A question regarding canned meat

[ORChick]

OK, this has been bothering me for awhile, but I have put off asking because it seemed ... rude? insensitive? I don't know, I just have the feeling that my mother will be shaking her head, and asking how I could possibly think this was a good question But curiosity has got the better of me.

I keep reading about people canning meat, and it is "wonderful". Pork loin was on sale, so it was canned. Hubby got a deer, so it was canned. Etc., etc., etc.

Doesn't anyone cook fresh meat anymore? We don't hunt, but I can think of several different ways that I would use a nice venison roast - fresh, not already cooked - if I had one. Pork is excellent as a roast; leftover (i.e. already cooked) pork is always an issue about what to do with it. Leftover cooked meat, in this house, always has a hard time finding a use. For most meats I can't imagine actually making it into leftovers before ever cooking it for a meal, as, basically, is what happens when it is canned. I am reminded of my mother's story of when she and my father had to go out when I was a little baby; they took me, but left my older brother with a babysitter, an older woman. My mother left her with strict instructions on when to take the roast beef out of the oven. When we all got home big brother was fine, baby sitter was happy, beef was out of the oven - and had been run through the meat grinder, because she couldn't think of any other use for roast meat than hash (surely that was what my mother had wanted?). My mother was horrified that her expensive roast had been desecrated.

On the subject of roast beef, I have also read (here? maybe; or maybe on another forum) about *roast beef*, and how lovely it is cooked for hours in the crockpot, until it can be shredded with 2 forks. May I say here that *roast beef* is dry roasted in an oven, best until it is medium rare (or perhaps even pinker), served with Yorkshire pudding (my always wished for birthday dinner). That thing out of the crockpot may indeed be delicious, but it is a *pot roast*, not a *roast beef*.

So, what do you all do with this already cooked, *leftover* meat?

(Let me add here that I understand completely about canning the meat f that is the only way available to preserve it - if you are living without a freezer, for example, and suddenly have a deer to contend with. My question is aimed solely towards those who can meat because it is *handy*; because it *tastes so much better*; because it *makes getting dinner on the table so much easier*.)

And please forgive me if this is rude or insensitive sounding. I ask purely from curiosity.

 

[cheepo]

hummh....
one more to add to the list I really like to do chunks of meat in the pressure cooker...really does make an amazingly tender fall off the bone...and Really much more flavour than crock pot...not that I am downplaying a crockpot....

I really was skeptical about canning meat myself...but it really does have an amazing flavour....
I guess add me to the list of ravers...

but I think everything has its place...

NOthing Beats...home cooked fully prepared meal......
I don't think eather one is over riding the other...
I think it is knowing your cuts...agree a fine piece of meat should be savoured
in its ultimate prepared form...and not canned...

 

[Beekissed]

I don't know about everyone else but I'll give an answer for my household, at least.

Doesn't anyone cook fresh meat anymore? We don't hunt, but I can think of several different ways that I would use a nice venison roast - fresh, not already cooked - if I had one.

Of course we do, we just don't find it something that warrants that much discussion on a forum that focuses a lot on growing, processing and preserving. Cooking meat, in any manner, is so matter of fact at our house that it is considered a no-brainer. It's dinner....so what? Been doing it all our lives, don't need the recipes, pretty much cook it the way we like it.

Now...how to store 3-4 deer each bow season becomes a whole different issue. Maybe for folks who don't hunt, the occasional deer roast is something to get all excited about but deer are our~pardon the pun~meat and potatoes. Out here in the country we usually don't deal much with buying the occasional pork loin and just how to cook it....we are trying to decide where to put the whole pig, the whole or half a beef, 100 lbs of chicken...or any combination of these meats.

As much as it would be tempting to install a few full-sized freezers in a spare bedroom to store the bodies~who can afford them OR the extra electricity to supply a room full of freezers? I don't know about y'all, but I'm trying to get/store more for less outlay of cash.

Now, depending on just what else you have in your freezer taking up space(we garden, have an orchard, etc), or just how many people you have at the dinner table that night to eat that "fresh" meat, that still leaves a heck of a lot of meat that needs a place to be until you can consume. No matter how good you wrap meat for the freezer, within a year most of it is showing some freezer burn.

If your family can't eat it in a year but you're poor/a hunter moves away/deer season may be a bust(who knows from year to year?) and you don't know if you'll be able to get that much meat next year, this necessitates other long term storage.

Canning the deer meat gives you just one more option for storage, it creates tender meat ~no matter how old or tough your animal might have been, and there is plenty of space in the cellar for it. In my world, canned deer meat stays preserved better and longer than in the freezer....plus the power tends to be a little more uncertain out in the sticks when the storms/winds/snows are prevalent. Who can afford to waste all that meat?

Oh, and I really love the flavor, texture and ease of cooking with canned meats....when you are a working mom, popping open that jar and dumping it into a large pan of something else makes a meal that is still a healthy choice at the end of a very long and stressful day. May not sound like Wolfgang Puck to y'all but it is my reality.

So...that's why we can our meats.

 

[redhen]

I think its a great idea!
Some people dont have that much freezer space... so if they want to stock-up on meat.... its a perfect way to do it.
I'm learning how to can this spring and trust me... canned meat is soooo on my list...
You can make soups/stews/ casseroles ...etc... with it..

 

[k15n1]

I studied biochemistry in grad school and it gave me a deep distrust of water in the solid form and for freezers that automatically melt frost. I'm also skeptical of anything that can't hit -80 oC. I've had pretty much every freezer-burned type of food you can think of, and I'd rather not take the chance. Also, freezing is a very expensive way to store food. Including buying the unit, even if you keep it full and do everything right, it costs 20-40x more to freeze than jar. Even if costs were the same, jars are not subject to the liability of losing power. (The only disadvantage of preserving good in jars is that they are not terrible durable. No problem if you're at home, but if you're on the move, metal cans are the solution.)

BTW, venison in jars is pretty much the best thing ever. If I ever get my hunting act togther, I'd definately pressure jar the majority of the meat.

 

[Hinotori]

Canned meat is great for soups and stews and various other meals. There is just so much you can do with it. You never have to worry about the power and there is only so much freezer room for meat and I like frozen veggies, too.

I cook both oven roasts and pot roasts. Pot roasts are cooked long in a pot of water and are usually the tougher meat that doesn't do well as an oven roast. Tender cuts go in the oven, tough in the pot. Medium tenderness I do both with, long slow oven cooking, or the pot. Or I just cut it up in cubes and make stew with it if I don't think it's worth it as a roast.

Left over roasts get turned into soup or stew as well. Mom shreds meat and makes little tacos with it.

 

[kimnkell]

We just love the canned meat... Sometimes when I can beef , I will open it as soon as it's canned because it just has this amazing flavor that you can't even get from cooking it fresh... Don't get me wrong... I do love a good baked pot roast . It all just depends on what I'm in the mood for. I use the canned meat for supper by taking the broth and turning into gravy....OMG..... it makes the best darn gravy around and then make roast beef manhattans and that is my family's favorite meal ever. I do pork the same... I'll make a gravy with it and sometimes I'll put it in with the gravy and serve it over noodles with mashed potatoes...then I will can some in half pint jars and we open it up to make sandwiches with it... heat in the microwave for just a bit and you've got a good hot sandwich instead of some sort of cold sandwich from a package. I can up our rabbit, chickens and turkey sometimes shredded or in chunks and I use these alot to make stir frys, make fajta's out of it or add it to the crock a few hours before supper and make bar-b-que out of it. Heck, I even can ground beef when it's on sale.... You can have taco's in a flash, my kids sometimes ask for hamburger helper and you can make it super quick with the hamburger already canned... I just love it... I look at each jar as a supper that I don't have to cook when I'm in a hurry. I like to can mostly in the winter so I don't have to heat my kitchen up in the summer.
Not to mention that I feel it is just great to have as much as possible canned up just in case there's a disaster or whatever. So.... I guess you might say all of the above for me.... It's very convienent, I think it has a much better flavor then fresh, and it just feels good to have a bunch of food canned.. I love it.. Plus Hubby built me brand new cellar and I have to at least try and fill those shelves...lol.. We also will be living totally off grid by this summer and I want to try and save as much power as I can rather than have a freezer full. We are building a cabin in the woods...very remote... we just got all of solar panels in last week. I'm so excited.

 

[snapshot]

I can meat when I get a good deal for a few reasons. 1st. I have a very small freezer which leads to the 2nd reason. Cost of meat! I would like to be able to cook meat and have a side dish with it but it goes much further if I can use smaller amounts in a casserole or stew, etc. I have a problem with storage no matter how I preserve it. I got some elk for free and canned that as much to make sure it was tender as to have it for meals.

Now for a little thread drift. Today, I am getting a meat slicer from a thrift shop (if it is still there). It's a fold up type for home use and has 4 stars on amazon. Now I can stop buying lunch meat. Yes, I will have to bake roasts to slice but I will package it with my foodsaver (soon) and freeze in my small amt. of freezer space until we move. A 10 oz. pkg of cheap ham is $2.50 on sale--$3.69 regular. I can buy half of a whole ham for $1.39 #. I think this will really save us for lunches or anything else that I can come up with.

Back to your regularly scheduled topic!

 

[2dream]

Personally for me, canned chicken and rabbit is the absolute best. Plus there is no way I can eat all that meat fresh when I process. I will freeze a few if I don't have at least a half full canner. But the frozen ones get used first. I have 2 freezers, but they are reserved for other things. I purchase reduced for quick sale meat occasionally and sometimes there is only one roast. Its either cooked, or frozen as I am not cranking up the canner for 1 roast. Not to mention all the veggies in the freezer from the garden. A lot gets canned but a lot goes into the freezer.
Why I like canning. It last forever. My DH is very ill. Last year I did not get to garden much. Thank goodness I had all that canned food or my grocery bill would have sky rocketed, not to mention haveing to purchase all that horrible tasting grocery store food. So for me it is easy, tasty and a money saver. Not to mention, once its canned you don't have to worry about where you are going to put it. Run out of room in the freezer and you have a problem. Run out of room in the pantry and you can just start stacking jars against the living room wall. Canned meat makes for very interesting room decor not to mention conversation pieces. See that bottome row of jars, thats the deer my son hit with his truck, oh, that second row is the second deer he hit a week after getting the truck fixed from the fist deer. No he did not kill anything with a gun this year, he just hunted during truck season.

 

[moolie]

We eat a variety when it comes to meat, but we buy in bulk from our producers at the farmer's market and therefore preserve it in a variety of forms for later use. Home-canned meat is wonderful for those days when preparing dinner doesn't begin till 5pm--for one-pot meals. Roasted, crocked, fried, baked etc. also have a place in our meal plans--of course. I love a good roast beef with Yorkshire pud and gravy just like the next person, but that's a special meal reserved for a Sunday when we're all home and have the time to do it.

I think the emphasis on this forum is preserving in "the old way", so it probably gets mentioned more often since most people know how to cook "regular" meals.

We personally use our freezer as well, for meat and veggies (and some fruit) as well as big batches of home-baked bread (hubs bakes 4 at a time because we eat a lot of his bread throughout the week, and he only bakes on the weekend).

Most of the meat we can at our house is ground bison, because it is so versatile and canned means no thawing. We also can chicken, pork, and bison chunks for soups and stews--but not in huge amounts compared to the ground. A quick bison meat sauce for pasta, a quick bison chili or taco dinner, or a quick bison Shepherd's Pie--that comes with the wonderful long-cooked flavour of canned meat--is a great thing after a busy day.

When my Dad was growing up, they didn't have electricity till the late 50s, so my Grandma canned all the extra meat except during the colder months when they could keep some of it frozen outdoors (and I have to ask him where they stored it, because they lived back of beyond on a mountainside farm and I'm sure there were other critters who wanted that meat).

When Gramps and Dad would go hunting and bring home a deer, or go fishing and bring home more than a meal's worth, the pressure canner came out and away she went putting up the extra. On a wood cookstove, which I can't imagine but I'm sure she had it down to a science. Life with oil lamps, an icebox, and a wood cook stove was normal for them till they moved off that farm and closer to town where their new house (built by my Gramps) had all the modern conveniences.