bottling soup?

[BEEKERRY1]

probably a silly question, but.... can you bottle in sterilised bottles and preserve soup using the water bath method, like i have for my rosehip syrup?

if not how can I preserve it other than freezing, freezer too full of other stuff

Thanks K xx

[niknik]

interesting............

Sorry, don´t know the answer, but got to be worth a try! Well I´ll certainly give it a go, as I dont really like the way they turn out after freezing
seem all mushy!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I'm not sure the water bath method would be sufficiently hot to do the job. The thing is, syrups are high in sugar which prohibits bacterial growth anyway: the waterbath sort of ices the cake.

I'd be happy to bottle fairly acid soups (tomato based, for example) and sterilise in a pressure cooker - I've done this very successfully.

With other soups, the lack of acid gives rise to the very small possibility that Clostridium botulinum spores might survive, flourish and contaminate the soup with the toxin that causes botulism.

If you can beg, buy or borrow the kind of canning pressure cooker that can get above 121°C then fine - you'll kill the spores. Otherwise you'd need to ensure the soup is thoroughly reheated to destroy the toxin. Personally, with squash, potato, carrot and similar I freeze and avoid the possibility.

[JuzaMum]

Hi BeeKerry

If you are short of freezer space but have a little could you make soup concentrate (cook the water out until really thick) then just add water when ready to use? Would have the benefit of being quicker to defrost too.

JuzaMum

[Gra]

Vegetable soups will need to be boiled for a long period, probably 2hrs at 95 to 100degC. But bottling vegetables is generally in this country not considered a good idea because of the risk of botulism.

[BEEKERRY1]

well looks like courgette ans yellow split pea soup for the next 4 days lol. thanks for all your help

[Ellendra]

For safety's sake, the only things that should be water bathed are high-acid foods. Most fruits are high-acid, which is why it's safe to use it for your rosehip syrup. But, most vegetables are low-acid, which makes them an ideal breeding ground for botulism, and water on it's own will never boil hot enough to kill botulism. While there may or may not be botulism spores in a given jar, if there is, the contents can become so toxic that a single drop could kill. There are people who waterbath low-acid foods, but be aware that it's a gamble every time.

Pressure canners work by raising the pressure, and thus the boiling temperature, of what's inside. At the right pressure, water can be made to boil hot enough to kill botulism spores. I've noticed elsewhere in this forum that pressure canners are hard to find outside of North America, so it might take some searching to find one. Don't use a pressure cooker, they don't hold the pressure very steady, and the fluxuations can cause the seals to fail. But, some styles of autoclaves can work as pressure canners, I know at least one person who uses one for canning with.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

There is another way, but you need to be careful: an oil bath.

I've used this a couple of times for preserving meat, in particular pâtés. It works best in an oven, though it can be done on the hob, but it has to be one with a good temerature control, so calibrating with an oven thermometer is important.

Basically, you fill a deep tray with oil so that when the jars are popped in the neck is just above the top of the oil: check this before putting the tray in the oven.

The oven needs to be heated to between 130° and 140°C and you need to allow time to ensure the pan of oil is up to temperature. Then, very carefully, put the jars in the oil and allow them to come to temperature. For a small jar (say 250ml) this takes only about 5 minutes.

The downsides of this method: hot oil can be extremely hazardous and great care is needed when handling; it can be a messy business lifting the jars out; oil is not free, though the temperatures used are not so high as to cause the oil to degrade quickly, so you can keep re-using it for a pretty long time.

The major upside is that high value foods can be preserved. I realise that soups may not necessarily be worth taking this kind of effort over, but it is a method that has its uses, so I thought I'd offer it anyway.