Canning meat

[Beekissed]

Sumi, will you be doing your own butchering of the pigs and lambs? If not, you can always tell your processor to chunk up or grind up all your meat towards canning it...that oughta make it easier for you on the back end.

Have them save all your bones, ears(makes good dog chews) and fats so you can make bone broth and render your lard too....so much wasted or going to someone else when folks leave all that behind at the butcher's. Same way with your sheep's skin...depending on your breed, a lot of lanolin can be rendered out of that hide and you can even tan it afterward if you are so inclined, or sell it to someone who will.

 

[sumi]

@Beekissed I can butcher animals, but I am not sure if I will be allowed to do so here… Ireland is awesome, but they are mad over regulations, especially anything to do with farming/food. I will have anything bigger than a chicken processed (cut, minced, etc). Chickens are easy and small enough to do quietly at home.

In S.A. we used to give all the "off cuts" to whoever helped butcher, as part of their fee. Here, I'm thinking of doing as you suggested, and using whatever useable bits I can get off the carcass. I'm not sure if I'll tackle a sheep skin though… I may just sell that to someone who'd put it to use.

 

[Beekissed]

They don't let you butcher at home even if you don't intend to sell the meat to anyone else? How did folks let that happen to them there? What's the big issue with it...disposal of the blood and offal, perhaps?

 

[sumi]

I'm not 100% sure, I will have to look into it, but I've been told they are quite strict about absolutely everything, including disposing of offal etc. I've heard stories of farmers ignoring dead or dying animals in fields (not their own), because it's such a hassle disposing of carcasses etc, they don't want to get involved. I remember, about 4 years ago, when we first came here, stopping to help a sheep that appeared to have got it's horn stuck in a farm gate, right by the road. When I got close to it my nose told me I was a good few days too late The poor thing had to stay until it's owner came back and to it….

Selling meat, even to friends and family, requires a lot of paperwork, farmers are limited in the number of cows etc they are allowed to keep during their first years of farming, etc. Our local butcher has a sign up on his wall giving the herd number of the cows he got his beef from, which abattoir the poor things met their maker at, the whole toot. Lots of regulations here. When the time comes, I will probably go the easy route and have my animals butchered and processed at an abattoir, or similar facility.

 

[sumi]

Now… At some point in future I will have to buy equipment for canning. Since I had to start from scratch here, I've been buying things as I needed them and the kitchen is still underway. What do you all have and like and prefer equipment-wise?

 

[waretrop]

Do you have garage sales or flee markets around your house???

 

[Beekissed]

I have a pressure canner, a steam canner, a jar lifter, a canning funnel, a strainer, lids, rings, jars, a large stock pot, and sharp knives...can't do much of anything without a good set of sharp knives that hold an edge when sharpened. I good, stout bottle brush is also handy for when you are washing jars.

We also have various large basins for holding food during the breaking down of meats, veggies and fruits. I also find a simple blender comes in handy...we use a Ninja brand blender here and it saves me so much work that it's incredible...also saves time, as it reduces the size of food particles enough that one can skip a long, long cooking down of things to break them down to a sauce.

If you do jams and jellies and such the list gets longer but I keep it pretty simple here and we haven't done jellies and such for around 40 yrs now...we figured out that no one could ever eat that many condiments here, so we don't go through the hassle any longer.

 

[sumi]

Do you have garage sales or flee markets around your house???

Car boot sales, yes.

 

[sumi]

Beekissed, I've done jams and jellies for years. And chilli sauce for awhile (sold those). We also preserved some fruit, but not much. Meat is something that is not "done" in S.A. as far as I know, I've never heard of it being done until I read about it on the forums here, to be honest!

 

[Beekissed]

That's kind of funny when you think about it, Sumi. Before freezers, how did the folks in your country preserve their meat....salting, smoking, curing, on the hoof? Here in the US it's as old as the first jars and before that they had canneries where folks would bring their fish and other meats to be canned into tin cans.

I'm often surprised at the number of folks even here in the US who have never canned meats or are intimidated by it. I've been raised in a culture where it's pretty common and just standard practice, so when I read on the forums and groups about people being scared of using pressure canners or of canning meats it always surprises me.

I'm often even more surprised at the number of people who won't eat their own chickens....it never occurred to me that there were people who would raise a food animal but never turn them into food, but would rather eat that same type meat/animal, that had been raised by others in a very dirty and cruel food production system.

Until I joined BYC, I had met few people who did that but it seems there are more folks out there keeping chickens than there are eating chickens they keep than I had ever dreamed possible. Again, it's a cultural gap and a big one, so it's a surprising ol' world out there. The learning just goes on and on....