Freezer or pressure canner?

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With our baby coming in just about 3 months, I am looking into ways to make the transition easier for our family. I want to fill the house with ready-to-heat meals. I especially thought that soups would be quick and easy, but now I am thinking of getting a pressure canner and canning quarts of soup rather than freezing quarts of soup. This would be easier for storage, but I wanted to know anyone else’s thoughts about what would be more convenient for DH and possibly one or two of my teenage sisters who might come to help, along with general useful recommendations about pressure canners. (I have a gas range, so that should be good for canning, since water will literally boil in around 60 seconds.)

Thank you for any advice!
 
My mom tends to do both. If you have a large freezer (chest size) freezing can be nice and simple (simply cook then freeze in tupperware containers)

Canning is nice if you don’t have the freezer space or want to store for a longer period of time. Just be sure to get good canning instructions and follow them to the letter (clean rims, don’t overfill, tight seals, amount of time to boil, extra salt, etc…)

My mom has gotten back into canning lately and it seems to go better if you do it in a group. It becomes a fun event for the family. Just make sure to label the cans after they cool down…she gave me about a dozen cans of…something that tastes really good I’m sure :o
 
Thanks. I thought that I would do a bit of both, but I was just not sure if it would be worth the investment in a pressure canner. Maybe I can borrow my Grandma’s pressure canner, if she isn’t using it!
 
I would DEFINITELY borrow, not buy the canner. Canning takes some effort, I know, I’ve canned soups, pie fillings, jam, applesauce, etc. this year. You also don’t need a canner - you can just boil the cans, that’s what I’ve done in the past.

Also - if you put your soups in freezer bags and then lay them flat they really aren’t that hard to store - they get pretty thin.

I’d say it’s a matter of how much work you want to do now or later. Canning will be a lot more work right now but freezing will be more work later (long to thaw is basically all - it’s not that much much more work).
My personal preference would be freezing - but whatever you do do it - having several weeks of meals after giving birth was the best thing I did to prepare.
 
2 books: *Once a Month Cooking *and *Make a Mix Cookery *are great ways to cut time down. Actually there is a small industry of how to shorten one’s time in the kitchen, but I have had good results from both of these titles, however, my family prefers my own recipes substituted for the recipes in Once a Month Cooking. Either requires a commitment of time and grocery spending, but the convenience factor is major beyond that.

Also, there is a new industry cropping up across the US as well. Three have opened up in my “town”, a suburb of Oklahoma City in the last year. These places post menus, do the shopping, set up, chopping, slicing, arranging, etc. A customer signs up for a “session”, shows up and proceeds from station to station, preparing freezable meals. It seems expensive, but is by far cheaper than hitting the fast food drive through on the way to the house. Most of the meals average about $3.00 per serving. The ones in this neck of the woods have sessions for making 6, 10, or twelve dinners. You can look them up online and see if there is one available in your area. www.supperthymeusa.com, www.passyourplate.com, and www.supersuppers.com/ are the places that have opened up here.

I have gone to one and among the people attending, there was a cute young couple who make it their “night out”, spending the time together, “cooking” for the next month or so at a time. My family likes the food, so that’s a nice plus. It’s great to take a few meals out of the freezer on Sunday night and have dinner for most of the week ready to pop in the oven.

Good luck!
 
mschoir01 said:
2 books: *Once a Month Cooking *and *Make a Mix Cookery *are great ways to cut time down. Actually there is a small industry of how to shorten one’s time in the kitchen, but I have had good results from both of these titles, however, my family prefers my own recipes substituted for the recipes in Once a Month Cooking. Either requires a commitment of time and grocery spending, but the convenience factor is major beyond that.

Also, there is a new industry cropping up across the US as well. Three have opened up in my “town”, a suburb of Oklahoma City in the last year. These places post menus, do the shopping, set up, chopping, slicing, arranging, etc. A customer signs up for a “session”, shows up and proceeds from station to station, preparing freezable meals. It seems expensive, but is by far cheaper than hitting the fast food drive through on the way to the house. Most of the meals average about $3.00 per serving. The ones in this neck of the woods have sessions for making 6, 10, or twelve dinners. You can look them up online and see if there is one available in your area. www.supperthymeusa.com, www.passyourplate.com, and www.supersuppers.com/ are the places that have opened up here.

I have gone to one and among the people attending, there was a cute young couple who make it their “night out”, spending the time together, “cooking” for the next month or so at a time. My family likes the food, so that’s a nice plus. It’s great to take a few meals out of the freezer on Sunday night and have dinner for most of the week ready to pop in the oven.

Good luck!
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That sounds like a neat program, but I grew up cooking in large quantities and using homey, ethnic recipes, so I am in no way afraid of investing the time, effort, and initial money in doing my own recipes. The hardest thing for me is deciding which soups and other dinners will freeze well and not lose all nutritional value when they are reheated.

As for the young couple making a date-night of cooking, it sounds alot like DH and me! We love to cook together, but he is usually home late enough that I have plenty of time to make dinner before he comes home. When we do cook together, though, we make a killer spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes, lasagne, and other great delicacies. The other night, though, I made dinner ahead of time, so we had lots of time after dinner and we made a date night out of a scabble game in our cozy flannel pjs and some great Tallis sacred choral music! We are looking forward to sharing these kinds of things with our new little one!
 
If you borrow a pressure canner, try to borrow a new one, not an old one. The new ones are much safer.

One the topic of freezing soups, I recently heard a neat trick. You buy a stack of paper cups, the big kind used for lattes… Costco has them. You put the soup in paper cups–well short of the top–freeze it, then push the edges down over the surface of the soup and throw the whole bunch into a big plastic bag. (If you’re not sure what level to use, just try it with water at a few different levels. Don’t forget to mark the amount originally poured in on each cup.)

This allows you to take out single servings, which thaw faster and let you choose what amount you want to thaw. Another trick is to freeze the soup flat in quart-sized Ziploc bags. A thin package thaws easier than a more block-like one, too.

Also, before you pull out the canner, ask your DH his opinion. My husband’s adage is, “Soup isn’t a meal. Soup is a beverage.” When it comes to more than one night here and there, lots of guys share that sentiment. If he’s up for it, get on the Internet and bone up on the latest safety info for canning soups and stews. A case of botulism is the last thing you need in a house with a new baby.
 
Oh, and I forgot Putting Food By! It really is the dernier cri for safe canning and freezing. And pickling and drying and whatever else you can do to preserve food. Most libraries should have it.

I remember after my first baby, two of my sisters came over, cleaned the house and made casseroles and put them in the freezer. What a blessing!

What a precious time for you!🙂
 
Three more things…

First canning - my Mom doesn’t use a pressure cooker. My Dad bought one for her a few months ago, but it took sooooo loong that she returned it to the store and got another large pot. When using a pressure cooker you have to wait for the pressure to slowly go down before opening it and starting the new batch (otherwise the cans explode). This adds another hour to the processing time. Whereas if you just boil the cans you pull them out with the can grabbers, set them aside and start the next batch.

As for freezing, I have a friend who uses icecube trays to do the same thing. I suppose this works best if you are living along and a couple cubes makes a meal.

Finally you can can and/or freeze far more than just soup! Our big thing is spaghetti sauce which can be pulled out and thrown over your choice of noodles, chicken, beef, put in an omelette, etc… We also do sausage, peppers and onions, which are great on subs (or any of the suggestions above). My mom canned green beans, apple sauce, apples (for pie), apple butter, peaches and…I still don’t know what’s in that last can, but it is also not soup. 👍
 
Lady Cygnus:
As for freezing, I have a friend who uses icecube trays to do the same thing. I suppose this works best if you are living along and a couple cubes makes a meal.
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I used to do ice cube trays for baby food. They work great, except they’re more liable to freezer burn and sublimation (where the ice travels out) than methods that leave less air contact with the food. That just means you need to plan on a rather fast turn-over.

I used to have a book called “A Month of Meals” or something like that. The idea is that you get together with a friend, buy a mess of groceries on one day, and the next day you make a month of meals for your freezer. I’ve never done so much as that, but the book and their website has lots of recipes and practical hints on how to streamline the operation.
 
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