make a ramen type of noodle I make my own fresh pasta, or parboil it (just a couple minutes in boiling water, till it’s soft on the outside but still hard on the inside). Rinse and dry it VERY well on towels. Then drop it in very hot oil until its golden, but not brown. Blot out as much oil as you can. Dehydrate or bake on low until very crunchy, then bag it up or dry can it. It should cook up in boiling water in a couple minutes. However, if you make fresh pasta, you can just freeze it, and dry pasta is easy enough on its own, but if you really want that Ramen feel, this is the way to go.
It’s fine to PRESSURE can your own recipes if you follow the basic rules like adding starches later, and your processing time depends on ALTITUDE so call your local University Extension to verify processing times locally if you can’t figure it out based on processing tables.
As for veggie items done in a water bath, no you should not do your own recipes. One reason is that the amount of acid has to be sufficient to kill botulism spores (among other things), otherwise they produce poison toxins that could easily kill a person.
With fruits there is more leeway (not botulism, just regular food poisoning is your risk). You can follow your own recipes, but you need to replace cornstarch or other thickners with clear gel when making pie fillings (it tolerates higher heat, is more stable, produces a better product) and it still isn’t advisable to do sugar free stuff for home canning as sugar is the only preservative that we use when canning versus commercial canners now producing “no sugar added” canned peaches and the like.
Personally, I made soup with a pressure canner last year, and now I’m afraid to eat it! I am a fan of making chili sauce, canned tomatos (can be done in water bath since lemon juice is added), and pickled veggies like dilly beans as well as fruit pie fillings.
A novice canner needs some advice! In the midst of canning chicken soup I was called away on a family emergency. The soup was only able to process for 40 minutes – the instructions stated it needed to process for an hour and ten minutes. The jars sealed. Can I reprocess for another 30 minutes or do I take the soup at a loss? Thanks for any help!
Julie- I hate that you got called away right in the middle of things! I wish I knew the safe answer to this… but I’m just not sure myself
I’d contact my county extension and ask an expert. I hope you don’t have to toss it all!
Leave your response!
Categories
My Life, Month-by-Month