Getting Off The Grid - Home Canning Meat- The Adventure

No I do not have my own animals to slaughter and I am not so sure I could do that if I had to, that is one reason I am comfortable being a vegetarian or even vegan. I am the gatherer, the sow a seed and make a tree, the sow a seed and make a crop of tomatoes and so on.

Right now I am still on the grid so I buy meat, maybe one day when I have the vegetable garden in full harvest I can find someone to trade meat for vegetables but I am not that far along, yet.

Yesterday I stopped by the local small grocery store called food outlet and bought a few meats with the intentions of home canning them for meals on the days I am out working and I need to make a quick dinner, if I have this meat cooked already it takes me less time to prepare the meal and I am more than likely to eat healthier. 

I bought :

Hamburger meat - $5.00

Top round Beef roast - $6.13

Pork roast - $4.35

Total for the meat : $15.48 

What I did first was I sliced the beef roast into chunks to pre-cook faster. I cooked till the beef roast was medium and I chopped it into chucks and filled the jars with its own broth.

I scrambled the hamburger meat till it was medium and I drained off the grease. I filled the jars with hamburger meat and clean boiling water.

I pressure canned seven pints for 75 minutes at 10 pounds.

Next :

While the beef was in the pressure canner I put the pork roast onto cook.

When the canner was done I removed it from the heat and allowed it to cool, while I was waiting I packed clean jars with the cooked pork roast and then I cooked more ground turkey, just enough to fill the remaining spots in the canner.

When the canner cooled down and I removed the beef products, next I pressure canned the pork and turkey burger the same way.

At the end of the evening I have 14 pints of meat and that equals 28 single meals. All for $15.48 that is around .56 per meal of meat.

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The day before I was cleaning out the refrigerator freezer and I had a lot of chicken so I pre-cooked the chicken and removed the bones and I had enough room for two more pints so I cooked ground turkey and fill the pressure canner.

And if you have never had a jar to bust while canning you are in for a treat!

One pint of the chicken cracked and all the juice went into the canning water, all over the other jars. It was a mess. But on a good note it was the dark meat that busted and not the breast :)

Now add those 6 pints of meat and I have 20 pints of meat or 40 meals.

That is how I am home canning meat right now.

NOTE: Yes I still have meats frozen and yes I still buy fresh meats, the canning helps me out on the days I do not have time or when the freezer is bare of meat.

How about you? ever home canned meat, besides deer?

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By Andria Perry 

Photos BY Andria Perry