(San Andreas, CA) February 7th, 2015 – As the winter winds make our bodies shiver, it’s nice to wrap our cold hands around a steaming bowl of hot soup.  You can pop the top off of a commercial can of soup and amuse yourself trying to pronounce all of the ingredients.  Or you can pop the lid off of a jar of home canned soup, confident that you don’t need internet access to understand what the ingredients are.

Join us for the UCCE Master Food Preservers’ Sizzling Soups class on February 7th between 10 a.m. and noon at the Calaveras Senior Center at 956 Mountain Ranch Road in San Andreas.

The first part of this free class will focus on making soups using a pressure canner.  After covering the basics of pressure canning (and why you don’t use a boiling water canner to process soups) you’ll learn how to make vegetable and meat stocks.  You’ll see firm chunks of potatoes in finished soups and learn how to keep them from becoming mush.  Learn how to can vegetable, seafood, and various bean soups, as well as chili.  It’s important to know what you’re able to safely can and what you shouldn’t can, and why.

The second part of the class will focus on freezing and reheating soups.  Some soups are more safely preserved by freezing; learn why.

Join us and learn how to take your favorite recipe and make it safe to preserve.  Let us help you keep warm this winter with sizzling soups!

Contact the UCCE Master Food Preservers of Amador/Calaveras Counties at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for any questions.