Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Forgive me Aunt Mary for I have sinned.

The blacksmith's Aunt Mary's recipes have long been guarded.  For years we admired her tomato soup. At the family reunion fund raising auctions, someone from the Iowa clan usually brought several jars to be auctioned off. The recipe never was to be found. 

However, two years ago, her family made a cookbook in her memory. The books didn't come easily. You had to win one by being the highest bidder at the auction.

Some how we were successful.  

Last night we looked up the recipe in the book and proceeded to make it. 

It would take 15 pounds of tomatoes, celery, onions and a red sweet pepper. You cook that until tender and then run it through a ricer. This is where the first of our variations began. We ran our tomatoes through the food mill first, which removed the seeds and peel. 

While the tomatoes were cooking with the diced celery and onions we washed the food mill, thinking we would use it again to squeeze out the onions and celery. As the vegetables became tender and smaller we decided why dirty the mill again?  So we opted for chewy tomato soup.  When it was all tender, I mixed up the flour, salt, butter and sugar using a pastry cutter. Then this is slowly stirred in to avoid any lumps. After bringing to a boil, I let it simmer for about 5 minutes before filling my jars. 

The blacksmith then pressure cooked the quarts for 25 minutes. 



So forgive us Aunt Mary for changing your recipe. But we are pretty sure it will taste the same!

Rest in Peace, Mary Monat - 1926-2009

7 comments:

Deanna said...

Why you naughty, naughty girl! There is nothing better than home made tomatoe soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Yum!

Now, how about sharing that recipe......

Doreen said...

That sounds like a "must have" recipe for some other peeps......hint, hint....

jerilanders said...

Well, Aunt Mary would be proud of you for improvising! Anyway, thanks for the idea, we did not know what do to with these baskets and baskets of tomatoes... MAKE SOUP!
So you may go the John Campbell?? How fun! I have wanted to take some courses there for years. We are only about 1/1/2 hours away.

Cheryl @ TFD said...

If I were still into canning, I would be begging for this recipe! Of course, I'd have to have tomatoes and my picks of one or two now and then wouldn't quite be enough! I've come to the conclusion, too late, that all the watering I did was in vain!

Tipper said...

Yum! I think I'll try it too : )

Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes said...

I'm sure it will be fabulous . . . now, where are the measurements for this recipe????

Diana LaMarre said...

I bet it will be just as delicious.

I have only had homemade tomato soup a couple of times and it was so good. I know I say this all the time, but I wish I could can like you do!