After a recent
shopping trip I came home with some bacon, beef and chicken to put up for our
prepper pantry. I wanted to add more
home pressure canned meats to our long term storage. I have commercially canned meat products, but
I really wanted some home canned meats because I know exactly what is in that
jar and I can put more for far less money than what store bought canned meats
are going for. I think having both
options is a good thing.
On day one I cut
up all of roasts and chicken breasts into large chunks. I put the bones and beef trimmings into a
large pot to brown. Then I divided them
up into my slow cookers along with a bag of veggies scraps I've been collecting
in my freezer for a while to make beef stock.
I deglazed the pan with some water so I'd have all that wonderful flavor
in that stock. After adding some more
veggies and water I let those slow cookers simmer all day long. Our house smelled really good. The bacon and steaks went right into the
freezer.
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| I pan seared the bones & trimmings to enhance flavor |
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| Simmering beef broth |
The next day I
skimmed the fat from the strained beef stock and pulled frozen chicken broth
from the freezer and a container from the pantry too. The parts I had strained off and the fat from
the beef broth went out to the chickens so nothing was wasted. I ended up with over a gallon of delicious flavorful
broth.
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| A busy kitchen |
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| Sterile jars waiting their turn |
The meat chunks
were packed into jars and topped up with broth, then into the pressure canner
to process and seal. The leftover broth
went into jars too and was pressured canned as well. By the time I was done we ended up with eight
jars of roast beef and ten jars of chicken breast plus nine jars of broth -
one chicken and the rest beef.
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| Roast beef packed in broth |
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| Chicken packed in broth |
Each pint jar is
enough meat for four meals so one jar will feed four people one meal, two people
two meals or one person four meals. I
did the math and compared to what I spend for a 12oz can of commercially
processed roast beef and my own home canned 16oz jar of roast beef I saved 10¢
per ounce, but most importantly I was able to select the quality of the meat I
processed and control the ingredients I put into it. Plus, I ended up with all of that broth. The home canned chicken was an even better
deal at 7¢ an ounce compared to 19¢ an ounce for the store bought cans.
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| I used the leftover money after purchasing the meat to get a new case of jars |
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| Beef broth |
I feel it was
well worth my time and trouble even considering the cost of lids (recently
purchased for $1.99 a box) and electricity used to process my jars. And there was a lot of prep work and clean up.
It did take a lot of my time because I devoted the better part of an
entire weekend to this job, including the shopping trip. But I do very much enjoy home canning and preserving
so for me there was a lot of entertainment value as well. I am very pleased with my latest home canning
venture and I'm looking forward to my next one.
Now to decide, what should I do next?
Great job! I wouldn't have thought about searing the bones and trimmings to make the broth. I'm sure that makes it even more tasty, and you know exactly what is in your canned goods. Looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteThat was the best beef broth I've ever made.
DeleteI just learned how to pressure can last summer. I canned some ground beef and spaghetti sauce. It was a blessing to open a jar of the gr beef and 2 jars of the sauce and make up a batch of crock-pot lasagna one day last week when I was home not feeling well. That fed us for 3 meals. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how much time it saves. And I'm always surprised by how much food is actually inside that jar.
DeleteBack on what my kids called my "Crazy Canning Course," I made and canned chicken broth from a rotisserie chicken we had gotten from, of all places, Costco. Since I had a gas cooktop, I figured even cooking the carcass in the slow cooker all day, and then pressure canning the broth on the stove was cheaper than the fuel to drive to the nearest store to buy cans of broth. In any case, the kids loved it, to the point where they noticed if I used store bought broth, so I had to make a habit of doing it whenever I roasted a whole chicken. I love that I can control the amount of sodium--in fact, I don't add any salt, as the seasoning I used when I roasted the chicken is plenty! I use broth not only for soups, but for risotto, putting in the bottom of the pan when I roast a chicken, and making gravy. I haven't tried beef broth, though--we typically buy only boneless cuts of beef.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many great uses for broth and homemade is so much better. I love that you can just put it in the slow cooker and let it go all day without much fuss. So easy to make.
DeleteGood job!
ReplyDelete