Hi Jillian - canning meats isn't usually something those new to pressure canning attempt. It has a bit more of a learning curve than vegetables do and its own set of potential problems. So in general I'd suggest you get some more experience first with using the PC.

But that said, yes canning meats is quite common, especially with those of us who hunt or raise our own animals. And the uses for canned meats is essentially unlimited. They can be used in any recipe where that meat would normally be included - soups, stews, casseroles, pasta sauces, stir fries, etc.

The flavor is a bit different from the same meat frozen or cooked fresh but depends on how it is seasoned in the jars. If you have never eaten any commercially canned meats you might want to buy and test the flavor of some of them first to see if it appeals.

So if you want to try it, make sure you are using the tested and approved instructions in either the Ball books or at NCHFP and follow them carefully - especially the de-fatting and skimming of fats instructions. Be sure you have the heat adjustments needed for your stove well under control to avoid any pressure fluctuations siphoning problems since that is somewhat common with meats and causes weak seals. I'd also suggest you use only the hot pack instructions rather than the raw pack to begin with.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can5_meat.html

Hope this helps.

Dave

Jillian, I've canned chicken and ground beef but I'm not very experienced yet. I have a large chest freezer but did not want to freeze everything, as on the Gulf Coast the electricity will sometimes fail during hurricanes.

I recently made a jalapeño chicken rice casserole using the canned chicken and it was wonderful. And the ground beef was used in some highly seasoned burritos and it was fine.

I can many pints of venison and fish each year. I also regularly can grouse, rabbits and squirrels. Our canned venison and small game is used for stew, stroganoff, our just eating out of the jar. It makes a quick great lunch for me at work mixed with a jar of canned beans and carrots.

Our fish is far superior to canned tuna from the store for fish soup, fish salad sandwiches, or "tuna" noodle hot dish.

My meat and fish is canned at 10lbs pressure for 90 minutes in pint jars only. Venison, grouse and other small game can be hot packed or raw packed with a 1/2 tsp of canning salt, a clove or two of garlic, and some onion slices.

Our fish mostly consists of winter caught and speared northern pike. It is raw packed, bones and all, with 2 tbsp olive or canola oil, 2 tbsp ketchup, 2 tbsp white vinegar and 1/2 tsp canning salt.

I have also canned walleye, whitefish, lake trout, stealhead and bass. It is all good fish for canning, with exception of panfish, such as bluegill and crappie, as they tend to be a little too dry, and loose more flavor in the canning process than they gain compared to larger game fish. These little gems are saved for frying.

Although not technically "canned," I pickle a lot of fish too. This is stored in jars in the fridge in winter for up to 3-4 months, although typically gets eaten a lot sooner depending on how much I make each winter.

Tbengr, what an interesting and lovely post. I live in NE Ohio and wish that I had access to all of the wonderful fish you mentioned. My son caught a nice size steelhead this spring and shared it with my husband and I, and it was the most delicious fish I have ever had. You truly have the most wonderful, fresh, healthful fish at your fingertips. (I know someone has to go out and get it-it's not like you pick it up under a tree!) In my next life, I am going to come back in an area like yours. :-) How wonderful to be so self sufficient! I will live vicariously through your posts.

I recently ordered a pressure canner. One of the first things I am going to try is, a copycat version of Underwood Deviled Ham. (I think I have 4 hams in the freezer, and need to get them out of there. If anyone else knows what else I can do with it, just chime in!

Please note that the processing time for canned fish in pints is 100 minutes, not 90 mins. and while a small amount of oil is allowed to be added to tuna, ketchup is not and bones are supposed to be removed.

Please also note that Deviled Ham is not safe to can as it contains mayonnaise and/or rice cereal, both of which are prohibited by the guidelines, and is a pureed product. Just because something is pressure canned doesn't automatically mean it is safe to eat.

There are very specific guidelines when it comes to canning meats and fish. If you want to can hams then this link is the instructions:

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_05/ground_chopped.html

Dave

Dave, the recipe I have seen contained brown rice cereal. I wonder why it is not a safe ingredient?

Yeah I know the recipe as we have talked about it here in the past. That is not a safe canning recipe, just fresh eating/cooking recipe.

Because it is a thickener, it alters the density substantially. The USDA guidelines prohibit the addition of any rice, pastas, flour, and other cereal grain products to any recipe due to the heat penetration problems they create. and the internal cold spots that result. Same is true for pureed low acid foods. You puree AFTER opening the jars.

Best to stick with recipes only from approved canning sources, sites that understand the science behind it and how it differs from cooking.

Dave

Interesting information about canning fish Dave. I will defiantly defer to the recommendation for 100 min, versus 90. I usually stretch times a bit anyways, and have been doing it the way I described earlier for decades with excellent results.

The only bones I leave in are the y-bones in pike and lateral bones in other fish, but I have had fish that was canned round with the spine intact. Bones in canned fish disintegrate.

Regarding Ketchup not being recommended…I wonder why not. I got my recipe from a family that has been canning fish from Lake Superior for generations. Do you have any scientific knowledge or theories as to how two tbsp of ketchup would be potentially deleterious? Based on my experience I am not going to change my recipe, but would strongly recommend that others only do what they are completely comfortable with.

Sorry had a long explanation written out and hit the wrong button - its late. ;-)

The basic problem with ketchup - and it varies with the brand - is the oils and/or thickeners it may contain. Some use corn starch, some flour, some various gels. Those may not sufficiently break down during processing and so interfere with heat penetration as do the oils that coat any bacteria present preventing the heat from killing it. So be sure to read the label carefully. Or you can use seasoned tomato sauce with no problems. That's what we use with our walleye, trout and crappie.

Granted 2 T isn't much per pint but could make a difference if canned in 1/2 pints as many do.

Yeah I know the bones tend to disintegrate but they are also the primary source of any mercury present so remove as much of them as you can.

USDA tends to bend over backwards where fish is concerned - especially tuna - simply because so many of the documented cases of botulism have come from home canned fish and because it is often eaten straight from the jar with no follow-up cooking to neutralize any toxins that might have developed.

Dave

PS: how does squirrel hold up to canning? Never tried it as we prefer them fresh fried.

Thanks Dave. Interesting information.

I think canned squirrel is very good. I prefer them fresh and fried as well, but the canning makes it very tender for a delicious quick stew in the dead of winter.

Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone! I am a food scientist by training, so will surely be using only tested recipes. My mom used to buy canned chicken growing up, so I'm ok with that flavor. I just wanted some ideas for what to use it for.

Meats will be a fall/winter project for me as tomatoes, apples, and peaches will be keeping me busy for awhile.

I've only canned venison and a few tries at meat sauces like chili or spaghetti sauce. We love the venison and use it as Annie and Dave do, in soups, stroganoff and as a gravy over potatoes or noodles. I can mine in mostly tomato juice but also in a broth. My whole family love it in these uses, even the ones kinda squeamish about the thought of venison. The chili I made had good flavor but I was not liking the texture of the ground beef in it, probably operator-error of some kind. I keep talking about canning some other meats but so far have not. Our hogs are getting ready to head to slaughter so I need to do something with the meat already in the freezer, as I don't know what I would do with canned pork but I'll figure out something. We raise our own beef but only one animal at a time so we usually use up the beef before freezer space becomes an issue. I really like canned beef (gifted a few jars from a friend) and would use it as I do the venison. We raise our own chickens as well but I had a bad experience with the last batch of meat birds and haven't done it since. Canning would probably make the meat tender, as that was the issue with that bad batch. LOL, no amount of slow cooker time made those edible! We have 3 freezers plus the kitchen fridge/freezer. We keep beef in 2 of those and pork/chicken in the 3rd. The 3rd freezer was a traumatic buy since we brought our beef home and it wouldn't fit in the freezer it was supposed to. DH made a MAD dash to the local appliance store for the 3rd one. Our kids shop at our house but I would like to get more jars on the shelf and free up the freezers. Lori

gardengal, I also had a "bad" experience with homegrown chickens, then I realized that I had neglected to allow the 24-48 hours on ice that I normally allow before packaging my chickens. They were tough and stringy, I'd cleaned and plucked them and had something scheduled the next two days, so I figured I'd get them right in the freezer. That was a mistake, Grandma apparently told me to let them "age" for a reason. Now I'm sure to allow at least 24 hours packed on ice before I vacuum seal and freeze them, and they've been fine. If I have old/tough birds I usually grind them and make sausage, Grandma used to make chicken and dumplings but Elery dislikes them, and so sausage it is.

Annie

Annie, I was surprised by your last post. I used to raise pastured poultry (a very specific technique involving meat birds in cages on pasture and fed a highly specific additional ration) and now buy it from others. The birds are killed, picked up the same day and taken home and frozen. The mean is never tough or stringy--always firm, tender and incredibly delicious. I wonder why the difference.

Lacey, the chickens were the same breed, the same approximate age, the same living conditions on the same farm. When I first decided to raise some "meat chickens" I called on good old Michigan State University Extension, who told me to age the chicken "overnight". The ones I froze immediately were tough and the ones I leave on ice for 24 hours are not. It might have been a fluke, but I haven't tested it to see if it happens again, I didn't want to waste that many chickens. I suppose I could freeze just one immediately, as a test case, but I won't have chickens again until spring now, trying to scald and pluck in the snow just isn't something I even want to think about!

When I was checking to see why I would have to age chicken in the first place, I found this information:

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-84782004000300038

I also read an article in Homesteading Today, which addressed the "rigor" in muscles after slaughter, and how it dissipates 8-12 hours after. The information was similar to this "discussion" I also found on line when looking for the article:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/poultry/483751-processing-chickens-after-slaughter-resting-before-freezing.html

So anyway, I slaughter, pluck, clean and pack on ice for a day, then vacuum seal and freeze, that's what has worked for me. However, with all the variables, including diet, environment, breed of chicken, etc., I think probably experiences may vary.

Annie

Well, I might try the meat birds again after reading your post. I tend to research (ad nauseum) before I do something like that but I seem to remember that we butchered those unsavory chickens and tossed them into the freezer pretty quick, probably for the same reason you mention...time. I did some heritage birds and kept them confined (humanely, good space but not free range like our egg-layers). People have good luck with the broilers but I had just heard icky things about them. I'm assuming that if you raise them right, you will have good luck. Lori

Lori, I found that if you give the Cornish Cross broilers clean space and room, they aren't so "weird". I put food at one end of their space and water at the other, so they had to walk around and couldn't just sit in front of the feeders. After about 4 weeks, I'd put the feeders in the pens for 12 hours, then take them out for 12 hours. Move them enough and although they eat/drink/poop/repeat, they aren't as messy, but you have to be able to move them from space to space. They definitely don't fly over fences but they need to be protected at night from neighbor's dogs, coyotes, foxes, possums, skunks, owls.....well, you get it, everything wants chicken for dinner. 7 weeks will give me 8 or 9 pound birds.

I do prefer the heritage breeds, but you don't get the feed conversion that you get with the broilers.

Annie