Monday, July 23, 2012

Canning V6 (Not V8) Juice


We eat a lot of hamburger soup in the winter and I like to use V8 Juice as my soup base, adding browned hamburger meat, potatoes, onions, carrots and whatever other veggies I feel like adding. It's our winter comfort food... wonderful with cornbread or crackers on a cold winter day.

I read several recipes people had posted of their version of V8 juice and concocted my own version from all of these.

Here's what I did...

I cored and quartered 25 pounds of tomatoes.


Then in the largest stockpot I had (it actually took 3 of my largest pots, I'm ordering a bigger one!) I placed my tomatoes and squished them a bit with my potato masher to get the juices flowing. Then on medium low heat I began to cook them.

I added to the pot...


An entire bunch of celery, leaves too (they're so flavorful!)


 Two green bell peppers (I had some already sliced in my freezer, so "guess-timated" two peppers).


 A cup of chopped onions.


A pound of carrots, sliced (just scrubbed and sliced them, no need to peel)


And a large bunch of parsley, roughly chopped.



To this colorful combination, I added a tablespoon of canning salt and brought the mixture to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer until all the vegetables were softened (30 minutes to an hour)

After everything was softened, working in small batches, I pressed it all through my food mill, squeezing out all the yummy juices and pulp and to remove any seeds and peels.



After I got all the juiciness I could, I poured the pulpy juice back into my saucepan(s) and heated it to boiling once again.


In the meantime, I had sterilized and heated my quart jars and lids.

In each quart jar I poured in the juice to a bout an inch from the rim...



then I added

2 Tablespoons of lemon juice


And a teaspoon of canning salt (optional)


I then wiped the rim of each jar with a damp cloth...


And screwed my lids on to fingertip tightness.



I then processed the jars of juice in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes. After processing, I removed the jars and set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool... and to listen for the PING of each successfully sealed jar! Yay!



Now... I had all that pulp and stuff left over from running the veggies through my food meal and it smelled so good and I hated to waste it by just throwing it on the compost pile... so....

I spread it out in my dehydrator...


... and 24 hours (give or take) later, I had this crispy veggie mass...


... which I ground up in my blender and am storing it in a canning jar... Vegetable Powder! To add to soups and stews for additional flavor and thickening!

For a printable copy of this recipe click here.

30 comments:

  1. I love this idea for drying the vegetables. I already dry the tomatoe skins when I can them and grind them to use the powder on pizza etc. I can't wait to try this as well.

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  2. Great idea dehydrating the leftovers and grinding into powder!! I usually give the leftovers to my chickens, but this sounds like a tastier option!

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  3. Replies
    1. No she is rich. The poor folks are the ones who buy this at the store.

      Delete
  4. What a wonderful idea using the left over pulp this way!! You teach me so much good stuff! Your juice sounds fabulous!! Thank You xox

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  5. I recently discovered your blog and have just LOVED reading through your entries. I finally finished reading every last one and want to say thank you for such well-documented canning blogs. Definitely inspiring!!!

    I'm new to canning but have only preserved fruit (water bath method) as I don't have a pressure canner YET. I've made two cobblers in the past week (following your recipe) already from fruit that I canned earlier this year - apricots and peaches. My hubby loved them, as did my extended family. Thank you for your efforts - please keep the blogs coming :-)

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  6. O Big Thankyou ...needed this today...thanks granny ;)

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  7. How long and at what temp did you dry the veggie leftovers at?

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    Replies
    1. Becca, I dried them at 135 degrees and for about 18-24 hours. ~~Granny

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    2. Can you dry in oven? If so what temp and how lonh?

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  8. Can you use a water bath instead?

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    Replies
    1. I'm confused... this recipe IS processed in a water bath. ~~Granny

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  9. My mom loves v8 and we still have about 30 lbs of tomatoes. Now I know what to do with them. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
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  14. Can't wait to try this recipe this summer!

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  15. QUESTION: I bought these cute 8oz glass bottles with screw-on plastic caps for my V8. Can I process them in the hot bath? My grandma used to can tomato juice in bottles back in Romania (50+ yrs ago) and she used cellophane and string to close up the bottles. And instead of the hot bath, she would wrap them in blankets and leave them undisturbed for at least 24 hrs. Her tomato juice would last for 1-2 years.
    Any thoughts on that, since I already bought 3 cases of those bottles?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not a USDA "approved" method, but you can give it a try. Not sure how the plastic lids will hold up or seal, but if you've done it before, you would know if it works. Let us know how it turns out if you give it a try. ~~Granny

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  16. well, i did a test run (24 bottles). We'll see in about a week. Worst case, I'll just keep them in the fridge. I am thinking to do the cellophane & string because I know for sure that seals it. The cellophane actually gets sucked into the bottle a little bit, the same way lids & rings do. So I'm thinking to do that and put the screw-on lid on top AFTER it seals.
    Thank you for your advice and by the way, I'm not concerned with USDA since these are just for our own consumption :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. O, I forgot to mention: I squeezed my veggies through one of those Tomato Strainer machines and in addition to the pulp and juice I also saved the mooshy paste that squeezed through the piston and I put that in jars for a quick spaghetti sauce.

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  18. Hey. I'm not a canner, maybe one day- but I do LOVE V8 and tomato juice. I notice that you are using this for soups and cooking. I am wondering if this recipe is just as delicious on it's own (drinking plain) and if you have any idea's for alterations to it otherwise. I apologize if this is a dumb question but I truly would love to make my own homemade version of my very favorite drink. Thank you so much for your time.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it's great to just drink. ~~Granny

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    2. We only use it to drink! It is fantastic!! We drink it straight from the quart jar in the fridge! ;). I am thinking about adding some spinach but haven't tried it yet.

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  19. I make something darn close to this myself (no lemon juice & a bit more carrot for sweetness) . But, I do one thing differently. I do not have a food mill at present, so I run the vegetable mixer through a blender. The finished product is the consistency of a thick pasta sauce. I use it "as is" for pizza, dilute it 6 parts puree to 1 part water for pasta/tomato sauce, 3 or 4 parts puree to 1 part water for 'tomato' soup, or equal parts puree and water for a vegetable juice cocktail. It is also terrific mixed in equal parts with beef broth when making Beef Barley Vegetable Soup. Honestly, 90% if what I make is consumed as soup with a grilled cheese sandwich - I eat that about 20 days a month for lunch. lol I have hesitated to put green pepper in my "VegBlend" (as I call it). But with the proportions you give, I shall try some on my next batch. My favorite soup is called Stuffed Green Pepper Soup - imagine all the ingredients for stuffed peppers cooked as a soup in a good beefy broth. Sometimes the flavor of the tomatoes is not a good as hoped for, a few spoonsful of the VegBlend rescues the soup every time.

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  20. Do I have to put lemon in the juice?
    Because o didn't .
    Will the v8 go bad now?
    I'm very worried now

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  21. Is the Lemon juice/per jar enough to keep
    It safe if I modified the recipe a bit? I was just thinking about adding some fresh spinach. Thanks!! Sandy

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  22. what a wonderful idea about dehydrating the leftover pulp to make veggie powder! how does the flavor of this compare to v-8 juice? i've messed around a bit with a stewed tomato recipe to make it, but this time it's missing something. maybe i didn't use enough veggies.

    ReplyDelete

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