WHAT ARE YOU CANNING TODAY?

[Dreaming of Chickens]

Hopefully canning some ground chuck tonight or tomorrow night. Rouse's Supermarket has it on sale, so I think I'm gonna pick up about 20 lbs. Some will go in the freezer, but it'll be my first time using my pressure canner. I'm so excited!!

 

[moolie]

Hopefully canning some ground chuck tonight or tomorrow night. Rouse's Supermarket has it on sale, so I think I'm gonna pick up about 20 lbs. Some will go in the freezer, but it'll be my first time using my pressure canner. I'm so excited!!

Dreaming, you're going to love it! Canned hamburger is one of the handiest things to have around, and once you've done your first batch, I bet you'll be thawing and canning whatever you put into the freezer

 

[ORChick]

6 pints of cream of mushroom soup base. Will need to add milk and seasoning when they are opened. Depending on how we like the results I'll double (or more) the recipe next time. 6 pints in the canner is just silly

How do you can cream of mushroom soup base? That sounds like a wonderful idea!

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1790 -- specifically post #12 (I think )

 

[LittleRoosterCroft]

Thanks for the link!

 

[moolie]

Just pulled 7 pints of ground bison from the pressure canner

 

[ORChick]

I put 5# of leaf lard through the meat grinder, and put it in the slow cooker to render. Then I scooped the melted fat out, and through a fine sieve, into clean hot pint jars, and put 2 piece lids on them. 4 of the 6 have "pinged", and I'm hoping the others will too. Not really canning, as they haven't gone through the canner. I keep the jars in the freezer, even if the lids went down, though I know of at least one person who keeps them in a cool pantry. I'm planning to leave one on the shelf this time around, as an experiment.
(The solid bits from the rendering are back in the slow cooker, on HI, to crisp up, and give off the last of their lard. The chooks will like the crispy bits - and so do I, sprinkled over a salad, like bacon bits)

 

[rathbone]

The salad sounds amazing!

 

[ORChick]

The salad sounds amazing!

The salad? Not the lard? Oh, come now ... think of the tamales, re-fried beans, or (more likely, in my case) pie crusts - .
They all "pinged" as they cooled, but I still won't trust them on my (fluctuating temperature) pantry shelf. Maybe, as I mentioned, one of them to experiment. I know I will smell it if it gets rancid, but what about other things? Can clean fat harbor botulism?

 

[sufficientforme]

I found instructions to process it (howtobaker.com), I would like to give it a try but it would have to be shelf stable due to storage or lack of.

Canning your lard. Allow the rendered lard to cool on the counter until it begins turning opaque. This will help prevent you from being burned by molten pig fat. While the lard is cooling, prepare your trusty water-bath canner for operation and begin heating the canning lids by placing them in a saucepan of simmering water. Pour the warm lard into sterilized 1/2 or pint-sized canning jars, leaving 1/2-inch headroom.
Place lids on each filled jar and tighten the lids with the canning rings. Place the filled jars in the water canner and process in boiling water (212 F) for 10 minutes (15 minutes in higher altitudes). Remove the jars from the water bath and allow them to cool at room temperature. The freshly canned lard will look like an amber liquid in the jars. However, once the jars have cooled the seals should be completed and you will be blessed with a lifetime supply of homemade culinary white gold thats free of trans fats and additives.

 

[ORChick]

Suffientforme - thanks for that info. I'll keep it handy for the next time I do this; I don't want to mess with the already finished jars from yesterday.
(I would also add, for anyone else thinking of trying this, that it would probably be a good idea to make sure the inner side of the canning lid is dry before placing on the jar. I can't think it is a good idea to add water (even only a few drops) to the lard in the jar.)