HOMEMADE CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP TO CAN

Steps:

• 1. Wash and take stems out of mushrooms. (I brushed them with a dry towel). You can slice mushrooms or I used my Vadilia onion dicer to dice small about 1/4 inch (more like commercial soup).Set the stems aside and whiz stems up in a food processor or I used my Ninja.
• 2. Measure and heat your stock, dried onions, dried garlic and salt if you are adding, in large no reactive stock pot. Saving enough cold beef stock to mix with the Clear-jel.(I used a whisk) About 1 ¼ cup broth to ¾ Cup Cear-jel if it's too thick you can add some cold water. If you forget to save cold stock to mix with Clear-jel you can use cold water, I did and it was ok, my homemade stock was very rich and tasty.
• 3. Put olive oil in large skillet, add mushrooms, lemon juice and whizzed mushroom stems to skillet and sauté. I sauté about 5 minutes. I am not sure if this process is necessary but I like it this way. If you don't sauté your mushrooms you could eliminate the olive oil.
• 4. Heat stock and spices until boil, then add sautéed mushrooms, add liquid from sautéing mushrooms also it will give more good mushroom flavor. Turn down burner, add clear-jel slurry last and stir very well to make sure Clear-Jel is incorporated. Be careful not to scorch soup at this point, don't worry about soup thickening it will thicken when it is in the jars in the pressure canner. Ladle hot soup into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1 inch headspace, wipe rim of jars with vinegar damp cloth, place hot, clean, new lids on jars and screw bands/rings only fingertip tight, process in pressure canner for 75 minutes at 10 lb. pressure (adjust for your altitude).
• 5. Note: I use reduced sodium or homemade beef bone stock. I have also used chicken stock. But Beef stock is best. I make about 14 quarts of stock. I multiply this recipe by 7 EXCEPT the oil it stays the same.
• 6. Yield for 7X recipe is about 34-35 pints (Clear-jel is the only approved safe thickener for canning it does not break down like flour or corn starch) Clear-jel can be found online @ sbcanning.com (sbcanning is on Facebook and is also a very good site for safe recipes and canning help),some other places to find Clear-Jel~~ amazon.com, at your local Amish store and in some bakery supply stores.Clear-jel runs about 10.00 a pound this should include shipping. If you can find it at an Amish store it will be from $2.00 to $4.00 a pound depending on supply and demand. If you can find Clear-Jel at your bakery supply it will be less than a dollar a pound. The shelf life of Clear_Jel is very good. For Soups or Pies or any other baking or cooking recipe you must be sure to have the "cook" kind. The instant Clear-Jel will not work for hot recipes. I use this soup for cooking - no cream or milk needed.