Moolie - Happy Thanksgiving :)

[Living the Simple Life]

Moolie:

Would you tell me how you can your ground meat? We were the recipients of 50# of ground beef which I would like to can, I just seem to find a lot of conflicting information. I know that you can meat on a regular basis and wondered if you would give a quick rundown on the steps. I appreciate any information you can share. Thanks!

Super easy, but time consuming if you have a lot to can

I brown my ground meat in batches, then rinse it under HOT water to wash off all the fat, if I have a lot I just keep in warm in a large pan in the oven set to 200F while I'm browning the rest, then pack it into pint jars, fill with boiling water leaving 1" headspace, and process 75 minutes (for pints, quarts are 90 minutes) at whatever pressure is called for by your altitude--most common is 10 lbs, I need 12 lbs for my higher altitude.

If you want more flavour you can use bouillon or stock in place of the water, but we don't find any lack of taste just using boiling water.

When I cook with it, if I don't need the extra water in the recipe I'm making I pour the water out of the jar first and save it for home made soups--gives a nice beefy flavour to soups.

Thanks! Some of the instructions I found said to can the fat with the meat (some even added additional fat!). That just didn't sound appealing at all. The meat we received is currently frozen in 10# packages so we are going to thaw and can a package at a time.

 

[moolie]

Moolie:

Would you tell me how you can your ground meat? We were the recipients of 50# of ground beef which I would like to can, I just seem to find a lot of conflicting information. I know that you can meat on a regular basis and wondered if you would give a quick rundown on the steps. I appreciate any information you can share. Thanks!

Super easy, but time consuming if you have a lot to can

I brown my ground meat in batches, then rinse it under HOT water to wash off all the fat, if I have a lot I just keep in warm in a large pan in the oven set to 200F while I'm browning the rest, then pack it into pint jars, fill with boiling water leaving 1" headspace, and process 75 minutes (for pints, quarts are 90 minutes) at whatever pressure is called for by your altitude--most common is 10 lbs, I need 12 lbs for my higher altitude.

If you want more flavour you can use bouillon or stock in place of the water, but we don't find any lack of taste just using boiling water.

When I cook with it, if I don't need the extra water in the recipe I'm making I pour the water out of the jar first and save it for home made soups--gives a nice beefy flavour to soups.

Thanks! Some of the instructions I found said to can the fat with the meat (some even added additional fat!). That just didn't sound appealing at all. The meat we received is currently frozen in 10# packages so we are going to thaw and can a package at a time.

Great score on the 50 lbs of meat

Weird about the fat though, I can maybe see it if you are canning really lean meat, but I've actually found with ground meat that if there's too much fat it can get between the jar and the sealing compound on the lid and cause the seal to fail, so I always rinse my ground meat if there's any fat as I brown it. I've never had any problems with meat chunks, those I can raw and just cram them in, no liquid, same processing times

 

[moolie]

Went and took some photos around the house with my phone since BB is posting pantry pics, here's a photo of what's left in the basement from last year's canning:

(top shelf: 4 strawberry jam, 3 nectarine jam, 2 mixed berry jam, 5 cherry jams that didn't set so we're using them for berry pancake syrup, 4 marmalade, 4 fruit cocktail

second shelf down: 3 pickled beets, 4 dilly beans, 5 herbed green beans, 8 mango chutney (from this year), 3 sweet pickle relish, 8 antipasto (6 from this year)

third shelf down: 11 tomato sauce, 3 dill pickles, 1 peaches

bottom shelf: 12 pears

This summer we've also canned: 8 strawberry and 8 mixed berry jam, 4 beets (from our garden!), 6 sweet pickle relish, 6 dilly bean pickles--all of this is in boxes under the guest room bed till we use up what's on the shelves.

Still need to do:
dill pickles
bread & butter pickles
plum jam
apricot jam
nectarine jam
raspberry peach jam
peaches
pears
apples
applesauce
crabapple jelly
crabapple butter
Newhouse Farm chutney
and catch up on all the convenience meals we've been eating--not much left!

Some of what we've canned so far this year that is in a visible location (tomato sauce, salsa, chili sauce, spaghetti sauce with meat, raspberry jam, blackberry jam, and Saskatoon berry jam)

And some of our home canned convenience foods, which are sprinkled throughout the kitchen cupboards:

top left in this photo is Turkey Veg soup (thickened with yellow split peas), Borscht (cabbage and beet vegetable soup), and canned ground Bison)

We also have a couple pints of Tomato Soup, 1 Hamburger Veg Soup, and 4 Baked Beans in the camping bin--we're heading out camping this weekend!

 

[SSDreamin]

Nice pictures Moolie! Wish my pantry looked so neat and organized! I might actually take a few pictures if it was as pretty as yours or BB's!

I really love your jars too, especially the ones you used for the spaghetti sauce - those are awesome looking!

 

[TanksHill]

I love the pantry pic!! Mine is filling quickly as well.

So back up a minute to the pics of your canned goods. I love the square pints. I have a few of those myself. I have also heard you talk about the glass top jars. I thought you were talking about the ones with metal locking lids. Obviously not. So tell me about the jars. Are they old, new???

Thanks gina

 

[snapshot]

Love the photos! No garden till Fall for me. Looks like yours was great!

 

[moolie]

I love the pantry pic!! Mine is filling quickly as well.

So back up a minute to the pics of your canned goods. I love the square pints. I have a few of those myself. I have also heard you talk about the glass top jars. I thought you were talking about the ones with metal locking lids. Obviously not. So tell me about the jars. Are they old, new???

Thanks gina

My glass canning lids are a strictly Canadian size called "Gem" or "Jewel", which is about halfway between a regular mouth and a wide mouth opening size. They work just like Tattler lids, they need a rubber seal (which is reusable like the Tattler rubber rings) that I can buy locally at Canadian Tire (nationwide chain of hardware stores) and a deeper than usual metal ring, most of mine came with my jars and are zinc, some are more modern steel. Here's a few photos:

I have three styles of Gem jars--two different pints and a quart, although the quarts vary in height and some have pebbled bottoms while others are smooth. Many are marked with a year number on the bottom or on the lid, such as "47" or "53"--I have jars and lids spanning the 40s thru the 60s that I can date based on the year stamps, some are from the late 70s based on the company name ("Domglas") on the side of the jar.

I also have 3 blue quarts that are much older and have a different style of glass lid, including my fave "beehive" jar (photo below from when I bought them a month or so ago, I can take close-up photos if you would like to see more detail, the lids are really cool) plus I have several 2-quart jars on my hutch (see photo earlier in my journal).

Most of my jars were made by Dominion Glass/Domglas/Consumers Glass (I know this because they have a diamond with a "D" in it stamped into the bottom, the symbol of Dominion Glass which became Domglas in 1976 and then got bought out by Consumers Glass/Packaging in the 90s) and most of them are marked "Improved Gem Jar Made in Canada", although some say just "Gem" or "Domglas" or "Jewel Jar".

I have four styles of lids--most are the "Improved Gem Made in Canada" type on the left, some are the starburst pattern on the right, a few have concentric rings, and a couple say "Jewel".

Tomato Sauce canned up in quart Gem jars and Salsa in a pint Gem jar:

And a photo showing the box for the rubber seals that I buy from Canadian Tire:

 

[moolie]

Love the photos! No garden till Fall for me. Looks like yours was great!

Hey! Great to see you here again, bet you are looking forward to your garden

Our garden isn't anywhere near done yet, we haven't harvested any of our own tomatoes (the early ones are still green, and all the plants still have lots of flowers--the ones I'm currently canning are from the farmer's market), but we're now coming into peas and beans, and the carrot thinnings are getting closer to real carrot size--we'll pull most of them in October but will keep thinning them and eating the smalls. Parsnips and turnips will be fall harvests as well, both will stay out as long as possible because frost sweetens them. Hoping the corn does something, but we've never had much luck with corn in the past--our season is too short for backyard garden corn so we've only ever got a few small ears in the past.

Here's a funky pair of "lovey dovey" carrots that I pulled for dinner this evening:

 

[BarredBuff]

I love your shelves! Its great how they just fill up and in another month they will be fully stocked and almost done

 

[TanksHill]

Oh thank you so much for all the pictures. I love looking at the older jars. I have many that are garage sale finds. Not sure if their age but I still use most of them.

I would love to use/have glass lids. They are just beautiful.

Hummm now I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for Gem jars as well.