Canning Ground Meat

Bear, Beef, Lamb, Pork, Sausage, Veal, Venison

Procedure: Choose fresh, chilled meat. With venison, add one part high-quality pork fat to three or four parts venison before grinding. Use freshly made sausage, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper (sage may cause a bitter off-flavor). Shape chopped meat into patties or balls or cut cased sausage into 3- to 4-inch links. Cook until lightly browned. 

Ground meat may be sauteed without shaping. Remove excess fat. Fill jars with pieces. Add boiling meat broth, tomato juice, or water, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add 2 teaspoons of salt per quart to the jars, if desired.

Adjust lids and process following the recommendations in the tables below. 

Table 1. Recommended process time for Ground or Chopped Meat in a dial-gauge pressure canner.
			Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	Process Time	0 - 2,000 ft	2,001 - 4,000 ft	4,001 - 6,000 ft	6,001 - 8,000 ft
Hot	Pints	75 min	11 lb	12 lb	13 lb	14 lb
	Quarts	90	11	12	13	14

Table 2. Recommended process time for Ground or Chopped Meat in a weighted-gauge pressure canner.
			Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	Process Time	0 - 1,000 ft	Above 1,000 ft
Hot	Pints	75 min	10 lb	15 lb
	Quarts	90	10	15

This document was adapted from the "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA, revised 2015.

Reference:  National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)

Why is Liquid lost during the canning process

This is one of the most common questions of every food preserver is why am I losing liquid from my jars.

The answer is that it could be any one of these things.

1:  Raw Packing instead of Hot Packing often leads to water loss because the food has air in it and that air is driven from the jars during the canning process.  This is why it recommended that you hot pack your foods.  Fruits especially have this problem.

2:  Rapid change in temperature in your canner.  Keep your boiling water canner at a steady boil and if using a pressure canner, lower your temperature to maintain the pressure, but don't let the pressure keep going up and down.  Get it gently rocking and keep it steady.

3:  Removing jars too quickly from a canner causes  stress on the jars and they lose liquid.  This is one reason you should always turn off the heat, remove the lid and wait at least 5 minutes before taking jars out of the water bath canner or 10 minutes for a pressure canner.

Reference:  PennState Extension 

Pickled Corn in Jars

Fermented foods is an acquired taste.  If you only want to try a jar to two to make sure it's something you like.  I recommend buying a set of fermentation lids that allows the gases to escape.  These can be found on Amazon

• You don't have to process pickled corn.  Once it has fermented, you just tighten the lids and store in a cool, dark place.  If you don't have fresh corn, you can use canned corn.  Many people prefer using canned corn since it make the job super easy to do.  
• 1:  Shuck your corn and wash to remove all the silk.
• 2:  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Once boiling add the corn and put on lid.  Boil for 10 to 15 minutes.
• 3:  Drain and put in ice cold water to cool.
• 4:  Cut corn from the cob, but don't cream it.  You just want the corn kernels.
• 5:  Fill quart or pint size jars leaving one inch headspace.
• 6:  Put 1 tsp of canning salt per pint of a level tablespoon per quart.
• 7:  Fill jars to the rim with room temperature water.  Don't use city water with chlorine.
• 8:  Put lids on your jars but don't tighten them down.  The gas needs to escape.
• 9:  Place newspapers on a shallow pan and sit your filled jars in a cool place to ferment.  
• 10:  Let ferment for about 2 weeks.  Check to see if you need to add a little salt water to keep them filled. 
• 11:  After corn is fermented to suit your taste, tighten your lids.  
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Zucchini Nut Bread

Ingredients 

This recipe makes 2 loafs of bread.

• 3 cups self rising flour
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3½ cups grated zucchini 
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup apple sauce
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2½ cups granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
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• instructions
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Spray your pans with non stick spray.  Bakers joy is good or grease and flour them.
• Mix your eggs, applesauce, oil, sugar and vanilla together. 
• Stir cinnamon into flour and stir into mixture.
• Add your nuts and zucchini and stir together
• Pour batter into pans and I like to sprinkle a cinnamon/sugar mixture on top of the batter.
• Bake approximately one hour or until tooth pick comes out clean.
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Homemade Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients                       

2 1/2 C Fresh blackberries, washed
1 C Sugar
1 C Flour
1 C Milk

1 Stick of unsalted butter, melted

Mix your blackberries with a little sugar and let sit for about 25 minutes. This draws out the juices from the berries.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

Stir together the sugar, flour and milk.

Add the butter and stir until you have very few lumps.

Pour batter into your pan
Pour your berry/sugar mixture on top of batter making sure to spread them evenly over it.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes depending on your oven and how brown you like it.
Let cool for at least 15 minutes.
Serve warm with your favorite toppings.

Pickled Corn Relish

Pickled Corn Relish

• 10 cups fresh whole kernel corn (16 to 20 medium-size ears), or six 10-ounce packages of frozen corn
• 2-1/2 cups diced sweet red peppers
• 2-1/2 cups diced sweet green peppers
• 2-1/2 cups chopped celery
• 1-1/4 cups diced onions
• 1-3/4 cups sugar
• 5 cups vinegar (5 percent)
• 2-1/2 tbsp canning or pickling salt
• 2-1/2 tsp celery seed
• 2-1/2 tbsp dry mustard
• 1-1/4 tsp turmeric

Yield: About 9 pints 

Procedure: Boil ears of corn 5 minutes. Dip in cold water. Cut whole kernels from cob

Optional: use six 10-ounce frozen packages of corn.

Combine peppers, celery, onions, sugar, vinegar, salt, and celery seed in a saucepan. Bring to boil and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mix mustard and turmeric in 1/2 cup of the simmered mixture.

Add this mixture and corn to the hot mixture.

Simmer another 5 minutes.

If desired, thicken mixture with flour paste (1/4 cup flour blended in 1/4 cup water) and stir frequently.

Fill jars with hot mixture, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Table 1. Recommended process time for Pickled Corn Relish in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	15 min	20	25

RE:  Recipe from National Center for Home Food Preservation

Sweet Pickle Relish

Sweet Pickle Relish

• 3 qts chopped cucumbers
• 3 cups each of chopped sweet green and red peppers
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 3/4 cup canning or pickling salt
• 4 cups ice
• 8 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tsp each of mustard seed, turmeric, whole allspice, and whole cloves
• 6 cups white vinegar (5 percent)

Yield: About 9 pints

Procedure: Chop all your vegetables

Add cucumbers, peppers, onions, salt, and ice to water and let stand 4 hours.

Drain and re-cover vegetables with fresh ice water for another hour.

Drain again.

Combine spices in a spice or cheesecloth bag. Add spices to sugar and vinegar. Heat to boiling and pour mixture over vegetables.

Cover and refrigerate 24 hours.

Heat mixture to boiling and fill hot into clean jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

Adjust lids and process according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Table 1. Recommended process time for Pickle Relish in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	10 min	15	20

RE:  National Center for Home Food Preservation