Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Canning deer meat

amazon has the whole kit, very reasonable...if i was a better hunter i would get it...

HaHa! Too funny!

I don’t care for wild game hamburger. So everything that would usually get ground up for burger gets cubed up and pressure canned at my place.

You guys put anything in besides maybe a pinch of salt? I'm hoping to do some deer this weekend, have only done elk before.I just cubed it, loosely packed the jars,added pinch of salt and canned. It was good, but thought perhaps some variety would be nice.

Pinch of salt and pepper, and some onions sliced or cubed. My wife likes it more without the onions. It's good either way.

Honestly, pack it in there tightly.

One of my favorite ways to eat it is to dump the whole jar in a sauce pan and cook it just until the liquid is gone from the bottom. Then load it up on a sandwich with your favorite cheese and homemade pickles. Nothing short of excellent!

Everybody makes noise about searing meat before it goes in the crockpot, before roasting, before Everything... or after the sous vide. It makes a big difference.

Pretending it does not make a difference in canning is foolish...

Or lazy...

What is the difference,exactly? I've only had it put in raw, curious if it would be worth extra time to sear.

The difference is nothing, I’ve done it both ways

Couple cloves of garlic, slices of japeleno, taco seasoning, tomato juice, sky is the limit..

There are three main reasons why it is done and any of the three is enough to make me always sear before canning.

1) The Maillard reaction is the name of the process by which the sugars in the meat are caramelized and the proteins are browned which increases the flavors tremendously. That is why you brown meat before braising, why you sear meat after the sous vide bath, why you seldom boil meat, why you brown sausage and ground meat before adding liquids for sauces. I pity anyone that cannot tell the difference.

2) Texture is better because the meat has an outer layer that keeps the inside of each chunk from looking, tasting, and acting like boiled meat.

3) The meat holds together better as discrete bites rather than a bunch of mush. This is more important when doing something other than the really tough cuts like hocks.

I don't do any canning, but I sure can tell the difference between seared and not seared when it's meat in the slow cooker or whatever.

It is well-documented fact it makes a big difference to put extra heat on a piece of meat... and very obvious.

One of the best meals I've ever had, was a kind of stroganoff made with canned venison, it was baked with partially cooked noodles, water, bouillon cubes and included a Lipton soup packet.

I guess I’m wrong, according to Sitka dummy...😂😂

A quickie trick I learned to simulate the seared/browned flavor in a hurry is to added a couple tsp of molasses. It gives the darkened color and just a little bit of sweetness and depth.

I have seen brown sugar used... it does not do anything for the texture. I cannot see how molasses would?

Guys, we're way over thinking some of this, just can it! Give it a light sear, add a bit of onion, no water & pressure it. DONE!

Dick

Been canning venison for 20+ years.

Water bath. 3 hours of rolling boil for quart jars.

tsp salt per jar
couple cloves of garlic pressed in
1/2 an onion
jam full of stew meat sized chunks
top with water

Use a table knife to slide down in and release any air bubbles before putting on the lid and ring.

Had canned venison and gravy over rice last night. Finer snappin' is might hard to come by.

Just rolling eyes and shaking my head...

Sitka, I'm with you!

Dick