Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Pressure Cookers for canning

Any one have a good recommendation for a good pressure cooker for venison canning and/or veggies.

I know Cabelas used to sell them, maybe still do, those always looked real nice, but looked pretty pricey.

Why not purchase a pressure canner and use it as a pressure cooker ?

https://www.gopresto.com/products/products.php?stock=01781

This model has served us well. I recommend getting an extra ‘shelf’ for double stacking pints. (Can’t recall the actual name for it)

we use both a presto and a mirror at once, both work well. sometimes it is easier to do it outside rather than in the basement.

https://imgur.com/a/qe0HP

I never knew there was a difference between a pressure caner or pressure cooker? Is there, other than the name?

Pressure cookers are smaller, more designed to cook food. Pressure canner works basically the same but is usually larger and designed to hold canning jars. Here in the PNW canning salmon is a big deal and most hardware stores have pressure canners on the shelf.

We have used that Presto one for years with good results. Looking to upgrade to an All-American one someday but the Presto keeps working well.

I was just looking at a new LEM catalog and they sell a Presto cooker/canner in two sizes. a 16 qt.(10 pints or 7 quarts) for $119.95, and a 23 qt. (20 pints or 7 quarts) for 139.95. I haven't compared other prices elsewhere, but they look like they would pay for themselves pretty fast. For me, I would use it more while canning vegetables, but canning deer and elk meat sounds good. (never tried it)!
I would like to see some good meat canning recipes!

Ken

We’ve canned quite a bit of meat, including fish and venison. Our takeaway has been to keep it simple with red meat and poultry. A half teaspoon of canning salt, (table salt will create cloudy water, which tastes fine, but looks unappetizing), per pint yields the most versatile product. Smoking or spicing prior to canning can create good products too, but once it’s flavored, you can’t undo it. Smoked chicken for example is good on some things like a sandwich, but borderline lousy served on a chefs salad. So we tend to simplify everything these days. Salt, water, meat.

Salmon is very good smoked however. Especially with dill weed, garlic, onion, salt and brown sugar as a prior brine. In fact, that recipe is the reason I started canning some 20 years ago. A friend shared some with me, and I was hooked

Thanks for the info. If you have a simple recipe for canning mostly red meat, could you PM me with some instructions such as times, and size of meat portions?
Or posting them here will work also.

Thanks,
Ken

Certainly. Glad to share.

My first suggestion is pick up one of these canning books. It is extremely simple to use and comprehend. We use it very frequently since it is impossible to recall all times & portions for all products. We also have written notes in it, to specify say, 'how many pounds of meat to fill 16 pints', so we can optimize future canning sessions. Who ever designed and edited the guide did an amazing job of keeping things simple. They probably don't sell them for the same price today, but I'm sure it's still affordable.


One favorite I can share is simple beef (or venison) stew. We dice up potatoes celery carrot and onion, then mix it all up with cubed beef in a large bowl. Then we (cold) pack the jars and top it off with hot water and 1/2 tsp. of canning salt per pint. 1 full teaspoon of salt for quarts. Sometimes, instead of salt, I will use a bullion or beef base. The better bullions can make a slightly better tasting product, but you are giving up the 100% natural ingredient thing, that we sometimes pretend we care about. However, no matter how you chose to do it, you WILL love it. Especially on a cold winters eve when time to cook a hearty meal isn't in the cards. I don't know why you can't find store-bought canned stew that's anywhere close to what you can do at home, but I've never seen anything half as good. Oh, and I've also been known to throw a little tomato in these jars too, but only when my wife isn't looking. She thinks she doesn't like them, but I know better. lol

Another great recipe I discovered kind of goes against what I said in my earlier post. We have a smoker, and a fire pit that is set up with a grill. I can't replicate this flavor with my smoker, so I use the grill for this. I'll build a decent fire with Alder firewood, and then sear beef or venison roasts on all sides. Just enough to establish a decent char all the way around. Then I take them inside and cube them up. Then proceed as if I was canning any other meat. Same salt portions as above, same headspace, same hot water. This beef (or dead deer) once canned is phenomenal in homemade chili, and it makes a damed fine sandwich too. The only caveat is that some people don't care for the smoked flavor as much, and it can overpower some dishes. So, we do both plain, and the Alder stuff here.

Keep in mind that a little smoking goes a very long ways when canning meats. 30-45 minutes is all that's needed. Something about the canning process amplifies the smoke flavor in a way that confuses me and I can not explain. But it does. 30-40 minutes also just about the right amount of time and heat to allow salmon skin to peel off super easily. So it's kinda handy if your filets are skin-on and you want to remove it... which I think most would for canning purposes.

Good luck!

Hey thanks a lot for all of the info and ideas. I hadn't thought of making stew. That idea will become a favorite around my house. I will for sure find the Ball Blue Book and now I am going to get a pressure canner rounded up!

Thanks,
Ken

If my plans work out I will post some results in the near future. Also Happy New Year

Ken

Anytime. I can’t emphasize enough how good the stew is. It’s a household favorite here. Wife likes to use it for making a quick spepherds pie too.

I’ll look forward to seeing some canning posts. Happy New Year to you as well.

think beef and noodles -just use venison.

we have it with soup for lunch often, too.

Canned deer or beef was my mother's version of tv dinners.
In a pinch she would open a jar, boil some noodles and fry potatoes or open a jar of beans.
20 minute supper.

I would like to get into canning meats, but the wife has NO interest at all. She did enough jams and jellies as a kid, she never wants to touch a canner again.

(I still might buy one, especially if I find the right deal)

i always ask about recipes. what does everyone put in the jar? we have been putting in a bouillon cube with a pinch of salt and a pinch of cavendars

we started out cutting up the best meat and trimming it very, very well the added a cube of beef fat on to of the jar.

now we cube the worst cuts and stuff that in the jar with minimal trimming [ very little]

you cant tell the difference.

Very similar experience here. We used to take a lot of extra steps like that, but over time, we learned to simplify without finding any negatives.

We have found some things that we just don't like.

Bacon; It was fun to try, but it was a messy process, and the product wasn't really very good or easy to work with.
Hamburger; I fried it in a cast iron skillet first. You could taste a metallic taste after canning. Was relieved once we used it up.
Grapefruit; We ended up with a couple boxes somehow and attempted to preserve it. Terrible stuff. Tossed it out.
Dehydrated vegetables; We put some of these in some of our soup and stew recipes. Not nearly as good results. Stick to fresh vegetables.

We are very fussy about trimming deer meat. Anything silver or white is gone, totally. For steaks or roasts, or burger.
When canning, we stilol trim, but silver skin cooks soft, and fat rises to the top and can be skimmed when you open the jar. It makes certain parts of a deer much easier to process, and reduces waste.

I couldn't agree more. I can't tell any difference between the nasty bits and the most carefully trimmed meat once it's canned.
Canning deer meat has reduced a lot of waste and created some quick and easy delicious meals for my family.
We had canned venison stroganoff last night, it was excellent