My friend Annie and I recently went to a canning class at Rock Bottom Ranch in Basalt, Colorado. She was particularly intrigued because one of the activities offered was going to be canning meat. Canning meat? Why in the world would you even want to do that? Well, if you are a subsistence hunter or catchatarian, in the fall in Colorado you may find that you have more meat than you can store in your two freezers. Also, although you initially lose more of the nutrients of a product when you can something as opposed to freezing it, after 6 months the canned goods have not lost any additional nutrients, whereas the frozen food starts to lose its value. Fruits and vegetables in particular aren’t suited for freezing for long periods of time.
Another advantage to canning meat is that the canning process cooks the meat, which can make it very convenient to use in the future, and the cooking process renders meat that many hunters might throw away, believing it to be completely worthless, into melt-in-your-mouth tender morsels.
So… basics. Start with about 1-inch cubes of meat. Meat that contains sinew that you might normally try to cut off is okay; it will become tender during the 90-minute pressure cooking process. But for the best flavor it is a good idea to mix some of the sinewy shoulder pieces with some better pieces of meat from other parts of the animal.
Before you can add anything to your canning jars, you need to inspect and sterilize the jars. Look at the rings and lids for any defects. Take a look at the rubber seals and make sure the rubber looks clean and unmarked, since the rubber seal is the most important piece in the puzzle. Hold the jars up to the light and make sure they are not cracked, and there are no chips around the mouth of the jar. Put your jar rack in a large stainless steel pot and bring the water to a boil. Transfer the jars one by one to the pot, lowering them carefully into the water using tongs. Be careful not to bump the jars together, and be sure to lower the jar at an angle, as dropping them in flat can cause the glass to crack from the thermal shock.
Boil the jars for about 5 minutes, and remove them with the tongs. Pour some of the boiling water in a separate pot that contains the rings for the jars, and pour some into a pot that contains the lids. Stack the lids alternating which side is up so the lids don’t get stuck together. Place the empty jar upside-down on a clean dry towel. Continue removing the jars, pouring more water on the lids and rings as needed until they are fully immersed in water. Once the pans are full, you can empty the water from the jars back into the large pot, or discard it in the sink.
When you’ve removed all the jars from the boiling water, you are ready to turn them over and prepare them for the meat. Put one teaspoon of IODIZED salt in the bottom of each jar, then add about an inch to an inch and a half of water. You can use the water that you used to boil the jars. Next, begin adding chunks of meat to each jar. Fill each jar about 2/3 or 3/4 with meat, then use your bubble freer spatula to gently pack the meat down in the jar. Try to run the spatula along the inner edges of the jar first, then, pack down the meat in the center. Add water to the jar to cover the meat, then pack again if necessary and add more meat and/or water if necessary. For meat you want to leave about an inch of head space in the jar. If you pack them more tightly, the meat/water mixture is likely to boil over during the pressure cooking, which may happen anyway, but it’s best to try to keep it to a minimum.
Once your jar is full, take a clean rag dipped in the boiling water, and gently clean the rim of the jar, getting rid of any spilled liquid or food pieces. Then dip your finger in hot water and run your finger around the rim of the jar to make sure it is completely clean in nick free. Now you can use your magnetic lid lifter to pick the lids up one by one out of the pan of water and place them on each jar. Once the lids are all in place, you can put the rings on each jar, making sure not to over-tighten.
When all the lids and rings are in place you are ready to move your jars into your pressure cooker. Again be careful lowering the jars into the water. When all the jars are in the pressure cooker you can add water if needed (the jars should be submerged about up to the shoulder of the jar), then place the lid on the pot, turn, and seal. DO NOT put the weight on the pressure cooker lid yet. Turn the heat up and wait for the water to come to a boil. When you see a good column of steam coming up from the vent in the lid of the pressure cooker, you can add the weight (15 pounds). At our altitude we have to boil the water for 90 minutes to achieve the correct pressure to seal the jars. At sea level this time is much shorter. If you live above 1,000 feet, use the following chart to determine the correct pressure for canning meat.
Once the pressure cooking is complete, turn the heat off and move the pot gently off the heat. Let the pot cool naturally until the pressure indicator pops up, signaling that the pressure has been released from the pot. Remove the lid, and gently remove each jar and place them on a clean, dry towel somewhere that they can cool and sit undisturbed for 12-24 hours.
When the jars have cooled completely you can wipe the jars in with a soapy cloth to remove any residual residue on the jars, label the jars, and put them away. It’s a good idea to wipe off the jars as our teacher discovered this year…apparently mice are attracted to the scent of elk broth, and once they discover it they are actually capable of prying the lid off of the sealed jar!