I read a post in one of the hunting newsgroups about canning deer meat.
It sounded like a good way to put up the winter's harvest without
taking up as much space in the freezer.

Is canning meat considered a safe home project? I know the old folks
used to do it but is that something that modern experts warn against?

I welcome any advice,

Sean

--
Sean Elkins Owenton, KY RKBA

Being a talented actor or musician doesn't automatically
make some high school drop-out's political ideas more
valuable or enlightened than mine.
**************************************************

In ,
Sean Elkins > took a deep breath, sighed and spoke thusly:
> I read a post in one of the hunting newsgroups about canning deer
> meat. It sounded like a good way to put up the winter's harvest
> without taking up as much space in the freezer.
>
> Is canning meat considered a safe home project? I know the old folks
> used to do it but is that something that modern experts warn against?

Canning meat is definitely a safe home project, if you use a pressure canner. The Ball
Blue Book has directions for canning venison.


> I welcome any advice,
>
> Sean



--
Marilyn
-----------
Having abandoned my search for the truth, I am now looking for a good
fantasy.

"Sean Elkins" > wrote in message
...
> I read a post in one of the hunting newsgroups about canning deer meat.
> It sounded like a good way to put up the winter's harvest without
> taking up as much space in the freezer.
>
> Is canning meat considered a safe home project?

Yep, cut into 1" chunks, pack in wide mouth pint jars, I like to add a
teeny bit of canning salt (midnight snack) then pressure can at 11# for
60-70 minutes IIRC. Would have to check the recipe but we do it yearly
too.Usually never makes it into recipes, as it's snitched and eaten plain.

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:37:04 -0800, "pheasant"
> wrote:

>
>"Sean Elkins" > wrote in message
.. .
>> I read a post in one of the hunting newsgroups about canning deer meat.
>> It sounded like a good way to put up the winter's harvest without
>> taking up as much space in the freezer.
>>
>> Is canning meat considered a safe home project?
>
>Yep, cut into 1" chunks, pack in wide mouth pint jars, I like to add a
>teeny bit of canning salt (midnight snack) then pressure can at 11# for
>60-70 minutes IIRC. Would have to check the recipe but we do it yearly
>too.Usually never makes it into recipes, as it's snitched and eaten plain.
>
I can meat regularly when it goes on sale.I veiw it as the motivation
to do many months worth of stew cooking at once.

The last batch was on a day when there were 3 different roast beef
cuts that were still left at the end of a sale at the supermarket, and
were expiring the next day, per the label. They were a bit brown on
the outside, but that only kept others from buying it, not me. The
meat was priced $17 - on sale for 4, $13 - on sale 3 -$11 - on sale
2.5 --too good a deal to pass on.

I took then home, and later that morning I cubed the big two roasts to
about 1/2" bits, browned the cibes for about 20 minutes in a skillet
in a tablespoon or two of veg oil , then tossed them into the fridge
while other ingredients were prepared.

Potatoes and carrots on sale were bought and peeled. The carrots went
through a food processor to slice, The potatoes where quartered, and
both went into a pot to warm things up. The beef and some salt,
pepper, basil and sauteed oinion rounded the pot out. Once the stuff
was all hot - i.e a good boil, I started to can.

The first pot yielded 7- quarts - that was the most that went into the
canner at one shot, and the bit left over went fresh cooked as lunch
for the family.

The second pot got more sautted onions, the left overs of the sliced
carrots, three or four cans of chopped tomatoes, some tomatoe paste, a
bunch of basil, salt, and pepper, and once bubbling, the first batch
had cooked and cooled so that the pressure canner was ready for round
two. This batch made 6-quart jars of swiss steak.

The third roast was sitting in the fridge all the while, and so, since
I was feeling productive after an early morning garage sailing tour,
getting such good meat deals, and getting it all put up we all had a
nap when the kids had theirs. Getting up later than I had meant to, I
put the small roast in a small pressure cooker, and the potatoes in
another little one, and got everyone up for dinner. It was done in
about 50 minutes, and we had roast beef, with boiled potatoes, and
buns - made earlier in the week from bread machine, for dinner. That
night we washed up the jars and canners, and put everything away.

Now we have a stock of meat stew that will keep us in meals for 7
meals, and the swiss steak we tend to eat over rice, so that it end up
that we get two meals out of a quart jar of the canned swiss steak.

We also boil off a turkey carcass in the evening while the dishes are
getting done. after thanksgiving, christmas, etc,

Before the night is over, fish out the bones and skin. After a night
in the fridge, the fat component can be lifted out with a spoon. The
remains is put back on the stive to boil. Once hot, can away - I got
4 quarts from this past Thanksgiving - Yes, I live in Canada and our
is in the recent past.

We keep the canned turkey broth on the shelf, and for a hot soup as a
meal we start with a jar's worth, and toss in any left over rice that
is lurking in the fridge, as well as maybe a half a bag of frozen
vegetables, or any left over vegetables, and have even put bread loaf
ends accumulating in the bread bag, salt pepper, italian spice maybe
etc. The thick soup is tasty and filling meal..

Three pressure cookers you may ask - well the first one, a 5 quart
was found in a neighbourhood spring clean out sanctioned pick your
neighbourhood trash week, less the weight and in need of gasket
replacement. I bought the gasket and weight the next day at the
hardware store for $15 . Before I got the parts out of my truck,
though it was another Saturday of garage sailing, and an estate garage
sale yielded a 6 quart unit with all bits, including a like new
recently replaced gasket for $7.5.

These let me pressure can half pints and pints only. I was still
looking for a deal on a larger one to allow me to pressure can quarts.
One day in late August we were in a K-mart late one night - and there
was a clearance table with some 12 quart pressure canners on it. They
had been priced at $129, marked down to $90, and on the clearance
table were marked half price - so yes, a new 12 quart pressure
cooker/canner for $45. I was please with that deal for weeks after.

And yes, it gets well used. I found about 60 quart jars, and lesser
quantiites of smaller jars as part of the spring clean out. Pints and
half pints I try to pick up at garage sales, but if it is canning
season of fresh veg and fruits, and jams, then I do not hesitate to
buy new jars. I am only a recent pressure canner, and I know that
there are those who put up thousands of jars, but this fall I have
done almost 160 half pints of different jams, jellies and marmalades,
and almost 140 pints or quarts of stew, veg, and fruits.

We currently have a six month old, and have a stock of little jars
from the first few weeks of solid food. We open a pint or quart fruit
from the summer, put it through the blender, and transfer it to the
little jars , which are then kept in the fridge til needed. If he
doesnt go for it, it gets stirred into yougurt for desert for th rest
of the family. Sometimes a bit of sugar is tasty, because all the
fruits were canned in very light syrup with the baby in mind.

Canning season is slowing to an end though. The last time the canner
was under steam was after Haloween. I gathered the neighbours pumkins
Monday following, and peeled the skin off and chopped them up. After
a bit of boiling they were soft enough to put though the tomatoe mill,
then a strainer. Tne strained pulp sat aside for a few minutes, and
the liquid went back into the pot to boil down anything that came out
of the far end of the tomatoe mill the first time. The second time
around the output of the tomatoe mill was put with the first
straining, the bits out the far end into the composter with the
peelings, and the liquid strained off was used to make some orange
juice for the next stage - making pumkin butter. A bunch of brown
sugar, honey or corn syrup, some spices, etc, and boil down to thicken
a bit to make pumpkin butter. The pumkin butter can be boiling water
canned since the orange juice concentrate added acidifies the mix.

To make a pumkin pie, take a quart jar of pumkin butter, add powdered
milk and a few beaten eggs (or soya flour if you are a substituter of
that in lieu of eggs when you bake), stir until it is smooth, and you
have 2 pie fillings. The pumpkin utter is more runny than
commercially canned pie filling, so the powdered milk prevents needing
to add more liquid that you really don't want.

After doing 13 quarts of pumpkin butter, I just peeled and cubed the
remaining pumpkin and pressure canned 14 quarts. The haloween pumkins
are not specifically meant to eat, but with a bit of sugar added they
are ok, and my little guy gobbles it down.

The neighbours who gave me thier pumkins each got a quart of pumkin
butter in return. So not a bad deal in the end for both sides of the
trade. I now have enough pumkin pie filling makings to hold us until
next year's free crop of pumpkins.

Mike Wilde wrote:

> On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:37:04 -0800, "pheasant"
> > wrote:
>
> >
> >"Sean Elkins" > wrote in message
> .. .
> >> I read a post in one of the hunting newsgroups about canning deer meat.
> >> It sounded like a good way to put up the winter's harvest without
> >> taking up as much space in the freezer.
> >>
> >> Is canning meat considered a safe home project?
> >
> >Yep, cut into 1" chunks, pack in wide mouth pint jars, I like to add a
> >teeny bit of canning salt (midnight snack) then pressure can at 11# for
> >60-70 minutes IIRC. Would have to check the recipe but we do it yearly
> >too.Usually never makes it into recipes, as it's snitched and eaten plain.
> >

(snipped truly awesome recitation)

Yeeehaw, that's a lotta cookin. I guess now I have a reason to haunt
garage sales. I cook up alota stuff and just freeze it.
Edrena

Get the biggest chest type you can afford Pat and keep a list of
contents taped to the lid. Get that Tilia too so nothing gets frost bit.
We had a 30 cubic foot chest and a 22 cubic foot upright when the kids
were still at home and they were always full. Food would have ruined if
we hadn't gone to the list method. This was pre-PC days to so everything
was done by hand. No vacuum packing back then, everything was in freezer
paper and taped.

With just the two of us we're down to the wee freezer atop the fridge
and a 12 cubic foot non frostfree upright in the pantry. Both
chock-a-block full of home grown stuff and cheap meat from the used meat
bin at the market (stuff going out of date and marked down 50% or more).

George

wrote:

> On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 22:49:00 GMT, The Joneses
> > wrote:
>
>
>
>>Yeeehaw, that's a lotta cookin. I guess now I have a reason to haunt
>>garage sales. I cook up alota stuff and just freeze it.
>
>
> Me too. I'm on the hunt for jars and a water-bath canner,
> and a pressure-canner. I don't want to buy any of them new
> if I can possibly help it.
>
> My husband has also volunteered that we could buy a second
> freezer because we buy in quantity to save money and because
> I garden and grow most of our veggies. For example, we just
> bought six months' worth of frozen fruit from an Agway
> twice-annual truck-load sale. I cook in quantity for the
> same reason (not as much as Mike though). So we're
> considering a second freezer.
>
> Our electric rates are fairly low, and our freezer's in the
> garage, using VERY little electricity all winter (it is NOT
> an auto-defrost).
>
> Pat
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> To email me, remove the trap and type my first
> name in its place.
>
> "Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
> supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
> live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry

Mike Wilde wrote:
>
> On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:37:04 -0800, "pheasant"
> > wrote:
>
> >> Is canning meat considered a safe home project?
> >
> >Yep, cut into 1" chunks, pack in wide mouth pint jars, I like to add a
> >teeny bit of canning salt (midnight snack) then pressure can at 11# for
> >60-70 minutes IIRC. Would have to check the recipe but we do it yearly
> >too.Usually never makes it into recipes, as it's snitched and eaten plain.
> >
> I can meat regularly when it goes on sale.I veiw it as the motivation
> to do many months worth of stew cooking at once.
<huge snip of wonderful post>

What a great post. I enjoyed every word. Thank you.

Minteeleaf, meat canner also

Don't forget about the "undesirables" either. the heart, for example, can be
done up in any good dill pickle mix (i like to add a habeneros just for the
heck of it).

cube up the heart and do it right along with the pickles. it really is an
excellent little snack!

Since the heart is pure muscle I've always ground it up and mixed it
into the hamburger. Back in the sixties the local butcher would sell you
hearts for ten cents apiece. Used to buy sacks full of them and then
grind them at home. Best hamburgers in the world, not to mention chili.

George

Bpyboy wrote:
> Don't forget about the "undesirables" either. the heart, for example, can be
> done up in any good dill pickle mix (i like to add a habeneros just for the
> heck of it).
>
> cube up the heart and do it right along with the pickles. it really is an
> excellent little snack!

George Shirley wrote:

> Since the heart is pure muscle I've always ground it up and mixed it
> into the hamburger. Back in the sixties the local butcher would sell you
> hearts for ten cents apiece. Used to buy sacks full of them and then
> grind them at home. Best hamburgers in the world, not to mention chili.
>
> George
>

Since regular beef has gotten so expensive (Wife payed $3.59 a pound for
hamburger meat), I was thinking of twice grinding up some beef hearts
(about $1 per pound) and mixing it with ground turkey (about 79¢ per pound)
to make something like lean ground beef. I've been cooking with ground
turkey and it's just a little too bland.

Beef heart is pretty good stirfried if you slice it thin enough and don't
cook it too long. And I used some to make beef vegetable barley soup last
week and it was pretty good. I made some chili using beef heart once
without any other meat and tasted too bloody. That was a long time ago. I
think I could do a better job now.

Best regards,
Bob

zxcvbob wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>
>> Since the heart is pure muscle I've always ground it up and mixed it
>> into the hamburger. Back in the sixties the local butcher would sell
>> you hearts for ten cents apiece. Used to buy sacks full of them and
>> then grind them at home. Best hamburgers in the world, not to mention
>> chili.
>>
>> George
>>
>
> Since regular beef has gotten so expensive (Wife payed $3.59 a pound for
> hamburger meat), I was thinking of twice grinding up some beef hearts
> (about $1 per pound) and mixing it with ground turkey (about 79¢ per
> pound) to make something like lean ground beef. I've been cooking with
> ground turkey and it's just a little too bland.
>
> Beef heart is pretty good stirfried if you slice it thin enough and
> don't cook it too long. And I used some to make beef vegetable barley
> soup last week and it was pretty good. I made some chili using beef
> heart once without any other meat and tasted too bloody. That was a
> long time ago. I think I could do a better job now.
>
> Best regards,
> Bob
>

Pull out the arteries and any crossing veins, easily seen on the surface
before grinding. Sometimes the outer membrane is tough too so check
that. Never really had a problem way back when but have no contacts for
beef hearts around here. Back home we had two abbatoirs that custom cut
meat plus had attached butcher shops so hearts were plentiful. Around
here you seldom even see liver for sale but, for some reason, they sell
lots of beef kidneys. I guess the little old ladies feed it to their
cats as I can't imagine a human eating the stuff.

When we lived in Corpus Christi, TX beef heads were hard to find. A
favorite Sunday meal for the locals there was barbacao de cabeza,
barbecued beef head. Delicious and tender as we learned when we started
standing in line to get our share. Before that we had fleshed out the
heads and made chili meat or hamburger out of our stock.

George

George Shirley > wrote:

> Since the heart is pure muscle I've always ground it up and mixed it
> into the hamburger. Back in the sixties the local butcher would sell you
> hearts for ten cents apiece. Used to buy sacks full of them and then
> grind them at home. Best hamburgers in the world, not to mention chili.

I've got a recipe in an ooold Jewish cookbook, for a stew called "Beef
Heart Chow." Small-cubed heart, tomatoes, stock, some other stuff,
simmer until tender. These days it's a "variety meat" and nowhere cheap
enough.

zxcvbob wrote:
>
> Since regular beef has gotten so expensive (Wife payed $3.59 a pound for
> hamburger meat), I was thinking of twice grinding up some beef hearts
> (about $1 per pound) and mixing it with ground turkey (about 79¢ per pound)
> to make something like lean ground beef. I've been cooking with ground
> turkey and it's just a little too bland.
>


$3.59???? wow

90% lean hamburger in 10 lb tubes are $170 lb here in RI
at Sams Club, .20 more in smaller packs.





> Beef heart is pretty good stirfried if you slice it thin enough and don't
> cook it too long. And I used some to make beef vegetable barley soup last
> week and it was pretty good. I made some chili using beef heart once
> without any other meat and tasted too bloody. That was a long time ago. I
> think I could do a better job now.
>
> Best regards,
> Bob


--
http://www.kencofish.com Ken Arnold,
401-781-9642 cell 401-225-0556
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Linux (SuSE 8.2) user #329121
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that a signicant number of electrons may have been
inconvenienced

wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 18:48:38 -0600, zxcvbob
> > wrote:
>
>
>
>>Since regular beef has gotten so expensive (Wife payed $3.59 a pound for
>>hamburger meat), I was thinking of twice grinding up some beef hearts
>>(about $1 per pound) and mixing it with ground turkey (about 79¢ per pound)
>>to make something like lean ground beef. I've been cooking with ground
>>turkey and it's just a little too bland.
>
>
> Just another idea: you can mix TVP with ground beef also,
> to extend the beef. You rehydrate the TVP first. TVP is
> very, very cheap, keeps a long time on the shelf, and is a
> high-protein, low-calorie* food.
>
> *[I'm sure about the high-protein part, I *think* it's also
> low-calorie, but I'm not 100% positive.]
>
> Crumbled tofu could also be used for this purpose, although
> it would look different - it's white in color. The TVP
> looks like cooked ground beef.
>
> Pat

I sometimes use TVP to lower the overall fat content of ground beef. I
also sometimes use it instead of bread when I make meatballs.

Best regards,
Bob

In ,
KenCo > took a deep breath, sighed and spoke thusly:
> zxcvbob wrote:
>>
>> Since regular beef has gotten so expensive (Wife payed $3.59 a pound
>> for hamburger meat), I was thinking of twice grinding up some beef
>> hearts (about $1 per pound) and mixing it with ground turkey (about
>> 79¢ per pound) to make something like lean ground beef. I've been
>> cooking with ground turkey and it's just a little too bland.
>>
>
>
> $3.59???? wow
>
> 90% lean hamburger in 10 lb tubes are $170 lb here in RI
> at Sams Club, .20 more in smaller packs.

Even at Albertsons, they had lean ground beef for $1.99 a pound and that's the ground beef
in the butcher block, not the prepackaged stuff. I think the most expensive ground beef
I've seen here is about $2.60 a pound..

--
Marilyn
-----------
Having abandoned my search for the truth, I am now looking for a good
fantasy.

> wrote in message
...
> Just another idea: you can mix TVP with ground beef also,
> to extend the beef. You rehydrate the TVP first. TVP is
> very, very cheap, keeps a long time on the shelf, and is a
> high-protein, low-calorie* food.
>
> *[I'm sure about the high-protein part, I *think* it's also
> low-calorie, but I'm not 100% positive.]
>
> Crumbled tofu could also be used for this purpose, although
> it would look different - it's white in color. The TVP
> looks like cooked ground beef.
>
> Pat

Noooooooo!!!

Cattle folk here in ND are breathing easier for the first time in many
years. Nice to see these independent folk with smiles on their faces.
EAT BEEF!!!