You reminded me of a question I wanted to ask, about raw packing. I ended up browning the meat yesterday only because the directions in the ball Blue Book were either to brown and add liquid or to raw pack by just having the meat in and nothing else.
I was wondering why I couldn’t raw pack but also add some hot water? I always raw pack chicken breast, but there’s not much liquid in the jar and the meat that is exposed doesn’t look terribly appetizing. But the last thing I’d want to do is cook the chicken breast any more, they are almost too done as it is.
It is not necessary to brown—you can add boiling water to raw pack. Don’t add too much though, because you could wind up with too much liquid for the container.
I guess that’s why they want you to brown it—to get some of the liquid out? Anyway I put 1/4 to 1/2 of the jar with liquid. I don’t usually brown anything.