BOTTLING MEATS AND BEANS

BOTTLING MEATS

Caution: If you have a glass-top stove, you may want to use a propane camp stove outdoors to bottle meats. Occasionally, the canner will adhere to the flat top. Bottling your own meats is extremely easy and is great for food storage. The meat is tender, juicy, ready to eat and needs no freezing or refrigeration. The shelf life is at least 3 years, and usually much more. The process is so easy that you will want to rotate your meats more often to be sure the nutritional quality is high. You can bottle any kind of meat; chicken, turkey, beef, hamburger, fish, ham... The Internet even lists specifications for moose, bear, possum, etc.!

Pressure Canners: You must use a pressure canner to bottle meats. Pressure cookers will not safely can meats. Canners come in quart sizes, meaning they hold a certain amount of liquid quarts. Don’t purchase anything smaller than a 15 quart canner, which will usually hold 7 quart jars. For used canners, check the internet. If you buy a used canner, be sure to have the gauge tested by the County Extension agent. Even new gauges should be tested after installation. This is a free service. This will ensure that you are cooking at the right pressure and your food will be safe. Try to avoid canners with the rubber gasket in the lid because the gasket will eventually leak. A good canner will have a metal to metal lid, a pressure gauge, a pressure release valve, wing nuts to hold the lid down and an inside tray. A canner is a great investment even if you’re not doing food storage because canning meat will save meal prep time (no more defrosting chickens), money (shopping bulk sales), and a good canner will last forever. People swear by their canners that are over 70 years old.

Canning Meats: A pint bottle will hold 1 pound of meat. Quarts hold 2 pounds. Jars from thrift stores or yard sales are fine for vacuum sealing dry foods, but are risky for bottling meats. Old jars might crack under the pressure. Name brand Ball or Kerr jars are stronger than plain jars that may have been acquired as mayonnaise jars, etc. You might invest in some new jars when you first start canning and reuse them over and over. Many books will tell you to cook the meat before you bottle it. With the exception of ground meats, raw pack works great. Put the raw meat and 1/4 - ½ tsp. salt into a clean jar. Jars do not need to be sterilized hot. Fill jars to ½" from rim. No other spices should be added. With the exception of ground meats, no water is added to the meat. In a small pan, boil the lids for about 2 minutes to soften the rubber seal. Make sure the rim of the jar is completely clean before you put the heated lid and ring on. Tighten the ring down finger tight. Pour about 3" of water into the canner and place the tray inside. Place the jars in the canner on the tray. Screw down the canner lid, making sure the top is even, and turn the stove on high. Don’t put the weight on the pressure valve until steam has spouted out of the valve for 20 minutes (vented). This expresses the air out of the jars and canner. After venting, put the weight onto the pressure valve. In desert altitudes, can meats at the 10 lb. mark. For other altitudes, check the manual (+3 lbs. for Utah). If you have an older canner, there may not be a weight but there will be some kind of pressure release mechanism. Keep this mechanism open to express the canner, then close it to begin your pressure. When the gauge gets to the correct pressure for your altitude, begin timing...75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts. (Fish is 15 minutes longer.) This is the formula for all meats. You will need to immediately start turning down the heat to keep the pressure stable and continue adjusting it over the allotted time to keep it within a lb. or two of the correct pressure. When the pressure drops or increases, a vacuum effect causes the juices in the jar to be pulled out. Do not leave your canner. At the end of the 75 or 90 minutes, your heat should be at a very low level and you will then turn the heat completely off. Don’t move the canner. Just leave it alone and let the pressure do down on it’s own. When it’s back to zero, release the pressure valve (or remove the weight). Take off the lid, put the jars on a towel on the counter away from cool drafts and wait for them to seal. You’ll hear a plink when the lids seal correctly. If a jar doesn’t seal, you can either refrigerate it for use, or rebottle using a new lid. When they are cool, wipe the bottles clean, remove the ring and put them back in the box for storage. Don’t bottle turkey hams or other processed meats like bologna or hot dogs! Don’t bottle spiral cut hams. Use a shank ham and don’t add salt. Ham makes very little juice so don’t worry if the juice doesn’t cover all the meat. When canning cooked meats like leftover turkey, add a soup broth before canning.

BOTTLED RECIPES
(Add 3 lbs. pressure to recipes for Utah elevation.)

Bottled Beef
beef salt beef bouillon cubes
Remove fat from beef and cut into chunks. Fill jars up to ½" of top but not shoved in excessively tight. Add one beef bouillon cube and ½ tsp. salt to each pint. Do not add any liquid as it makes its own juice. Pressure cook pints for 75 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.

Bottled Turkey (or chicken)
turkey peanut oil (I left this out of mine.) chicken bouillon cubes
Place about 1 lb. of turkey in each pint jar. Add 1 tsp. peanut oil and 1 chicken bouillon cube to each pint (no salt). Pressure cook pints for 75 minutes at 10 lbs. pressure.

Bottled Ground Beef
Lean ground beef (or ask the butcher to grind London Broil which is great quality on sale)
Ground meats are the one meats that need to be pre-cooked before bottling. Rinse cooked beef in colander. Season with taco seasoning, etc. if desired. Fill jars with meat. Ground meats need water added to bring it to ½" from rim. Pressure at 10 lbs. pressure for 75 minutes.

Bottled Pinto Beans (Makes great refried beans, handy for soup & chili)
1 cup raw pinto beans 1 tsp. salt (or ½ cup raw pinto beans and ½ tsp salt for pints)
Wash, but do not soak dry pinto beans. Only wash enough beans to fill desired bottles since the beans would not store well after being wet. Place beans in bottle. Add salt. Fill bottle to neck with water. To seal, pressure cook at 12 lbs. pressure; 90 minutes for quarts, 70 minutes for pints. White or red beans use same procedure, but pressure quarts at 12 lbs. for only 70 minutes. (I canned red and white pints in same batch with pinto beans, all for 70 minutes. They turned out great. I don’t know what would be a safe amount of time to adjust red or white pints down to anyway.) Overcooking won’t hurt beans. It could only make them into bean soup! Don’t bottle lentils or split peas since they are softer.

Bottled Spaghetti Sauce
20 lbs. Fresh tomatoes (skins removed) Mix and add: 1 tsp. basil
2 cups chopped onion 4 Tbs. chili powder 2 tsp. black pepper
2 cups chopped green peppers 3 Tbs. salt 1 tsp. cayenne pepper (scant)
2 cups chopped celery 2 Tbs. sugar 2 tsp. thyme
2 cups chopped parsley 2 tsp. oregano 2 tsp. sage
4 cloves garlic, chopped 2 tsp. rosemary 2 tsp. cumin seed
Cook above, covered, for 1 ½ hours.
Cook for 2 ½ hours on low heat. Stir frequently. Process in pint jars. Pressure cook 20 minutes at 15 lbs. pressure. To serve, mix with 1 lb. browned hamburger and 1 can (10 3/4 oz.) tomato soup. Simmer.

Bottled Sweet and Sour Sauce (12 pints)
3 cups cider vinegar 1 red pepper, diced
8 Tbs. soy sauce 8 cups fresh tomatoes, skinned, cored and cut up
7 ½ cups sugar 2 (20 oz.) cans pineapple tidbits (drain and save juice to equal 1 cup)
4 cups diced onions 1 cup cornstarch
3 cups diced green peppers
Combine vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Add onions and peppers and cook until tender. Add tomatoes and pineapple and boil 6 - 8 minutes. Add 1 cup cornstarch mixed with 1 cup pineapple juice. Pack into pint jars. Pressure at 13 lbs. for 10 minutes.