Canning Meat and Stews

By: Mrs. Hillbilly

We have been experimenting see what we liked to can... what tasted the best, and what did not. We were scared to can meat at first. In My Opinion, when canning ANYTHING, A "Ball Blue Book" is a must have!

We follow the directions in the book and are really careful about keeping everything clean and sterile. We have found that some things can well, and other things we did not like. We have canned chicken, meatballs, beef stew, vegetable soup, chicken & dumplings, red beans with sausage, chili, spaghetti sauce, and beef roast in gravy.

When you start out, first make sure your jars are clean and are free of nicks and cracks. Fill your pressure canner with the correct amount of water... "Just look in the directions that came with the pressure canner." As a general rule, It is not safe to can meats or anything low acid like vegetables in a water bath canner. When canning stews or soup or chili be sure you can them following the guidelines for canning meat. Everything we have canned has turned out good except the veggie soup.

We have learned to can the meat and veggies separately. We were surprised at how well things hold up... the meatballs for example. We have made meatball hoagies from our canned stock, and put them into spaghetti sauce. One thing we did with the beef stew was to put in raw potatoes. That way when you are through your potatoes are not mush.

It is so nice to open something that you have canned and know that you have done it yourself, and when you can open something up and eat in ten minutes, That is just too easy for me. We are still careful about the things we can. Smell and look at it. If it smells funny or looks funny don’t eat it, throw it away! Also be sure to boil anything low acid for ten minutes before you eat it.

Canning is not as hard as you might think, you just need to follow the directions in Ball's Blue Book... It's actually a lot of fun!