Canning beef ???

[Savren]

I have been able to buy beef at $2.00 per pound, cut and wrapped, from a friend. It is nice to see that there is little liquid when browning the ground meat. It is nice lean beef and tastes great.

He bought 30 mature “lawn mowers” last spring and later sold all but two. One was processed into the normal cuts and the other one was ground into hamburger. He is selling it to friends for that price just to recover his costs.

So I bought another 50 pounds, about two thirds ground and the rest in various cuts. I haven’t tried any of the roasts or steaks yet . He said they may need a bit of tenderizing!

As I was putting it in the freezer I thought why not can some of it. Having jars of food that only needs heating, on the shelf is appealing. I have a pressure canner and have canned salmon, fruit and vegetables before, so I am familiar with canning. but not with meat.

I am thinking of stew and chili. A search has turned up canning taco meat, fajita meat, sloppy joes meat.

Any suggestions, recommendations, taste tests would be welcome.

If things go well I may have to back and purchase more.

[feather]

Wow good pricing!
I can the chunks of beef or venison with added water and then salt in a raw pack. You know you pressure can, right? 90 minutes, 11 lbs of pressure or higher depending on your altitude.
Hot pack or cold pack ground meat, water, salt, pressure can. Go for it, it takes up less freezer space that way.

[Mari-in-IN]

Yeah good pricing - that's great Savren !
The last time I got my hands on a lot of ground beef I canned up a bunch of chili and also spaghetti sauce with meat.  So handy for DH's lunches, etc.  (He heats it up in the AM and pops it in his thermos) 
~Mari

ETA:  Actually, the other morning he did heat up a pint of the spaghetti sauce with meat and added some pasta that he had previously undercooked just a tad the night before.  By the time he ate it at lunch the pasta was just right - not mushy.  Worked out pretty good!
~Mari

[northerngardener]

Beef roasts are tender when pressure canned. If you a canning for just yourself, I would put it in pints, if for a family, quarts seem to work better. My favorite thing to do with chuck roast is to can beef and vegetable soup. I use the Ball book recipe.

[feather]

I like it canned plain but if I felt more creative I might make some flavored beef. Do what works for you.
At my best energy level, I can pressure can 3 batches in a day, that is 7 qts, or 8-9 pints per batch depending on if they are small or wide mouth. We are rooting for you.

[tenbusybees]

For ground meat, I brown first. (Some people raw pack it but I prefer the texture and appearance of cooking firsr.)Pack, salt, cover with water 1" head space. 75/pints or 90/quarts.

Love, love, love have canned ground beef on the shelf. So easy and fast to make a stew, chili, spag sauce, a casserole, biscuits and gravy, whatever.

I have canned sloppy Joes and chilis. They look terrible, dog food looks more appealing. LOL! Plus, canning meat plain is quicker and gives me more flexibility.

Stew meat I usually like to raw pack, salt, and cover with water. Allows the same versatility as the canned ground beef.

Oh, and one thing I do like to do is beef stew (either with cooked hamburger or raw stew meat). I do equal parts of meat, carrots, potatos (white or sweet), celery and onions. Add a spoonful of tomato paste and a dash worchestshire sauce. Salt and water to 1" headspace. 75 min for pints and 90 for quarts.

Makes a quick and hearty meal by adding some cornstarch or flour and dropping biscuit dough dumplings on top of the boiling stew.

[Ozarks Tom]

Yesterday we canned 25 quarts of chili w/beans. We make it with just a bit more water than if we were just making it ready to eat then, as a certain amount of moisture escapes the jars during canning. It's the right consistency when we open then jars that way.

We can everything you can think of with meat, spaghetti sauce, Brunswick stew, vegetable beef stew, tuna casserole mix, etc. When canning anything with meat, or just plain meat, we get as much grease out as possible, and make sure to wipe the jar rims with a vinegar soaked washcloth just to make sure we get a good seal.

Head space in the jars is very important, especially with meats, we use a gauge to make sure it's right. Too little head space can lead to bad seals.

[Jolly]

Interesting topic. We've always canned stew meat, never ground meat. We do can spaghetti sauce, but without the meat; it's added in later.

Y'all have inspired me...

[ohiodreamer]

I only can ground beef in things. I have a house full of texture sensitive people, and canned ground beef has a softer then noreal texture when canned alone. But no one minds in chili, soup, or sloppy joe.

[Use Less]

I think you MUST pressure-can for meat to be safe. Can you dry some or make jerky??

[Deleted]

We like to make hamburger rocks. They're versatile, easy to store, easy to use. AND we don't have to keep an eye on the pressure canner.

Here's a link to the recipe:
www.endtimesreport.com/hamburger_rocks.html

The site says they can keep for at least 2 years, but we eat ours so often that we haven't had the opportunity to see how long it will keep.

p.s. Check out the site for their canned butter recipe. I can vouch that the canned butter lasts at least 3 years.

[manygoatsnmore]

My mom used to take all the beef bones after we butchered and put them in the pressure canner, using it as a pressure COOKER to take the meat off the bones. Then she would can up the meat and juices in quarts in the same pressure canner - 90 minutes at 10 lbs pressure (now 11# on gauge or 10# with weights) - we are below 1,000 ft elevation. That was some of the tenderest, most flavorful meat, with only the natural juices and a bit of salt. She'd cook up egg noodles and add the beef for a quick and very tasty dish.

I've canned hamburger, and like ohiodreamer, I prefer it browned before canning, and well crumbled. I also like to can spaghetti sauce with meat. I've also canned beef chunks for soups and stroganoff. It all turned out quite well.

I'll also second dehydrating hamburger rocks, although I find it takes pre-soaking or long cooking to get them well rehydrated. I still haven't canned butter, but have canned cream cheese, and that was great - came out just like fresh when the jar was opened.

[vickinal]

Would like that recipe for canning cream cheese, Manygoatsnmore. I have leftover cream cheese packages after Christmas and would like to keep it for awhile.

[ohiodreamer]

I, too, have made hamburger rocks. I made a huge batch years ago, found an "old" jar opened it and was perfect. I'm guessing 7-8 yrs old as I would have done it in 2009 and found it when we moved in 2016. I always make sure to have a few jars on hand. When I get down to 2 I run to the butcher and get the leanest ground beef available and make up 4-5 more jars.

Butter, I have on the shelf that I canning in 2010...still perfect!

manygoatsnmore, canned cream cheese recipe PLEASE! That's one of those things I freeze, but don't care for how it thaws. Having a bunch of 1/2 pints jars of it would make me much happier.

[manygoatsnmore]

This is the video I watched before I tried canning cream cheese: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQo29wCbS8M Enjoy, vickinal and ohiodreamer.

I tried freezing cream cheese, too, and was disappointed with the texture when it thawed. I was thrilled when I opened a jar of cream cheese and made frosting out of it - and it was perfect.

I haven't tried canning any other kinds of cheese, but I have enough cheddar on hand that I need to plan a day of canning it up. I also have a freezer with about 30 lbs of butter stored in it, so I really need to try my hand at canning some of it, too.

[paquebot]

Grandparents would butcher a beef and spend a whole week canning it. No freezers and smoking not an option so everything went into glass. Only salt was added. One of my cousin's girls recently canned something like 200 quarts of Angus from their herd. For rest of the family, it's venison. First "real" meal that I recently had after 2 months of hospital and rehab fare was canned venison and noodles.

Martin

[feather]

paquebot, I'm so glad to see you posting again. So glad.

[Muller's Lane Farm]

Mar 11, 2018 15:47:06 GMT Use Less said:

I think you MUST pressure-can for meat to be safe. Can you dry some or make jerky??

Use Less, the USDA would have you believe that you must pressure can meat for it to be safe, however that is not true.  You can safely water bath meats and other low acid vegetables for 3 hours.  The caveat is that before consuming the water bathed foods, you must boil it for 5 minutes (according to World Health Organization).  Even the USDA recommends that you do this with any home pressure canned items to absolutely prevent botulism poisoning, although you have to search to find this information.

You need to understand how Clostridium botulinum bacteria work.  They are an anaerobic, sporeforming bacteria.  Without air present, as in canned goods, this bacteria will form spores that produces a neurotoxin. It is this neurotoxin that can make you sick.  The bacteria itself is heat resistant.  The vast majority of bacteria will be killed when brought to high temperatures that pressure canning produces. The neurotoxin is not heat resistant and can be easily killed at boiling temperature.

If this bacteria is present in the food you are canning, you have 2 options: kill the bacteria while it is being canned by pressure canning or kill the neurotoxin that might be produced in a 3 hour waterbath by boiling your food for 5 minutes before eating it.