Need info on canning venison

[Deleted]

I know some of you put up your venison by canning it. I've never tried it but plan to do so this year.....If you have any advice or recipes I would greatly appreciate it. What has been your experience with this process?.....Thanks, Zen

[pposey]

easy and make good meat,,, I just cut out all the fat and non meat parts, cut meat into one inch chunks, fill quart jar to one inch from top with raw meat chunks, add 1 teaspoon salt, add 1 inch water in the bottom of the jar,,, it is not much water. If you do not add that little bit part of the meat will be not covered in juice and will dry out just a little long term. Then can acording to the directions with your pressure canner for raw pack meat. Make sure you don't have the lids tight,,, they will crack and make a mess/waste meat

[Deleted]

Sept 30, 2010 11:37:16 GMT -5 pposey said:

easy and make good meat,,, I just cut out all the fat and non meat parts, cut meat into one inch chunks, fill quart jar to one inch from top with raw meat chunks, add 1 teaspoon salt, add 1 inch water in the bottom of the jar,,, it is not much water. If you do not add that little bit part of the meat will be not covered in juice and will dry out just a little long term. Then can acording to the directions with your pressure canner for raw pack meat. Make sure you don't have the lids tight,,, they will crack and make a mess/waste meat

Thanks Posey...
I was hoping you would chime in. I remember you wrote something about this some time ago. Have you ever added any seasoning to the meat?
Zen

[DBinNY]

I do the same as Posey except I don't add the water and yes, the liquid doesn't quite reach the top of the meat but it doesn't seem to bother it when you use it. The water is a good idea. You definitely need a pressure cooker. I sometimes chop up an onion, mix it with the canned meat and some barbacue sauce in a crock pot and it is much like pulled pork in a sandwich.

[blacklab]

I do the same as posey except intsead of salt and water I add Bloody Mary mix. We used to do stripers with it so thought it would work on deer or elk. Just go to the grocery store and get a bottle of it.

[deadon]

Oct 2, 2010 16:15:58 GMT -5 blacklab said:

I do the same as posey except intsead of salt and water I add Bloody Mary mix. We used to do stripers with it so thought it would work on deer or elk. Just go to the grocery store and get a bottle of it.

You do strippers in bloody mary mix, kinda kinky Rusty

[Douglas]

Just Like pposey said cut out the fat and non meat parts, Add 1 teaspoon of salt. I use the non Iodidized salt, and Pressure for 90 minutes at 10 pounds. I never used any water when I can venison. You will find the jars 3/4 full of water when you take them out of the canner. Douglas

[pposey]

I don't add any seasonings, you can season it easy whenever you want to eat it. Our fav way to eat canned deer or hog is to make a big bed of partially mashed taters and put a big pond of meat and sauce right in the center,,,,, my kids flat out pig out.

Be sure to heat up on the stove in a pan not in the microwave,,, microwave seems to toughen the meat but works in a hurry, good time to season as it warms up on the stove.

[Deleted]

You guys are making me hungry .....I've got a nice young whitetail doe all picked out...She lives with one foot in the corn and one in the alfalfa, another in the beets and the last in a bean field....She otta do
Zen

[smokepole50]

I have never heard of not adding water when canning. How do you transfer the heat to the meat to cook it properly? I add water and salt and just cover the meat leaving the meat and water about a inch from the top of the jar. The jar is full and the meat is almost always covered in meat juice when the canning is done. I also only cook my venision for 45 minutes once the 10 pound pressure jiggler starts to jiggle. My canned venision will last 5 years without any loss in taste and I have ate it out to 8 years but it starts to go down hill after about 5 years. IIRC the Ball Canning book also tells you to make sure you work all the bubbles out of the water from between the meat. I can only assume this is to reduce the amount of air that has to get past the loosely sealed jar lid to create a vacuum in the jar and properly seal the jar once it has cooled down.

I have made stew in quart canning jars with venision. It turned out good but the carrots suffered a bit as they cooked a bit to much but I think it could be done better. I just added potato's, carrots and onions in with the meat and cooked it with salt. A cube of beef boullion if also a option.

You can also cut you meat so that you have long pieces 1 inch by about 2 inches long having the 2 inch side running with the meat grain. This gives you larger shreaded beef like texture and works well with your favorite sauce. I have found Sweat Baby James to go well with venison.

Smokepole

[pposey]

Smokepole are you rawpack canning or hotpack,,, rawpack the meat is raw and you do not ad any or very very little water, hotpack the meat is already cooked and you are just pressure cooking enough to seal the jar and kill any critters inside,,,,

[smokepole50]

I raw pack everything I can and I always cover it with water. Maybe there is more then one way to safely do it but I was taught this way and I am pretty sure the Ball canning book tells you to do it this way. My Venison lasts for 5-7 years. I have even eaten some that was 10 years old but it had started to degrade. It did not make me sick but it was not very good so I try and use it up now within a 5 year period. I know some people that still just boil it in jars in a open kettle but that method is not recommended anymore because you don't get the vacuum in the jar that you get with pressure canning. The pressure helps to tenderize the meat but it's main purpose is to elevate the pressure in the jar so that when the jar cools it is actually a vaccum in the jar. The better the vacuum the longer it will last.

Smokepole

[pposey]

The high heat kills all the bacteria as well,, water bath canning works well for veggies and such, I have some green beans that I know are 5+ years old that were just water bath canned but meat has to be pressure canned to be safe.

www.gopresto.com/recipes/canning/meat.php

from what this resourse and others say it sounds to me like you are using a combination of raw and hot pack methods, once you cook meat alot of the juices in the meat are removed, thats why you have to cover hot pack "cooked" meat in water or some source of fluid,,

raw packed "raw" meat still has all of it's juices and as the meat cookes they leave the meat and fill the jar around the meat,,

I bet if you covered raw meat with water and cooked the whole 90 minutes you would have overfill in your jars and a real mess in your canner from meat juices coming out of the jars,, I have always read that the full 90 minute pressure can for meat is nessisary to kill 100% of bacteria but I am sure there is a huge safety margin built in,,,,

[smokepole50]

Well PPosey you might have a good point. I will probably can a few jars this year so I'll only fill the jars half way and see how they turn out. I do notice some meat broth in my canner and on the outside of the jars which I have to clean off with soap and hot water once everything has cooled down. I never really though much about it because the jars were always full and the meat was cooked and tender plus I never have any issues with jars sealing. I do have the rare 1 in 100 jars that has a lid issue but thats about it.

Is you venison still good and moist when you use it or has it dried out from all the juices being cooked out? I like the thought of my wild game being completely covered in the jar with broth. I think it keeps better this way and it leaves less room in the jar for the vacuum to have to develop during the canning. Do you think a quart jar filled half way to the top with water plus fully packed with raw venison will end up completely full of water and meat jucie after it is all cooked?

I'll recheck the Ball canning book and see what they say. I think either method would work for some period of storage. After all you are cooking at pressure and steam if nothing else is surly to develop in the jar and cook the meat. As I see it the goal is to end up with a jar of meat that is covered in jucie. This way, any remaining oxygen in the jar is not contacting the meat and the more liquid you have in the jar the less oxygen you have.

Smokepole

[olsmokey]

I can the same as PPosey but I also drop a beef builion cube in the bottom of the jar. Makes great beef and noodles.

[deadon]

I like venison med rare to med . AM I outta luck as far as canning it goes? Thanks Rusty

[smokepole50]

Yes, but it will be tender when you cann it. I grill mine med. to med. rare as well. Canning is for long term storage so it won't get freezer burnt in a year.

Smokepole50

[pposey]

Smokepole50

I put about an inch of water in with the raw meat and that makes enough juice to cover the meat

[boarhog]

I have been wanting to get into this canning meats deal, but I would have never thought that you start with it raw! I had visualized that you would cook the meat, seasoned to taste, then fill the jars, etc. Now, I am even more interested!! Especially since frozen meat doesn't last all that well, even with the vacuum packing rig. Now I need to look into the needed equipment. What size pressure canner are you using?
Boarhog

[pposey]

the standard seems to be 7 guarts

[smokepole50]

Canners come in several sizes and can be used for cooking more then just jars. I have a small one that will hold 7 pint jars and it is also good for cooking a roast very fast or a pot of beans very fast as the pressure makes cooking and tenderizing happen quicker. I also have a Presto 7 quart canner that can also be used for pints but it will not take a double stack of pints. You would need to get a even larger canner, taller, to do the double stack of 7 pints. I'm not sure if Presto still makes the larger one anymore but my Dad has one that does 14 pints, 7 double stacked. Then you have the Jumbo model which I have one that in got from my grandmother. It will double stack quarts or take 1/2 gallon jars but it is pretty much an antique.

Smokepole

[pposey]

My grannys will do half gallons as well, thats alot of beans,,,,, best size for making pickled corn on the cob though

[boarhog]

I just ordered a Presto 23 qt pressure canner. They say it will do 7 qt jars, but I don't remember how many pints. A question I just thought about,,, how much water do you put in the canner? Surely not enough to cover the jars? Guess I could wait until it arrives and read the directions, but that would be too easy!
Boarhog

[pposey]

It will do 7 pints as well, there are marks on the inside of the canner for water levels

[rossman40]

The Prestos are about the standard of the canning crowd. Fairly cheap and good parts service. The mac-daddy is the All American line with a model that is over 40qts and can do like 19 quart jars but trying to use it on a stove top is tough. The Amish around here use a propane set-up to fire one of those up. It is tough to beat the Presto 23qt for versatility, big enough to do quarts but still small enough to use on a stove top and even use for big roast.

[mountainam]

Boarhog, If you have a 23QT it will do 7 qts; 18 or 19 pts and 4- 2qt jars. You have to double stack the pints. You still fill the unit with 2qts of water regardless.
Am

[smokepole50]

I never measured the water level in the pressure cooker. I think the instructions call for adding water until the level is about half way up on the side of the bottom level of jars you have in the canner. That ends up being about 2.5-3.0 inches deep depending on the size jars you are canning.

Smokepole