Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
- 2 stalks celery, washed and diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 1 to 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- Salt
- Hot water or broth
Directions
- In a heavy pan, such as a cast-iron skillet, lightly brown ground beef over medium heat. Remove from heat when done and drain.
- In another pan, lightly stir-fry vegetables in oil. Add tomato sauce, meat, spices, and enough water to cover vegetables.
- Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Divide solids evenly between jars. Add liquid to bring to 1 inch headspace. If needed, add boiled water to jars for extra liquid. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to each quart, or 1/4 teaspoon to each pint. Remove bubbles.
- Pressure can for 90 minutes at 11 pounds of pressure for quarts, or 75 minutes for pints.
- To serve: pour contents into a saucepan, and heat until bubbly over medium-high heat. Alternatively, blend the contents and then heat. Add cream cheese or shredded cheese, and serve with crackers, cornbread, or hot biscuits.
Home canned Hamburger and Potato Soup is an easy, inexpensive, hearty meal that’s perfect for a cold day, especially served with hot cornbread or biscuits.
While I love the idea of putting a cooked-from-scratch meal on our table every day, I’m too familiar with seasonal busy-ness to think that’s always possible. Fellow homesteaders will understand why meals in a jar are such a win-win dinner solution. You can use downtime (such as the winter season) to prepare many meals that just need heating and eating in advance. An added benefit is that they’re shelf-stable and don’t take up freezer room. There are five recipes in this series, be sure to follow the links for the others: 16-Bean Chili, Chicken Pot Pies in a Jar, Roasted Squash Soup with Bacon, and Canned BBQ Chicken.
Tools and Materials
- Pressure canner (not a water bath canner)
- Rack for canner
General Instructions For Home-canned Hamburger and Potato Soup
- Carefully read the manual for your pressure canner.
- You can reuse rings and jars, but don’t reuse lids.
- Wash jars, rings, lids, and jar lifter with hot, soapy water, and then rinse them.
- Check all jars for damage. Discard any jars with chips or cracks.
- Keep jars hot (you’ll be adding hot ingredients and won’t want the jars to break under thermal shock).
- Add the amount of water indicated by your pressure canner instructions to the canner. You should have 2 to 3 inches of water in the canner. Add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to minimize any water spotting on the jars.
After pressure canning, remove the jars (which will still be hot) and place them on a towel to finish cooling. This can take from 12 to 24 hours. Once at room temperature, remove the rings, finger-test the seals to make sure they’re tight, and eat anything that hasn’t sealed immediately. The rest can be stored in a dark, cool place for up to a year.
Tips and Safety When Canning Hamburger and Potato Soup
With each canning recipe, keep a few things in mind. When filling your jars, fill them evenly with solids, and add liquid to the required headspace. (Headspace is the distance between the surface of the food and the underside of the lid.) Don’t mash or purée foods that’ll be canned. Gently place the food in jars. Add very hot liquid (boiling or having just been boiled) after your solids. Broth or hot water will work. Remove bubbles from the jar with your utensil before topping with lids and rings. Don’t add too many spices or spices that tend to become bitter (such as sage) before canning; you can always add those when you’re reheating meals. Before adding the lids, wipe the rims with a vinegar-dampened cloth to remove grease. Place the hot lids on top, and finger-tighten the rings. Then, put jars on the rack inside the hot canner with the vent port off, tighten down the lid, and turn the heat to high. Allow steam to escape from the port for 10 minutes before you replace the weighted gauge. Wait for the canner to come to the recommended pressure before you start timing and pressurizing.
Read the manual for your pressure canner. It’ll give you the pressure and time requirements based on your canner and altitude.
Hamburger and Potato Soup
Hamburger and potato soup is a hearty meal that’s inexpensive and perfect for a cold day, especially served with hot cornbread or biscuits.
Yield: 4 quarts, or 8 pints.
- 1 pound ground beef
- 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
- 2 stalks celery, washed and diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 1 to 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- Salt
- Hot water or broth
- In a heavy pan, such as a cast-iron skillet, lightly brown ground beef over medium heat. Remove from heat when done and drain.
- In another pan, lightly stir-fry vegetables in oil. Add tomato sauce, meat, spices, and enough water to cover vegetables.
- Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Divide solids evenly between jars. Add liquid to bring to 1 inch headspace. If needed, add boiled water to jars for extra liquid. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to each quart, or 1/4 teaspoon to each pint. Remove bubbles.
- Pressure can for 90 minutes at 11 pounds of pressure for quarts, or 75 minutes for pints.
To serve Hamburger and Potato Soup, pour contents into a saucepan, and heat until bubbly over medium-high heat. Alternatively, blend the contents and then heat. Add cream cheese or shredded cheese, and serve with crackers, cornbread, or hot biscuits.
Resources for Canning
Use these resources as a starting point for food preservation and pressure canning.
- “Basics of pressure canning foods”:
www.CANR.MSU.edu/news/basics_of_pressure_canning_foods - National Center for Home Food Preservation:
https://NCHFP.UGA.edu - “Selecting, Preparing, and Canning Meat”:
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_05/strips_cubes_chunks.html - “When a Jar Becomes Unsealed”: www.Extension.PSU.edu/When-A-Jar-Becomes-Unsealed
Jenny Underwood is a home-schooling mama to four lively blessings. She makes her home in the rural foothills of the Ozark Mountains with her husband of 20 years. You can find her reading a good book, drinking coffee, and gardening on their small fifth-generation homestead. She blogs at www.InconvenientFamily.com.
