There may be times when you are unable to get meat from the grocery, such as a disaster. Cathy Isom has some helpful tips why you should consider pressure canning meat. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Pressure canning meat can be a bit intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be scary. With the right equipment and directions, you can have jars of ready-to-go meat for dinner each night.
Some reasons to consider pressure canning meat: it makes dinner time convenient, reduces freezer dependency, helps you to be prepared, and you can take advantage of sales. Not to mention, the meat tastes good.
Be forewarned, you must always use a pressure canner when you can meat. There’s no exception to that rule. Also, know the differences between the Hot Pack Method and the Raw Pack Method. Hot packing is a bit more work because you need to brown or precook the meat first. Raw pack doesn’t require that, as you might guess.
No matter which method you choose, the processing time is the same, and you’ll have fully cooked meat when you open the jar. Some helpful tips to remember when canning meat:
- Always pick high-quality, chilled meat to can.
- Remove as much of the excess fat as possible.
- Soak strong-flavored wild meats for 1 hour in brine water that has one tablespoon of salt per quart.
- Make sure you remove any large bones in the meat.
- You can form ground meat into patties or meatballs if you want. However, you can’t use bread crumbs, flour, eggs, or rice as fillers. It needs just to be patties or balls of meat.
- And, Start with tried and trusted recipes. The pressure canner that you purchase should come with a manual with dozens of recipes to try as well.
I’m Cathy Isom…