Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Canned happiness

I bought an ancient 16 quart canner at a garage sale last spring. It’s a Presto from before they were Presto, the 92 year old lady had owned it since the 30’s or thereabouts. Payed a whopping $2 for the whole shebang complete with weight, basket, and spacer for the bottom. Had to put a new gauge and a new lid seal on it, which I was happy to find both in stock at a nearby ACE.

Canned a bunch of odds and sods deer parts when we were having the butcherthon after rifle season when we had 3 deer hanging at once. Was impressed and amazed at how little work it took to make such good eats. Melt in your mouth tender chunks made out of previously unchewable parts like neck roasts and lower leg muscles. Way easier than getting it all ready to grind.

So a few weeks ago I’m out and about and happen into some of them damn pigs and kill one of about 150 pounds. I took the loins since I couldn’t get the truck to her and wasn’t making two trips. Brought them home and washed them up and kinda forgot about them in the reefer for about 5 days when it dawned on me that I needed to get busy and take care of that meat. So I cut them into sections about the length of a pint Mason and sliced those longways into strips like you might for fajitas. Stuffed them into jars and topped with some salt and taco seasoning and run them through the old canner for 1 1/2 hours at #12 pressure.

A couple days later my wife and I both worked late so I tossed a can in a skillet with the broth from the jar and added a diced onion. I put a little more seasoning over it and stuck the lid on it. In 5 minutes the onions were tender and the meat hot so we spooned it into tortillas and had what turned out to be some of the best pork tacos I’ve ever eaten. Absolutely excellent and the best part was that it only took maybe 10 minutes total from start to time to eat.

We liked it so much I went and shot a 40 pound pig out of a big group 2 nights ago and brought it home whole. Got it skinned and quartered and in the icebox, tomorrow it’ll get boned and canned. All of it.

If you live where there’s pigs or heck even if you don’t you can buy pork on the cheap at the store, and you owe it to yourself to try it out. I don’t know how I’ve survived my entire life without a pressure cooker.

Very good work.


Dad ate tons of canned deer meat as a kid.


I would like to get around to canning someday.

Does it hold 16 quart jars, or just 16 quart total capacity.
I didn't know pressure cancers have been available for so long.
Everyone around here always used enamel water bath canners.
I have only seen pressure canners in the last 20-30 years.
We use both, depending on what's being processed.

It’s 16qt total capacity, holds about 10 wide mouth pints. My great grandmother had a pressure cooker way back in the dust bowl days. My Grandad speaks highly of carp cooked in it to dissolve the bones. Strangely none of us have ever seen him eat a carp, I think they were hungrier back in them days.
I’m going to get ready to put the garden in here shortly and we’ll have all manner of vegetables to can if we have another good year. I was always a little scared of pressure cookers but since having and using one and reading up on them they really aren’t as dangerous as they’re made out to be. I was also amazed at how simple and easy it is to can meat. Add meat and mash the air out of the jar, pinch of salt and stick the lids on and get going.

We used to can a lot of deer meat.
It is nice to not have to worry so much about silverskin, tendons, or even fat.
The tough stuff cooks tender, and the fat skims off the top.

A number of years ago, we had canned deer meat for supper. I got the puking schitts, real bad.
No one else got sick, I am sure that it wasn't the meat. But, thats what I remember.

I haven't been able to eat it since. If my wife started to heat it up, I couldn't stand the smell. We gave
a pile of quart jars of meat away.