Posted on 06/30/2011 11:15:13 AM PDT by stillafreemind
I can't tell you how much money and time this canned meat has saved us over the years. I'm sure there are many recipes or instructions on how to can chicken..we started using this gals recipes with beef and we've had great success on both.
Hope it helps someone else out there..it sure bailed the wife and I out.
My daughter reads a lot of Jackie Clay for canning, growing, and cooking advice. She writes for Backwoods Home magazine. (Jackie, that is, not my daughter.)
later read
Yummy ping!
You are a doll for posting this! I can tomatoes, peaches, pickled beets and jam/jelly. I wanted to know how to can meat. Thank you!
Thank you SO much for this article! We’ve been canning stews & chili and wanted to expand our repertoire. Just made jam yesterday so no on to meat!
You sound like us..we were canning everything else..but never meat. Tried the chicken canning first and when we had a steer butchered, we tried canning the beef. We’ve never looked back. It’s such a great thing to have them on the shelves. Losing electricity doesn’t mean losing all the meat now.
Just curious to know how our ancestors canned meat. Or even if they did. Say back in the 1800’s. Did they have pressure cookers back then? Did just just smoke all of their meat? Just make jerky? I have read that some would take a big pot of lard and put cooked meat in the lard before it gets solid. The lard would preserve the meat. Sounds messy to me, but, what do I know...lol
We’ve never tried canning beef stew per say. We have potatoes, carrots and beef canned and just throw them all together in a pot..lol.
Might have to try the stew and chili. Got a recipe for me?
I read somewhere about them using the lard too. If I read it right, as soon as there was a break in the lard or it sank below the meat..it would spoil.
We visited Colonial Williamsburg last week. A visit, I should note, everyone should do once. Meet was frequently stored in a smoke house, smoked and hung. It was very interesting but I did not think to ask about long term storage. I did get a good idea on how to smoke meat.
This was real meat that the people eat. They did not appear to be at all concerned about the heat and people walking in and out of the smoke house. Personally I would have been nervous after 2 hours but the meat had been in there several days already. It smelled just fine, just smokey.
“Losing electricity doesn’t mean losing all the meat...”
You are so right! Our extra freezer went up last Summer while we were on a vacation. Don’t freezers break when you are gone for a few days and it isn’t in the Winter?! Anyways, lost four frozen turkeys, six chickens, steaks, roasts, chicken legs/breasts and frozen packs of blueberries, and fish. I won’t even get into the smell! Took a few weeks of fans, a ton of baking soda to breathe again. Ick!
‘preppers’ is a good keyword for this type of article. I think there is a significant group of FReepers interested in self-reliance type info. I don’t know if they have a ping list or not.
It’s easy. First you call them into the office. Next you give them the spiel about times are tough and there are cutbacks. Then you can them.
(I'm looking for step by step instructions for the Funky Chicken dance. Bear with me.)
For more information:
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:69IIYOploVAJ:msuextension.org/publications/HomeHealthandFamily/MT200905HR.pdf+canning+times+for+chicken&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESg9JkUCQ82iKxBYZDklywrsxhnTxkVvDzavp2zXI9nYgDkj3LdZRrRWa7d5Ij73V4-v-fRlxEqU61rizt8un3dr1njhkrldZ6Z81VmXkvBLRse-yK0INUuM5TlBb64t1aWMhSFJ&sig=AHIEtbQbom0NWn9qMawc3RiIjb4yyEbk8Q
If you haven’t done it, check your homeowner’s insurance policy to see if all or some of your loss is covered. My policy, with USAA, covers up to $500.00 of loss. Also, when I bought my present freezer, a $200 loss coverage was included with the warranty. Good luck.
lol
I will go looking for this kind of stuff from time to time. Or ancestors didn’t have any kind of refrigeration, so I figure they must have been pretty good at preserving food. You just never know when your going to need this kind of knowledge. All I could remember was burying the meat completely in the lard. Not even sure how long it would keep. Seems like you’d have to have a lot of lard and do you dig the meat out? Or re-heat to get at it? Just sounded messy.
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