Canning soup stock

Today I canned for the first time. I remember Mama canning stuff when I was little but I was always too young to be allowed anywhere near it. By the time I was old enough to be able to help she was too sick and I never got to be in the kitchen with her when she canned.

I did grocery shopping yesterday and after putting away everything, (I always go through and chop up all the celery, bell pepper, green onions, carrots, etc. and freeze them for quick use) I had a ton of veggies in the freezer waiting to make into stock.

This morning my hubby took me to Wally World and bought me a new pressure canner!

My first brand new pressure canner!

I took it out of the box and washed everything according to the directions before getting started. I also washed up some canning jars that my mother-in-law had given me a month or so ago since she no longer needed them.

Fresh clean jars

Next I put all my veggies, seasonings and water into a stock pot to boil like I do for freezing.

Soon to be stock

After boiling for an hour the stock was ready to be canned. It turns the most beautiful golden brown.

YUM

After filling the jars I loaded them into the canner.

Ain't it purty!

Then came the waiting. I had to wait until there was a steadystream of steam coming from the canner before I could place the "jiggler" or pressure regulator onto the canner. Once the ten minutes had passed I set the jiggler for 10 pounds of pressure and placed it onto the canner.

3 piece jiggler set for 10lbs pressure

Wating for it to "jiggle"

Once the jiggler began to jiggle I set the timer for 25 minutes, which is recommended for stock,
and waited. I had to turn the temperature down once or twice to keep it at a steady rhythm.

At the end of the day I had 6 quarts and one pint of beautiful stock!

A good days work!

All in all a great experience and I can't wait to have my own garden going so I can do many, many more things.