Canning meat question

[Clay Davenport]

I know the 90 minute rule on canning meats. Everything from the Ball book to the local extension office will say to can meat or anything containing meat for 90 minutes (if doing quarts).

This works fine for me when canning beef stew or just meat. I put the ingredients for the stew in the jar raw and it is cooked and canned at the same time for the 90 minutes.

What I'm wondering is what are some other people's practices when canning a fully cooked dish containing meat. For instance when I've done chili or certain soups, which due to seasonings I need to fully prepare before canning, the 90 minutes have left the food with an overcooked taste. It isn't bad, but it's not as good as when I just cook it to eat then.

I'm thinking if the meat in the dish is completely cooked prior to the canning process, the full 90 minutes shouldn't be required, since that extended time is to ensure it is done and there's no potential of bacteria growth or undercooked meat turning rancid.

For those of you that can, how long do you can things like chili or spaghetti sauce that are fully cooked before you start?

[Cheryl Marchek AKA JM]

I've discovered that often I dont like canned foods for the over cooked taste. I usually freeze if I have the space and if I dont i do the soups and sauces without meat then add the meat when I'm ready to serve.

Canning I mostly do tomatoes and fruits. Tomato sauces work well canned too, add the meat later. Chicken soup I do pints of the veggies and pints of the chicken. Drain the veggies and warm with the chicken and stock in the jar of chicken.

I've never been happy with potatoes canned so I blanch and freeze them. They do great quick hash browns especially if you dice and freeze some onions and peppers to fry with the taters.

[Clay Davenport]

I freeze a lot as well, but I also started canning things like this for a couple of reasons. Storage costs nothing once the canning process is finished. Anything in the freezer requires the monthly maintenance fee in electricity to keep it frozen. Besides it's always difficult to find any space in my big freezer to add anything else, and I really hate to add another one.
The main reason I do both is the possibility of an extended power outage. If something happened to the grid I'd eat very well out of the freezer for about a week, but the clock starts ticking on that as soon as the power is gone or the gas storage for the generator runs out. Having complete meals canned provides an extra option in that event.

The beef stew has worked out the best by far though. With everything packed raw in the jar, the end result is just as good as fresh made, no over cooked taste at all. Just need to work out the kinks on some of the other stuff.

I canned a bunch of ground beef a month ago. Wanted to see how it would work. I browned it with some seasoning, and drained it well, then canned in pints.
So far I've only used it as a topping for baked potatoes, but I think it will work well for spaghetti sauce or tacos, stuff like that.

I have been planning on canning some potatoes myself, but I expect they'll only be good for making mashed potatoes or something similar. Since you normally pressure cook potatoes to mash them, I see it as being the same result.

[Cheryl Marchek AKA JM]

Canned potatoes taste water logged even after a substantial amount of time draining in the colander. Maybe if you processed bigger pieces or for less time. I used the instructions in the ball blue book and really don't like them at all. Really disappointing after all the work of growing those potatoes and then processing them.

I've not tried beef stew. Do you use the recipe in the ball blue canning book or do you use a different one?

[Clay Davenport]

I've not tried beef stew. Do you use the recipe in the ball blue canning book or do you use a different one?

I didn't actually use a recipe. I started with a couple of roasts I got on sale. It might have been London Broil. I cubed that up into large chunks, and diced a bunch of potatoes into 1 inch plus cubes.
Two or three large onions cut into quarters and pulled apart.
I used whole baby carrots instead of chopping any up.

For seasoning I used McCormick's Beef Stew seasoning packs, but I mixed it double the strength it called for. I don't remember what the pack said, but I used twice as much of the mix to the given amount of water. This made a somewhat thicker and more strongly flavored broth.

I packed everything in the quart jars raw, using the amounts of each ingredient I liked. Pretty much equal volumes of each. I packed the jars fairly tight and topped them off with the water/seasoning mix and canned at 15lbs for 90 minutes.

Beef broth can be used as well, either alone or in place of part of the water that the seasoning is mixed in.

[Cheryl Marchek AKA JM]

Thanks I'll try that recipe!

[garweft]

OT..... I was reading this and my 4yo really likes your avatar Clay. He said it's a pirate m&m.

[bwt501]

Use caution when preparing these items. If I remember correctly, this is what killed Liberace. The death certificate stated it was bad meat in the can that ultimately did him in.

[Lucille]

I'm certainly not experienced enough to disagree with those off the cuff type recipes since obviously all the people posting here are alive, but I have been cautioned to use only tested recipes following exact quantities and canning times using sites like this one: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

[bakew13]

Removed original post after doing more research