Every Step in Canning Part 7

Soup Stock. To make the soup stock which is the foundation of all the stock soups, use this recipe:

Secure twenty-five pounds of beef hocks, joints and bones containing marrow. Strip off the fat and meat and crack bones with hatchet or cleaver. Put the broken bones in a thin cloth sack and place this in a large kettle containing five gallons of cold water. Simmer--do not boil--for six or seven hours. Do not salt while simmering. Skim off all fat. This should make about five gallons of stock. Pack hot in gla.s.s jars, bottles or enameled or lacquered tin cans. Partially seal gla.s.s jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Sterilize forty minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; thirty minutes if using water-seal or five-pound steam-pressure outfit; twenty-five minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.

Soups made with soup stock are many and varied. One can utilize the things at hand and change the distinctive flavor from year to year. I will give you a few good specimen recipes which if followed will give good results:

Vegetable Soup. Soak a quarter pound dried Lima beans and one pound unpolished rice for twelve hours. Cook a half pound pearl barley for two hours. Blanch one pound carrots, one pound onions, one medium-size potato and one red pepper for three minutes and cold-dip. Prepare the vegetables and cut into small cubes. Mix thoroughly Lima beans, rice, barley, carrots, onions, potato and red pepper. Fill gla.s.s jars or the enameled tin cans three-fourths full of the above mixture of vegetables and cereals. Make a smooth paste of a half pound of wheat flour and blend in five gallons soup stock. Boil three minutes and add four ounces salt. Pour this stock over vegetables and fill cans.

Partially seal gla.s.s jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Sterilize ninety minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; seventy-five minutes if using a water-seal or five-pound steam-pressure outfit; forty-five minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.

Cream of Pea Soup. Soak eight pounds of dried peas over night. Cook until soft. Mash fine. Add the mashed peas to five gallons of soup stock and bring to boil. Pa.s.s the boiling liquid through a fine sieve.

Make a smooth paste of a half pound flour and add paste, ten ounces of sugar and three ounces of salt to the soup stock. Cook until soup begins to thicken. Pack in gla.s.s jars or tin cans. Partially seal gla.s.s jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Process ninety minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; eighty minutes if using water-seal outfit; seventy minutes if using five-pound steam-pressure outfit; forty-five minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.

Cream of Potato Soup. Boil one and a half pounds of potatoes, sliced thin, and five gallons of soup stock for ten minutes. Add three ounces of salt, a quarter teaspoonful of pepper and a half pound of b.u.t.ter and boil slowly for five minutes. Make three tablespoonfuls of flour into smooth paste and add to the above. Cook three minutes and pack in gla.s.s jars or tin cans while hot. Partially seal gla.s.s jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Sterilize ninety minutes if using a hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; seventy-five minutes if using a water-seal outfit; sixty-five minutes if using a five-pound steam-pressure outfit; forty-five minutes if using a pressure-cooker outfit.

Bean Soup. Soak three pounds of dried beans twelve hours in cold water. Cut two pounds of ham into quarter-inch cubes and place in a small sack. Place beans, ham and four gallons of water in kettle and boil slowly until the beans are very soft. Remove the ham and beans from the liquor and mash the beans fine. Return ham and mashed beans to the liquor, add five gallons of soup stock and seasoning, and bring to boil. Pack into jars or cans while hot. Partially seal jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Process two hours if using hot-water-bath or condensed-steam outfit; ninety minutes if using water-seal outfit; seventy-five minutes if using five-pound steam-pressure outfit; sixty minutes if using pressure cooker.

Okra Soup. Slice eight pounds okra into thin slices the round way.

Blanch ten minutes and cold-dip. Boil one and a half pounds rice for twenty-five minutes. Mix okra and rice and fill cans or jars half full. To five gallons soup stock add five ounces salt, a quarter teaspoonful of coriander seed and a quarter teaspoonful of powdered cloves, and bring to boil. Fill remaining portion of jars or cans.

Partially seal gla.s.s jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Process two hours if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; ninety minutes if using water-seal outfit; seventy-five minutes if using five-pound steam-pressure outfit; sixty minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.

Chicken-Soup Stock. Place thirty pounds chicken in ten gallons of cold water and simmer for five hours. Remove meat and bones, then strain. Add sufficient water to make ten gallons of stock. Fill gla.s.s jars or tin cans with hot stock. Partially seal gla.s.s jars. Cap and tip tin cans. This stock is used to make soup where the term "chicken-soup stock" is used. Process ninety minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; seventy-five minutes if using water-seal outfit; sixty minutes if using five-pound steam-pressure outfit; forty-five minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.

Chicken Broth With Rice. For each gallon of soup stock use twelve ounces of rice. Boil rice thirty minutes. Fill jars or tin cans two-thirds full of rice and the remainder with soup stock. Partially seal gla.s.s jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Process ninety minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; seventy-five minutes if using water-seal outfit; sixty minutes if using five-pound steam-pressure outfit; forty-five minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.

Chicken Gumbo. Cut two pounds ham into small cubes and boil thirty minutes. Mince three pounds chicken and chop half a pound of onions fine. Make a smooth paste of a half pound flour. Add above to five gallons of chicken-soup stock. Then add a half pound b.u.t.ter and a quarter pound salt and boil ten minutes. Next add three ounces powdered okra mixed with one pint water. Pack into gla.s.s jars or tin cans while hot. Partially seal gla.s.s jars. Cap and tip tin cans.

Process ninety minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; seventy-five minutes if using water-seal outfit; sixty minutes if using five-pound steam-pressure outfit; forty-five minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.

TOMATO ACID CHECKS BACTERIA

Some women who have canned soup tell me it spoiled or tasted "sourish and smelled sourish too." This is what we call "flat sour." It may happen to any vegetable you can, as well as to the soups. "Flat sour"

affects peas, beans, asparagus and corn more than other vegetables. If the vegetables have been picked for some time and the bacteria have had a chance "to work," and you are not exceedingly careful about your canning, you may develop "flat sour" in the soup. If you let one little spore of this bacteria survive all is lost. Its moist growing place is favorable to development, particularly if not much acid is present. One little spore left in a jar will multiply in twenty hours to some twenty millions of bacteria. This twenty million can stand on the point of a needle, so a can could acquire quite a large population in a short time. Bacteria do not like acids, so it is always a good idea to have tomatoes in your soup mixture, and get the tomatoes into the stone crock early in the game. The tomato acid will safeguard the other vegetables which lack acid.

If you are careless about the blanching and cold-dipping--that is, not doing these full time--if you work too slowly in getting the products into jars and then let the full jars stand in the warm atmosphere, you are pretty sure to develop "flat sour."

Place each jar in the canner as it is packed. The first jars in will not be affected by the extra cooking. Have the water just below the boiling point as you put in each jar. When you have the canner full bring the water to the boiling point as quickly as possible and begin to count cooking or sterilizing time from the moment it does boil.

Some women make the mistake at the end of the cooking period of letting the jars remain in the boiling water, standing on the false bottom of the canner until they are cool enough to handle with no danger of burning the hands. This slow method of cooling not only tends to create "flat sour," but it is apt to result in cloudy-looking jars and in mushy vegetables.

For this reason you should have in your equipment a lifter with which you can lift out the hot jars without the hands touching them. If you use a rack with wire handles this answers the same purpose.

This "flat sour," which is not at all dangerous from the standpoint of health, must not be confused with the botulinus bacteria, which is an entirely different thing.

"Flat sour," perfectly harmless, appears often with inexperienced canners. Botulinus, harmful, appears rarely. You need not be at all alarmed about eating either "flat sour" or botulinus, because the odor from spoiled goods is so distasteful--it really resembles rancid cheese--that you would never get a spoon of it to your mouth.

If you are debating whether this jar or that jar of soup or vegetables is spoiled, do not _taste_ the contents of the jar. _Smell_ it.

Tasting might poison you if you happened on the botulinus bacteria, which is so rare it need alarm no one; whereas smelling is perfectly safe.

TIME-TABLE FOR SOUPS

GRAY SOUP WITHOUT STOCK

NUMBER OF INGREDIENTS MINUTES OTHER PREPARATION TO BLANCH

1 Peck ripe tomatoes Scald 1 Remove core and stem end.

1 Head cabbage 5} 1 Dozen carrots 5} 1 White turnip 5} Cut into cubes after blanching 2 Pounds string beans 5} 1 Pound okra 5} 3 Red peppers 5}

1 Peck spinach Steam 15 minutes or until thoroughly wilted.

2 Pounds asparagus 4 Cut into small pieces after blanching.

6 Small beets 5 Cut into slices after blanching.

6 Ears sweet corn 5 Cut from cob after blanching.

Salt

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

In boiling water or homemade outfit, 212 degrees Fahrenheit, 90.

In condensed steam outfit, 90.

In water-seal outfit, 214 degrees Fahrenheit, 60.

In steam-pressure outfit, 5 pounds, 60.

In pressure-cooker outfit, 10 to 15 pounds, 45.

VEGETABLE SOUP WITHOUT STOCK, USING DRY LEGUMES

6 Pounds dried Lima beans} { Soak over night, then boil 4 Pounds dried peas } { for one half hour.

16 Pounds carrots 3} 6 Pounds cabbage 3} Cut into small cubes after 3 Pounds celery 3} blanching.

6 Pounds turnips 3} 4 Pounds okra 3 Cut into slices after blanching.

1 Pound onions 3 Chop fine after blanching.

4 Pounds parsley 3 Cut into pieces after blanching.

Salt

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

In boiling water or homemade outfit, 212 degrees Fahrenheit, 90.

In condensed steam outfit, 90.

In water-seal outfit, 214 degrees Fahrenheit, 60.

In steam-pressure outfit, 5 pounds, 60.

In pressure-cooker outfit, 10 to 15 pounds, 45.

SOUP STOCK (Foundation of All Stock Soups)

NUMBER OF INGREDIENTS MINUTES OTHER PREPARATION TO BLANCH 25 Pounds beef hocks, joints and bones Simmer for 6 or 7 hours.

5 Gallons water Should make 5 Gallons stock.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE