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Winter Freezer Canning: Tomato Soup
At the end of tomato season last summer, I found myself tossing most of the ripe tomatoes into bags in the freezer.
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| Bags of whole tomatoes have been keeping in my freezer since last summer. |
I’ve been doing this anyway, because freezing makes them easier to peel. After I canned pizza sauce, tomatoes & okra, and chevon gumbo, I saved them because I wasn’t sure what to do with them next. I took inventory a couple of days ago, noting I had plenty of everything, almost. What I was running low on, was canned tomato soup. With a winter storm approaching, making and canning more seemed the perfect indoor activity.
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| Cooking down the tomatoes with onions and celery. |
The recipe I use is a modified one from Chiot’s Run. When I first started researching canning tomato soup, I discovered there was a lot of controversy about it. Many folks can a condensed soup using a butter and flour base for the cream sauce. According to the USDA, this practice is not safe, something about the fat possibly coating botulism spores so that they can survive even pressure canning. So the camp was divided, some folks having canned creamed tomato soup for decades, others afraid of it. While science often holds sway, so much of it nowadays, at least when it comes to food, favors big business. Unfortunately, when research obliges whomever foots the bill, science loses credibility over the long run.
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| This is a new kitchen tool for me; I love it! Much faster than my little Foley! Initially I was looking for a Squeezo, but that brand is out of my price range. |
All that said, I decided to forego the cream base before canning, plus I pressure can my soup because I make it with onions and celery. I have found it just as easy to make the cream base when I heat the soup.
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| 13 pints of tomato soup. These could be heated and served as-is, without the cream sauce, or used as juice or an ingredient for a stew, gravy, or casserole. |
To make:
- about 2 gallons of tomatoes (fresh or thawed)
- about half a dozen or so onions, chopped
- a bunch of celery, chopped
- 1/2 cup unbleached sugar
- kosher salt (I add the salt when I fill the jars: 1/2 tsp per pint, 1 tsp per quart)
Cook vegetables until tender. Strain with a food mill. Add sweetening and reheat to simmering
To can:
Wash and sterilize canning jars. Fill jars leaving 1/4 inch headroom. Add salt (if you didn’t before). Adjust lids. Process in pressure canner as per Ball Blue Book’s recommendation for tomatoes and celery: 30 minutes per pint, 35 minutes per quart. Yield: 13 pints.
To serve:
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| I write the measurements for the cream sauce (roux) on top of the lid, so I don’t forget or have to look them up later. |
For one pint of canned soup (double for a quart jar):
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup flour
Melt the butter in sauce pan. Slowly mix in flour until smooth. At this point you can brown the flour if desired of just heat until bubbly (white sauce). Gradually stir in
- 1 jar of soup, whisking to smooth out lumps.
- 1 jar of your choice of liquid. I use milk & water (50/50 because Ziggy’s milk is so rich), or stock.
Heat and serve. Yield: 4 cups per pint jar of canned soup
I don’t know about you, but Campbell’s tomato soup was comfort food when I was a kid. I remember well, visiting my grandmother and being served lunch: tomato soup, a grilled cheese sandwich, and a dish of canned pears on a tray in front of the TV so I could watch Bozo the Clown. Now I eat my homegrown, homemade, home canned tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches using homemade bread and butter, and my own homestead goat milk cheese. No pears yet, but hopefully I’ll have some to can in a couple of years. This cream of tomato soup is so much better than Campbell’s, but the comfort factor isn’t diminished one bit. Good memories with an even healthier, tastier tomato soup. The best of both worlds.
2013-02-19 22:04:13
Source: http://www.5acresandadream.com/2013/02/winter-freezer-canning-tomato-soup.html
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