How To Make Home Canned Turkey Vegetable Soup

Turkey soup is actually very easy to can. I've read other people's suggestions about canning the meat and vegetables separately and then putting them together when you're ready for soup, but according to the recipe in the Ball Blue Book you can combine meat and vegetables and process for the amount of time recommended for the meat.

I am going to give you our process for making turkey soup. We are serious canners when it comes to soup. My husband and I started this tradition about eight years ago and have had people ask to come to our house when we are going to be canning so they can learn from us.

Step 1. Place the thawed turkey in the pressure cooker (after removing the items from the inside). Add a few bay leaves, several cut up cloves of garlic, and salt. Fill the cooker to almost covering the turkey. This will provide you with broth for the soup. A 12-18 pound turkey will take about 75-90 minutes to cook at 15 psi. It probably doesn't take this long, but we like it to be falling-off-the-bones done. Check this site for tips on how long to cook any kind of meat in a pressure cooker. http://missvickie.com/howto/times/howtomeat.html

Step 2. Remove the meat from the cooker and de-bone. Move the meat to a large bowl and when it is cool enough, cut into cubes for the soup. Pour the broth into a large soup kettle.

Step 3. Add chopped onion, celery, carrots, (barley, rice, or potatoes), seasonings . . . I use Braggs. Cook until the rice or barley is pretty well done, add the turkey and any other fresh or frozen veggies like corn and green beans. I vary my recipe to include kidney beans or pasta if I want it to be more like minestrone.

Step 4. While the soup is cooking, clean the pressure cooker and prepare the jars and lids.
See a good canning book like Ball Blue Book, Guide to Home Canning for the details.

Step 5. Process the quart jars according to the guide book. We process 7 quarts for 1 hour and 30 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.

A 12-14 pound turkey yields about one case of soup (quart jars). We love having our own soup for lunch or dinner when you want something quick. It has also come in handy when the power went out and we had to heat something up on the wood stove.

Bookmark this site because I will be adding video as soon as my new video camera arrives. I'll walk you through the steps of cooking and canning the soup.