Hot Pack Method vs Raw Pack Method

This post is to help you decide if you would rather Hot Pack or Raw Pack your meat when canning

 Meat is a low-acid food and must be processed in a pressure canner. You can add salt for flavor but it is not necessary for preservation of the meat.

You can either Raw Pack or Hot Pack.  Both are safe canning methods.  

 Raw packing it is faster. but that is about the only benefit.  

1:  Once processed your jar may only be partially full of liquid leaving some of your meat uncovered.

2:  Raw packing leaves some air in the jars and can cause meat to darken during storage making it less appealing.

Hot pack does take longer, but has benefits.

1: You can fit more meat in the jar.

2: You can remove more air from the jar.

3: You have less liquid loss, which gives you better quality by keeping your meat covered.

4: The natural amount of fat and juices in today's leaner meat cuts are usually not enough to cover most of the meat when raw packing.  The NCHFP says that  the "Hot Pack Method" is preferred for best liquid cover and quality during storage.

Note:  Chicken does produce more liquid that lean cuts of beef and does leave your finished jar with more broth than beef does when raw packed but the NCHFP still says that natural poultry fat and juices are usually not enough to cover the meat.  

I prefer to hot pack all of my meats.

Visit NCHFP to see what they advise about canning meats by clicking this link.

Click this link to see what NCHFP says about canning poultry.