Finally! The Canning Meat Thread

[Natty Bumppo]

"The book" says one year. I always get nervous about answering questions like that. Those answers come straight out of the liability fine print.

http://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/pressure-canning

Thanks. I may try this. Sounds good.

 

[SD51555]

Last touches today. When I can, I get some boil over and end up with greasy jars. Now that they're all cooled off and sealed up, last step was to wash off the jars in room temp soapy water. This is simply so there is no residual smell in the cabinet and nobody has to get a greasy hand when grabbing one out.

Here's the last pic of the finished product. If you've never seen canned meat before, the white at the top is the lard (fat) that cooked outta the meat. Or as I like the call it, the flavor!


Somebody should ask me what kind of canner I have. It's different.

 

[Buckly]

Do you take the rings off?

 

[SD51555]

I do before I put them on the shelf, yes.

 

[biglakeba$$]

It has to be one of the least appetizing looking foods in the pantry.... But dang, it is crazy good.

When I show it to people, you do not get much interest in it. HAAAAA.

 

[wiscwhip]

We have had deer in the past that were shot during the last weekend of the rifle season or during the late doe season and all the "butchering helpers" were not around, so we would can everything accept the backstraps, tenderloins, and the "football" roast out of the hindquarters. the rest got cut into 1" cubes and thrown in the canner! We usually use quart jars, so we get less jars per deer.

 

[SD51555]

Update: I ate my first jar this weekend. I dumped it into a small pan and mixed in some dry alfredo mix with a little butter. Poured that over the top of some skin on red mashed potatoes. Here is my feedback. MORE!!! Oh was that good!

Please, somebody ask me what kind of canner I have. Its neat.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

Update: I ate my first jar this weekend. I dumped it into a small pan and mixed in some dry alfredo mix with a little butter. Poured that over the top of some skin on red mashed potatoes. Here is my feedback. MORE!!! Oh was that good!

Please, somebody ask me what kind of canner I have. Its neat.

What kind of canner do you have SD?

 

[SD51555]

Yeah! Ok...

It's a Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry All American 21qt gasketless canner/cooker. It'll do 7 quarts or 16 pints at a time. I like the gasketless design because there's no expiration date on the canner. How many people do you know that go garage sale hunting for canners like theirs so they can get a replacement gasket? All you need with this guy is a to smear some cooking oil around the rim and seal her up. I don't see any way this thing could ever fail, unless perhaps the pressure gauge goes. I love this thing. Coolest tool I've discovered since tree plugs.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

Feel better now SD?....lol. Looks slicker than snail snot!

 

[SD51555]

Feel better now SD?....lol. Looks slicker than snail snot!

I do. Thanks Phil. I just get really exicted about having that caliber chow in the cabinet and it only taking 5 minutes to prepare on the back end.

 

[wiscwhip]

Nice SD! Those things are the Cadillac of home canners! My uncle has one that was made sometime in the 60's and he still uses it every year. He might have replaced the gauge on it once, I will have to remember to ask when I see him.

 

[SD51555]

Nice SD! Those things are the Cadillac of home canners! My uncle has one that was made sometime in the 60's and he still uses it every year. He might have replaced the gauge on it once, I will have to remember to ask when I see him.

Of all the things I've spent a couple hundred bucks on, this has paid off the most in the shortest time. I've run a couple hundred jars through it already, and I am planning to do another large batch of either pork or beef this month or next. I've just gotta source some meat first. I've also got plans to do some beef stew before my busy season heats up in January. I took one weekend and ran 42 quarts of green beans through that thing this summer. Awesome tool!

 

[chickenlittle]

I have the same canner. Been to busy to do much canning this year so the freezer is tight. This thread was a nice reminder that I wanted to can venison this year.

I took a small doe on the last day of PA's ML doe season. Only about 25lb of meat after boned out. I canned everything but the backstraps and tenderloin. Got 18 pints. Everyone likes it so far. My toddler gobbled hers down last night. She said "I love deer!" I will probably cut back to 1/4 tsp salt per pint.

 

[chickenlittle]

Sad day. We opened our last pint tonight. I asked my 3 year old what she wanted for dinner and she said "deer meat!". If we had enough, I think we would have eaten a 2 or 3 quarts a week.

 

[SD51555]

I hear that. I split a quarter of beef with my dad a few weeks ago. I traded him my steaks for his roasts. He gave me a few extra pounds to compensate for the steaks. I'm hoping to get the canner fired up in the next few weeks and get all that processed. I'd like to get the pantry up to 20 pints of beef soon.

 

[Bill]

Back when you started this thread I kept my mouth shut cause the stuff in those jars didn't look very good to me.

Since then a freind gave me some canned venison served on a roll for lunch. All I can say is I will have one of those pressure cookers before next season!

 

[bowhunternw]

I have to agree the stuff looks terrible but tastes great.

 

[j-bird]

So I'm going to ask a dumb question here....... sine I am not at all familiar with canning. If I know of someone that cans veggies and the like they can do this with the same equipment? I am curious - to my knowledge I have NEVER had canned deer. Deer is the primary red meat in our house, but we typically have it in burger or tenderloins - simply because it is handy and flexible for us. So, another dumb question - you still have to cook it when it comes out of the jar correct? Another dumb question - could you essentially pre-make the meat as part of the canning process (say add spices for taco meat or even BBQ sauce or the like)? This is a very interesting idea that I have never really been exposed to.

 

[Bill]

No expert on pressure cooking but I do can some stuff using the water bath method.

To answer your question. Maybe your friend has the right stuff. Pickled veggies can be canned with a water bath. Non pickled veggies "usually" require a pressure cooker. So if their pickling they don't have a pressure canner.

Stuff is cooked in the process so all you have to do is warm it up.

Yes with a pressure canner/cooker you can pre make stuff and can it. But I always go to my book. Ball complete book of Home Perserving.
It gives how to and processing times for lots of stuff.