Canning Venison Meat
by HJ
(US)
We have a bunch of venison that needs to be canned this week so here are a few things I plan to do with it. And I only use the cold pack canning method to do all my canning as well. :)
It is SO nice and handy when you don't have to thaw out meat or fry it to make a nice dish. Plus canning venison kills a lot of the 'wild taste' in the meat.
- Can stew meat. Nice chunks that don't have much fat in it, I throw in a jar with a bit of salt and pepper, and boil for three hours.
- Can meatballs. I like to mix meatballs according to the recipe then bake them for about 30 minutes, This will firm them up even though they aren't done yet so they stay nice and firm in the jars. I just fill the jars with meatballs and fill it about 1/4th with water and coldpack for three hours.
- Canning venison steaks Fill wide mouth jars with the smaller steaks. Pack it full and fill about 1/4 full of water. Add salt and pepper. When you open the jar of canned venison steaks, simply dump into a kettle, heat them up and thicken the gravy a bit. Serve with mashed potatoes. YUMMY!!
- Plain hamburger I probably won't have time to fry the burger so will try to bake it. I just crumble a bunch of hamburger into cake pans or cookie sheets and bake until almost done then fill the jars with it. When you open a jar of canned venison that has been pre-baked, it just crumbles out of the jar real nicely. I like to sprinke the meat with salt, pepper and a bit of garlic salt when I bake it.
You can also just stuff the raw venison into jars and add a bit of seasonings and then can for three hours. I do that a LOT. Don't add any water as the meat will make it's own juice as it cans and when you add water, it will only boil out of the jars, causing the lids not to seal well.
So anyways, that is what my week looks like! Happy canning to you all! :)
