Stuff and Thoughts on Canning
11/20/07 - 3rd Day - After Breakfast. Expecting another hot day today. 84 is predicted, which means closer to 87 or so here. I hope to be working in the root cellar where it will be a nice, cool, 65. We had a sermon last night, so I will try to get that posted sometime today on BA, and I would like to strongly recommend that everyone listen to it - as it has great application for Agrarians or hopeful Agrarians.
We are smoking and canning Turkey today. We found out this jewel of a secret last year. We almost always smoke all of the meat we serve during fellowship meal on the Lord's Day, so last year when we bought our turkeys so cheap, we would smoke one in the smoker every other Lord's Day. Well, we had so many turkeys, that I decided to smoke them, then can the meat. WOW. I would never have thought that canned turkey could taste so good. The canning process brings out the aroma and flavor of the smoking, and it is absolutely delicious. You can make sandwiches from the meat, or you can use it in soup or stew. Anyway, I bought 4 turkeys yesterday at .49 each, and we will be canning 3 of them over the next week. 1 will be our Thanksgiving turkey for our community meal.
Ok, so as you can imagine, I have been thinking quite a bit about canning since we have been canning meat for the last month. We are canning about 2/3 of a 500 lb. hog, and quite a bit of a yearling steer that we had butchered for Ranchfest. Danielle had been canning hamburger meat last week, and she also made quite a bit of taco meat and canned that. Then she canned 20 lbs. of bacon. Yesterday, Tracy canned pork roast, some more hamburger, and sausage patties. Canning meat is a brilliant homestead agrarian move. So far, since we butchered Luella the sow, we have already gone back down to 1 freezer, and prior to buying the 4 large turkeys yesterday, we were down to about 1/2 in our big freezer. Last night, since Danielle and two of the girls were out of town, Tracy (after working all day canning) made venison stew from our last can of canned venison from last winter. I can tell you it was very, very good. I was telling the group last night that I get an enormous amount of joy and satisfaction in eating a meal made completely or primarily out of our stored food. Well, double that satisfaction when the meal is made by your 14 year old daughter!
Anyway, the thoughts... we are basically going through this Agrarian, Homesteading process just like the original homesteaders. I moved out to this land and lived in a tent and then an old camper before we got the first basic structure of the cabin built. Our first "construction" on the land was my garden. Shortly after the basic cabin went up, the pig pen went in, then the corral for cattle. Next we hand dug a root cellar using old school methods. Only when the root cellar was finished were we able to start canning everything. This summer we put up quite a bit of vegetables, and we focused on green beans - successfully canning a whole years supply. So, we are now in our first full fall and winter with the root cellar, and we are full speed canning as much meat as we can produce. We will continue canning meat until we can start canning veggies again, maybe if I get a greenhouse built, but if not it will be spring when we can start canning from the garden again (all of this, of course, is if the Lord wills). So, my point is that you should buy the largest canner you can afford. In fact, that was what we did, and what I mean is that you should buy a LARGER canner than you can afford. It does not cost the same amount to run two canner loads as opposed to one large canner load. It is more than twice as expensive to can two loads instead of one bigger load, and since we are currently canning with propane, that adds up quickly. A larger canner with twice the capacity would more than pay itself off in just one season, I reckon.
Yesterday I sat down and figured that it would take 1200 canning jars (mixed quarts and pints) for my family of 6 to have more than enough food for 1 year. This is a very conservative estimate, since much of the year we ought to be eating from the garden and from freshly butchered animals and critters. That is 100 dozen jars total. I currently own 28 dozen jars, and, buying 2 dozen jars a week, it will take 36 more weeks for me to have the requisite number of jars. Also remember that you will need thousands of replacement lids and some large amount of replacement bands. Replacement lids and bands are fairly inexpensive and can be stored cheaply and easily.
)))))...pause while I go put two turkeys in the smoker...(((((
Ok, so here is my method of canning hamburger and turkey. The hamburger is browned thoroughly in a pan. Some people pour off the fat, and some keep it and pour it into the jars with the meat. Longhorn beef has very, very little fat (and is lower in bad cholesterol than white meat) so we don't really have to concern ourselves with the fat. 1 lb. of hamburger meat fits nicely into clean and boiled pint jars. Affix lids and tightly screw on the bands. Can (at our altitude, which is 1850 ft.) for 90 minutes at 11 lbs. of pressure. At sea level or thereabouts you can use 10 lbs. of pressure. This is basically the process for any meat - always pressure can for 90 mins.
Canning Smoked Turkey - I use a 50 gallon drum to smoke meat. There are cuts made in the bottom 2 inches of the barrel for air to circulate. I put rocks down in the bottom of the barrel, then build a top-down fire out of mesquite wood. When the fire is burned down to just some red coals and not much heat (and no fire), I usually throw a small piece of mesquite on the coal bed (which will smoke like crazy) and then hang the meat over the coals, replacing the lid. I smoke briskets and roasts for 6 hours and turkeys for 4-6 hours. For immediate eating, the meat is then put in the oven at a very low temp (like 225) for overnight (8-10 hours). If you are canning the meat, it doesn't need the added cooking time in the oven, because it will be cooked by the pressure canning temps. With turkey I then shred and cut the meat off of the bone. You can do it however you like - some people make cubes of meat, I just kind of shred it off and can it in chunks. Fill the sterile, heated jar with the luscious smoked meat and tamp it down with a clean plastic or wooden spoon so you can get as much meat in the jar as possible. Fill it up to within 1/2 inch of the top. You need not add water or liquid. If you want, you can add soup stock, broth, or gravy - but I don't add anything. Can at 90 mins. at 11 lbs. of pressure. This same process works great with smoked chicken. You can process chickens or turkeys on the same day you butcher, and this way you would never need refrigeration or the freezer, and you would have the most delicious smoked meat available whenever you like. I could smoke probably 12 chickens in a day, so you can consider what it would take to smoke and can your chicken for a year. Not much.
The point is that we want to get to where we do not need or use the freezer except on rare occasions. The freezer is the primary cause of our need for the generator, which is the primary cause for our need of fuel. If the Lord wills, we will butcher 2 pigs in December and I hope to only need the freezer for less than 2 days. If we can cold smoke and salt cure some of the bacon and hams, then we ought not need the freezer much at all. Here in Central Texas butchering is more difficult since it is warm most of the year. We may need the freezer to quickly cool a carcass and to store it while we can and process the meat. At some point, with some success, you could plan your butchering based on your root cellar available space - selling and bartering most of the meat if you don't need it in your root cellar. That is a serious goal for me.
This post has gotten too long. What do y'all think?
Michael
We are smoking and canning Turkey today. We found out this jewel of a secret last year. We almost always smoke all of the meat we serve during fellowship meal on the Lord's Day, so last year when we bought our turkeys so cheap, we would smoke one in the smoker every other Lord's Day. Well, we had so many turkeys, that I decided to smoke them, then can the meat. WOW. I would never have thought that canned turkey could taste so good. The canning process brings out the aroma and flavor of the smoking, and it is absolutely delicious. You can make sandwiches from the meat, or you can use it in soup or stew. Anyway, I bought 4 turkeys yesterday at .49 each, and we will be canning 3 of them over the next week. 1 will be our Thanksgiving turkey for our community meal.
Ok, so as you can imagine, I have been thinking quite a bit about canning since we have been canning meat for the last month. We are canning about 2/3 of a 500 lb. hog, and quite a bit of a yearling steer that we had butchered for Ranchfest. Danielle had been canning hamburger meat last week, and she also made quite a bit of taco meat and canned that. Then she canned 20 lbs. of bacon. Yesterday, Tracy canned pork roast, some more hamburger, and sausage patties. Canning meat is a brilliant homestead agrarian move. So far, since we butchered Luella the sow, we have already gone back down to 1 freezer, and prior to buying the 4 large turkeys yesterday, we were down to about 1/2 in our big freezer. Last night, since Danielle and two of the girls were out of town, Tracy (after working all day canning) made venison stew from our last can of canned venison from last winter. I can tell you it was very, very good. I was telling the group last night that I get an enormous amount of joy and satisfaction in eating a meal made completely or primarily out of our stored food. Well, double that satisfaction when the meal is made by your 14 year old daughter!
Anyway, the thoughts... we are basically going through this Agrarian, Homesteading process just like the original homesteaders. I moved out to this land and lived in a tent and then an old camper before we got the first basic structure of the cabin built. Our first "construction" on the land was my garden. Shortly after the basic cabin went up, the pig pen went in, then the corral for cattle. Next we hand dug a root cellar using old school methods. Only when the root cellar was finished were we able to start canning everything. This summer we put up quite a bit of vegetables, and we focused on green beans - successfully canning a whole years supply. So, we are now in our first full fall and winter with the root cellar, and we are full speed canning as much meat as we can produce. We will continue canning meat until we can start canning veggies again, maybe if I get a greenhouse built, but if not it will be spring when we can start canning from the garden again (all of this, of course, is if the Lord wills). So, my point is that you should buy the largest canner you can afford. In fact, that was what we did, and what I mean is that you should buy a LARGER canner than you can afford. It does not cost the same amount to run two canner loads as opposed to one large canner load. It is more than twice as expensive to can two loads instead of one bigger load, and since we are currently canning with propane, that adds up quickly. A larger canner with twice the capacity would more than pay itself off in just one season, I reckon.
Yesterday I sat down and figured that it would take 1200 canning jars (mixed quarts and pints) for my family of 6 to have more than enough food for 1 year. This is a very conservative estimate, since much of the year we ought to be eating from the garden and from freshly butchered animals and critters. That is 100 dozen jars total. I currently own 28 dozen jars, and, buying 2 dozen jars a week, it will take 36 more weeks for me to have the requisite number of jars. Also remember that you will need thousands of replacement lids and some large amount of replacement bands. Replacement lids and bands are fairly inexpensive and can be stored cheaply and easily.
)))))...pause while I go put two turkeys in the smoker...(((((
Ok, so here is my method of canning hamburger and turkey. The hamburger is browned thoroughly in a pan. Some people pour off the fat, and some keep it and pour it into the jars with the meat. Longhorn beef has very, very little fat (and is lower in bad cholesterol than white meat) so we don't really have to concern ourselves with the fat. 1 lb. of hamburger meat fits nicely into clean and boiled pint jars. Affix lids and tightly screw on the bands. Can (at our altitude, which is 1850 ft.) for 90 minutes at 11 lbs. of pressure. At sea level or thereabouts you can use 10 lbs. of pressure. This is basically the process for any meat - always pressure can for 90 mins.
Canning Smoked Turkey - I use a 50 gallon drum to smoke meat. There are cuts made in the bottom 2 inches of the barrel for air to circulate. I put rocks down in the bottom of the barrel, then build a top-down fire out of mesquite wood. When the fire is burned down to just some red coals and not much heat (and no fire), I usually throw a small piece of mesquite on the coal bed (which will smoke like crazy) and then hang the meat over the coals, replacing the lid. I smoke briskets and roasts for 6 hours and turkeys for 4-6 hours. For immediate eating, the meat is then put in the oven at a very low temp (like 225) for overnight (8-10 hours). If you are canning the meat, it doesn't need the added cooking time in the oven, because it will be cooked by the pressure canning temps. With turkey I then shred and cut the meat off of the bone. You can do it however you like - some people make cubes of meat, I just kind of shred it off and can it in chunks. Fill the sterile, heated jar with the luscious smoked meat and tamp it down with a clean plastic or wooden spoon so you can get as much meat in the jar as possible. Fill it up to within 1/2 inch of the top. You need not add water or liquid. If you want, you can add soup stock, broth, or gravy - but I don't add anything. Can at 90 mins. at 11 lbs. of pressure. This same process works great with smoked chicken. You can process chickens or turkeys on the same day you butcher, and this way you would never need refrigeration or the freezer, and you would have the most delicious smoked meat available whenever you like. I could smoke probably 12 chickens in a day, so you can consider what it would take to smoke and can your chicken for a year. Not much.
The point is that we want to get to where we do not need or use the freezer except on rare occasions. The freezer is the primary cause of our need for the generator, which is the primary cause for our need of fuel. If the Lord wills, we will butcher 2 pigs in December and I hope to only need the freezer for less than 2 days. If we can cold smoke and salt cure some of the bacon and hams, then we ought not need the freezer much at all. Here in Central Texas butchering is more difficult since it is warm most of the year. We may need the freezer to quickly cool a carcass and to store it while we can and process the meat. At some point, with some success, you could plan your butchering based on your root cellar available space - selling and bartering most of the meat if you don't need it in your root cellar. That is a serious goal for me.
This post has gotten too long. What do y'all think?
Michael
posted by Michael Bunker at 11/20/2007 07:01:00 AM
5 Comments:
In the last two years, I have experienced the joy and satisfaction of opening up jars of vegetables that have been preserved from the garden. To be able to have a whole meal that was completely "home grown" would be so much better! I have not yet tried canning meat, but will need to get busy in that direction. Thanks for sharing how you have canned your meat! I would be interested also in knowing how Danielle cans the bacon. We really like beef bacon but it is hard to find at times, so buying it in bulk when it's available and canning it would be great.
Debbie
PS - I am also so impressed with all of Tracy's agrarian skills and hope to one day catch up with her, though I'm about 4 times older than her! :)
Awesome. I dont know how to make bacon but smoking meat is easier than mosy people think. It also does not require much, you built outhouses and a full size smoker could be that size or smaller. You also do not need anything to make jerky but the sun. You would be very surprised what you could make with jerky, it will soften up again when put into dishes. I am still too scared to try canning meats, but it has worked so well for ya'll I might have to one day try it.
Why does canned meat have to be kept in a root cellar?
It is not mandatory that canned meat be kept in a root cellar. It can be kept anywhere else that you can find that is relatively dark, cool,and temperature stable (doesn't heat up or freeze). I live in Texas where the summers can be very hot (well over 100 degrees) virtually every day. Since we also live off-grid, it would be necessary to have a root cellar or some other way to keep canned or stored food cool. Early settlers in this area dug root cellars before they even built their houses. They would live in the root cellar (which also helped them survive the hot summers comfortably) while they built their houses. Without air conditioning it can get into the mid-80's or low 90's inside, so keeping canned meat around would be a bad idea.
Michael
I agree totally with your recommendation to get a bigger canner than you can afford. I also second keeping the canned food in the root cellar. It will keep in the heat, but the cool of the root cellar will make the difference between seals that fail in less than a year after exposure to summer head and seals that are good almost indefinitely. We're smoking bacon today and I hope to be canning tomorrow. I opened the first of the jars we canned several months ago and found it to be completely fresh, much nicer than frozen bacon. I can mine without the parchment and with no added fat. It sounds like you guys are doing great! Thinking of you all daily.
Judy
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