For everyone who is switching to an active and healthy lifestyle, homemade soups are a quick, easy, healthy meal. With our hectic work schedules, canning soups for future use is so helpful.
When it comes to canning the soups, it’s important to choose the right canning process.
However, not everyone has a pressure cooker and you may have wondered if it’s possible to can soup without one. We have the answers for you!
Is It Possible To Can Homemade Soups Without Pressure Canner?
Warning: Pressure canning is more effective to kill the botulism potential. Water bath canning soup is NOT a scientifically approved method. Try at your own risk!
Soups tend to have a low acidity, which means they cannot be preserved and canned through the boiling water bath method.
With this being said, it is pretty clear, like fruits, veggies, and tomatoes, you cannot use the boiling water bath method for canning the soups.
In the same vein, it is pretty clear that you need to use a pressure method to safely preserve and can soups and other non-acidic foods.
This is because pressure methods reach the optimum temperature for killing harmful bacteria and their spores.
So, you may not have a pressure canner but if you have a pressure cooker, you can use it for canning.
Canning The Soup
When canning soup, you need to keep the following tips in mind:
- Don’t add cream, milk, noodles, rice, or any other thickener while pressure cooking the soup. It is suggested that you add these things when you reheat or once you are serving the soup. Adding them to the cans in the pressure cooker will cause it not to reach a high enough pressure.
- If your soup recipe contains peas and beans, it is suggested that you soak and cook them before initiating the canning process to give them plenty of time to soften.
- While canning the soups, make sure that all possible ingredients are safe for canning. For instance, you shouldn’t use cabbage in the soup because it cannot be canned and will adversely impact the soup.
Look here for a list of what you shouldn’t can at home.
Process For Canning Soup Without Pressure Canner
If you do not have a pressure canner, use a pressure cooker instead.
Here are the steps to follow for a safe pressure cooker canning experience:
- First of all, cook all the vegetables, beans, peas, and meat together in the pressure cooker.
- Once everything is cooked, puree them if you are going to do that, or else mash them together for a chunkier texture. Add the liquid according to your recipe. This is usually water, chicken or beef broth, canned tomatoes.
- Add the seasonings, spices, and herbs.
- Bring everything to a boil and let it simmer together for five minutes.
- Fill your sterilized preserving jars with the soup, leaving one inch free at the top.
- It is suggested that you fill half the jar with the solid ingredients and the other half with the broth part.
All these steps will ensure that heat penetrates to the center of the jar, promising a longer shelf life. Make sure that the soup isn’t too thick because this can adversely impact the preservation.
If your soup recipe calls for rice or noodles, we recommend that you add these before serving.
Be advised that the USDA doesn’t recommend canning in a pressure cooker. That is because they have a smaller diameter and use less water than pressure canners.
This means that they heat up and cool down faster so the time the food is at the right heat to kill botulism spores is reduced. The soup may end up being underprocessed.
If you do use a pressure cooker to can your soup, please add 10 minutes to the time.
Also, once again, we do not recommend canning soup in a water bath. Please only use a pressure canner or pressure cooker. Stay safe!