Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation "Canned" Venison help

I'm in S. GA and have talked to not one deer hunter who has prepared or eaten canned venison, but it seems as though lots of you guys and gals north of here say it's a great way to go. I'd like to give it a try. Any comments? Thanks.

I've canned venison only a few times, so don't consider me an expert.

I've only done cold/raw pack where you load the (warm/sterilized) jars with raw meat chunks and process in pressure canner.

My lazy "recipe" is to add one beef bouillon cube to each pint jar.

I also do a (gringo) taco-spiced version.

Last season I canned some deer quarters that I corned. This has been well liked for the breakfast skillet, especially in the ice shanty on a cold day.

I grew up eating a lot of canned deer meat (and pork). Lots of uses for it.

Canning meat is a little time consuming but very easy to do. Find any raw pack method and give it a try. I'd also say don't get nuts on seasoning it before you can. It limits what you can use it for later.

Only thing I put in mine is one beef bullion cube. Lots of great uses for it. One of my favorites is just heated up , add a little flour to the broth to make gravy and dump it over egg noodles or rice. Quick and easy. Also great in soups and stew

We had a lot of deer burger in the freezer. So, we mixxed it about 50% cheap hamburger meat, browned it, packed it in canning jars. Then pressure canned it for the proper time. My wife doesn't like venison. So, making hamburger and mixing it with hamburger gives it a more beef flavor. She uses it in spaghetti, tacos, sloppy joes, etc. Freezer was freed up for other foods.

Prepared this way and on top of bread for open face sandwiches with gravy is about as good as it gets.

I did mine with a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of beef flavored Better Than Bullion.
When making vegetable soup I just open up a jar and dump it in.
I will also throw it in a sauce pan with some barbecue sauce and honey and let it cook down for sandwiches.
As one of the previous posters mentioned I will add gravy and dump over mashed potatoes over toast for a manhattan.
It’s handy to have a few jars around.

Some di_ldo will jump in here and swear up and down that if you don't brown the meat first you'll die of AIDS you clearly contracted from an 84 year old tranny whore.

That being said, you don't HAVE to brown the meat first, but it does end up tasting better in the end.

Thanks so much for the replies, lots of good ideas. I think I'll ask Santa for a pressure cooker!

Or, hot water bath for 3 hours.
That is not the approved way, today.
It was the standard and approved way it was done until about 30 years ago when
pressure canners became a thing.


My family wasn't about canning deer as a thing, to do or talk about.
Deer was canned just like beef and pork, as a way to keep it.
Even after electric and freezers showed up, there wasn't rooming them
for a cow, several hogs, and deer.

90 minutes in the PC at the pressure for your elevation.

No salt required, but it adds flavor. A level teaspoon for a quart is about right if you want it.

No need to brown the meat but it does seem to "taste" better, and browning does NOT cut your process time. Still 90 minutes.

No need to add water, it will make it's own juices. Instead of a bullion cube I add an inch or so of beef stock to each jar.

Wanna get fancy, smoke that chunked up stuff for a couple three hours then can it. THAT is GOOD. (still 90 minutes run time in the PC)

In my opinion browning or hot smoking gets some or most of the blood out of the meat. Deer blood adds gameyness.

If you do Facebook there's a BUNCH of "rebel canning" groups to join and they'll give you more advice than you'll ever want.

Ask him for a pressure canner, a pressure cooker is a different animal.

Roger that, thanks.

A friend does a couple deer each year for us and he has tried two things recently and we really like it. A tablespoon of barbecue sauce to half the batch and smoked bacon to the other half. We used to use beef bullion and that is good also.

I add beef bullion and a 1/4 of a onion to mine . Always pressure can

all meat should be pressured canned to stay safe to eat. i have canned meat for years it is a lot of work but with it . when i do venison i do add one piece of bacon to each quart jar with the deer meat when i can the meat. good luck, Pete53

^^^this^^^ lightly browned, slight carmelization. Also, it's not in any canning book I ever saw, but I am living testament..it won't kill you, if you want, besides the bouillion cube, a little chopped onion, minced garlic or garlic powder, a pinch of thyme and a tsp per pint of all purpose flour. Mighty easy when you are in a hurry to warm the contents and dump it over rice, noodles, spuds or toasted bread for a fast filling meal...the sauce couldn't be called real gravy but it's tastier than boiled meat.

When we canned venison we made chili, spaghetti sauce w/meat and stew right away and canned it. Cn camping trips no refrigeration was needed and we had hearty meals that didn't require long cook times. We canned a lot of ground venison patties, use wide mouth jars as they are easier to get out without destroying. We also canned ducks and fish. I still can meals for extended coyote hunting trips and fishing.

Canning when I lived up in the woods

Canned Deer

1 tsp salt for a qt, 1/2 tsp for a pt. Pressure at 10 lbs for 1&1/2 hr for quarts. 1 hr&15 min for pints. *Pack jar tight and do not add water.

Cooking canned deer:
Open jar & Drain meat then salt, pepper, and dust with flour. Brown in an iron skillet. Sauté onions in another pan and add to meat. Pour beefy mushroom soup over it all and cover to simmer for 20 minutes on low. Pour over rice or mashed potatoes.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions/instructions. Lots of helpful information, just what I needed.

I always add 1/4 of an onion in my jar along with a beef bullion. I just pack the meat in the jar raw and pressure can for 90 minutes

in addition to a bouillon cube add 3 tbl spoons of open season mesquite rub. a dash of cavendars is nice too. bar b que or cajon will work also. liquid bar b que dont work.
its a lot faster and cooler in the basement on fish cookers.
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