Soup of the Day... Smoked Sausage Soup

Today's recipe... Remember... Disclaimer: Some folks don't always follow updated USDA canning methods, they may live in another country where the standards are not the same, they may use heirloom methods passed down through the generations, they may choose other canning methods not recommended. Use this recipe at your own discretion, or adapt it to your own method. I am sharing these recipes EXACTLY as they were sent to me and take NO responsibility for them.

Smoked Sausage Soup

Found on Canning Only Recipes

Found on frugallikegrandma.blogspot

Makes 9 to 10 quarts

Half a package of Eckrich smoked sausage or any other good quality smoked sausage. 

1 -16 oz bag of mixed frozen vegetables (peas, corn, carrots, etc) 

2 med potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes 

2 quarts of home canned chicken broth/stock or 4 cans of broth/stock 

2 cups water 

1 bay leaf 

1 teaspoon canning salt 

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons dried parsley 

2 teaspoons dried minced onions

Add all ingredients to a large pot, heat over medium heat until hot, and turn off heat. Remove bay leaf.

Using a slotted spoon add soup solids to jars to at least 1/2 full but no more then 2/3s full. Finish filing jars with stock from soup to 1 inch headspace. Wipe rims, remove air bubbles, and assemble lids.

Process in a pressure canner at 10 lbs of pressure for 90 mins (75 mins for pints).

Tomorrow's Soup of the Day... South of the Border Chicken Soup

Soup of the Day... Polish Lentil and Kielbasa Soup

Today's recipe... Remember... Disclaimer: Some folks don't always follow updated USDA canning methods, they may live in another country where the standards are not the same, they may use heirloom methods passed down through the generations, they may choose other canning methods not recommended. Use this recipe at your own discretion, or adapt it to your own method. I am sharing these recipes EXACTLY as they were sent to me and take NO responsibility for them.

Polish Lentil and Kielbasa Soup

Found on american preppers network

(5 qts)

2-1/2 lb. dry lentils, rinsed

1-1/2 lb kielbasa, sliced 1/2 inch 

2 lg onions, chopped 

5 carrots, chopped 

7 garlic cloves, chopped 

6 lb tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped 

1/4 c dried parsley 

1-1/2 TB ground cumin 

2-1/2 TB paprika 

1 TB salt 

5 c chicken or vegetable stock 

Pour lentils and 8 c water into stockpot and bring to a boil. Boil 2 min, set aside to soak 60 min. Drain lentils, add 8 cups fresh water and return to a boil. When heated through, strain (save the water). Transfer lentils to hot sterilized quart jars filling 1/4th full. Add remaining ingredients and lentil water to the pot and simmer 15 min. Divide vegetables and sausage into the jars evenly. Top off with hot liquid, leaving 1 inch head space (add boiling water if needed). Clean rims, put on hot lids and process at 10 lbs pressure, 90 min for qts.

Tomorrow's Soup of the Day... Portugese Soup

Soup of the Day... Italian Wedding Soup

Happy Veterans Day!!!! 

My Daddy served on this ship, the USS Randolph in the Navy in the 1950s

Today's recipe... Remember... Disclaimer: Some folks don't always follow updated USDA canning methods, they may live in another country where the standards are not the same, they may use heirloom methods passed down through the generations, they may choose other canning methods not recommended. Use this recipe at your own discretion, or adapt it to your own method. I am sharing these recipes EXACTLY as they were sent to me and take NO responsibility for them.

Italian Wedding Soup (Italian Meatball Soup) 

Found on Pinterest

olive oil for sauteing 

1 cup chopped onions 

4 garlic cloves, chopped 

1 celery rib, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise 

4 carrots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise 

5 1/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (42 fl ounces) (homemade will work too!) 

2 1/2 cups water (can use 1 quart of tomato juice if desired plus 1/2 cups of water) 

20 precooked meatballs - just ground meat, chicken, or turkey with spices (no eggs or breading)

2 (14-ounce) cans small white beans, drained and rinsed or 1/2 lb dried, pre-soaked overnight and boiled for 30 minutes 

1 (5- to 6-ounces) bag baby spinach, coarsely chopped 3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 

In a large frying pan sauté the onions, garlic, celery, and carrots, stirring occasionally, until onions are pale golden, about 4 minutes. Put the onions and vegetables in a bowl and set aside. In a stainless steel pot or enameled dutch oven add broth/stock,water, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Leave in pot for 3-5 minutes while you get the jars ready to fill. 

Remove from heat Filling the jars: You will need 6 pint jars. Put your canning funnel on the jar and using a spoon add 1/4 -1/2 cup of beans, a small handful of spinach, 3 meatballs, and some of the onion/veggie mixture to each jar. Fill each jar with the solids about 3/4 of way full. Fill each jar to fill to 1" headspace with broth. Remove air bubbles and refill if necessary. Taking a clean damp paper towel, wipe the rims of the jars removing any food particles that would interfere with a good seal for your lids. Add lids to each of the jars and turn to seal just "finger tight". Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure (11 lbs for dial gauge canner). Adjust pressure for altitude. When complete turn off the heat and let pressure return to zero naturally. Wait 10 minutes then remove jars. 

To serve heat through and add finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Tomorrow's Soup of the Day... Kidney Beans and Kale Soup

Soup of the Day... Italian Sausage Soup

Ancient Chinese recipe for Tiger Soup:
"First catch the tiger...."

Today's recipe... Remember... Disclaimer: Some folks don't always follow updated USDA canning methods, they may live in another country where the standards are not the same, they may use heirloom methods passed down through the generations, they may choose other canning methods not recommended. Use this recipe at your own discretion, or adapt it to your own method. I am sharing these recipes EXACTLY as they were sent to me and take NO responsibility for them.

Italian Sausage Soup 

Adapted from recipe found on midwestliving

Makes 3 to 4 quarts 

1 pound Italian sausage (mild or spicy), casings removed, if present. 

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup) 

1 medium carrot, sliced (1/2 cup) 

1 stalk celery, sliced (1/2 cup) 

8 cups chicken broth or 2 quarts of home canned 

1 14-1/2 - ounce can diced tomatoes or 1 pint home canned 

1 15 ounce can tomato sauce or 1 pint home canned 

1 clove garlic, minced 

1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed 

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed 

1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed 

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed 

1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed 

In a pan cook the sausage over medium heat until the sausage is no longer pink. Drain well. Crumble into large chunks or slice to about 1/2 inch thick.

Add chicken broth, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, rosemary, basil, thyme, and fennel seeds. Bring to boiling and turn off heat. Ladle soup into jars to 1 inch headspace, remove air bubbles, wipe rims, and assemble lids. Process in a pressure canner for 90 mins for quarts and 75 mins for pints at 10 lbs of pressure. 

TO SERVE: Empty quart jar into a pot and bring to a simmer. Add in 1/4 cup of dried orzo pasta or finely broken cappellini pasta and heat. Or any other larger pasta that has been precooked. Top with finely shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)

Tomorrow's Soup of the Day... Italian Wedding Soup

Soup of the Day... Black-Eyed Pea and Sausage Soup

A first rate soup is more creative than a second rate painting.

Today's recipe... Remember... Disclaimer: Some folks don't always follow updated USDA canning methods, they may live in another country where the standards are not the same, they may use heirloom methods passed down through the generations, they may choose other canning methods not recommended. Use this recipe at your own discretion, or adapt it to your own method. I am sharing these recipes EXACTLY as they were sent to me and take NO responsibility for them.

Black-Eyed Pea and Sausage Soup 

Found on Canning Only Recipes

2 lbs dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight 

2 quarts tomato juice (I used 2 qts of home canned tomato juice) 

2 cups carrots, diced 

4 cups potatoes, diced 

3 cups celery, chopped 

1 teaspoon canning salt and pepper (Black or White) 

1 bay leaf 

3 cups onions, diced

1-2 lbs. bulk sausage, browned and drained... or sausages in casing, cut in bite-sized pieces

2 lbs bacon, diced OR 1 cup of diced ham 

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except sausage, bacon and onion in large pot. Cook over medium heat until soft (this took almost 45 mins on low). Cut bacon into small pieces and fry in skillet. Remove bacon and cook onion in bacon grease until soft, drain on papper towels. Add sausage, bacon and onion to bean mixture and heat until it simmers. Taste for salt and pepper. Remove bay leaf before putting in jars. 

Fill hot mixture into sterilized jars, filling to within 1" of tops of jars (I found that using the home canned tomato juice the juice in the soup was pretty thick and there was not enough of it. So I used hot water to finish filling the jars to 1" headspace). Pressure can 1 hour and 15 mins for pints and 1 hour and 30 mins for quarts at 10 lbs. 

I ended up with 14 pints 

NOTE: The National Center for Home Food Preservation has not done much testing on the safety of canning bacon. What little research they have done they have determined that 1 to 2 slices of bacon per jar is safe enough. Their concern is the fat content in bacon and the chance it can go rancid or harbor botulism that cannot be destroyed by temps reached in home canning. Some people have suggested that 2 pounds of bacon in this recipe is not safe. To be honest I didn't use the full two pounds ... more than 1 pound ... but not 2 pounds. If you decide to make this recipe just be aware that this is not an approved recipe from the NCHFP. But you can substitute ham in this recipe for the bacon.

Tomorrow's Soup of the Day... Chicken Booyah

I Made Salami

I recently became intrigued with the idea of making my own cold cuts. I like knowing what's in my food and I like learning new things. So I Googled and I read, and I researched, and I found a fairly simple recipe for salami to start on in my new quest.

The recipe I found called for...

1 pound ground beef

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 Tablespoon curing salt

1 Tablespoon liquid smoke

3/4 cup water

I was concerned about the curing salt... I read and researched substitutes but there was little to be found, it seems to make a sausage you really need curing salt... which contains salt, sugar, and sodium nitrate, and sometimes a few other ingredients, depending on the brand. It was the nitrates that concerned me, I was going for an old time product, without dangerous chemicals. There were a few recipes out there that did NOT contain the nitrates, but not many, and if made in that way would yield a product that was not really a cured meat, would need to be refrigerated or frozen (which was fine with me), and would also be unattractive and gray instead of the pinkish brown we associate with salami. I went back and forth with myself, trying to decide. It was my first sausage... I decided to go exactly by the recipe... this time.

Also, in my reading and research, I found out that nitrates have been used in curing meats for years and years... I found many OLD, really old recipes that didn't call for curing salt, but did call for salt, sugar, and an ingredient I was not very familiar with... saltpeter... yup, the old ingredient in gunpowder... a LOT of old meat curing recipes call for saltpeter... Just what IS this old-fashioned ingredient? I asked. 

Back to Google!! Lo, and behold, saltpeter is a nitrate! Either potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate... both go by the handle saltpeter.

Anyway... here's what I did...

First, I put my ground beef into a big stainless steel bowl. I had a package of 4 pounds of ground beef, so I multiplied my recipe 4X.

I assembled the rest of my ingredients. I found the curing salt at my local sportsman's store in the meat and game curing section. My local grocery store did not have it, or at least I couldn't find it... I've read some supermarkets carry it, but mine does not.

I added all the ingredients to the ground beef in the stainless steel bowl, adding the water last...

Then I mixed it all up with my hands (I assure you, my hands were well-washed and very clean)... it's important to mix well, for like 5 minutes, so you don't get salty spots... you want everything incorporated very very well.

Once my ingredients were well mixed, it was time to shape my mixture into cylinders. I made 4 cylinders with the meat mixture, wrapping each tightly in aluminum foil.

Then you let them sit... in the refrigerator, to allow the ingredients to mingle and marry... 24-48 hours... so I waited... once in awhile I opened the fridge and looked at my aluminum foil wrapped cylinders, but really they would have been fine if I hadn't checked on them... they just needed to sit there and marinate, mingle, and marry. They didn't need me at all during that 24-48 hours.

Once the mingle time was up (I think I let mine go for about 36 hours, I couldn't wait any longer!)... I took the cylinders out of the fridge. I preheated my oven to 325 degrees for a good 15 minutes... then I poked some holes in the foil so the juices could drip out of the salami as it cooked.

I placed it on a wire rack in a deep baking pan to keep it up and out of the drippings... it needed to cook until no more juices flowed out.

I placed my row of cylinders of salami into the oven and cooked it for 1 hour 45 minutes, checking on it occasionally. After the time was up, I removed it from the oven and unrolled the foil... it was still a little juicy, so I reduced the oven temperature to 170 degrees and set them back in to dry just a bit more. (I left them in the warm oven for maybe another 45 minutes while I cooked dinner, spaghetti and salad, by the way)

Once the salamis were nice and dehumidified (not sure that's the technical term here, but there was no more juice running out), I allowed them to cool to room temperature before slicing.

They sliced up nicely, with a rich pink/brown color and all those flecks of red pepper flakes... I was so proud!

I vacuum sealed the slices using my Food Saver and stored some in the refrigerator, and put some in the freezer (not because I HAVE to, but because it's convenient for me).

The taste test revealed a delicious salami!

I do think next time (and there WILL be a next time!) I will spice it up a little more, maybe a little more pepper flakes, and maybe some peppercorns. We'll see. Mr. G says they'd be fantastic with some sharp cheddar cheese and some pickles or olives. Yum! And maybe I'll try this recipe without the curing salt some time... I'd just mix half sugar, half salt, and leave out the nitrate... just to see if I could do it successfully.

Canning Bratwurst

Brats were on sale this week at the grocery store... I bought a few packages. I vacuum sealed some of them and put them in the freezer. But my freezer is not so big... and it's filled to overflowing with important things, like ice cream! So I decided to can a few of these Mega-Brats... here's how I did it...

First I browned the sausages a little in the oven... cooked them at 400 degrees for maybe 10-15 minutes, just to brown them and keep them from sticking together when I canned them, the canning process would cook them through, I just wanted a good brown on them.

I heated my wide mouth quart jars by washing them in the dishwasher and leaving them hot until I was ready to use them (my dishwasher gets HOT!) And I simmered my lids and rings in hot water until time to seal the jars.

Using tongs, I began loading up the jars with the brats... these brats were extra-long so had to squish and maneuver them a little to fit them in the jars, but I did it! I got five brats in each jar.

I wiped the jar rims with a damp cloth... with meats and the greasiness they possess, it's a good idea to dampen the cloth with a little vinegar, it helps cut the grease better than water alone.

I removed the lids from the simmering water using my magnetic wand gadget and sealed the jars with a fingertip tightness (not too tight, not too loose!)

Using my pressure canner's recommended directions for pressure canning meats (each canner is different, read and follow ALL safety and canning instructions carefully)... I pressure canned my brats at 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes.

After the processing, I removed the canner from the heat and let the pressure drop to ZERO without any outside influences... just let it sit and do its thing.

Then I opened the canner CAREFULLY... it's still hot, Hot, HOT!!! and removed the jars one at a time using my jar lifter... setting them on a folded towel on the counter to cool.

And to wait for the PING! of a successfully sealed jar!

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