"Canning Everything But the Cat"---a pictorial HOW TO on How to Can Beef in a Pressure Canner!

Good morning everyone!

As you can see, The Welcoming House's devoted pet is just fine this morning. She is curled up in her favorite chair (which would, of course, be the only antique chair in the house), purring away and deftly avoiding the handling of the two two-year-olds in the house when necessity calls for quick moves.

It has been quite a day in the last 24 hours. We now have two adorable, lovely ladies in our extended family that have pneumonia. One is my husband's grandma, who has given a godly legacy to the family time and again.

She has been moved to hospice until the Lord comes to take her home.

Her 89th birthday is on Friday, and we wait to see if she will celebrate it with us one more time, or in Heaven with her Lord and Savior.

The second one is my mother, who was admitted late last night with walking pneumonia. She will be released hopefully by the end of the week, and until then, I am already missing her sweet spirit and big smile when she sees her grandkids.

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But today I am teaching you all about canning BEEF, from cubes to ground. We have to cover a few pressure cooker basics though.

1. Each year with your pressure cooker you should have the gauge checked at the nearest county extension office to make sure it is working properly. You should always have an extra rubber seal on hand just in case yours gives out. And that pressure cooker should be very well cleaned, inside and out, all the holes and doo-dads, knobs and weights, at LEAST every six months. If you are a seasonal canner, who only does a little canning, then that should work. If you are a moderate canner, it should be every three months. If you can year round, like I do, that baby should be inspected by you inside and out about once a week or every two weeks to make sure it is working properly and will not have issues on you.
2. You can avoid babysitting the pressure gauge and constantly fiddling with the stove temps on the burner if you purchase the weighted gauges that go from 5 lbs to 15 lbs by adding one to three weighted rings onto the pressure cock. I will provide a link at the bottom of the post that will take you to the amazon site that has an example. I dont do paid links, so it is just to show you what it is.
3. You should always......read that, ALWAYS.........read your pressure canner manual before using a pressure cooker to know how much water to add, and the basic operating instructions. If you have a used canner that was passed on from someone else, get it checked, and go online to find a current user manual for that canner (if there is one available). Each pressure canner manufacturer is different in how they approach their design and how to best use it. These are devices that deserve a healthy use of common sense and caution...........and then will reward you with amazing food and health for your family if you use them!
4. Once you are done pressure canning, you should always allow the canner to cool down, even after the pressure cock drops and the gauge shows no pressure. once you hear that clink of the metal pressure release valve going down, wait ten minutes, and then open your canner. Why? Because it gives the inside of the pressure canner a chance to settle a little, and you will not lose any water, broth or product from the inside of your jars in a canning process known as siphoning. Take it from me, better to exercise a little patience and have no failed seals on your jars than have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. With meat, since it contains liquid fat when heated enough, this is a crucial step. It will siphon grease between the lid and the edge of the jar, and you will have failed seals. So just wait. It really is a virtue. Really.
5. Never run cold water over your canner, even if every grandma on the block did it back in the day. its dangerous, and believe me, getting scalded with a huge pressure canner (even if you have Popeye arms and can get that baby off of the stove and to the sink) is absolutely NO FUN. Do it once, and you will never do it again.
6. Anything else that comes to mind over this series I will add in as I go. Check out what your elevation is, and look at this chart: Pressure Canning According to your Elevation

Now, there are two schools of thought about canning meat: Hot pack canning it, and Raw Pack canning it. I personally prefer the Hot pack, although I do understand why people choose to pack their jars with raw meat and seal it, since it is easy, cooks while you are canning, and you can do a lot more meat in a faster time. However, since I don't do that, I cant teach you on it. You will have to find that information somewhere else if you want to learn more about doing it. One of the best places I know is the Canning and Preserving for Christians over on FB. Great group of people, who love the Lord and one another, pray for one another, and many people who have been canning for years and years and years..........as well as all the newbies we keep getting addicted to canning. So--check it out, and join if you love canning, want to learn more about canning, or anyhow, above all, want to find a group of people who will walk in faith with you through something in your life. There are "raw-packers" on there, who will answer all your questions.

   We are starting with covering cubed beef. Here is the process by which I do things at the Welcoming House. Check under each pic for descriptions.

These are cheap beef roasts we purchased on sale for jerky. I think they were rump roasts? 

Put your cover on to the roaster and leave it on overnight at 250*. The goal is to cook the meat without drying it out.

I put 1/4 tsp in each clean, hot jar before adding the meat, since it will make its own broth.

I cube the beef roasts and add it until it reaches the bottom thread of where the ring sits on the jar.

 Add the boiling water here, being sure you never go over the bottom thread of the neck of the jar, where the meat was put to in the previous picture. Since meat can be greasy, I always wipe the rims of the jars with a cloth soaked in straight vinegar. It works better than straight boiling water, and have not had a failed seal on canning meat since I started doing it, even with sausage patties. Make sure the water in your canner is the same temp as what is in the jars so you dont have cracked jars from temp fluctuations. I make it easy on myself and have the canner boiling just like the water I am adding to the jars. Put on warm lids after wiping rims, tighten rings down gently and place in canner. 

Then, you wait.

 Pints take 75 minutes of time once you reach pressure on your canner for your elevation. Quarts take 90 minutes. If at any time your pressure canner drops below the pressure needed, you need to stop the time there until it gets back to pressure, then continue as you were.

For me, 75 minutes later, and I had these beautiful, tasty jars of Cubed beef. I seasoned them while cooking the first time in the roaster, so the canning just intensifies that.

   Ground beef is easy. SUPER easy.

all you gotta do is fry it up, with any seasoning you choose (think taco, basic, garlic and basil, etc)

Pack it hot into the jars that have that same salt in the bottom,

Top with boiling water, wipe the rim, place the warm lid and gently tighten the ring. Process for the same amount of time, and voila----you have super easy, go to meat for any meal.

Some people I know even form hamburger patties and make them just a little smaller than the mouth of the wide-mouth jars, then process the same way. Since pressure canning can change the texture of the ground meat to where you might not necessarily like it in a burger (think meatloaf texture), then you could certainly do that and treat them like mini-meatloaves once you open a jar. I personally don't do the burgers, but have plenty of jars of ready made meatballs on my shelf, canned in both marinara sauce, and a swedish cream sauce. And they are delicious!

That is the beauty of canning. 

All of a sudden you dont have to settle for what is available in the stores. 

Instead,  it is totally up to you what is added, and what you can use it in at the end.

And once you begin to can meat, you will never look back......or shop the same ever again.

Tomorrow we tackle chicken and turkey.........see you soon!

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather