1. Ignore your Presto manual for product preparation and processing times. Pressure canner manuals are seldom updated and the instructions often do not follow current safe canning recommendations. Use your manual only for operating instructions.

2. The best online source for current safe canning information is the NCHFP (National Center for Home Food preservation.) Mark it as a favorite and consider it your "Bible" for preserving.

3. Read the NCHFP instructions for operating a pressure canner. You will probably find that your Presto manual does not even mention the 10 minute wait time at the end.

4. You can raw-pack chicken and process. See the times and methods at the link.

5. There are numerous valuable tips for processing dried beans provided in previous threads on this forum. A search should bring them up. If not, just ask.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Can Chicken

Dried beans are to be hot packed, not raw packed. They need to be fully hydrated and hot as they go into the jars. It does make a difference in safe canning whether a food is raw or hot packed. With beans there is no option for them not being hot packed.
If you want them more firm, then add some Pickle Crisp to them. That is what the commercial industry does.

so I water bath canned mixed vegetables for soup, with some tomatoes in it, but not a lot as there are carrots, cabbage, onions, peppers, etc. all the jars have sealed but now I worry about if it was really a safe way to can it... can I pressure cook it now yet and still be okay?

Dewyso3, Vegetable-based soups are combinations of low-acid ingredients and they need to be pressure canned, never water bath.

When did you process your soup, if within 24 hours you could take it out of the jars, reheat, clean jars and new lids and pressure can it if you have that available to you. Another option if within 24 hours is to freeze it.

The guidelines for soups are as follows: no noodles or other pasta, rice, flour, cream, milk or other thickening or dairy.

Jars should only be filled halfway with vegetables/solids. The rest of the jar is filled with the hot liquid leaving 1-inch headspace.

Let us know what you do, if you are soon enough to save your soup. Understand that reprocessing may result in soft vegetables...

Ball Blue Book is something most us of keep a current copy of for tested recipes and procedures. Complete instructions for soup are here:

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP How do I pressure can soup

I just noticed where you said you had cabbage in your soup....just a heads up, many find it bitter canned. I don't think there is anything prohibitive about it, it's a taste thing as far as I know but I haven't canned it myself....

That might help you to decide though whether to reprocess in jars or to freeze, maybe search for other opinions on including cabbage if you have a noticeable amount in your recipe.

Do you use the Spinach and Other Greens instructions for canning cabbage? I can't seem to find anything other than sauerkraut, and I don't know if it's a quality issue or safety issue (though I know people who can it in soups, and 1 who cans it by itself which I think wouldn't taste that good).

ajsmama, here:

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous thread on cabbage

Thanks - I read that one and it still didn't say if it was canned like spinach (if you ever wanted to do such a thing). Carol said they removed the instructions b/c of poor quality product but then restored them? But she just linked to Soups.

A lot of people are canning this recipe - looks a little dense? Does cabbage tend to pack more tightly than say spinach?

Here is a link that might be useful: Unstuffed Cabbage