I read in a previous thread that so many of you can meat products for stews,etc...I have canned all the veggies, but have had almost zero experience canning "meat meals"...For those of us who have not done this before, how about sharing some of your tried and true Winter meals from canning recipes? My cookbooks talk about canning meat only,not meat mixed with anything....God bless and "yum"...

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), August 08, 2000

Answers

The Ball Blue Book has a beef stew that is great. It makes a nice filling for pot pie, is great with dumplings or baked biscuits, or just as a stew, as its name implies. I think that's where I found the BBQ pork recipe, too. It's great for quick sandwiches. The Chicken soup was tasty, as well. My kids who've moved out got a large basket of home-canned meals for Christmas, and I'm getting the empties returned for refills! Good luck.

-- glynnis in KY (gabbycab@msn.com), August 09, 2000.

Along this same thread... I've got a meat question... when you do chunk beef, how big are the chunks to be and can you REALLY put them in there raw with no other fluid and they'll cook themselves in their own juice? A 75 yr old woman has been canning since the dawn of time and says that this works for her every time. Seems easy enough, but it's NOT the way that Ball says to do it. I'm not wanting to do 100 quart and have it go south KWIM?? Can you use stew beef from the grocery or does it need to be fresh slaughter? Thanks for any info.

-- Misha (MishaaE@aol.com), August 09, 2000.

Well, for two years now I've been raw packing beef and chicken and no body has died or got sick from eating it. My amish friend got me started doing it this way. I buy meat from the grocery store. I dont store it. If I'm going to can it I plan to do it the next day after shopping. For chicken I buy breast on sale and skin it and take all the fat that I can see off. I roll the pieces up and put them in pint wide mouth jars. You can add salt but I dont. Clean the rim of the jar very good. A little dab of fat will keep the jar from sealing. I dont add broth or water. Process @10lbs pressure for 75 minutes, 90 min for quarts. It's very good for shredding in fajitas or stir fry. One of my canning books from the 60's says its good for chicken salad but I'm not comfortable eating it from the jar. So I cook it again before we eat it. I buy the leanest beef I can get on sale. Remove as much fat as you can see. I cube it in 2in chunks. Loosly pack in jars, salt if you want and process for the same time as the chicken. Actually the time is the same for all meat. In addition to raw packing I make a lot of meat with broth. When the leg quarters are real cheap I skin them cook till I can get it off the bone and bone it. Then I set the pan in the fridge over night and skim off the fat in the morning. I save celery leaves and the tough part of onions and cook this with the legs and also remove. Then I add a few boullion cubes for flavor and can the meat and broth. A good picnic ham is great canned with broth for beans and dressing. I keep jars of meat balls in tomato sauce. The recipe for the meatballs is 3lbs lean ground beef 3/4 lb bulk sausage (hot is good) 1 1/2 c.oats 3 eggs beaten 2tsp salt small onion chopped very fine Mix well and shape into small walnut sized balls. Then in a big pot mix 2qts of tomato juice. I use the store brand version of V8. l tablespoon of butter and pepper to taste. Bring the juice to a boil and drop the meatballs in the juice. Bring it back to a good rolling boil and pack loosely in jars to within l inch of the top. Process at 10lbs for 75minfor pints 90 min qts. I can ground beef raw too. Just put it in the jars kind of loose and process at the above times You can take it out of the jar and smash it for chili, spaghetti or tacos. How about canning quick breads. I have a good recipe for canned pumpkin bread but I'm out of time here. Blessings Peggy

-- Peggy Carr (wclpc@cookeville.com), August 09, 2000.

I, too have canned meat for a while. I haven't tried to just can it without any broth, but others do successfully. My mother always canned venison, but covered the meat chunks with boiling water and it makes it's own broth. I always cut the meat chunks into whatever size I would like them, about one inch for stew size, etc. ALWAYS heat before you use them, however. I heat in the microwave sometimes before using in chicken salad, etc., and then let it cool back down. Better to be safe. Good luck! Jan

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), August 09, 2000.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I guess I know what I will be doing the next few weeks.....this sounds so good....Thank you very much!!!!!

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), August 09, 2000.

Can't fat be canned with meat? My hamburger came out so dry, even canned with broth.

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), August 15, 2000.