# Canning bacon?



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I've seen the old canned bacon, which isn't sold anymore...and I sure wish I could get something like that. But since I can't, can I can my own bacon? Can I roll it up and stuff it in a jar and pressure can it? Or should I cook it half way first? Should I dehydrate it instead?

We love bacon, and we'd sure miss it if we couldn't get it regularly.


----------



## Ohio Rusty (Jan 18, 2008)

The canned bacon was packed in salt. That is what preserved it. You couldn't eat it hardly because of the salt. The problem with trying to can bacon in a jar is the fat. Fat will make meat turn rancid, even when canned to preserve it. The only way to get around that is ..... to pack it in salt ...
Then you can't eat the darned stuff. 
I don't know about dehydrating bacon. That seems like a better possibility for long term storage. without refrigeration.
Ohio Rusty ><>


----------



## BillHoo (Mar 16, 2005)

There are some procedures on the internet for canning bacon. 

I contacted the company that was selling the canned bacon here in the US years ago (Celebrity Foods - imported from Yugoslavia or Hungary). they said they no longer carry the product and have no plans to do so in the future.

The next time I go travelling in Europe, I'm going to search for canned bacon.


----------



## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

I thought if you had a very salty meat (I'm thinking of preserved ham), that you'd soak it overnight in milk to pull the salt out of it (mostly) before cooking it the next day.
I seem to remember my grandmother and mother doing that.

Angie


----------



## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

There used to be a canned bacon from Denmark. We liked it for camping trips. I don't remember it being any more salty than store bacon. It was packed in bacon grease... a fair bit of waste, but for occasional use it was okay. The flavour was pretty good too.


----------



## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Bacon takes some specialized processing, if done at home... the product is rarely similar to what you buy in the store... thus, most folks traditionally make sausage. The method of keeping sausage, without refrigeration was to cook the sausage down, pack in cans (syrup cans) and pour the hot grease on top, completely covering the meat. My granny made me syrup can full of sausage once, and I ate on it all week, on a trip to Alaska. Getting 'sick' on the road never entered my mind.

You could sugar cure your slab of meat, smoke it, and store it in the cool part of the house... Folks around here could keep meat a couple extra months, into the end of spring (back in pre electrical times).


----------



## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

There are instructions online to home can bacon. I think you cook it, then roll it (in parchment paper?), put it in the jar and poor the grease over it, then pressure can it. I haven't tried it yet, but I've read that it turns out fairly well.


----------



## seedspreader (Oct 18, 2004)

http://www.canned-bacon.com/

I've eaten it. It's not packed it salt. It's very salty and very fatty though. It is actually packed in wax paper rolled up in the can. 

I've actually eaten THIS exact brand/can of bacon. It was back in 92 I believe, while camping the the Smoky Mountains.

My friend and I still talk about our "Hungarian Bacon".


----------



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

seedspreader said:


> http://www.canned-bacon.com/
> 
> I've eaten it. It's not packed it salt. It's very salty and very fatty though. It is actually packed in wax paper rolled up in the can.
> 
> I've actually eaten THIS exact brand/can of bacon. It was back in 92 I believe, while camping the the Smoky Mountains.


This is the one that MREwholesalers keeps promising they are going to offer. No luck yet!

I think I might try finding a recipe like Spinner mentioned. Texican, I may can some sausages too.


----------



## mamakatinmd (Aug 21, 2005)

Here is the link for canning bacon. I have not yet tried it myself. I bookmarked it awhile ago from a thread that was in canning/preservation forum. You may look it up there and someone may have experience with the recipe.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/9684/bacon.html


----------



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Thanks Mamakatinmd! I'm definitely going to try that recipe. I have a pressure canner coming in the mail right now, and I got a bunch of bacon on sale 2/$5 at Food Lion this week. I'll be the guinea pig, trying the first jar in a month or so....if I suddenly disappear you'll know it wasn't good to eat.


----------



## seedspreader (Oct 18, 2004)

Mom_of_Four said:


> This is the one that MREwholesalers keeps promising they are going to offer. No luck yet!
> 
> I think I might try finding a recipe like Spinner mentioned. Texican, I may can some sausages too.


Well, it's actually an old brand and they want to bring it or one like it back. 

I used to work at Kmart while in college and we used to sell it there.

I wished I would have bought it to keep as a storage item, but I've moved so many times since then that I am sure I would have lost it by now anyways. LOL.


----------



## fin29 (Jun 4, 2003)

Ohio Rusty said:


> The problem with trying to can bacon in a jar is the fat. Fat will make meat turn rancid, even when canned to preserve it.


Fat can't go rancid without oxygen. Canned goods are anaerobic.


----------



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Well, dang blast it, I just deleted all my pictures...but I canned bacon tonight.

I half cooked two pounds, and got a quart jar ready. But at the end I realized a quart was too big. So I pushed two pounds of bacon into a pint jar, and poured the grease over it until it nearly reached the top. I skipped the paper part, and just pressed it into the jar. I pressure canned it to 15 pounds for 20 minutes, and just took it out. I'll open it in a week or two and see how it fared. We use two pounds of bacon each time we cook on the weekends so this is an important cooking milestone. I'll be more careful with the pictures next time.


----------



## L-MO (Apr 17, 2008)

FWIW - Lean meats work very well for dehydration and storage while fatty meats will dehydrate but must be consumed before turning rancid no matter how they are stored. 

I don't know of any dehydrator that can extract the moisture from fat cells and leave the meat in tact. I suppose there is something out there but darned if I have ever come across anything that will do it.


----------



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

L-MO, have you canned bacon? I'm curious because I'm new at this....wouldn't fatty meats like bacon do well once canned? They can't turn rancid if they're canned.....

I've dehydrated beef several times, and the kids love it. This is the first time for bacon, but it's one thing we'd miss if we couldn't get to the store.


----------



## L-MO (Apr 17, 2008)

Never tried to can bacon. That is why I was so interested in this thread.

I have dehydrated many (and I mean many) different kinds of meat. Everything from poultry through the red meats and onto fish.

Fat is the enemy of meat when it comes to storage. Removing the oxygen (as mentioned) is critical to stop that process.

I was mainly pointing out that simply dehydrating meats wont stop the process of fat turning rancid. The storage method is so important.


----------



## mamakatinmd (Aug 21, 2005)

Wow! How great you tried the recipe! I will be anxious to hear in a week your results when you try it. I would love to see a picture of what it looks like in and out of the jar. Thanks 
Kat


----------



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I had photos of the whole canning process, and accidently deleted them. (grumble)

But I'll take a picture when I open it and cook it in a week or maybe two.


----------



## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

Mom_of_Four said:


> I pressure canned it to 15 pounds for 20 minutes, and just took it out.


I aint an expert with pressure canning, but I read the recipe on the geocities page and it sed to use 10 pounds for and hour and a half, and with all my friends who have canned over the years for meat they seem to agree that 20 minutes is kinda short, even using a higher pressure..... nasty bugs can still live in meats I am told during such short canning sessions.. 

Remember Nasty is only ONE letter off from Tasty!!! as my 7 year old son told me this morning at breakfast before school.

William
Idaho


----------



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

It was probably 30 mins and not 20, but somehow I thought that was enough. Well, I've got more bacon to can, I wonder if I can pressure cook this some more. I'm new at all this, and of course don't want botulism.


----------



## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I've eaten the canned bacon pictured in Alaska before... it was scrumptous... in the Bush, salt and fat are always welcome...

I wouldn't eat it out here in civilization, unless I was terriblesome hungry... as there are plenty of free porkers running around. (12 were seen grazing midday a mile away from my place today... found out too late, or I'd'a went and got some more 'sausage':1pig


----------

