Mariner's Cookbook

Home-style Vegetable-Beef Soup

Oct 28, 2017


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I've been making this soup, on rare occasion, ever since I retired, at which time I temporarily assumed some of the cooking chores for which my Honey would otherwise have been responsible. I don't know why I haven't already posted it, because we really like it, and so has everyone who has had any of it. Anyway, I had a need to make some today, so I decided it was time to share my recipé.

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Here's what you need:

Suggested Equipment:

  • Stock pot, 8 quart
  • Skillet, 10"
  • Cutting board
  • Knife, 6" to 10", sharp
  • Common kitchen measures and tools
  • Canning equipment (optional)
  • - Pressure canner
  • - Canning tools
  • - jar lifter
  • - headspace gauge
  • - canning funnel, etc
  • - jars with lids and seals, quarts (6) or pints (12)

Ingredients:

  1. My preferred cut for this is a small round roast, but I have also used chuck with good results.

  2. For immediate use, slicing the carrots is good enough, but for canning the soup, the pieces need to be small enough to achieve good distribution, and with carrots, I find grating is easier than dicing.

  3. You can easily substitute beef bouillon, dissolving 7 cubes in 7 cups of water.

  4. A mix of several fresh-frozen vegetables in variable ratios - it typically contains field peas (w/snaps), butterbeans, corn, carrots, and okra; and may contain others as well.

  5. Table salt contains Iodine and anti-caking agents that most people don't want in their home-canned foods. Kosher salt has a larger grain size than canning salt, so if you elect to use kosher salt you'll have to compensate for this. The most trustworthy way is to use a spice scale. One Tbs of canning salt is about 15 grams.

  6. This ingredient is optional.

  7. My preferred brand is Texas Pete®.

  8. Cilantro is an easy substitution.
Item Amount
Beef Lean - steak, roast or stew meat1 1½ lb
Potato Canned, diced, 14 oz nominal 2 ea
Tomato Canned, diced, 14 oz nominal 2 ea
Corn Canned, whole kernel, 14 oz nominal 1 ea
Carrot Fresh, peeled - sliced, diced, or grated2 1 cup
Celery Fresh, diced 1 cup
Bell pepper Fresh, diced ⅔ cup
Stock3 Beef 2 cup
Vegetable soup blend Southern style4 2 cup
Wine Red, dry or semi-dry 1 cup
Garlic Dry, granulated 1 Tbs
Onion Dry, flakes 4½ Tbs
Sauce Worcestershire 3 Tbs
Bay leaf Small 1 ea
Salt Canning, common or kosher5 2 tsp
Black pepper Dry, ground ½ tsp
Oil Extra-virgin olive oil preferred 1 Tbs
Sauce6,7 Pepper, hot 1 tsp
Parsley6,8 Dry, flakes ½ tsp
Rosemary6 Dry, ground ½ tsp
Thyme6 Dry, ground ½ tsp

Directions:

  1. Thaw all frozen vegetables, then add all ingredients except the beef, the wine, and the olive oil, to a large stock pot (I use an inexpensive 8-quart stainless steel pot) and begin heating. You want to bring the mixture to a low boil.

  2. Put the olive oil in a skillet and turn up the heat, then dice the beef, making cubes that are approximately ½" on the edge, and sear in the hot skillet. When the meat has browned and the entrained water has boiled off, remove the beef and put it in the stock pot with the vegetables.

  3. Deglaze the skillet with the wine. Continue heating, to reduce the volume of the wine by half. Add the reduced wine to the stock pot.

  4. When the soup returns to a boil, allow it to simmer for about 2 hours before serving.

  5. If you will be canning the soup, the National Center for Home Food Preservation website says you can begin filling jars after just 5 minutes of boiling; then it can be processed in a pressure canner as described in the guidelines. I usually can pints, and at my altitude the guidelines call for 60 minutes at 15 psi.

This recipé makes about 6 quarts.

One batch allowed us to put up 7 pint jars (the maximum number of pints my smaller All-American Canner will hold), as well as save out a quart for my ailing daughter and her family; and have more than a quart left over for our immediate use.

I couldn't be more pleased with the way this soup turned out. We had it for supper tonight with some focaccia and tapenade on the side.

Meat, Beef, Vegetables, Soups, Comfort Foods, Preserving, Canning