Canning meat
- Thread starter sumi
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I have Presto. I have 2 exactly alike. They are 23 quart pots. They take 7 quart jars or more importantly 20 pint jars. I had many other canners over the years. When I got my 2 new ones I retired all but one to cook in. The reason my hubby, the shopahaulic, bought these was because they held 20 pints. As our family got smaller we needed smaller amounts of food per meal. I still make things in quarts but not as much...
I love my canners. We only had a choice of a jiggler. I love the jiggler because I could go about my business near the kitchen and hear that it was still staying at the same pressure without having to look at it. Now they have canners that have both guage and jiggler. So now I have 2 canners going at one time, just singing away with 40 pints going at one time...
I use vinegar in the canner, not in the jars, to keep the canner inside free from minerals and to keep it nice and shiny.
They look just like that today. They were the best things "he" ever could have given me. I love them. I refer to them as "the twins". They sing and make beautiful music together.
They each have a little different sound either because they just do or where they are placed on the stove top. I am not sure..
In this picture I just happen to be soaking french fries in the canners because it was easy. I do not actually cook in my canners. I have a pressure cooker for that...
I love my canners. We only had a choice of a jiggler. I love the jiggler because I could go about my business near the kitchen and hear that it was still staying at the same pressure without having to look at it. Now they have canners that have both guage and jiggler. So now I have 2 canners going at one time, just singing away with 40 pints going at one time...
I use vinegar in the canner, not in the jars, to keep the canner inside free from minerals and to keep it nice and shiny.
They look just like that today. They were the best things "he" ever could have given me. I love them. I refer to them as "the twins". They sing and make beautiful music together.
They each have a little different sound either because they just do or where they are placed on the stove top. I am not sure..In this picture I just happen to be soaking french fries in the canners because it was easy. I do not actually cook in my canners. I have a pressure cooker for that...
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Meat is pretty basic and most Ball or Kerr canning books covers the basics on it. You can either raw pack or precook, depending upon preference...I always raw pack as I feel that it makes for a fresher product, with more of a sealed in flavor and moisture to the meat.
Most debate on canning meats comes into the canner and method used to can it. Most would agree that pressure canning meats is the safest route and most use it. Water bath of meats has gone on much longer than pressure canning and whole families for generations have eaten from jars of meat that have been boiling water bath canned, so there is a whole faction that feels that BWB of meats has stood the test of time if it's done properly and one uses common sense with it all.
I've done both and find the BWB product has more texture and freshness to the finished product, but since I have a PC and the canning times I would use are the same as I would in a BWB method, I most often use the PC for meats. Meat is hard won here on the homestead, involving much work to kill and process the animals, so I use the method that will insure my jars seal the best and last the longest on the shelf.
Having said that, if I were suddenly to lose all access to a PC, I'd be canning meats up all the same with a BWB method in my steam canner and wouldn't think twice about eating the finished product. I've never had a jar of meat come unsealed or turn out bad with either method, no matter how long they were on the shelf, so I'm a fan of both methods.
I keep my canning of meat pretty basic as well, as I don't like anything to mask the flavor of the good meats we grow and harvest here. I only add a tablespoon of salt to each qt. jar, raw pack the meat~if deer I don't add water, if chicken I'll often add water as they don't have as much blood in their muscle tissue to produce enough broth to cover the meat in the jar~ and process them for 90 min., starting the timer after the weight is jiggling/spinning at a regular rate.
Lately we've been grinding our deer prior to canning and find it our favorite thus far...very juicy and more flavorful than if one were to thaw the deer burger out and brown it in a pan...plus, less prep time for the various ways in which we use it.
My favorite way to can chicken is to debone it during the processing, chunk up the raw meat and raw pack it in quart jars. The deboned carcasses and leg bones are then cooked down for stock and canned separately in qt. jars, cooked down and concentrated in flavor so I can use one jar to flavor a large pot of soup. The fat is skimmed off the cooled/chilled stock and placed in ziploc bags, frozen flat, so I can just chunk off pieces for recipes when needed.
Here's a tip on canning of chicken...if choosing to can with the bone in, try to keep it only the large bones of the legs or upper wings, as the rest of the bones of a chicken are very thin and tend to just crumble after being pressure canned in a jar. This makes it very hard to get the meat off them once you open the jar without getting bone crumbles in the meat, so I find this results in a lot of wasted meat tidbits.
Another tip...it's easier to use the chicken fat if you preserve it/freeze it separately from the canned meat. When canned in with the chicken, the fat chunks tend to render out to the top and cling to the jar when you go to use it and much is lost to the dishwater later instead of winding up on your recipe. It's just easier to use it in the stock, skim the fat off the stock and use it straight from the freezer bag than it is from the jar.
Hope all of that helps!
Most debate on canning meats comes into the canner and method used to can it. Most would agree that pressure canning meats is the safest route and most use it. Water bath of meats has gone on much longer than pressure canning and whole families for generations have eaten from jars of meat that have been boiling water bath canned, so there is a whole faction that feels that BWB of meats has stood the test of time if it's done properly and one uses common sense with it all.
I've done both and find the BWB product has more texture and freshness to the finished product, but since I have a PC and the canning times I would use are the same as I would in a BWB method, I most often use the PC for meats. Meat is hard won here on the homestead, involving much work to kill and process the animals, so I use the method that will insure my jars seal the best and last the longest on the shelf.
Having said that, if I were suddenly to lose all access to a PC, I'd be canning meats up all the same with a BWB method in my steam canner and wouldn't think twice about eating the finished product. I've never had a jar of meat come unsealed or turn out bad with either method, no matter how long they were on the shelf, so I'm a fan of both methods.
I keep my canning of meat pretty basic as well, as I don't like anything to mask the flavor of the good meats we grow and harvest here. I only add a tablespoon of salt to each qt. jar, raw pack the meat~if deer I don't add water, if chicken I'll often add water as they don't have as much blood in their muscle tissue to produce enough broth to cover the meat in the jar~ and process them for 90 min., starting the timer after the weight is jiggling/spinning at a regular rate.
Lately we've been grinding our deer prior to canning and find it our favorite thus far...very juicy and more flavorful than if one were to thaw the deer burger out and brown it in a pan...plus, less prep time for the various ways in which we use it.
My favorite way to can chicken is to debone it during the processing, chunk up the raw meat and raw pack it in quart jars. The deboned carcasses and leg bones are then cooked down for stock and canned separately in qt. jars, cooked down and concentrated in flavor so I can use one jar to flavor a large pot of soup. The fat is skimmed off the cooled/chilled stock and placed in ziploc bags, frozen flat, so I can just chunk off pieces for recipes when needed.
Here's a tip on canning of chicken...if choosing to can with the bone in, try to keep it only the large bones of the legs or upper wings, as the rest of the bones of a chicken are very thin and tend to just crumble after being pressure canned in a jar. This makes it very hard to get the meat off them once you open the jar without getting bone crumbles in the meat, so I find this results in a lot of wasted meat tidbits.
Another tip...it's easier to use the chicken fat if you preserve it/freeze it separately from the canned meat. When canned in with the chicken, the fat chunks tend to render out to the top and cling to the jar when you go to use it and much is lost to the dishwater later instead of winding up on your recipe. It's just easier to use it in the stock, skim the fat off the stock and use it straight from the freezer bag than it is from the jar.
Hope all of that helps!
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sumi
Rest in Peace 1980-2020
The only problem is the "grazing season" is so short! The have to keep the cows indoors half the year, because it's so wet and messy out here. I love Spring when the cows start coming out and the calves 
A dairy farm on the edge of the village put their calves out along the road I walk on and I often stopped to talk nonsense with them and let them suck on my fingers and try to eat my sleeves.
A dairy farm on the edge of the village put their calves out along the road I walk on and I often stopped to talk nonsense with them and let them suck on my fingers and try to eat my sleeves.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
I think meat in the jar is pretty, though not as pretty as most things canned up. I especially find the stock pretty....golden, amber, sometimes almost mauve...it's a pretty sight.
In the pic below, the older hens are in the jar on the left and the younger cockerels in the jar on the right...age definitely makes for a different product, a much more flavorful meat.
CX meat is not as dark as older, DP birds, so it's not quite as pretty a jar...sort of looks like a pathology specimen. They don't make as pretty stock either, light in color like the meat. Yield much more meat per bird, though, so if a person can hold them over until they are older and free range them for more flavor, they make a passable product....not my favorite, but still chicken.
@sumi , you can find older Ball or Kerr booklets on canning on Amazon and Ebay really cheap and the older ones are the more prized versions. They pretty much cover the basics on canning meat, so you can learn about canning at the same time you learn about canning meat. It's not rocket science and it doesn't have to be this rule bound scary process like most make it out, it's mostly just good ol' common sense.
If you've got common sense, canning comes easy....if not, it suddenly becomes this frustrating, fearful undertaking wherein one doesn't know what to do and which advice to follow.
In the pic below, the older hens are in the jar on the left and the younger cockerels in the jar on the right...age definitely makes for a different product, a much more flavorful meat.
CX meat is not as dark as older, DP birds, so it's not quite as pretty a jar...sort of looks like a pathology specimen. They don't make as pretty stock either, light in color like the meat. Yield much more meat per bird, though, so if a person can hold them over until they are older and free range them for more flavor, they make a passable product....not my favorite, but still chicken.
@sumi , you can find older Ball or Kerr booklets on canning on Amazon and Ebay really cheap and the older ones are the more prized versions. They pretty much cover the basics on canning meat, so you can learn about canning at the same time you learn about canning meat. It's not rocket science and it doesn't have to be this rule bound scary process like most make it out, it's mostly just good ol' common sense.
If you've got common sense, canning comes easy....if not, it suddenly becomes this frustrating, fearful undertaking wherein one doesn't know what to do and which advice to follow.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
That's happening right here in the US, sad to say. There are cities and suburbs where folks cannot kill their own chickens or rabbits at home without getting fined and their animals removed. And it has nothing to do with food purity or anything to do with environmental issues...it has to do with stupid people who think it's cruel to kill your food animals. The land of the free is quickly becoming the land of the "your business is my business if it has anything to do with furry animals" .
Thank you to all the bleeding heart nincompoops who want to eat the meat but never want to know that it has to die first.
Thank you to all the bleeding heart nincompoops who want to eat the meat but never want to know that it has to die first.
NH Homesteader
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I am also not a huge fan of chicken. My husband is though. I have finally convinced him to stop raising Cornish X and will only be eating cull cockerels from our small flock.
No I am sure there are valid reasons for not wanting people to butcher their own animals. I just know a lot of people who do it with no issues... And I am very American in the sense that I don't like the government telling me what to do, especially regarding my food!
No I am sure there are valid reasons for not wanting people to butcher their own animals. I just know a lot of people who do it with no issues... And I am very American in the sense that I don't like the government telling me what to do, especially regarding my food!
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lcertuche
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Someone gifted me a 16 qt. Presto canner and I am soooo happy! I have been praying for one. I still want to get another later on but for now I already have big plans for it. My neighbor I go to church with has promised me some canning jars so I'm on my way to some good meals. I had to freeze my roosters but probably will pull them out and can them later if we don't eat them soon. I also want to make some baked beans since DH buys them all the time and the price of them are outrageous and I always have to doctor them up to make them edible, lol.
frustratedearthmother
Sustainability Master
There's a whole lot of information out there on canning.
http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-meat.html
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can5_meat.html
I have The Ball Book of Canning that I use as my 'bible' of canning.
Lots of folks have lots of different ways of doing things. There have been lots of discussion on this site and a lot of different opinions. I tend to be a 'rule follower', lol! Others have used different methods and are happy with the results.
Good luck - it's really not any harder than any other canning in my opinion.
http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-meat.html
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can5_meat.html
I have The Ball Book of Canning that I use as my 'bible' of canning.
Lots of folks have lots of different ways of doing things. There have been lots of discussion on this site and a lot of different opinions. I tend to be a 'rule follower', lol! Others have used different methods and are happy with the results.
Good luck - it's really not any harder than any other canning in my opinion.
