# How many canning jars to put up a cow?



## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

Since I am in the midst of cleaning a few hundred canning jars which I acquired, canning jars have been on my mind a lot lately!

Hubby and I were just discussing how his parents' generation would have stored meat through the winter. Thinking of a SHTF scenario, if power was unavailable and a person had to butcher and can say, a cow, about how many jars would that take? Or, a hog? Or, a deer?

I am of the opinion that it is impossible to have too many canning jars and I never turn down a box of free jars if they are offered. We have a few dairy herds around us and I figure that, in a real SHTF situation, the dairy farmers are going to want to get rid of a lot of the mouths they are currently feeding. Lacking freezers, a bunch of that meat is likely to get canned. Must remember to look for more lids at season's end this year.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Meats were most often salted, dried, smoked or cured for storage.

You COULD can an entire cow, but its not really practical


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

Great site for smoking and curing meats http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_meats.htmlfor 

I do like to can meats after slow cooking to tenderness. Size of jars is important in determining how many jars you will use. I like to can in pints or half pints. That is th right size for my family for soups and casseroles.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Common Tator said:


> Great site for smoking and curing meats http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_meats.htmlfor


The page works without the "for" on the end of the address..."


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

My best guess is pints hold about a half pound and a quart jar holds about a pound...maybe just a tad more.

About 350-400 pounds of meat on a large cow....Hope you've got multiple pressure canners!


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> How many canning jars to put up a cow?


To approach the problem from "another angle" I doubt youd get more than one jar up a cow before she put up a big fight, and thats really not the best place to store them


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## TexasArtist (May 4, 2003)

well if you have the canner already and you have some jars handy you could go buy a pound of beef from the butcher and then can that and see how many jars it takes. Then do the math:shrug:


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## InfantryNCO (Feb 10, 2008)

> How many canning jars to put up a cow?


One. One verrrry large jar.


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## baldylocks (Aug 15, 2007)

Bearfootfarm said:


> To approach the problem from "another angle" I doubt youd get more than one jar up a cow before she put up a big fight, and thats really not the best place to store them


HA!!!!!


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Bearfootfarm said:


> To approach the problem from "another angle" I doubt youd get more than one jar up a cow before she put up a big fight, and thats really not the best place to store them




Oh! MY! :bow:


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## DaleK (Sep 23, 2004)

mpillow said:


> My best guess is pints hold about a half pound and a quart jar holds about a pound...maybe just a tad more.
> 
> About 350-400 pounds of meat on a large cow....Hope you've got multiple pressure canners!


Not a very large cow. The last cow I got slaughtered was a 1750 lb Holstein 3 year old. Dressed weight (cut and wrapped) was a shade over 900 lbs, debone it completely and it would still be well over 800.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Common Tator said:


> Great site for smoking and curing meats http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_meats.htmlfor
> 
> I do like to can meats after slow cooking to tenderness. Size of jars is important in determining how many jars you will use. I like to can in pints or half pints. That is th right size for my family for soups and casseroles.


Tator, have you tried just raw pack canning your meat? I've put the 'shoe leather' cuts in a canning jar, filled her up with water, and a pinch of salt, and processed... once done, the shoe leather falls apart in your mouth... can't imagine meat getting any tenderer with slow cooking...


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

Are we talking about a big cow, or a little one? Also there are quart, pint, and half gallon jars so this would make a difference too.:shrug:


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## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

You've got to pressure-can meat, so you've already got a large-scale pressure cooker. Don't forget to pressure-cook (or any way cook) stock from the bones first, then use that when canning the meat. Keeps a lot more flavour and nutrition with the meat.

As for preservation - yes, corning meat was the standard, if you had more than you could eat handily, and the weather wasn't cold enough to keep it refrigerated hanging in the barn or meat-house. Best, though, was to eat smaller animals - sheep or goats. Better maybe lamb or chevon or veal. If a beef was to be killed, typically people would spread the word, share with the neighbours, and get the same back a couple of months later.


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## ceresone (Oct 7, 2005)

Thats what I thought, having been in the locker business (when they still had them) you can figure a beef dresses out half-- general figure- so a 400 pound cow only had live weight of about 600 pounds


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## Wanderer0101 (Jul 18, 2007)

I just canned some boned chicken and it was about 2 lbs per quart. I would think beef would be about the same?


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I think how I processed a cow would depend on whether it was an accidental or planned kill... if it were planned, it would be during a hard cold spell, so I could hang the beef at least a week... and I could immediately start canning the ugly bits, as it doesn't matter how tough they are, the canning will tenderize the meat. The prime cuts I'd probably eat fresh, as much as possible. Some of the flank and briskets I'd jerk. Point is, in a cold spell, you have time to process the animal without it spoiling.

If it got into an accident and had to be put down, like the last cow I butchered, all bets are off... no chance of ageing it any... quarter it and put it in the freezer to chill out, and remove and process. If a freezer isn't handy, you're in a world of hurt... without ice to chill it down, it'll spoil and be inedible (unless you're starving). In a TEO situation, and a cow died, right now while it's 100 outside, I'd yank the hide off, pull the guts (save the intestines in a barrel of water and salt and clean them later), and debone the largest chunks of meat, and put them all in a clean barrel with water running over the meat, to pull off as much heat as possible... I have an unlimited amount of gravity fed water to use... (I guess I need to initiate a protocol for extending my inlet pipe up in the lake out to deeper water, so I can get colder water, just for such occasions)... Start up one of my 35 gallon washpots on the outside flare, and chunk all of the bones in it and start it all to boiling, to scavenge as much meat off the bones as possible. Once all the meat is accounted for and cooling off, I'd start the pressure cookers and start sterilizing fruit jars. I put the meat in raw, with water and salt, and can... I'd add as much salt as I could spare to the barrel of water and meat, to try and stave off decomposition...

This is actually what I have planned if my electricity goes off for more than four days... can the meat in the three freezers...


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

Excellent advice, Texican. Some things I never thought of...


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

DaleK said:


> Not a very large cow. The last cow I got slaughtered was a 1750 lb Holstein 3 year old. Dressed weight (cut and wrapped) was a shade over 900 lbs, debone it completely and it would still be well over 800.


I think your figure is a little high but if that's what you got good for you! I wouldn't expect more than 600 pounds of meat from the cow you mention, boneless, from my own experience and others.....

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=191158&highlight=live+weight+actual+meat


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## Cascade Failure (Jan 30, 2007)

Bearfootfarm said:


> To approach the problem from "another angle" I doubt youd get more than one jar up a cow before she put up a big fight, and thats really not the best place to store them


Especially since she just cleaned them...


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## stranger (Feb 24, 2008)

*How many canning jars to put up a cow*? ---original question

you would probably want at least 600 qt jars washed and ready depending of the size of the cow.


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## BRYAN (Jul 5, 2008)

Canning meat is an effective storage method. Growing up and with my wife I have canned meat. We raw packed and pressure canned, as well as made soup with a lot less liquid than normal, it keeps fine and taste pretty good. Texican is right about those tough cuts, they will be very tender. It is labor intensive in the extreme, but for us it was worth the effort at the time. It has been too many years since FFA so can only approximate the yield of a beef. Boned out meat will be about 40-45% of the live weight of an animal. I know that sounds low, but hide, entrails, bones, head, etc. weigh a lot and yield is also a product of skill with the knife. As far as how much per jar, you will have to do a little trial and error. Check some USDA or State Dept of Ag sites for a standard formula for caculating yield of beef from live weight and you should be pretty well know how many jars you need.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

I average a pound of beef to a quart jar. So if your beef dressed out at 800 pounds, it would take aprox. 800 quart jars. 

Last year I figured up that if I have meat 3 times a day, 2 veggies for dinner & 2 more for supper, and at least 1 fruit every day, it would take at least 8 jars a day times 365 days is almost 3000 jars to put up a years food. That doesn't include extras like home made cake mixes, pies, cookie mixes, etc. I make up a lot of the recipes in a jar so they just need water added to make cakes, brownies, cookies, etc. Then there is things like dehydrated fruits & veggies that I store in jars. I could easily use 3500 to 5000 jars for a years supply of food, and my goal is to have 2 years supply so I could use 10,000 jars if I had space to put them. (note to self: MUST get lots of shelves built in the cellar!)


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## Aunt Elner (Feb 6, 2005)

Spinner said:


> I average a pound of beef to a quart jar. So if your beef dressed out at 800 pounds, it would take aprox. 800 quart jars.
> 
> Last year I figured up that if I have meat 3 times a day, 2 veggies for dinner & 2 more for supper, and at least 1 fruit every day, it would take at least 8 jars a day times 365 days is almost 3000 jars to put up a years food. That doesn't include extras like home made cake mixes, pies, cookie mixes, etc. I make up a lot of the recipes in a jar so they just need water added to make cakes, brownies, cookies, etc. Then there is things like dehydrated fruits & veggies that I store in jars. I could easily use 3500 to 5000 jars for a years supply of food, and my goal is to have 2 years supply so I could use 10,000 jars if I had space to put them. (note to self: MUST get lots of shelves built in the cellar!)



You probaby wouldn't need quite that many jars as you will be constantly filling and emptying them as the year passes. I canned chicken in April, again in July; and will be butchering again in September - but April's jars will be being emptied out by then.

I just pulled the last 18 - 1# packages of ground beef out of the freezer to can up before our new beef comes in. I cooked it, drained it, then packed it in pint jars with boiling wate rover - yield was 15 pints hamburger, 1 1/2 qts fat (will be cleaned by boiling in wate and saved for soapmaking), and one meal of tacos; so I'd say close to the old saw "A pint's a pound, the world around".


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Most people around here don't have electric so they Can most of their meat.Wide Mouth Jars are much better,easier to get the meat out and to clean.

But I was thinking of this.Time your kill right so it is in cool weather.We us to cure all our Hogs.But I think curing Beef in Brine would be ok or ever drying it,just don't over spice like you would with Jerky.

I know of one Guy that will kill Deer leave them hang with Hide on.He will take and wash them out with Salt Brine,work dry Salt around the edge of the Hide and in the Bullet holes.Basically curing it.

Cold weather I use to leave gutted,hide on Rabbits hanging.Let them freeze,when I wanted Rabbit go out,pull off the Hide,thaw and cook.

big rockpile


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## jd4020 (Feb 24, 2005)

My dhs' family have canned beef for many years. Every February the family gets together, trims off the fat, tallow, tendons and bones. Then the meat gets cut into bite sized chunks. Thrown into the jars and processed.
We took a 1700 lb steer to the locker this past February. We canned half of it into 70-75 wide mouth quart jars. The other half we had the locker process for us to put in the freezer. 
Being that dh's Dad passed away this year, we certainly missed his expertise at the end of the table working the meat saw and grinding the meat into hamburger. Dh's Mom has been gone for a couple of years now and it's not the same without her bustling around the big kitchen. 
It does take all day to do this, but every person sitting around that big harvest table has a wonderful time of talking while sharing in the work and sharing in the product. You just can't beat fixing up a jar of that into homemade beef and noodles, or barbeque. Definately worth it and a tradition we will keep on doing al long as we can.


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

Spinner said:


> I could easily use 3500 to 5000 jars for a years supply of food, and my goal is to have 2 years supply so I could use 10,000 jars if I had space to put them. (note to self: MUST get lots of shelves built in the cellar!)


Yikes!

I just had to go look at our pantry, lol.

The way we have it set up now, when we finish building the shelves (we are about 1/2 done now), our 10'x 14' pantry will hold exactly 3724 quart jars. That is with 76 5-gallon buckets in there as well. If we removed the 5-gallon buckets the pantry would hold 5852 jars. Since there are only 2 of us, and since we use a lot of pint jars, I think we're okay, lol.

Seriously, I hope that we never have to can a cow. We freeze all of our meat at present, but I am going to can some venison this year, mostly just to try it. If we like it, we will do more canning in the future so that we can make more room in the freezers for other things.


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