No, I am not an adrenaline addict, but I may be a canning addict. Who knows? Maybe you should ask my husband to stage an intervention. Although I had only done it twice before (chickenand pinto beans), I decided that I really like pressure canning. Maybe even love it. Maybe I love it more than traditional “water bath” canning. Why? Aren’t there potentially disastrous consequences to canning, like death?
Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m risking my life. Maybe I’m fooling myself, but I don’t think so. I have a pressure canner which is quite new and in good repair (I bought this one from Amazon). I follow the instructions RELIGIOUSLY! As much as I like experimenting and improvising in the kitchen, I NEVER improvise when canning, especially not when pressure canning. I want to keep my food as fresh as it was when I canned it, and I most definitely don’t want anyone getting sick from anything I’ve made.
Pressure Canned Ground Beef. Keep in mind, pressure canning is the only tested and safe method for home canning meats. Please do NOT use a water bath or steam canner or try “dry” canning for meat. Those methods have NOT be safety tested for meat.
Back to the “Why am I flirting with death by pressure canning at home?”, I like providing healthy food for my family, but I also like fast, easy cooking. Canning my own food gives me the best of both worlds. It requires a bit of work up front, but I know exactly what’s in the food we eat, and it’s so much faster and easier to prepare dinner at night when most of the items are “dump, heat, ready” foods. What is “dump, heat, ready”? I can dump the contents into a pan (or microwave safe bowl), heat it up, and it’s ready. No prep, no long cooking times, no standing over the stove for hours.
On Friday, I canned my own hamburger for the very first time. Remember the ground beef I bought from Zaycon foods? (See post here.) I took one tube (10 pounds) and canned it. I got 7 quart size jars plus a little extra out of that 10 pounds. I followed the instructions in my Ball Canning Book and my Presto pressure canner instruction book (you can see those online here). I cannot stress enough how important it is to follow the instructions exactly (both with a safety tested recipe and for your pressure canner)! This will keep your food safe, so you don’t get sick!
Want to see me risk life and limb for a few jars of canned meat? Here’s my photo step by step.
Before I started processing my meat, I put some clean 1-quart canning jars in a large pot of water and heated the water near boiling.
Then, I pulled this huge tube of beef out of the fridge.
I cut it into smaller chunks.
Next, I put it in a skillet to brown.
I broke the meat into smaller pieces, so it would brown evenly.
While the meat was cooking, I got out my canning tools: a funnel, a measuring/bubble removing tool, and a lid lifter.
I put the seals into a saucepan filled with a couple inches of water and heated the water until it was hot, but not boiling.
After several minutes, the ground beef was ready to can.
I removed my heated jars from the hot water bath and placed them on a rack.
I put my funnel into one of the jars, so I could add my meat without getting the top of the jar greasy (which would interfere with the jar and seal forming a good vacuum seal).
I filled the jars with the meat using a slotted spoon to drain any excess fat.
I made sure to measure my head space (the distance between the top of the food and the top of the jar). My recipe said I needed a one inch head space.
Next, I added salt to the jars (1 teaspoon to each jar). Salt is optional and is only for flavoring, I used a salt without any additives to prevent the liquid from becoming cloudy.
Next, I filled the jars with liquid (leaving the one inch head space). I used a “broth” mixture made from the fat and water as directed in the Ball cookbook. You can use plain water, broth, or tomato juice.
Then, I used my measuring guide/bubble remover to remove any air bubbles from the jars by running it between the meat and the edge of the jar. Then I measured the head space again to ensure it was still one inch.
Next, I used a damp paper towel to clean the top of the jar to ensure nothing would prevent a good seal.
With the jars ready to seal, I removed the seals from the hot water with my lid lifter. It’s a handy magnetic tool which removes the lids without requiring me to touch the hot water. Nifty, huh? Want one? Check at your local grocery or hardware store for a canning kit. Or take a look at this one from Amazon.
I placed one seal on each jar.
Then, I put the rings on the jars (fingertip tight). Do not over tighten your rings!
I placed my jars in my pressure canner and filled it with the amount of water specified in my pressure canner instruction book (which came with my canner).
I put my lid on, making sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions, and turned on the heat. Once the canner was expelling steam through the vent, I let it “vent” for 10 minutes before putting the weight on (as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Please follow the manufacturer instructions that came with your canner as they may differ from these.)
Once the weight was on the vent, I let the canner come up to the appropriate amount of pressure (12 psi) for my elevation, yours may be different, and kept it there for the entire time required for processing (90 minutes). When the timer went off, I simply turned off the stove and let the canner cool completely before removing the jars. Never open a pressure canner while it is pressurized!
When I removed the jars with my jar lifter, they were still very hot and the meat was still boiling inside the jars. I left them overnight to cool completely. This helps ensure a good seal on your jars.
For the final step, I labeled my jars with the contents and the date processed.
This was even faster and easier than canning chicken (see post here). The most time consuming part was waiting for the canner to do its work, but I was processing the rest of the beef, so it wasn’t a big deal (posts to come). I was in the kitchen anyway.