Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Wow..... Canned Venison

I really want to can venison this year. My Mother in Law cans meat every year and will teach me all the tricks of the trade. Do most use beef fat on the top of the meat?


ddj

I've never canned meat.

That being said, I think the pressure cooker acts as the great equalizer, makes the tough cuts tender, allowing you to use whatever you can get into the jar.

Always canned mine in beef broth

Yes, in my experience that pressure canning process is your friend for some tougher cuts. it really does all seem equal when you dump it out of the jar.

not that I've tried canned backstraps vs canned trimmings

But canning venison is simply an excellent way to preserve that meat for later use. I mean all the way around, tenderizing, flavor, no risk of freezer burn, ready to eat, no thawing... It's a winner all the way around.

We don't add water or bulion either. Sometimes we add some diced peppers/onion but other than the canning salt that's it.

I'd be willing to bet the bullion would dissolve perfectly fine in the juices from the meat without adding any water.

Those that have done it know what I'm talking about, it provides it's own juice and if you pull the jars hot after the process time has passed those juices continue to boil in the jar for quite some time as the jars cool.

bullion cube, not a bad idea, might try it.

I put a bullion cube in mine and it seems to work well.... Keep in mind that I do not add salt since I am adding a bullion cube. The bullion cube has almost a 1000g of sodium so that covers the salt requirements.... I also put in some onion.... Had good luck so far

Everything I have canned so far (which is not alot since I am just getting started) has not been your prime cuts... i.e. pieces cut off of the neck and front shoulders.... they came out great and very tender...

Canning is the highest and best use for neck, hock and the like. I do, however, strip out the sinewy parts. They turn into gelatinous masses, which, to me, are unappetizing.

Almost all the canning I do is just plain meat. It leaves me with wide open options.

That said, however, I just canned up a bunch of 4-bean moose chili.

We trim ours stuff really good too, canning is almost magic but there's no sense in eating junk.. blech!

The dogs are more than happy to get a bowl of fat and silver skin trimmings.

Your 4-bean moose chili by the name I am asuming that it is beans with meat. I am courious about that as to how that turns out. I would thing that the beans would be mushy by the time the meat is cooked. Can you enlightem me on this?

No different than canned chili you buy in the store.

It would probably shock folks if they could understand just how many TONS of game meat Miss T has canned... And being just 22 years old and all... Most years there are at least a couple of black bears, complete except for the backstraps and T-Loins, in Chili Bear-de, a bit of moose hock, caribou hock, you name it...

Bison, black bear, bunnies, caribou, deer in three flavors, grouse, kipper snacks, ling cod, moose, mountain goat, musk ox, ptarmigan, salmon, sheep, and more... Hundreds of pounds at a time is not uncommon...
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This has been a really great thread and has certainly opened my eyes to some potential. I think this might work really well for tenderzing and preserving wild boar too.

I have never canned meat, but I did can fresh tuna that I caught out of Venice, LA.

Simply a little salt in the bottom of a pint jar, fresh tuna chunks to 7/8 full, cover with chicken broth, more salt on top, and pressure to directions.

My family would not touch store tuna as long as there was any of this left.

You don't have to stop at canning meat, either. I buy those giant cans of tomato sauce and diced tomatos at Costco (they're about $3 each) and make up a huge batch of marinara sauce. Then jar it up and put it on the shelf. It can be used for pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, what ever. Very handy.

One really cool non-meat thing we have put on the shelf is a rhubarb version of "mince pie filling." I think it was "Rhubarb, Apple, Walnut, Raisin Pie Filling." It was so good,and so rich, it worked better as a fruit square filling as opposed to pie. I double the pie dough recipe, put it in a large jelly roll pan, spread a quart of the pie filling in it, then top with another pie crust. The filling is about 3/8 - 1/2 inch thick, enough to give great flavor, but not so much that the richness of the filling takes completely over. Needless to say, this is not pressure packed, but water bath packed. Like a jam.

I could go on...

You guys have sold me....I'm going to try it tomorrow.

Couple questions,..do you use the bouillon cube with the quart jars or the pint jars, and is the cooking time the same (80 minutes) for both..?

I read about canning meat over the years and thought that might be cool.

I shot an elk last fall and haven't eaten all of it yet. It turned out really really tough, although the flavor is great. It was the first elk I've ever killed and it was on a warm December day here in OK. I was worried about spoilage, so me and my cousin butchered it up and had it on ice ASAP so none of it would go to waste.

What I didn't know at the time was elk needs to go thru rigor before it's packaged or it's going to be tough as a boot. Live and learn.

This will be a perfect test to see anything will make this dude tender.

So all I need is 1/4 onion and 1 bouillon cube per jar. I don't have to put anything else in it to keep from getting ptomaine poisoning ?....

I don't put anything except a 1/4 teaspoon salt in a quart jar. Processing time is 75 minutes for pints, 90 for quarts, at 10 lbs.
You can raw pack it or brown it, if you brown it, fill the jar with the drippings up to 1" of the top. It needs the headspace. Without it, the jars will not seal.

If you raw pack it do not add any extra liquid.

Be sure your jars are sterilized.

Put the lids in hot water to soften the rubber seal, but do not let boil. When you put them on the jars, tighten the ring to snug. Do not over tighten.

Lbs of pressure depend on altitude and type of canner you are using. I prefer the gauge canners, I don't really care for the weighted gauge (rocker) kind.

One of the most important things to remember is after it has done its time in the canner and you turn off the heat source, NEVER vent the canner until it is completely cool and the gauge is all the way to zero.

Wash the jars after they have cooled over night. I like to store them in the boxes the jars came it, and I label the whole box with great big letters on white paper. (I store the stuff under the stairs and it's easier to see.)

Have fun and BE SAFE!

Dude all I know is what I've read in the ball "blue book" which talks about ph and such... we crack the book open every time we can anything.

We'll maybe add variations with onion/peppers etc but we always use salt as suggested. 1/2 tsp for pint jars, 1 tsp for qt jars.

This is for stew meat which is what we typically can, diced to 1" or larger cubes.

I think we typically "raw pack" the jars. And process to the pressure and time specified. Pints 1.25 hrs at 10 psi, qts 1.5 hrs at 10 psi.

Others here will chime in, if i had to guess with bullion cubes in exchange of salt I'd say 1 cube for pints, 2 cubes for qts.

But I dunno.

Salt is usually listed as "optional" so I don't think you can under salt it.

Thank god MT beat me to it with better instructions lol!!

Thanks for the info folks..!

I found the following website very useful:

[b][color:#3333FF]National Center for Home Food Preservation[/color][/b]

Gives you guidelines on how to can just about anything....

I'll post up some pics when I make the canned meat happen..

I put up some Pickled Okra yesterday for the first time,..hope it turns out well.

Red Salmon....