Botulism. It's about 100% deadly as the muscles of the body stop "working"...so you stop breathing. Some very lucky people can actually survive e-coli...most however don't. Even with proper ICU medical treatment, both have a high mortality rate.

I thought ecoli only killed the very old or young and the rest just got really sick. Thanks for the info.

2nd ? Does the canning of jams/jellies require "pressure cooking " ?

No they dont.

Now, I know that a lot of people use the terms pressure cooker ad pressure canner synonomously. But I just want to let those of you who aren't familiar with these that a: All pressure canners are pressure cookers. But b: Not all pressure cookers are pressure canners!

What I mean by this is that Pressure cookers are often pre-set at 10lb's of pressure. They vary in size from the very small to the very large. The small ones, naturally, cannot support the rack and jars required for canning. However, the large ones can. Just because you may have a pressure cooker does not mean it's aptly equipped or appropriately sized for canning. Also, make sure your canner is in good shape. Petcocks and valves have to be cleaned REGULARLY. Gun cleaning patches are great for this. And you have to check your guage. IF you have a weighted gauge or one that twists, either way, it shouldn't be off by more than 4 pounds. If it is, you need to get a new one!

I recommend water bath canning for most fruits and vegetables, and pressure canning for all meats.

As I said with the canning of the squirrel post, there are two ways you can can meats and poultry. The first way is hot pack, the second way is raw pack.

Hot pack is how I recommend canning poultry, squirrel, rabbit and other small game. First thing you do is cut up your small sections. Place in a pot and cover with water. Chop one carrot, one onion, a little bit of garlic, salt and pepper and any other desired spices. Put on a lid and cook until medium doneness. They should show almost no pinkness when cut. Then, take the hot pieces and loosely pack the jars. Strain the broth and set aside. Be sure to leave one inch at the top of the jars. Bring the broth back to boiling, and then pour over the filled jars, still leaving 1 inch of space at the top. Wipe the rims clean on the jars or the seal won't be secure. Then secure the lids. Put a few inches of water in your pressure canner so it won't boil overr, and let the steam fly for the first 10 minutes. Ten, shut it down to 10 pounds steady and process for about an hour. Remove from heat, let pressure fall to 0, Open the petcock and let the residual steam release. Be careful as you can get burnt!!! Then, when opening the lid, open it away from yourself. Let the jars cool overnight, and then you can write on them with a sharpie. REMOVE THE BAND AFTERWARDS ELSE THEY RUST ON!

Most meats like venison, beef, lamb etc. I raw pack. To raw pack, you chunk the meat after removing excess fat and tendonds and pack the jars loosely with one inch of space above meat. Then, cook raw meat in jars at a slow boil until medium doneness. Add half a teaspoon of salt sprinkled in the jars. Put on your lids and process in the pressure canner for 90 minutes.

Now, here's the thing. I do my small game and poultry in pint jars, and my meats in quart jars. I tend to can things like corned beef and meat-vegetable stew. My grandmother does whole venison roasts (small ones), and hearts and tongues. The poultry and small game, I just can as pieces as they're easy to cook with afterwards. YOu can also can hamburger, sausage, and shortribs.

Great post, this should be archived. I have seen the question asked before with not near the comleteness in answers seen here. Thanks to all who took the time to share their thoughts. Tom

Pressure canning is also the only recommended method for canning low acid vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, green beans, etc. Hot water bath (or boiling water bath) is OK for tomatoes, if they are naturally acid enough (some newer tomato varieties are lower in acid, not as tart tasting). You can add the recommended amount of lemon juice to jars of tomatoes, then you can always use the boiling water bath for them. Pickled vegetables are made acid enough with the vinegar, etc. they are pickled with, so boiling water bath is fine.

Go to the local county extension office (USDA) and ask for the up-to-date recommended canning methods, or go online to their website and download it, or buy a current commercial booklet (such as Ball Blue Book) on preserving food.

You might be fine cleaning a loaded gun, many people have probably done it with no ill effects, but that is not how I teach my kids, nor how I want to see my friends do it.

I also don't want to unknowingly eat food that was canned using non-recommended methods.

Well put.

Great Advice-get the Blue Book!

I agree. Water baths are really only good for tomatoes, salsa, pickle, and fruit they are acid enough not to be pressure canned. Meat and vegatables need to be pressure canned!!!

Best deer meat I ever had was pressure cooked, they added a cube of beef bullion to it, man it was like better than a crock pot cooked beef roast!T.20

How do you use canned venison for gravy? Just read about it and it made my mouth water...... I can venison all the time, just never used it for gravy.

When I can venison I add a few slices of onion and a bullion cube. I use the pressure cooker, as it is faster and safer. There are only a few thing that I will can in a hot water bath, and that usually contains vinegar, or a lot of salt.

Another vote for pressure cooker, no salt or spice, just a tsp. of vegitable oil.

How long will the canned meat stay good? It sounds like it would be good to take camping or to deer camp.

Hi, I want to cann some Venison tomorrow but kind of not clear on the method. some add water some don't, some cook or brown meat before it's pack and some just add meat chunks to jar? I will be doing it in a pressure cooker, please help
Thanks

Chuck.

I know it is late to be adding to this post, but I saw a lot of the same questions I had when I started canning. Here is the link to the USDA Complete guide to home canning. If you have any questions about what is an acid food or low acid food (requiring a pressure canner) please check here:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

All meats are considered to be low acid foods and should be canned in a pressure canner. So are things like potatoes and carrots.

I purchased the All American Pressure Canner (21 Quart model) which will actually can 7 quarts at one time or 19 pints. I saw some mention bigger canners, but 7 quarts is about all I want to get ready at one time. Especially when canning meat. It has no seal to go bad, or need to be replaced. The machining of the metal allows it to seal well without a rubber gasket type seal. I've been VERY happy with my purchase. It's fairly expensive though at over $200. Not an easy amount to pay for a canner. It can also be used as a water bath canner, you just leave the pressure regulator weight off when you can. This method would be used for high acid foods like tomatoes. This is described in my manual.

While the manual that comes with the canner does give a lot of good information, it is not the only source of information you will need. Just simple questions like, can I add seasoning to the meat are not answered. It’s also a bit confusing about hot packing and cold/raw packing meat.

Seasoning:
Add seasoning to the meat. I add onions/bouillon as others have mentioned. I have also added Green chilies to my pork so I can make pork green chili out of it. Just do not add sage as it gets bitter in the jar. The meat will be well cooked when you are done with it, like it spent hours cooking in the crock pot. It’s a nice thing for stew or chili meat. It will also be quite ugly as the meat sticks together in the middle, many times the liquid is lower than the meat (not a problem), and fat and blood cook out of the meat when it’s processing. Not to worry, all of this is normal. The meat is very lean. You can dump of the juice/fat/blood and rinse if you want to when you open the jar.

Cutting up the meat:
I cut mine in small bite sized cubes. Remove all fat/sinew/gristle. This process is very time consuming and requires some effort. A large pork loin about 18lbs took me over 2 hours to cut up into these pieces and then it filled 4 Quart jars.

Hot Pack:
You cook the meat and you add liquid to the jar. Many recipes for this suggest that you only cook the meat to medium or medium rare by browning it and then put it in the jars. I would find this hard to do while trying to get several jars ready at one time.

Raw/Cold Pack:
You do not cook the meat and DO NOT add any liquid to the jar. I have done this method for pork and beef. Pack the meat down and try to remove as many air bubbles as you can. I use a spatula for the layering, and then right before I put on the lids I smash it down a bit with my hand. Of course, I use wide mouth quarts so this could not be done with smaller jars. The jars do not need to be hot when using this method and the water in the canner should not be hot. Do not put cold jars in hot water, they could break.

Ground meats:
I have not canned ground meat myself yet, but I understand the consistency of ground meat is bad if it is raw packed. You should brown the meat and then put it in the jar with some liquid.

Lids:
Simmer the lids and do not boil.

DO NOT OVERFILL THE JARS:
It doesn’t seem to matter if the jars are under filled at all, but boy if you overfill them they will break. Just be on the safe side and allow a bit more head-space than is recommended. I overstuffed a chili jar and it broke all over my canner. What a mess.

Time to process:
This is another one that is tricky. Many people will give a time to process in their recipes, but they do not take into account your elevation. I’m in Denver (the mile high city) and my canner indicates I have to can everything at 15 pounds of pressure and much higher time that most other places. But, my canner guide does not seem to distinguish between cooked and raw foods. So, I was very confused on things like chili that are already cooked. In the end I just went with the recommendation in the book of 90 minutes and 15 pounds of pressure. Denver is 5280 feet above sea level, so adjustments must be made. I always want to err on the side of caution in canning so I don’t make anyone sick…