Canning Bee 6: Pizza sauce turned tomato soup

Here is out first major OOPS.. but, it turned out ok.

Pizza Sauce Tomato Soup

We processed the tomatoes by boiling them until their skins cracked and then peeling them. (We did this process for salsa too).

Then, they went into the blender.

Mom and I had some miscommunication here I think...(I pictured sauce with some substance, she pictured thick but not chunky sauce-- we were unaware of this detail this early in the process though)

So, we got out her Kitchen Aid and this handy dandy attachment that takes out the pulp and leaves the juice. If you don't have one of these, we were lazy with our second batch of this and used another method that I"ll talk about in the end of this post.

We took the steaming hot tomatoes and de-pulped them, just leaving the juice. (The chickens LOVED this though!)

We were left with two pans full of straight up juice.

We added some herbs from Mom's garden and some store bought garlic (we've not ventured into growing our own garlic yet)

While the pots cooked and cooked and cooked in an effort to thicken them up, we boiled them over and made a huge mess. I laughed and said "THIS is why we can here and not at my house..."

We did have one packet of Mrs Wages Pizza Sauce. ONE. But, we had tomatoes enough to warrant about 5 of these packets. We still didn't realize this at this point though and added the stuff to our mix. It thickened in the spoon and in places and then it didn't thicken any more.

Two hours later with Sarah's arm all Jell-o-ie and steamy from stirring it- we were still soup consistency. We tasted it and it was good. I was impatient and tired of cooking it so we jarred it up and labeled it "SOUP". It is really yummy soup though. It is also 100% liquid. We added cornstarch and it didn't seem to touch it.

We processed it in a hot water bath (stacked double) for 35 minutes since they were pints. For quarts, they have to be in a rolling boil for 45 minutes.

Yesterday, we made soup on purpose and did it a bit differently. We processed and peeled the tomatoes and put them in the blender. Then, we poured the blended up chunky juice into a strainer. (We used a yellow one with a handle that Mom bought from Tupperware before I was born). It got all the seeds out and left a little bit of pulp so it is still soup and juice but has a little bit of substance to it too. We didn't add any spices to it this time either. That way, we can add it to chili or veggie soup or just make tomato soup with it... or... whatever other recipe that calls for "juicy tomatoes all crushed up and strained with no seasoning" :) I think that's what these will get labeled. We pressured these for 35 minutes at 10 lbs.  Mom read this and pointed out that we pressured them for 20 minutes. We did quarts again.

What you've missed:
Canning Bee #1: Beets

Canning Bee #2: Green Beans

Canning Bee #3: The best salsa EVER
Canning Bee #4: Tomato Chunks
Canning Bee #5: Veggie Soup

Coming soon- Freezer corn and 100% homemade marinara sauce (we found success this time)

And, coming in October: A complete redo of the room above the garage! I CAN'T WAIT. I like to can, but I am SO ready for a project involving less food and more paint! And, we spend a LOT of time in the winter up there so it will be great to have all this tomato soup to eat in the new and improved "room above the garage/office/livingroom/place where the treadmill gathers dust"!