Canning qustions

[ch1ch2]

How does the flavor/texture of the bacon turn out?

Aaron Z

Like when cooked with beans. And greatly improves the favor of the venison.

 

[teejk]

Like when cooked with beans. And greatly improves the favor of the venison.

I bet it does (and probably doesn't require much). I knew a lady that would can venison and always used a chunk of beef fat or "salted side pork" in the jar. For some reason the art of canning seems to be making a come-back after disappearing for years. My dad owned a grocery store and come the middle of May we would have to clear a large space for stacks of jars and lids and rings and "Sure gel" and wax and all the stuff that come with the process. Jams/jellies were early then veggies would take over then the boxes of Colorado peaches and Bartlett pears would arrive and then the apples would start to ripen. That all seems to be coming back now. Nice to see I think. Time consuming no doubt but somehow relaxing at the same time. As an aside, was in SD a few weeks ago and got to try a veggie medley of carrots, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, bell pepper and probably some other stuff...was pickled/canned in 1/2 gal jars so beyond what I can do with my equipment but it was good. Occurs to me that all the ingredients are available year round and even store bought would not be an expensive proposition. It's on my list...

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I did it! 10 qt. Jars filled with venison chunks and all top sealed.

If you are in any way concerned with botulism, be aware that cooking will make food botulism safe. Just boil it for a while. If you use the meat in a stew, it will be safe to eat by the time the stew is done. You can't destroy the spores by boiling, but the toxin is denatured by heat and will be gone after 5 minutes at 85 degrees C (185 degrees F). That's why cooking home-canned food is a good idea. That said, I like to make tuna salad with home-canned tuna, but that's because I know how it was canned.

BTW, canning a tuna is a production because of the long pressure time and it's a big fish. I have a friend who built a surplus autoclave into a large capacity canning retort. He can do 80 half-pint jars at a time in it.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I have been canning soups. The soup simmers for 3-4 hours until it is ready to can. There surely is not any wee bad bugs in the soup that has simmered for hours. Putting the soup in a jar does not take long and it is boiling hot. The pressure cooker takes 15-20 minutes? to pressurize but the food is at boiling temperature for that time. Then it is cooked for whatever the books says and there is another 15-20 minutes for the pressure to drop. I know the food is boiling during the depressurization because I can see the food boiling in the jar for 30 minutes or so after I put the jar out to cool on a towel. As long as the lid is sealed there ain't nothing bad surviving in that jar. It really makes me think that the cook times are VERY conservative. I have found some of my lids very difficult to get off too. :laughing:

Because the cooking time seems very conservative, i.e., erring on safety, I really prefer to pressure preserve.

Later,
Dan

Boiling doesn't kill botulism, but heating the soup to boiling before serving destroys the toxin. Just don't eat it without reheating.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

How will a pressure canner make food safe at 10 psi??

To me,,, 250 degrees F needs 20 psi,,,
Recently, meat has been considered impossible to make safe with pressure canning.

What is 10 psi achieve? 225 degrees F.?

At sea level you start at 14.7 PSI atmospheric pressure, so you need to be looking at 24 or 25 psi on that chart.

 

[Bird]

I haven't seen any information in this thread about canning jackrabbit sausage. When I was a kid, we never canned any, but we ate every jackrabbit I could shoot. But my paternal grandmother would not eat jackrabbit. She said the first couple of years she and my grandfather were married, they didn't have much money, but jackrabbits were plentiful and she said she canned lots of sausage made from jackrabbits so they ate a lot of that. She said she'd already eaten all the jackrabbit she wanted and wasn't going to eat any of it anymore.

 

[teejk]

I haven't seen any information in this thread about canning jackrabbit sausage. When I was a kid, we never canned any, but we ate every jackrabbit I could shoot. But my paternal grandmother would not eat jackrabbit. She said the first couple of years she and my grandfather were married, they didn't have much money, but jackrabbits were plentiful and she said she canned lots of sausage made from jackrabbits so they ate a lot of that. She said she'd already eaten all the jackrabbit she wanted and wasn't going to eat any of it anymore.

Well known fact...you could eat as much rabbit meat as you wanted and essentially starve to death (kinda like celery)! I like rabbit meat but it needs to be supplemented with some fat.

 

[jack707]

Rabbit meat needs to be seasoned to be good it plan meat.

 

[TnAndy]

How does the flavor/texture of the bacon turn out?

Aaron Z

Texture doesn't work out good when canning it raw...which is what that pic is. Falls apart when you pull it out and cook it....makes good salad crumbles, but not strips.

The secret we later learned is pre-cook it to about 75% or so done....not crisp, still 'limp', and finish cooking after you pull it out of the jar. So, now we kill a pig, cure the bacon (Morton cure, refrigerator for 10 days in ziplock bags), then rinse it several times in cold water to get rid of excess salt, slice and have a big 'fry day'.

couple big skillets, camp stove, outside:

Piles of semi cooked:

Roll in parchment paper:

Stuff roll in a pint jar. We get 4 servings per pint. (quart in this pic, but we switched to WM pints later....too much wasted space in quarts.)

Process:

Finish product:

 

[jack707]

I looked it up to that the way they did it in mother nature mag.