# is there any meat you can't can?



## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

is there any meat you can't can?
is any type that would change so badly you couldn't recognize it?


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## kenworth (Feb 12, 2011)

Lemme see. I've done beef: ground beef, chunked up plain, corned, and pastramied. I've done chicken: plain and with bbq sauce and with mustard. Domestic turkey, wild goose meat and giblets separately, pork.

IMHO the worst one is ground beef because of the extra fat content. I've done it both ways, precooked and just tossed in the jar. 

Never done any fish, but have seen it canned. It didn't look appetizing to me. 

I know additional wild game can be canned too, but I've not had an opportunity to do so.

I did make liver pate' from real goose liver, and it was quite nice. Didn't get a chance to can it, it was eaten too fast.


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## InvalidID (Feb 18, 2011)

Honey badger.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

I've seen everything from baby shrimp to moose canned at home. Seafood can be a little tricky because it changes flavor and texture most during the ultra-long processing times IMO -- still edible and palatable (for most anyways), just very different from fresh. Any of the ground meats can be a little odd, especially if they're raw packed... not always the most appetizing visually in a lot of cases. Ground meat, including uncased sausage, is the only thing I recommend always browning and draining before canning, for texture reasons.

Of course, just like fruits and veg, there are some cuts of meat that it's a waste to can if you can eat fresh or freeze... the tender and prime cuts that are normally served medium-rare, like filet mignon. But any cut that you'd normally braise or stew is a prime candidate for canning IMO.

The only meat I've ever seen any official caution about is bacon and lobster. But many of us have canned them without problem. I think the caution in both those cases has more to do with possible "unpalatable" end products than actual safety.

** A note on canning sausage: be very careful if you're seasoning your own sausage for canning. Many pork & chicken sausages have sage in them, and sage can become very nasty/potent/acrid when canned. And some garlics can become extremely overbearing during canning s well.


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## bajiay (Apr 8, 2008)

I've canned antelope, bear, elk, deer, and beef. In chunks, and soups/stews. Not a problem, other than the garlic thing mentioned above. One of the stews was so hot, we couldn't eat it.


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## Aseries (Feb 24, 2011)

I've done shrimp, it came out scary looking lol, done chicken its usually good for chicken salad sandwiches, ground beef comes out ok, stewing beef comes out ok for me. I did store bought sausages 6 months ago, tried a can this morning, tasted ok, but looked like linked dog food lol..

I know pressure canning salmon comes out alot more tasty than the canned crap at the store.... I canned a Roast also once, it wasnt bad, I mean it wasnt like it was fresh but it was nice to make a quick really tender roast..

enjoy


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

Yeah, ground meats can come out with the look & feel of dog food, especially if they aren't browned off first. It's no worse than commercial tinned corned beef or hash though. Still good to add to things, but maybe not so great to just eat by itself. We make barbecue sandwiches and pasta meat sauces with canned ground or chunked beef and pork, chicken/turkey is great for tacos and chimichangas, and ground sausage is good in omelets & savory popovers. I think I've used just about every kind of canned meat as a nearly-instant meat filling for pie and egg rolls/pot-stickers or in "shepherds" pie. But I don't think I'd sit down for a yummy plate of canned ground beef on it's lonesome unless I was pretty darned hungry


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

When you can sausage links...how is the texture and taste of them??


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

depends on what casing is used, thick casings (and some natural casings) can get pretty tough, but really thin casings can disintegrate. The meat inside the sausage can get a little mealy if the mix has a lot of grain or fillers. They won't fry up the same afterwards, so if you want the skins crispy it's better to brown them off beforehand. But the taste is normally just fine as long as one of the herbs & spices does react badly (like sage & rosemary). I've done the plain bulk breakfast sausage links from Sam's (Johnsonville brqnd I think) and they're still good, and I've done some Italian sausage links in tomato juice and they came out pretty decent (although they did get hotter in storage).


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

Grew up in rural northern California on the coast. Mom canned tuna, pickled surf fish and venison. 

I've canned hamburger, stew meat, meat balls, sausage (breakfast and Italian both), pork, turkey, chicken and bacon. We have so many power outages around here that I worry about losing our expensive meat, so I'm tending more and more to can it instead.


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## kenworth (Feb 12, 2011)

> #10 Today, 06:37 PM
> julieq
> Jules, the goat grandma Join Date: Oct 2008
> Location: Southern Idaho
> ...


Have you canned any goat?


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

kenworth said:


> Have you canned any goat?


No, we don't eat goat meat. DH and I went on a medical mission to Mexico in the early 90's. As a 'thank you' they had a nice dinner for our team and served baby goat soup. There were little bony parts of baby goats in our soup and we couldn't eat it. 

Then, years later, when we started raising dairy goats we decided to bottle feed all our kids and realized that we'd never be able to butcher them ourselves. We have NO problem with others butchering goats though. Fortunately, since we raise ND's, we're able to find homes for wethers as pets and not have them go for meat production. 

And, yes, if we ate goat meat, we'd certainly feel comfortable canning it. If we get low on meat we'll take out a local elk or moose and can that instead.


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## cmtigger (Aug 19, 2011)

kenworth said:


> Have you canned any goat?


I've canned it in stew with no issues. It is like lamb to work with.


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## Ali_R (Jul 18, 2011)

When you canned the breakfast links, did you do it without liquid?

I love the idea of canning the italian sausage in tomato juice. I am assuming you did not pre-cook it? I can't imagine needing more than 2 links at a time though... sigh! Can you tell me how many links/jar you did? And regular 'mater juice? Nothing special?

Ali



PlicketyCat said:


> depends on what casing is used, thick casings (and some natural casings) can get pretty tough, but really thin casings can disintegrate. The meat inside the sausage can get a little mealy if the mix has a lot of grain or fillers. They won't fry up the same afterwards, so if you want the skins crispy it's better to brown them off beforehand. But the taste is normally just fine as long as one of the herbs & spices does react badly (like sage & rosemary). I've done the plain bulk breakfast sausage links from Sam's (Johnsonville brqnd I think) and they're still good, and I've done some Italian sausage links in tomato juice and they came out pretty decent (although they did get hotter in storage).


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

I can goat--same as canning beef. Some plain, some mexical style some oriental.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

Ali_R said:


> When you canned the breakfast links, did you do it without liquid?
> 
> I love the idea of canning the italian sausage in tomato juice. I am assuming you did not pre-cook it? I can't imagine needing more than 2 links at a time though... sigh! Can you tell me how many links/jar you did? And regular 'mater juice? Nothing special?
> 
> Ali


I slice up italian sausage and can it right in my pasta sauce. I also can bratwurst right in with my sauerkraut, and "bangers" in with my baked beans. I don't normally precook those.

With breakfast links, I can normally fit 8-10 in a wide-mouth pint jar which is enough for the two of us with a couple left over for lunch. I do normally brown those first and can them in broth or tomato juice. 

A 1 lb kielbasa/polish sausage fits pretty well in the tall 24 oz (pint & a half) canning jars normally used for asparagus.

Red meats (including "pink" meats like pork) can nicely in tomato broth, which I normally have tons of because I use the "settle & strain" method for tomato sauce rather than the "cook-down" method after running my fresh tomatoes through the food mill. Otherwise, beef broth, chicken broth, or plain water works, too.

You may have to experiment with different jar sizes depending on the size and types of sausages you want to can. In general, 4-6 whole "average" sized sausages will fit in a tall 12 oz, wide-mouth pint, or tall 24 oz. You can use smaller size jars for smaller portions if you don't mind slicing them up first. Sliced sausages tend to do best either precooked, in with a sauce, or in a broth... they tend to clump together if raw packed.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Only thing we don't like canned is linked sausage. There isn't any sage in it, but the texture is just so off it doesn't taste good at all. I have 1-2 more jars (I do batch of 5-7 when trying something new)....I try "hiding" it in spaghetti sauce. It works well enough that I should be able to get us through the next 2 jars, eventually. I don't dare do it more then once or twice a year, or they might revolt on me. We have no problem with ground beef...yes, the texture is different (reminds me of Taco Bell's meat....very fine/ soft), but it works fine in stuff.

We haven't been happy with our bacon results. It processes for so long that it ends up too thin for us to get off the paper when we try using it later (yes, we used thick slice). Flavor wise it was fine....just more of bacon bits.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

A lot depends on the mix of the sausage. I have noticed that sausages with more grain in the mix become unpleasant and mealy when canned. For all-meat links, browning them in the oven a little first definitely improves their canned taste and texture.

I have more luck with canned bacon if I fully cook thick sliced before papering and canning it. However, my best experience so far is canning a chunk of slab bacon, and then slicing it before using. (Of course, you can also store a dry smoked "country bacon" for several months in a cool pantry, too.)


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## farmerkhaiti (Jan 3, 2015)

anyone ever can pate or braunschweiger? I could imagine both would be really nice to be able to open a jar of instead of freezing it. Not sure if the dense texture would be too worrisome?


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

bajiay said:


> I've canned antelope, bear, elk, deer, and beef. In chunks, and soups/stews. Not a problem, other than the garlic thing mentioned above. One of the stews was so hot, we couldn't eat it.


Just curious???? What does can bear taste like? Is it hard to can do to the grease?


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## Janis R (Jun 27, 2013)

I can rabbit, deer, elk, chicken, turkey, pork, beef and all taste great. 
I have canned hot dogs, smoked sausage, kielbasa and bacon which all taste good. 
The ground beef can be bland tasting.
I usually throw in a bullion cube to each quart jar, usually no or very little liquid. 
You can find onion and garlic bullion cubes by Knorr in the ethnic section of the grocery store.
Sometimes I will use tomato sauce or juice in my hotdogs or ground beef.
You are supposed to drain all fat but I don't except for the ground beef


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## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

What happened to Squashnut?


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

I canned some 8 oz. jars of venison liver for my dogs before I discovered how good it was fresh. I cubed it and it turned out almost as hard as rocks. Dogs liked it, though. Of course, they'll eat anything.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

bajiay said:


> I've canned antelope, bear, ....


What do you do about the grease? Do you cook the meat and skim it first?


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## oldasrocks (Oct 27, 2006)

Bear is like anything else, trip off the excess fat. Can taste strong out of an older male or good from a younger one.


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## eruehr (Feb 22, 2007)

farmerkhaiti - yes, I make leberwurst, pack it raw/cold in jars and can it - usually pints or half pints. The fat all seperate to the top of course, but swish a knife through it to stir it up and it's great!


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