I just canned 38 quarts of pears, a 2 day project. Now I have a question. I’ve got a pretty good amount of frozen deer meat, and I like the taste of canned deer. Is it OK to take deer meat out of the freezer and can it?

yes.

it'll cost you a few jars of those pears...

it`ll be fine an it will also last longer then frozen

should be fine . you can unthaw meat , cook it and refreeze it , so i don't see why you couldn't cann it.

i'm with you special K , canned deer meat is some awful good stuff .

mark

my grandma wants a couple deer shot for mainly for canning, gotta fry them backstraps though

My recipe is practically the same as Big Joe's. Only difference is mom always used un-iodized salt when she canned hers, and put 1/4 of a beef bullion cube in the jar. If your meet isn't freezer burnt, can it!

if you are going to "unthaw" the meat wouldn't you just leave it in the freezer?

SK , Been there done that . Last spring I had some deer froze and I decided to bottle some up just to try it . It is beautiful stuff . I also done some bear in the bottles and that worked perfect to . I plan on doing a lot of jars of each this fall . I just done a few jars in the spring to see what it was like . It's deliceous stuff and it will keep a long time in the jars

JD a lot of western PA and Ohio guys say unthaw when they mean THAW.

I can’t find anything telling me to preheat the meat before I put it in the jars. Should I heat the meat or pack it cold?

The way I do it is to cook the meat first in big pots. Then put the cooked meat into the jars and cover with broth and put jars in boiling water bath for 15 minutes or so to seal.

Current recommendations for canning meat are to only use pressure canning, not hot water bath canning. I know lots of people have done and still do it using other than the currently recommended methods and times, but there are safety reasons for using pressure canning, rather than hot water bath for meat.

I'm going to pressure at 10lbs for 90 minutes.

I soaked the meat in cold water and a little salt to get out the blood . Then I rinsed it off and packed it in the jars . added 1/2 tsp salt to each jar .Don't have to add any water to the jars . Put the lids on finger tip tight and Place in a large pot . Fill with water to the neck of the jars and boil for 3 hrs . This is a lot slower than the pressure canning ,but it does work when you don't have the pressure canner

I looked it up in my "Ball Blue Book of Preserving", and it says to simmer meat in water to heat throughout. Pack hot meat into jars, leaving 1 inch headspace, cover with cooking liquid, again leaving 1 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints 75 minutes and quarts 90 minutes at 10 lbs pressure.

Our home economics county agent said she often would take meat out of the freezer and can it, so it shouldn't be a problem, in answer to your first question.

Swifty

I think you should send me some of them pears

we tried some other spices in it. but always go back to just the salt. it seemed to have the best taste. also boiled the bones to make a broth to pour over it. before the pressure canning. i guess the bullion would work. i like the broth just above the meat when finished. so when i take it from the cupboard to prepare it i can just scrape the layer of grease on top off easier.

Last 2 I have left, bear on the left and deer on the right .

Well, I’ve got em cooking. I warmed the meat and packed in hot jars.
This is the first time I’ve tried canning meat. I’ve canned everything but meat. I’ve had canned deer my brother canned but I’ve never done it myself.

Those are the first time I done the meat and it turned out great . I didn't warm the meat though .I just cut it up in bite sized peices and packed it into the jars , It turnrd out great ,so, I'll stick to that method until I inheret a pressure canner ...LOL . I have a book here somewhere on pressure canning . I think it was from Ber-NARdin..

Wondering, does using the pressure cooker make the meat safer to eat than using just boiling water?

This is what I found.

Invisible microorganisms are present all around us. Fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry and seafood contain these microorganisms naturally. Yet, they are not a problem unless food is left to sit for extended periods of time, causing food spoilage. This is nature's way of telling us when food is no longer fit to eat.

There are four basic agents of food spoilage – enzymes, mold, yeast, and bacteria. Canning will interrupt the natural spoilage cycle, so food can be preserved safely. Molds, yeast, and enzymes are destroyed at temperatures below 212° F, the temperature at which water boils (except in mountainous regions). Therefore, boiling water processing is sufficient to destroy those agents.

Bacteria, however, are not as easily destroyed. The bacteria, Clostridium botulinum produces a spore that makes a poisonous toxin which causes botulism. This spore is not destroyed at 212° F. In addition, bacteria thrive on low acids in the absence of air. Therefore, for a safe food product, low-acid foods need to be processed at 240° F. This temperature can only be achieved with a pressure canner.

I actually have 2 books on canning .Your using the hot pack where you cook the meat to the rare stage . I used the raw pack method . Where you pack the meat in raw and don't add any water . here is a couple of pics

As long as the lids stay sucked down and don't raise up it's plenty safe to eat . The boiling inside the jar kills all bacteria and creates a vacume . There is no bacteria in a vacume . If the lids raise up then it's working bacteria in the jar . Don't even think of eating it if the lid raises up .Just trash it and save the jar . You can always sterilize it again for the next time

It tells everything you need to know in those books . Low acid foods as well .

Best deer I ate was canned with beef bullion, very good!

If you die from The bacteria, Clostridium botulinum ........can I have your Dog??????????

Snarer, not trying to start anything, but each of the meat canning directions you posted show PRESSURE canning directions. Neither has boiling or hot water bath directions to safely can meat. Boiling water temps DO NOT kill all bacteria. It needs to be a significantly higher temp, thus higher pressure is needed to reach the higher temps. More time at the same lower temp won't do it.

There are various bacterias that live in naturally boiling water, such as at Yellowstone National Park. This just shows that not all bacteria is killed by boiling water temps. Botulism bacteria can live in an absence of oxygen (sealed canning jars, which are not a perfect vacuum). Please invest one or two good coon pelts and buy a pressure canner. We don't want to take the chance to loose a fellow trapper. Besides, you don't want your dog to go to Vinke, do you?

Swifty

Please do not spread around unapproved methods for canning, if you insist on using them ... fine, but do not put someone else in jeperody(sp?). The pics of the book are too small to read, but if your method is listed in the book, I would have to ask what the print date is of the books?

Low acid products (meat and veggies) all have a high enough pH to allow the growth of c. Bot. c. Bot is the source of botulism food poisoning. There very well can be c. Bot spores in a vaccume, furhtermore c. Bot is an anearobic bacteria (does not like oxygen) which makes a vaccume the ideal environment for it to grow. Also, their spores and toxins (as already noted) are not killed (rendered safe) at a temp of 212 degrees f ... no matter how long you boil them. Furthermore, c. Bot is not a gas former ... so your lids will not swell (raise).

Venison, like most other items can be canned very safely, but you must follow an approved procedure ... with no deviations to the recipe or procedure. Use a recipe from the Ball Blue Book, National center for Home Food Preservation, or several of the universities. These recipes have gone through many rounds of thermal process testing to insure the thermal process is adequate.

Here is a link to meats from the NCHFP web page:

Canning red meat

I am an avid canner at home, and have been a supervisor in a commercial canning operation for a number of years.

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Swifty looks like we were typing at the same time ... you hit the nail on the head. Also, your eyes are better than mine (reading the pics of the books). I have not seen a hot water bath recomended for any low acid products in way too many years (probably since the 60's).

Vinke, Why don'y you can up some shrimp and let Mudd test next August.

I always thought if the lid was down then there was nothing in there to spoil it . I stand corrected . !!!!! Would 3 hrs of boikling not kill all the bacteria ???

NO, you need the pressure to raise the temp in the canner. Raising the pressure, raises the boiling point, which raises the temperature in the canner. It is the higher temp that you need.

I'm guessing if you go to the front of that top book, there is a section that talks about the need for pressure canning low acid foods. That should walk you through the why's and why not's. In fact, if you look at the page in the second pic ... I think that footnote section at the bottom says Botulism Toxin ... I'd bet if you read that it may help with the understanding as well.

Not trying to bust your chops ... just tryiing to keep you and others safe. Right now you are kinda playing 'Russian Roulette' with botulism poisoning.

There is a Government Food and Saftey office handy here . Should I have the bottles tested for the c.Bot ???? .

Might be worth a call to see what they have to say. But I think I know what their recomendation will be.

There is just the boiling bath for High acid foods . It says that low acid foods have to processed at temps of no less than 240 degrees F . Man , They even use different weights for different hights from sea level .
How could the c.Bot spores possibsbly get into the meat .

On one of the other forums ,there was somebody else boiling the meat for 3 hrs . Maybe I should pass the info that was passed onto me . He didn't get it from me .I got the 3 hr boiling time from him ..

This canning type thread comes up often enough, that this thread (at least Mister ED's post), should go to the archives somehow. Either that, or we put Mister ED on our speed dial.

I guess I didn’t pack the jars full enough. The stuff I read said leave about an inch and I left more. I’ve never had such bad results with fruits or vegetables. Oh well. Next time I’ll know to fill a little more. The jar on the far right is only half full because that’s all the meat I had ready and I didn’t have a pint jar ready.
The jars haven't been washed yet and that's why they look so funky.

I have found sometimes a year or more after canning tomatos that the top of a jar might show darker color or the seeds get darker on top. I throw these in the compost, figuring they have gone bad. So are discolored seeds a good indicator of tomatos gone bad. I found a couple qts. from '99 they were 1/4 discolored. Not sure how these were missed so long?

sullivan k,

i agree they should have been packed tighter ...
but they should be ok !!
this meat was frozen also and may have lost some moisture ..

i use 90 minute's 10 # presure 2 teaspoon's of canning salt per quart i pack my meat in the jar clear to the top !! my jar's are hot when i pack and so are my lid's !! they come out lil less than 1/2" from the top with liquid !!

enjoy your canned deer meat ...

halfpint..

Don't shortchange yourself Swifty, you posted very good explanations yourself. But if anyone has questions feal free to ask.

I will only follow recipes and process instructions from a reliable source (Ball Blue Book, USDA, NCHFP, or one of the universities). Never trust a 'run of the mill' source on the net. And, never trust a recipe from your best friends, wife's, uncle Joe's, Mother-in-Law! Many recomendations have changed over the years, due in part to better research and a better understanding of the subject matter by scientists. So, that old recipe Uncle Joe's M-i-L used may be suspect with todays understanding of the organisms.

Also, never deviate(sp?) from the actual recipe. For example, putting in extra peppers or onions into a salsa may tweak the pH value enough, that the thermal process for that recipe is no longer valid.

I have never canned deer meat myself, but would like to try it. How do you guys eat it? LOL I mean is their a good dish to eat with it like with taters and gravy?

I just read the above information and had to add my two cents. I have been pressure canning meats that are fresh as well as meats that have been previously frozen. The pressure canning tenderizes tough cuts of meat,and makes meal preparation quicker, not to mention eliminating freezer burn! For example, I pressure can venison ( antelope, whitetail, mule deer, and moose) burger, after precooking and sometimes add onions, peppers, or even celery to the mix. We even make up chili and pressure can it, just dont add beans. Beans can be added when you reheat to eat. I keep the precooked meat warm, fill the jars, and cover with low sodium beef stock,which is hot, leaving 1" of head space, keeping the top of the jars clean and place two piece lids on jars and pressure can at 11 lbs pressure for 90 minutes. It turns out great. The same method can be done with venison stew meats. I also pressure can fish, both precooked and raw. Once you give it a try you will be amazed at the flavor and ease of meal preparation. As has already been mentioned, follow the directions provided with your pressure canner, or recipe book. Keep in mind that the time for pressure canning can be different depending on your elevation.

I've had the best results by filling a hot jar with raw cold meat adding enough water to fill about half way add one beef cube for a quart jar and cook in pressure cooker at 10pounds for 90 min also yummy with caribou.

looks good to me. those pears look amazing might i add?

I try to put about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vinegar in the canner,this helps keep minerials from forming on the jars.
Then they are easier to wash befor putting into storage.

Is there a dfference in table salt and canning salt?

Yes there is a difference in the two salts.
There are added chemicals to table salt that will make for cloudy liquid in the canned food.

Any more I seldom use any salt while canning.

Also, the jars were probably full enough when you packed them.
Looks to me like you may have releashed the pressure on the canner somehow.
A pressure canner has to cool down by it's self or the juice will be forced out of the jars.
It takes about an hour at least to cool down.
That's another reason I use a dial gauge and a weight gauge.
The dial gauge tells me when the pressure is down to zero, BUT there can still be pressure in the canner.
So remove the weight slowly.