I want to start this post with a little… “OH MY GOODNESS, HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED” blast from the past. This is an excerpt out of canning pamphlet that was my Great Grandma’s. I’m not sure who printed it as the cover and first few pages are missing. But it gave me a chuckle so I figured I’d share it!
Back to the time at hand…
My Dad is a great hunter! I’ve had tags off and on throughout my life but never really got into trying to get an animal every year. One of the main reasons is because my Mom doesn’t eat game so there is always plenty of meat to go around from my dad and brother. A week ago my Dad got a nice, small bull elk on opening morning and we were all excited for the great meat until we thought it through and said, “Oh man, our freezers are full!” So I put the word out to friends looking for freezer space and contemplated canning it to store outside of the freezer. I have never pressure canned meat and the last time I pressure canned anything was helping my Mom can green beans when I was little. So while the elk cured for a week we thought about our options.
My awesome Dad cutting up his elk.
It ended up my brother took half of it so between my parent’s freezer and my mini chest freezer we were able to squeeze in the rest (sorry to the friends that had room and were looking forward to some elk meat). But I still wanted to try canning some. Not only is it a super easy process but it will give my pantry a new dimension that will help me out when I don’t feel like cooking dinner. I borrowed my aunt’s pressure canner and after my Dad and I cut up a quarter into roasts, steaks and hamburger meat we canned the chunks.
Cubes of elk ready to be canned.
We cut up the nice pieces of elk that didn’t have any fat, tendons or silver skin. The cubes were approximately 1 inch square and we overfilled a 5 quart bowl with pieces. A teaspoon of sea salt was added to each quart to season the meat.
Sea salt added to each quart.
The raw meat was packed into the sterile, warm jars leaving an inch space at the top. No liquid is added to raw packed meat, it makes it’s own liquid once canned.
Raw packed elk meat.
The rims of the jars were wiped clean and lids that had been soaking in hot water were placed on top. The rings were tightened onto each jar and then they were placed into the pressure canner. The insert on the bottom of the canner was already in place and about an inch of hot water was in the bottom.
7 quarts loaded in the canner.
The water was heated to a boil with the lid on and once the steam was steady out of the pitcock for 10 minutes the counterweight was placed onto it. As the pressure increased the safety fuse closed itself and then the pressure started rising. The canner was held at 12.5 pounds of pressure (for 5′k elevation) for 90 minutes. Then the heat was turned off and the canner was allowed to cool until the pressure was gone, the lid was removed and the jars were allowed to cool. I removed the rings once cold to make sure the lids sealed and now I have 7 quarts of elk meat in my pantry to enjoy this winter! After seeing how much the meat settled we realized we could have packed more in but we would have had to take out some of the roasts we already wrapped up and put in the freezer, so next time I’ll be sure to pack the meat in tighter. :)
Canned & ready to store for later!
For more information on pressure canning please visit the National Center for Home Food Preservation: Using Pressure Canners.
When you can meat, leaving 1 inch of headspace basically means packing the jars all the way up to the threads. Also, if you want to avoid the shrinkage next time, lightly browing the meat and making a broth/gavy with the pan drippings and water to fill your jars up will work great for you. I don’t much care for the texture of raw packed meat, it’s not as tender as when you use the hot pack method. Coongrats to you for canning some up though, you’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor for years to come.
Yeah, we probably should have just packed 5 quarts with what meat we had cut but it was an experiment for me so no worries on my end. I’m sure after eating this batch I’ll change up the process if I like canned meat. Thanks for the suggestions CC!
Great timing! We don’t have elk but the venison is on it’s way! My husband knows that I wanted to try canning meat so his plan is to get one for the freezer and one for me!
Neat! How will you serve it? Do you cook the meat in another recipe, or just heat it and serve it from the can?
Tora, last night I made a pulled-elk sandwich with one quart & a pint of peach-bourbon bbq sauce. They were tasty! It is very tender so I think it would also be great to make a quick chili.
Hoping for an elk this weekend. If not an elk then we should have our deer ina couple of weeks. I’m going to try this!!
I wish I could help you use up your haul. I’ve been searching for venison for sausage making, but everything is imported from New Zealand. Its ridiculous considering all of the wild deer we have here in Texas. I don’t know any hunters unfortunately.
You really are born in the wrong century
Thanks for posting this… I just had a discussion with my husband last night about canning meat. :] Love your blog, so glad I found it.
I pressure cooked mine for 90 mins at 15 lbs of pressure. The meat was very dry even with all the liquid in the jar. The pressure cooker directions say not to start processing time til regulator starts rocking. The meat boiled in the cooker for 30 min before it started rocking so it cooked for a little over 2 hrs. my elevation is 1790 ft. any ideas??
Brian,
I’ve honestly only canned it this one time so I don’t really have any pointers for you. Mine was not dry but I should have packed them tighter. Maybe someone else will read this and have some tips.
we just canned some of our elk for the first time last night. We used pint jars and when packing the meat in i pushed down tightly on the meat and used a butter knife to push down the side of the meat against the jar to release the air that was trapped. We used 12lbs of pressure for 90 min. We love garlic so we used a 1/8th tsp of minced garlic and a 1/2 tsp of canning salt in each jar. Loved it and tastes yummy!