Why I Can Meat

It’s convenient. Grab a jar from your pantry, pop it open, and you have wonderfully tender meat all ready to add to your recipes. I love having ready to eat, cooked meat on hand for recipes too. It makes meals go so much faster. Plus it tastes darn good. Really! Home canned meat is tender, juicy, and can be seasoned however you like.

Ground Venison with Onion in it.

It saves on freezer space. We have two freezers out in our house. A small one and a large deep freezer, but they are ALWAYS too full, no matter what I do. Anytime I can store food at room temperature, it’s a huge plus for me. Have you ever had a power outage and had all the meat in your refrigerator and freezer spoil? Yeah, me too. BLECK – it smells soooo bad AND it is an expensive loss. Not to mention trying to can or eat all that meat before it spoils is a pain. So in taking a page from my son’s Boy Scouts Motto of “Always Be Prepared” It’s a smart preparedness measure. No one wants to be stuck eating dry cereal and crackers if your power goes out… Just sayin'.

I don’t know why, but I always thought canning meat would be hard. It is SO not. I also thought it couldn’t possibly be safe. WRONG. Low acid veggies tend to be the main culprit in the US for botulism. (Who knew?!) The pressure canning process kills everything.

It is really easy to do so don’t be intimidated. Be sure to trim the gristle, bruised areas and excess fat. Meat MUST ALWAYS be processed in a pressure canner. There are no exceptions (that I am aware of). The processing times may seem rather long, but trust me, the time is worth the investment. You can process in broth/water or dry raw pack. (If dry raw packing, the meat will make it’s own juice).

Ground Meat: As in beef and venison are really versatile too.  They go great in:

Burritos,

Chili,

Hamburger helper,

Spaghetti sauce,

Tacos (can we say Taco Tuesday in the House?!)

Ham is another really handy one to have. I usually cube it up. If I had a large Sunday Ham with a bunch of left overs, I will can up the extra. I use it in:

Split Pea Soup

Bean Soup

Au gratin & Scalloped Potatoes

Baked Mac n Cheese

Chicken Soup -
Fresh out of the Pressure Canner.

Chicken Breast. I usually cut this into ½ to 1 in cubes 

Soups (Chicken, Tortilla, White Chicken Chili)

Chicken Salad

Chicken Alfredo

BBQ – just shred it up, toss it into the crock-pot with some BBQ Sauce and throw a pack of buns next to it and bam! Happy munching. (great for potlucks too)

Roasts and cut meat are great too. Tenderloin, Roasts, are fantastic. I just cut them up to the size I want or even different sizes in different jars for variety. I usually add a quarter of an onion to each quart too. It is really good right out of the jar (yes you can eat it right out of the jar). The juice is what I use for my gravy bases too. There is some serious flavor there.

Beef Roast

Venison Roast

Pot Roast

Stews

Beef Stroganoff

Asparagus, Mixed Veggies 
and Ground Beef

There are loads of recipes on YouTube and the internet, but I always use my Ball® Blue Book® Guide to Preserving for cooking times and for reference. It is likely the most used book in my house (second only to my Bible devotions).

One more note, I bring canned meat with me when camping. It eliminates the need for cold storage for meals with meat. It is shelf stable. You just have to make sure not to break the jar LOL.