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Saturday, August 4, 2012

Canning Mama's Vegetable Soup, aka Tomatoes, Corn and Okra


When I was growing up, Mama's canning goal every year was 100 quarts of green beans, 100 quarts of peaches, and 100 quarts of vegetable soup... she canned other things as they came in, but these three remained constant... and vegetable soup, Mama style, was a staple at our house... She would pop open a jar or two of this summery mixture of tomatoes, corn and okra, add some other ingredients, like potatoes, carrots, onions, maybe some ground beef or stew meat or chicken and let it simmer while a pone of cornbread baked in the oven in her cast iron frying pan reserved ONLY for cornbread... and in just a little while it was supper on a cold winter evening... nothing better!

Tomatoes, corn, and okra usually come in from the garden about the same time so it's only natural to mix this trio of goodness together in a delicious soup base. Tomatoes, corn, and okra are coming in in our garden now so I mixed up a little batch... I won't have 100 quarts, as a matter of fact the soup I mixed up last night only made 3 quarts, but with every bite, I'll be eating deliciousness and remember all those winter evenings eating Mama's soup while my brothers and sister shared our day along with Mama and Daddy... this soup means family to me.

Here's what I did...

There's no real "recipe" for this soup... you basically use whatever amounts of each ingredient that you have on hand... I had about 8-10 pounds of tomatoes, peeled and cored... (I poured boiling water over my whole tomatoes, left them for a minute or two, the put them in cold water and the peels slip right off)

8 ears of white field corn (you could use sweet corn), cut off


1-2 pounds of okra, sliced



I mixed the three ingredients together in my large stainless steel saucepan...


I brought the mixture to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes (maybe 10-15 minutes) until everything was heated through.

I washed, rinsed and sterilized my quart jars and put my lids in hot water to simmer... keeping everything hot until I was ready to use them.


I filled the jars, leaving a half-inch headspace. I added a teaspoon of canning salt to each quart (this is optional).

I wiped the jar rims with a damp cloth, then tightened the lids on to fingertip tightness.

I then processed my jars of soup at 10 pounds pressure for 85 minutes (using the time and psi for corn).

After processing and allowing the pressure in my pressure canner to drop to zero... then waiting an additional 10 minutes to allow the jars to adjust to the lowered pressure (reducing the risk of jar breakage), I removed the jars from my canner and set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool...

And to listen for the PING! of each successfully sealed jar! Live for the PING!


29 comments:

  1. thank you so much for sharing your recipe...can't wait to try it..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such an easy recipe...its been ages since I've canned, so I'm having to brush up on recipes & techniques because I'm getting back into it. This recipe brings back very pleasant memories for me, too! Many thanks to your Mom!

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  3. Love it! Am planning on doing the same thing this year! :)

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  4. I am wanting to can our family Tortilla soup recipe. It has the following ingredients
    Chicken
    Onion
    garlic
    oil
    flour
    4 oz can chilies
    Mexican stewed tomatoes
    along with some seasoning.
    I saw that I should not can anything with flour in it, I was just hoping you had some pointers for me as to the rest of the process.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rebekah, mix your ingredients like you were making the soup to eat, except the flour... bring it all to a boil and boil gently for 10 minutes or so. Then fill your hot jars to within an inch of the rim. Tighten on your lids to fingertip tightness and pressure can at 10 lbs. pressure for 90 minutes for quarts, 75 minutes if you are using pints. When you open later for eating, heat, stir in the flour and let cook until the flour thickens the soup. Sounds delicious!

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  5. I love this blog! So glad I stumbled onto it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From one Crazy Southern Woman to another! Hey and welcome! ~~Granny

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  6. How long do you process pint jars

    ReplyDelete
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  10. Can I use a water bath canner to can soup mix?

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  16. So i have this right it 55 minutes pints and 90 for quarts

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  17. So i have this right it 55 minutes pints and 90 for quarts

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 55 Minutes for pints and 85 minutes for quarts

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  18. I need to process without a pressure canner...waterbath?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, this recipe must be pressure canned. ~~Granny

      Delete
  19. I watched aunts and cousins do this when I was a kid. I'd since forgotten the how-to. This recipe is just perfect for what I just brought home from the farmer's market. This stuff is soooooo danged good!!!! Thank you for this site.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Question?

    Can you can tomatoes and green beans together safely?

    Many Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi,
    Can onions, celery and peppers be added to the recipe and if so how much of each? Thanks in advance.

    ReplyDelete
  22. My momma was raised in a cabin without any power or utilities. My grandma kept jars upon jars of this stuff in her pantry. I just wish i would have paid more attention to her cooking but as a scrapping young lad in summer their was just so much to do besides learning how to cook. Thanks for posting.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi, I don't have a pressure canner can this be done with the boiling hot water method?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi,
    Can I freeze instead of cann?

    ReplyDelete

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