Canning Homemade Tomato Soup (no cream)

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SmoothBites

Assistant Cook
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Good afternoon everyone!

First time poster and newbie canner!

My mom and I made strawberry jam yesterday and canned it for the very first time (we'd always made freezer jam before).

I suffer from dysphagia (trouble swallowing) and we are going away for two weeks to Michigan and New York City in July. Oftentimes when I go out to a baseball or hockey game I take my mom's homemade tomato soup. We currently just freeze it, and that works fine here, but with no access to a freezer it will have gone bad in a few days. So we had an idea of canning it in individual jars for our trip and then there's no issue at all.

We have a water bath canner and her recipe has the following ingredients:

3lbs Roma tomatoes, cut in half and cored
3-4 cloves garlic, skin on
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 yellow onion, minced
1L vegetable broth, no-sodium
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
Brown sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Would this be safe to can in a water bath canner? Do we need to add lemon juice to each jar to boost the acidity?

Thanks for any advice and tips!

Paul
 
But I don't need to use a pressure canner?

It's soup, not just simply canned tomatoes. Does that make a difference?
 
Hi, and welcome to Discuss Cooking :)

I'm sorry, but that recipe is not safe for water-bath canning; I don't think it's even safe for pressure canning because of the olive oil.

What I would do is freeze jars of the soup in serving-size containers and get a good-quality cooler and some reusable ice gel packs. Most hotels and all homes have a freezer you can use to re-freeze them, and if not, you can buy ice at grocery stores, gas stations, etc. Replace the ice as it melts. Take a jar out to thaw the night before you need it.
 
But I don't need to use a pressure canner?

It's soup, not just simply canned tomatoes. Does that make a difference?


First, I would try to follow an approved tested recipe, like the link above, and blend it into a soup before you can it--like you said, no cream. Since you are adding the lemon juice, if you are following the recommendations, then you would be fine with a water bath canner. If it is low acid, and tomatoes may be low acid without lemon juice, then if you want to, you can pressure can it.


I can ketchup which is mostly smooth, salsa that is mostly chunky, tomatoes that are chunky, and tomatoes blended smooth. The tomatoes that are blended smooth are much like the base for soup, so they would be fine made in a water bath canner. I do add lemon juice to all my canned tomato products.


If you water bath can, then make sure to sanitize the jars in boiling water. If you pressure can, you don't have to pre-sanitize the jars before filling them.


I personally would drop the basil down to a few tablespoons and skip the vegetable broth addition. There is a fair bit of water in the tomatoes so I don't know that the vegetable broth brings anything to the table besides complication. I would be a little concerned with 1/2 cup of basil, being too much green matter, low acid,...I don't know really, I've just never seen a recipe with that much green matter in tomatoes. I usually blend my tomatoes with a hand held blender so it might really change things to have that much basil.


I hope your soup turns out really well!
 
The directions for the recipe are as follows:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Spread halved tomatoes and garlic in 1 layer onto a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until tomatoes are lightly charred on the outside and tender on the inside. Remove from oven and cool for 2-3 minutes. Place tomatoes in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for 5-10 minutes. Remove the skin off the garlic.

3. While the tomatoes are resting, heat olive oil in a large pot and add the onions. Cook the onions on medium heat until golden, about 4-5 minutes.

4. Carefully remove the skin off of each tomato and add the tomatoes to the pot with the garlic and vegetable broth.

5. Heat the soup through for 5-10 minutes. Working in batches, transfer to a blender and blend until puréed. After blending, put the soup through a mesh sieve into a large bowl to remove tomato seeds, using the back of a spoon when needed.

6. Once all of the soup has been blended and put through the sieve, return it to the large pot. Add finely chopped basil and add brown sugar to taste, sweetening the acidity of the tomatoes. Add additional salt and pepper to suit your preference. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes and enjoy!

Would there be an alternative to olive oil that we could use? On the tomatoes to roast them is no big deal to omit entirely. What about for the onions to saute?

Would substituting water for the vegetable broth be a solution?

And use dried basil as opposed to fresh?
 
Fats cannot be used in home-canned food because they can coat botulinum spores and prevent proper preservation.

Water is neutral in acidity, so you need to acidify the recipe in order to make it safe. The garlic and onions make that even more important.

Dried basil is safer than fresh because pathogens (except botulinum) need water to reproduce.

The bottom line, though, is that you're taking a big chance by trying to convert a home recipe to a safe canning recipe, especially since you are just starting out. I'm sure there are alternatives that will allow you to travel without that one specific item.
 
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Why can you not just make it up and put into sterilised bottles, I bottle about 40 litres of tomato sauce every year. Not a lot of difference.

Russ
 
Well, if you are roasting tomatoes, then roast the garlic and the onions too. Instead of using oil, roast it on parchment paper. Keep your oven temperature below the point of burning paper, so under 400 degrees F. The roasting has the effect of drying out the tomatoes along with the slight charring, giving it flavor and I'm all in favor of that. One of the issues with tomatoes is the large amount of water present, so by roasting you will make them more concentrated in flavor. I wouldn't add back in any water. I'd use the dried basil too.



After you blend it all, you'll have a concentrated mixture of roasted tomatoes, onions, garlic, and basil, then add the lemon juice, can it. When you get to using it, you can always add more water/broth and you can add cream. I'm sure it will be delightful.


There is nothing better in the winter when the cold season arrives, than some tomato soup base with some cream, or a pat of butter on the top, and some crackers or grilled cheese to dip in it. I hope it turns out delicious for you.
 
While we're on the subject of canning, can someone explain to me why when you've made jam and presumably sealed it properly, Americans find it necessary to can it as well?

I've been making jam, marmalade, pickles and chutneys since I was about 10 years old (under Grandmother's supervision) and I had never heard of canning the completed jam or marmalade until I saw "The Pioneer Woman" teaching children to do it on TV and heard people talking about it on here.

When I was packing to move house I found a jar of my home-made blackberry jam dated 5 years previously. When open it was completely edible and tasted no different to "younger" jars.

I follow (as I was taught) the official British Government rules for making jam & marmalade and I have never had a jar ferment or develop mould except when I've used beet sugar rather than cane sugar. (Both are freely available in the UK.) The one thing I do now insist on when I am making jam & marmalade that it's essential to use cane sugar not beet sugar. I had a few failures before I came across this in an article written by the Women's Institute's Head jam competition Judge. Never had any problems since. Perhaps this is why American need to can jam?
 
Well, if you are roasting tomatoes, then roast the garlic and the onions too. Instead of using oil, roast it on parchment paper. Keep your oven temperature below the point of burning paper, so under 400 degrees F. The roasting has the effect of drying out the tomatoes along with the slight charring, giving it flavor and I'm all in favor of that. One of the issues with tomatoes is the large amount of water present, so by roasting you will make them more concentrated in flavor. I wouldn't add back in any water. I'd use the dried basil too.



After you blend it all, you'll have a concentrated mixture of roasted tomatoes, onions, garlic, and basil, then add the lemon juice, can it. When you get to using it, you can always add more water/broth and you can add cream. I'm sure it will be delightful.


There is nothing better in the winter when the cold season arrives, than some tomato soup base with some cream, or a pat of butter on the top, and some crackers or grilled cheese to dip in it. I hope it turns out delicious for you.
And Bliss, you would water bath can it?
 
Got Garlic and Blissful have given you excellent advice. Since you are rather new to canning, I would listen to both of them. Also, Blissful gave you some excellent referrals for additional professional information. Tomatoes can be a very tricky vegetable to can if done wrong.

You might want to buy the Blue Book of Canning. There are several books with tried and true recipes. And these books have been broken down to veggies, fruits, meats etc.

Do let us know how you made out and what you did.

And just one more thing. Welcome to Discuss Cooking. We always enjoy new members and want to wish everyone success no matter what the are interested in from the world of food. As you probably noticed, we have members from all over the world.
 
I've been making plum, tomato, relish curry onions gerkins for 20 years, prolly 100 litres a year, never had 1 jar or bottle go bad. It works for my, so I won't be canning,lol.

Russ
 
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