To start off with, I got this recipe from this website (and she says she got it from the Ball canning book in 2014, but I didn’t fact check that), and the author has a lot of good notes, please go check it out. I’m only writing here so that I can remember how I changed it in the future.
I really wanted something with beets because real v8 uses beets, but I can’t find anything I trust, really. And since most of the recipes I found (okay, ALL of the recipes I found) called for waterbath canning methods, I didn’t want to add a very basic (as in contrast to acidic) ingredient without an official recipe to follow.
- 2.5 oz celery. About 2 medium stalks or 3/4 c
- 3 oz bell pepper. A little less than 1 or 3/4 c
- 3 oz carrots. About 2 small carrots (I used 1 small and 1 med and had about 2″ left of the med) or 3/4 c
- 3 oz onion. About 1 small to medium onion or 1/2 c
- 5 g fresh parsley. Which is only about 4 sprigs, or ¼ cup
- 22 lbs tomatoes. The recipe says about 65 medium, but I have so many sizes I only went by weight
- 3 tablespoon salt, to taste (original only had 1 T and that wasn’t nearly enough in my opionion.
- 1/4 c worcestershire sauce (not in the original recipe, but when I did my research, it is more acidic than what the jar needs to be at, so I felt safe adding it).
- 1 T Lemon juice PER JAR
- 1/4 tsp citric acid PER JAR
Prep all the veggies before you weigh them. I did thin slices for the celery and carrots, dices for the peppers, huge chunks for the onions (though my mom would have blended them in the blender to get as much onion flavor as possible), pinched off the heads of the parsley leaves, and quartered the tomatoes.
In a smaller (only in comparison, it was still 5 qts, which – aside from canning – is my largest) pot, place the carrots, onions, and about 5 lbs of tomatoes (don’t know for sure how much it was, because I measured everything out beforehand and then just grabbed enough to fill the pot decently. Squish the tomatoes with a potato masher to get enough liquid you don’t just scorch your carrots. Bring to a medium-high heat and simmer (you don’t want to burn anything) about 20 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients into a large stock pot (It filled my waterbath canner full! But when you mash the tomatoes, it’s not so scary). Start the heat out low so it doesn’t scorch while you’re trying to get enough liquid from the tomatoes to get everything to a simmer. As more liquid works its way out, and as it becomes easier to stir, turn it up to a medium (maybe medium-high, but on my stove, that burns it.
After the 20 minutes for the first (“smaller”) pot, add it to the large stock pot. It will take a while for the big pot to get to a simmer (and you may have to turn your stove up), but the carrots had a head start in the other pot, and the warm liquid will help the large pot get there a little faster. Once it reaches a simmer, let everything stay at a simmer for 20 minutes, giving your carrots enough time to cook down. You’re still going to have to stir frequently! But the longer it simmers, the easier it is to stir.
let cool for a few hours (it took us about 3 hours before we didn’t feel like we were going to burn ourselves), and then send it through the victorio (Food mill). As the bowl collecting juice gets full, place it in a clean stock pot and keep going until all the juice is processed. I like to send the skins and seeds through one more time and then re-mill about 2-4 cups of juice through just to get all the little pieces to work out, but that might be overkill?
Place the now-smooth(er) juice on the stove and heat it, but don’t worry about getting it to a simmer. Ladle juice into warm sterile jars, add the lemon juice and citric acid to each jar, and wipe off the rims. Add lids and rings.
Process jars in a water bath canner for 50 minutes (I’m at 5,000 altitude. You probably need less). Let cool and test for seal after 12-24 hours.
Of note: this recipe is supposed to make 7 qts. I ended up with 12! I processed it anyway, because 1) you add the acid to each jar, so I felt confident in the acid being there, and 2) If anything was extra, it was tomatoes, and not veggies.
