I’m wanting to try this. I’ve read where some say it’s necessary to use a pressure canner to kill bacteria and others who say a standard water bath is OK. What is everyone’s thoughts on this? Obviously not worth getting sick over but I also would need to go buy a pressure canner if that’s the only safe way to do it I guess.

Pressure canned is how I've always done it, for 25 years

Don’t fuuck with the water bath Ricky

Always do meat under Pressure.

Thanks everyone! Looks like I’ll be investing in a pressure canner soon. I’d like to try canning some venison and see how we like it ... I like the idea of freeing up some freezer space.

Great grandmother,
Grandmother,
Mother,
Used water bath canners
Not to play little prepper games with a deer,
But to store whole cows and the uncured parts of a pig.
Nobody died, nobody got sick.

It's a process that needs to be followed, cook time is set.
3 hours. You just can't decide you want medium well and
shorten time. Or just decide to quit early.

In today's world, everything has to be idiot/fool/crackhead/lazy proof.

I wouldn't be scared to water bath if I needed to.

That said,
We have, and use a pressure canned for meat and green beans.

If you want to do it right you have to use a pressure cooker.

Equally important to me is the need to sear the meat before putting it in the jars. It makes a huge difference in the finished product.

I have gone to Vacuum packing in retort bags rather than jars. You can process more meat per cooker load and the finished bags are easier to store.

If I already had a chamber type sealer I would maybe look into it but I couldn’t really justify buying a canner + a chamber type vac sealer at the moment to try this. Plus, jars are reused vs. bags getting tossed and needed replaced.

Agreed, but we use it a ton for moose and salmon and a ton of everything else. When the jars are overfilling a large closet it is time to get rid of jars...

Just put up 4 cases of venison. Love it. Quick meals.

canned venison is excellent

I grew up in the 50's eating canned deer meat that was done in a boiling water canner. There were no freezers around then. Sometimes we had to disregard deer season and put a few in jars when we ran out. Those surplus foods that USDA gave out to out of work coal miners only went so far. We also had yellow and green beans, carrots and several non acidic vegetables. There were six of us in the family and no one ever got sick.I remember my mother teaching several other younger women how to do it

+1 saddlesore....although I use a pressure cooker, ate a lot of water bath pork and beef as a kid, no problems. Also canning books tell us to avoid additives and not knowing any better, for years I have been adding a couple tbs of flour and a beef and/or vegetable broth cube...it kind of makes a tasty half fast gravy.

Well my Grandmothers & Mother used pressure cookers....
Maybe just how they learned.
I still pressure cook also.

We've been pressure canning elk for years, pint jars at 15 lbs for 75 minutes. Have come up with a lot of great recipes from fajitas to sandwich spread.

Saddlesore, an interesting thought popped in my head.

We water bath meat and non-acidic foods 3 hours.
How long does it take at your altitude? Or just the same?

Another question. Pressure adds 3°F/lb to boiling.
Does that hold true at altitude?
212+15x3 for 257? Or is it affected by atmospheric pressure?




Google! Duh!

Altitude affects pressure canners!

The farm I was raised in we used the bath system for the 12 years I was there and no problems... later when I was married my wife and I used a pressure canner mainly because it was faster for the 57 years we were married before she passed with no problems.. so I say it is up to you as to how much time you want to spend doing it.. never had any problems . excellent wife..

Sitting in my stand right now waiting for a doe to can. We can 2-3 deer a year. We bought a pressure cooker when I started, but like others have stated, my grandmother always used the water bath method without issue.

OK, we've got all these replies & I know how to can it, someone explain how to water bath it!!!

Dick

Google Lancaster Ohio botulism outbreak April 2015. I have a friend whose mother was very ill as a result of hot water bath canned potatoes used in potato salad at a church affair. It aint worth the risk to me.
I pressure can my deer and find it easy to do and I no longer have to worry about an extended power outage with frozen deer.
FYI-Found a nice pressure cooker on Craigs list for cheap.

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

Stroganof is a standard here for canned meat of any kind. Just made it a couple nights ago. Pour the liquid out of the jar into a skillet. Sometimes it takes a little heat or even pouring a little boiling water into the jar to dissolve the gelatin.

Heat the juice to boiling and back off the temperature a bit. Add a big bunch of sour cream, about as much as the meat... and dill weed and seed. Bring it up to almost boiling and stir the sauce. I add a spoonful of tomato paste (but have squirted catsup when I did not feel like opening the paste) and gently add the meat. Turn the heat down lower and allow the meat to heat thoroughly. Do not stir the meat vigorously at all, try to leave the pieces in discrete chunks. This where the searing is important because it is impossible to keep meat that was not seared from coming completely apart. Serve over rice or pasta.

Super fast, easy, and very good.

Probably a million recipes, every proponent likes theirs.

Ours, chunked meat, salt, can.

Searing would be a plus,
But we weren't playing chef, canning a couple jars.
When you have a cow to can, you get to work making it happen.
Venison was done the same.


Flavorings would be good, if you know how it's going to be used.
Our canned meat was for... well, whatever you used it for.
I love fried canned meat, onion, ketchup and Tabasco sammies.

we will be canning 28 qts next week. having never seared it before it would seem quite a lot of extra work and time.
thats 2 lb per jar to sear.

one of the best things about canning it is that you can use all of the worst cuts, such as neck and shoulder, and a lot less trimming is required to get a good product.

pack the jars and add a bouillon cube, a dash of salt and a dash of cavendars and start making steam.

Yep, the tough gristly parts get tender,
The fat renders out and can be skimmed when opening.

Easy to turn ribs and thanks into tasty bits, without any
nasty deer fat mixed in.

I would personally never eat meat that was canned in a water bath.

It may be safe 99.99% of the time? For those that have been doing it for decades how close are you to that .01%?

Best of luck!

Exactly jim, why even chance it??? Like running a pressure cooker is hard or something???

Probably a generational thing. Mom did it because grandma did, because great grandma...

Now days inexpensive pressure cookers can easily be found and no excuse not to use one. A few generations back there were no such options and perhaps out of reach for many.

I will definitely be getting a pressure canner to try canning some venison for the 1st time

I appreciate all the responses and suggestions

this week is one last chance for venison...hope springeth eternal