CHAPTER V

SOUPS

After one has learned how to can fruits and vegetables successfully, the next thing to attempt is the canning of soups.

Soups may be canned with or without meat. We make one variety which is a pure vegetable soup. We use no stock or meat, and can it in its own juice or liquor, thus using no water.

When we wish to use it we dilute it three or four times and serve it as a vegetable soup or, more frequently, when we have chicken bones or any meat bones on hand, we add a can of this concentrated vegetable mixture to the bones and make a delicious stock soup.

I will give this recipe as I have given it to many friends, all of whom have pronounced it excellent:

Scald the tomatoes by placing them in a wire basket and plunging them into boiling water for one and a half minutes. Cold-dip them immediately. After removing the core and stem end of the tomato, the skin slips right off. Save all the tomato juice. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Put into a large pail or bucket with the juice. Blanch the cabbage, carrots, turnip, string beans, okra and sweet red peppers five minutes. Cold-dip. Of course you blanch and cold-dip each product separately. Cut each vegetable after it is blanched and cold-dipped into small cubes and add to the tomatoes.

Spinach must be carefully washed to remove all grit and sand. All greens must be washed through several waters to cleanse them thoroughly.

Instead of blanching the spinach in a kettle of boiling water, as we do the other vegetables, we steam it by placing it in a colander over boiling water or in a regulation steamer with tightly fitting cover, such as is used for steaming suet puddings and brown bread. If you can with a steam-pressure canner or a pressure cooker, then steam the spinach there. If we boiled the spinach for fifteen or twenty minutes we would lose a quantity of the mineral salts, the very thing we aim to get into our systems when we eat spinach, dandelion greens, Swiss chard and other greens. After the blanching or steaming comes the cold dip.

There is something about blanching asparagus, either for soups or when canned alone, that is worth knowing. Instead of blanching the whole stalk of asparagus for the same length of time, we use a little discretion, giving the tougher, harder ends a full four minutes' blanching, but allowing the tender tip ends only two minutes. You are possibly wondering how that is done.

Tie the asparagus stalks in bunches and put the bunches with all the tips standing one way on a piece of cheesecloth. Tie the cloth or snap rubber bands round it, and then stand the asparagus in boiling water in an upright position for two minutes; next lay the asparagus lengthwise in the blanching water for another two minutes, and you have accomplished your purpose. You have given the tougher parts two minutes' more blanching than the tender parts. Use a deep enough kettle so the asparagus will be completely covered when laid lengthwise. After the blanching, cold-dip the asparagus.

Wash the beets. Leave two inches of the top and all the tail on the beets while blanching. Blanch for five minutes, then cold-dip. Next scrape off the skin, top and tail. The tops can be put right into the soup too. Any surplus tops can be steamed with the spinach and can be treated similarly.

Blanch corn on the cob five minutes. Cold-dip. Cut the corn from the cob, cutting from tip to butt end. Add the corn to the other vegetables. Add no water. Pack the mixed vegetables into clean glass jars; add one level teaspoonful of salt to every jar; partially seal; cook one hour and a half in wash-boiler or other homemade outfit. At the end of that period remove jars from canner, seal tight, and the work is done.

Of course you are interested in the cost of this soup. Most of the ingredients came right from our garden. We had to buy the okra and the red peppers, but I figured everything just as if I had to buy it from the market; and on this basis, the cost of our soup would have been only seven and a half cents a can. We canned it in tin, using size Number Two, which is the same as pint size in glass jars.

Another vegetable soup without stock, dried beans and peas being used, is made as follows:

Soak six pounds of Lima beans and four pounds of dry peas over night. Boil each thirty minutes. Blanch sixteen pounds of carrots, six pounds of cabbage, three pounds of celery, six pounds of turnips, four pounds of okra, one pound of onions, and four pounds of parsley for three minutes and dip in cold water quickly. Prepare the vegetables and chop into small cubes. Chop the onions and celery extra fine. Mix all of them thoroughly and season to taste. Pack in glass jars or tin cans. Fill with boiling water. Partially seal glass jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Process ninety minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; sixty minutes if using water-seal outfit or five-pound steam-pressure outfit; forty-five minutes if using pressure cooker.

In many homes cream of tomato soup is the favorite. To make this soup the housewife uses a tomato pulp and combines it with milk and seasonings. You can can a large number of jars of this pulp and have it ready for the cream soup. To make and can this pulp follow these directions:

Tomato Pulp. Place the tomatoes in a wire basket or piece of cheesecloth and plunge into boiling water for one and a half minutes. Plunge into cold water. Remove the skins and cores. Place the tomatoes in a kettle and boil thirty minutes. Pass the tomato pulp through a sieve. Pack in glass jars while hot and add a level teaspoonful of salt per quart. Partially seal glass jars. Sterilize twenty minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; eighteen minutes if using water-seal, or five-pound steam-pressure outfit; fifteen minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.

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 glass jars, bottles or enameled or lacquered tin cans. Partially seal glass 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 glass 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 glass 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. Pass 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 glass jars or tin cans. Partially seal glass 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 butter 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 glass jars or tin cans while hot. Partially seal glass 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 glass 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 glass jars or tin cans with hot stock. Partially seal glass 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 glass 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 butter and a quarter pound salt and boil ten minutes. Next add three ounces powdered okra mixed with one pint water. Pack into glass jars or tin cans while hot. Partially seal glass 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

INGREDIENTSNUMBER OF
MINUTES
TO BLANCH		OTHER PREPARATION
1 Peck ripe tomatoesScald 1½Remove core and stem end.
1 Head cabbage
1 Dozen carrots
1 White turnip
2 Pounds string beans
1 Pound okra
3 Red peppers		5
5
5
5
5
5		Cut into cubes after blanching
1 Peck spinach..Steam 15 minutes or until thoroughly wilted.
2 Pounds asparagus4Cut into small pieces after blanching.
6 Small beets5Cut into slices after blanching.
6 Ears sweet corn5Cut from cob after blanching.
Salt..

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

VEGETABLE SOUP WITHOUT STOCK, USING DRY LEGUMES

INGREDIENTSNUMBER OF
MINUTES
TO BLANCH		OTHER PREPARATION
6 Pounds dried Lima beans
4 Pounds dried peas		Soak over night, then boil
for one half hour.
16 Pounds carrots
6 Pounds cabbage
3 Pounds celery
6 Pounds turnips		3
3
3
3		Cut into small cubes after blanching.
4 Pounds okra3Cut into slices after blanching.
1 Pound onions3Chop fine after blanching.
4 Pounds parsley Salt3Cut into pieces after blanching.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

SOUP STOCK (Foundation of All Stock Soups)

25 Pounds beef hocks, joints and bonesSimmer for 6 or 7 hours.
5 Gallons waterShould make 5 Gallons stock.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

VEGETABLE SOUP WITH STOCK

INGREDIENTSNUMBER OF
MINUTES
TO BLANCH		OTHER PREPARATION
¼ Pounds dried Lima beansSoak 12 hours.
1 Pound riceSoak 12 hours.
¼ Pound pearl barleyCook 2 hours.
1 Pounds carrots
1 Pounds onions
1 Potato
1 Red Pepper		3
3
3
3		Cut into small cubes after blanching.
½ Pound flour
5 Gallons soup stock
4 Ounces salt		Make paste of flour and soup stock.
Boil 3 minutes and add salt
Pour over vegetables and fill cans.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

CREAM OF PEA SOUP

INGREDIENTSNUMBER OF
MINUTES
TO BLANCH		OTHER PREPARATION
8 Pounds dried peasSoak over-night and cook until soft.
Mash peas fine.
5 Gallons soup stockAdd stock and boil. Put through sieve.
½ Pound flour
10 Ounces sugar
3 Ounces salt		Make paste of flour, sugar and salt
and add to stock. Cook until thick.
Can.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

CREAM OF POTATO SOUP

INGREDIENTSNUMBER OF
MINUTES
TO BLANCH		OTHER PREPARATION
1½ Pounds potatoes sliced thin
5 Gallons soup stock
3 Ounces salt
¼ Teaspoonful pepper
½ Pound butter
3 Tablespoonfuls flour		Boil potatoes and stock
10 minutes.
Add salt, pepper, butter and boil
5 minutes. Make flour
into paste and add.
Cook 3 minutes and can.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

BEAN SOUP

INGREDIENTSNUMBER OF
MINUTES
TO BLANCH		OTHER PREPARATION
3 Pounds dried beansSoak 12 hours.
2 Pounds hamCut ham into ¼ inch cubes.
4 Gallons water
5 Gallons soup stock
Salt		Boil beans, ham and water
until beans are soft.
Mash beans fine. Add
stock and salt. Can.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

CHICKEN SOUP STOCK (Foundation of All Chicken Soups)

INGREDIENTSNUMBER OF
MINUTES
TO BLANCH		OTHER PREPARATION
30 Pounds chicken
10 Gallons cold water.
Should make 10 gallons
stock when finished		Simmer 5 hours. Can.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE

CHICKEN GUMBO

INGREDIENTSNUMBER OF
MINUTES
TO BLANCH		OTHER PREPARATION
2 Pounds hamCut ham into small cubes and boil 30 minutes.
3 Pounds chickenMince chicken.
½ Pound onionsChop onions.
½ Pound flourMake paste of flour.
5 Gallons chicken soup stock
½ Pound butter
¼ Pound salt
3 Ounces powdered okra
mixed with pint of
water		Add all this to soup stock.
Add butter and salt. Boil
10 minutes. Then add
okra mixed with water.
Can.

NUMBER OF MINUTES TO STERILIZE