Can I Can Beef in a Water Bath

Canning beefiness is a uncomplicated way to preserve meat in a shelf stable ready to eat portions.  Once the meat is safely pressure canned, simply heat and serve, or add to your favorite recipes.  Beef tin be canned in a variety of ways including as cubes, basis crumbles, formed hamburgers and meat stock, and this beef canning tutorial covers all those options in detail.

This past autumn nosotros purchased a half cow share, and that really stretched our freezer space to the limit.  With a growing family unit, buying beef by the side is past far the about economical manner to fill the freezer, and next year as my kids grow, I can only imagine needing to add to our stores.

Nosotros already make beefiness jerky, but there's just and then much dried beefiness y'all tin eat.

Canning beefiness is a simple mode to save on freezer space, while preparing shelf-stable meals in a jar for busy weeknights.  You never accept to worry about the power going out and spoiling your stores (as is a abiding concern with freezer meat).

It'due south keen for emergency preparedness, but it besides tastes neat for everyday meals.  Pressure level canning beefiness means you're pressure level cooking information technology (just in jars), and that results in tender flavorful meat that's already cooked and prepare to get.  No demand to plan ahead and slowly braise the stew beef all day, information technology'southward already waiting for yous in a canning jar.

The process for canning beef is pretty much the same as canning whatever sort of meat, be it pork, lamb, venison, moose, or even bear.

I'll walk you through how to tin beef every bit:

• Chopped Beef Chunks (both raw pack and hot pack)
• Ground Beef (both as crumbles and formed hamburgers)
• Beef Broth (from trimmings and bones, fully strained)

Beyond these preparations, you may as well can beef equally stew or chili, and I'll give you a few recipes for those as well.

(It'southward important to notation that beef must be pressure canned, and cannot exist canned in a water bathroom canner.  If you're not familiar with pressure canning, I'd strongly propose reading this beginner's guide to pressure canning before you go started.)

Iii different ways to can beef. From left to right: Footing beef crumbles, stew beef chunks, and beef goop.

A quick annotation on yields:  I weighed all the meat during this procedure, and found that on boilerplate 3/four pound (340 grams) of raw beefiness was required to fill up each pint jar.  That's truthful whether you raw or hot pack, and even if it'due south ground or chunks.  And so for a ix-pint canner batch, you'd need just under 7 pounds of raw meat, regardless of the type of beefiness and how you chose to pack it.

Canning Beef Chunks

When almost people think of canning beef, they assume bodily chunks of meat, so that'south where nosotros'll start.  Beef pieces can be canned as strips, cubes or chunks and the National Middle for Food preservation gives no restrictions on the size of the pieces.  Small roasts or steaks that can fit into jars are perfectly fine for canning, every bit are smaller beef chunks equally I'thousand demonstrating.

Beefiness tin be packed into canning jars raw (with no liquid), or browned and submerged in your choice of liquid.  I'one thousand canning beef in bootleg beef stock, but water, meat drippings, and lycopersicon esculentum juice are also acceptable options.  Adding salt is optional, but if you choose to, somewhere between i/2 tsp to i tsp per pint (double that for quarts) is what'due south suggested.

Hot pack (browned) meat results in better quality, only I'll walk you lot through both methods.

Raw Pack

When beef is canned "raw pack," chunks of beef, or small steaks/roasts are packed into canning jars.  No liquid is added, as they'll permit out their own juices during cooking.

Mod lean beef cuts don't tend to let out every bit much liquid as the beef raised a few decades ago, so raw packing can exist problematic.  The lack of browning too results in beefiness that has a "boiled" consistency, without the added flavor and improved texture that browning the meat before canning would provide.

None the less, it's like shooting fish in a barrel…simply chop the meat as you come across fit and pack it into jars leaving one-inch headspace.

Hot Pack

For hot pack, the beef is browned before loading into jars, which helps the chunks retain shape, and the crisp browned outside adds to both the season and the texture of the canned beef.  When yous're preparing meat for the crockpot, the result is e'er better if you take the time to brown the meat before tedious cooking, and pressure canning is no different.

Quickly brown the meat on all sides with a footling oil (or beefiness fat) in a hot skillet.  There's no need to melt the meat through, your goal here is merely to put a overnice sear on all sides of the beef.

Once the jars are filled with beef, hot pack beef chunks are topped with boiling liquid (water, broth, or tomato juice), while still retaining 1-inch headspace.

Whether yous've raw packed or hot packed, the pressure canning instructions are mostly the aforementioned, with i key departure.  As you're preheating the pressure canner, you should warm the 2-3 inches of water in the bottom of the canner to roughly 140 degrees F (very hot, simply not simmering) for raw pack and 180 degrees F (barely simmering) for hot pack.

It doesn't have to be exact, and there's a good bit of wiggle room there, but the idea is to minimize the difference between the temperature of the jars going in and the water in the canner.  If you lot put cold jars in a hot canner they tin break from thermal shock.

Load the canner following the manufacturer's directions, and once it'south up to pressure process the jars for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts.

Accommodate the total pressure to your altitude and the blazon of canner (dial gauge v. weighted gauge) as shown in the table beneath:

Canning Ground Beef

The process for canning footing beef crumbles, or whole hamburgers, isn't all that unlike from canning beefiness chunks.

Raw pack is no longer an option, and the ground meat must exist browned before filling the jars.  Browning helps to render out some of the fatty, and it likewise sets the shape of the beef to keep information technology from packing together into one big loaf in the canning jar.

Though y'all're draining fat from the beef, at that place volition still exist plenty in the jar, and that'south perfectly fine for canning.  You'll run across a thick layer of beef fat at the meridian of the jar once they've cooled, and that's not just normal it's perfect for crisping the meat (or burgers) every bit they come out of the canning jars for serving.

The National Center for Food Preservation actually recommends adding some fatty to lean meats like venison, around 1 role pork fat to four parts venison, both to help the meat brown and to improve flavor.  Ground beef more often than not has 15 to 20% fat, and so information technology has plenty already.

Ground Beef Crumbles

Canning ground beefiness crumbles is probably the most versatile method and the simplest.  Merely brown the crumbles and and so pack into canning jars leaving 1 inch of headspace.

The meat may exist seasoned with salt, pepper, and spices of your choice before canning.  Taco seasoning, for example, is a common option.

Be aware that some spices don't tin can well.  Sage and thyme, for example, can get bitter during canning.  Other spices, like cumin, can get overbearing after pressure level canning.  Information technology's a safer bet to spice the meat at serving time.

If adding common salt, 1 teaspoon per pint and 2 teaspoons per quart is a rough guideline.

Canning Hamburger Patties

Believe it or not, you can too can whole hamburger patties and they hold up surprisingly well through the canning process.  (The same is truthful for basis pork, which may be canned as patties or links)

For these, I'd recommend salting/seasoning the meat earlier yous course the patties as you lot won't be able to flavour them as hands on serving as the footing beef crumbles.

Merely about whatsoever salt/seasoning combination is fine for canning, simply you cannot use whatsoever binders in the meat.  No egg, breadcrumbs, or starch of any kind equally those are not approved for canning.  Stick to meat, salt, and spices.

Shape hamburger patties, knowing that yous'll be able to fit roughly 3/4 pound of meat in the jar.  I chose to make 3 1/iv pound burgers per wide-mouth pint jar, shaping the burgers to exactly the size of the jar opening.

Be certain to form them well, packing the meat tightly and then chocolate-brown well on each side and so they hold their shape.

Since all the jars are hot packed for canning ground beef, the process is exactly the same whether it's loose crumbles or formed hamburger.

Pour humid stock, h2o, or tomato juice over the elevation of the meat in the jars, leaving 1-inch headspace.  Seal with 2 role canning lids to finger tight.

Load the jars into a force per unit area canner that'southward been preheated to just barely simmering (around 180 degrees F).

Process in the force per unit area canner according to the manufacturer's instructions for 75 minutes for pints and ninety minutes for quarts.  This is the same equally if canning beef chunks in a higher place.  Refer to the tabular array below for distance adjustments.

I will admit that canning hamburgers whole is not my favorite preparation.  They held together beautifully, which I didn't look, but the resulting burgers are quite moisture, which makes sense given that they're canned in broth.

To brand them proper hamburgers again, exist sure to scoop off the elevation fat and brown them well in a pan equally you're reheating them.  Utilize your spatula to press down as they cook, trying to press out equally much moisture as possible.

A grill also works well for this, as the moisture is able to drip away.

If y'all're really conscious of this during re-heating, then you can actually make a totally passable canned hamburger.

Canning Beef Goop

I prefer to tin can meat of all kinds in meat stock (rather than water) considering information technology prevents the meat'due south flavors from leaching out into the canning liquid.  If you brand an especially rich and flavorful stock, information technology'll actually impart flavor to the canned meats (rather than taking information technology away as h2o would).

That means that making stock is a function of canning beef, at least in my house.

Canning broth is already role of our normal routine, as the quality is the aforementioned every bit frozen containers of homemade goop and information technology doesn't take up any freezer infinite that way.  We must take viii to x gallons of home-canned bone broth in the business firm at any given time.

None the less, canning beef means making fresh stock (or ownership beef bullion), and I'k a fan of making fresh stock as part of the procedure.  If yous make a big batch, you tin can follow up your beef canning round with the second circular of beef broth.

Brand the beef broth as you otherwise would, post-obit your favorite recipe, or simply throwing roasted beef bones and bits of meat into a stockpot, simmering slowly for many hours and and so straining.

To can beef broth, the timing is much shorter than canning beef chunks because the jars are only filled with liquid rather than goop and meat.

After filtering, reheat the broth to boiling and and then fill up canning jars with humid broth, leaving 1-inch headspace.

Procedure the jars in a pressure level canner at pressure for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts.  Adjust the pressure based on your altitude following the table below:

Beef Canning Recipes

Besides canning beef, either evidently or seasoned, you tin can besides pressure can chili and soups containing beef.  Hither are a few recipes that permit you to create shelf-stable meals in a jar:

• Canning Beef Chili
• Canning Beef and Vegetable Soup
• Canning Mincemeat Pie Filling

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Canning Time : ane hour xxx minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Canning beefiness in a pressure canner is an easy style to preserve meat without taking up freezer space, and it'southward perfect for emergency preparedness or busy weeknight meals.

Ingredients

• Beef (Either cubed chunks or ground beef)
• Canning Liquid (Water, Broth or Tomato plant Juice)

Instructions

1. Set up a pressure canner co-ordinate to the manufacturers instructions. For well-nigh models, this means adding 2-3 inches of water in to the lesser, along with the bottom trivet and and then bring it up to a gentle simmer (180 degrees F).
2. Brown all meat, whether it'southward ground beef, beefiness cubes or beef strips. Remove the meat from the pan with a slotted spoon, straining out equally much fat every bit possible.
3. While the meat is browning, bring canning liquid to a eddy and keep information technology hot. Water, broth and tomato juice are all options, just I mostly choose homemade beef broth.
4. Pack browned meat into prepared canning jars, either pints or quarts, leaving i inch headspace.
5. Pour boiling canning liquid over the meat in the jars, still maintaining 1 inch headspace.
6. Wipe rims and seal with two part canning lids to finger tight.
7. Load the jars into your pre-heated pressure canner, seal the hat and allow steam to vent for 10 minutes.
8. After steam has vented for x minutes, add the canning weight (for weighted guage) to allow the canner to begin coming up to pressure.
9. In one case the canner is at target pressure level (see notes, as the target pressure varies based on your elevation), process the jars for 75 minutes for pints and xc minutes for quarts.
10. Subsequently the jars have processed, plough off the heat and permit the canner to cool completely. Once cool, unseal the canner and remove the jars.
11. Check seals, remove rings and wash jars. Store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use. Sealed jars should maintain quality on the pantry shelf for 12-18 months if properly pressure canned.

Notes

(It's of import to note that beefiness must be pressure canned, and cannot be canned in a water bathroom canner .  If you lot're not familiar with pressure canning, I'd strongly suggest reading this beginner's guide to pressure canning earlier yous get started.)

In this recipe menu I'g presenting the best way to make high quality canned beef at home, hot pack pan browned beef packed in liquid. Other methods, including raw pack and no added liquid variations are discussed in the original article, and while they are approved canning methods, they're not methods I recommend because they sacrifice quality for convenience.

The instructions are the aforementioned whether you're canning chunks or strips of beefiness, or loose pack ground beef crumbles.

Yield: I've found that it takes roughly three/iv lb raw beef to fill up a pint jar, and around i 1/ii to 1 iii/four pounds beef per quart jar. This is true regardless of canning method, though I only recommend hot pack. The meat is weighed while raw, either from the store or from your ain home processed fresh beef.

Beefiness Fat in Jars: Delight exist aware that fat at the top of the jars is completely normal, especially with ground beefiness and hamburger. During browning, try to remove as much fatty equally possible so that the fat within the jar isn't likewise excessive, but a solid fat cap is not abnormal depending on the blazon of beef used.

"Excessive" fat within the jar can sometimes bubble out during canning and get into the seal, preventing jar seals. I've never had this happen, but it'south something to watch.

Canning Beefiness Broth: To can uncomplicated beef goop without meat included, merely make the broth and filter out the solids. Render the stock to a eddy and ladle into canning jars leaving ane inch headspace. The full canning time is essentially less when it's just broth rather than broth and meat. Process in a pressure canner for 20 minutes (pints) or 25 min (quarts).

Distance Adjustments for Pressure Canning Beef: Altitude adjusted pressures for beef chunks, footing beef and stock are still, but actual pressures vary slightly depending on the type of canner used:

Weighted Approximate Canner:

• Nether 1,000 Feet Elevation Use 10 lbs
• Over 1,000 Anxiety Elevation use 15 lbs

Dial Gauge Canner:

• 0 to two,000 Anxiety Elevation Use 11 lbs
• ii,001 to 4,000 Feet Utilize 12 lbs
• 4,001 to 6,000 Feet Use 13 lbs
• 6,001 to 8,000 Feet Utilize xiv lbs

Pressure Canning Recipes

Looking for more than pressure canning recipes?

• Canning Pumpkin
• Canning Sweet Potatoes
• Canning Green Beans
• Canning Turkey

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Source: https://practicalselfreliance.com/canning-beef/

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