Canning Your Wild-Game Meat (how-to + recipe)

If you have a pressure cooker, this is so easy. Once you do it, you will be asking yourself why it took you so long.

A couple more things-

You don't need to sterilize your jars or lids before filling, they do need to be clean. The whole lot (meat and all) will get sterilized in the pressure cooker (think home autoclave)

Dont worry about trimming every last piece of sinew, it will cook down to gelatin

Do use real canning jars, not old mayonnaise and the like. Canning jars are tempered so are less likely to break from thermal shock. Do check the jar rims for chips or cracks as they will not seal and the contents will spoil.

Add spices (if desired) and a bit of salt. I've used all sorts of things, onion, garlic, chipotle peppers, jalapeno slices. Season salt, Tony Charcharis, black pepper.. you get the idea.

Recipe for quick stew;
1 pint meat
2 cans mixed vegies
1 pack low sodium gravy mix
combine and heat through
 
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Canned this way the meat is outstanding, tender and juicy. I haven't noticed much added flavor with the addition of spices outside of a little salt and pepper. I've done venison and yellowfin tuna. The tuna we froze first and tried to eat as much of the 200+pounds we caught within the first 6 months. I canned the remainder to ensure we got to enjoy it all, no way i was losing this stuff! Makes outstanding tuna salad with some onions and celery ...

The venison I've done makes it's own gravy(kind of) and goes very well over egg noodles!
 
I've canned everything from squirrel and rabbit to venison, to creek chubs (what better way to get rid of the darn things when you're fishing for trout in a small stream?), white bass, hybrids and striper. They've all turned out phenomenally and compared to commercially canned, store-bought products, the home canned version wins every time. Even the canned creek chubs make a better "tuna" sandwich than the store bought actual tuna. Lol. Canning is simple, inexpensive, and great for long term storage.
 
I've done ground venison, venison stew, diced kangaroo, diced beef, jointed rabbit, ground lamb, venison chilli con carne, potato, corn, rhubarb, tomato, peaches, apricots, apples.

Water bath for fruits was popular here in Australia but pressure canning meats and vegetables is almost unknown. It's a great way to preserve some meat without reliance on electricity for freezers.
 
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first at out county fair-she had to tell em it was beef, though.


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our standard recipe is a bouillon cube, a half tsp of canning salt and a half tsp of cavendars.

recently we have tried some high mountain seasonings and about 4 tbl seems to work good. mesquite and sweet mable are some we like.
any of the Cabela's or bass pro seasonings would probably substitute well.
 
If you have a pressure cooker, this is so easy. Once you do it, you will be asking yourself why it took you so long.

A couple more things-

You don't need to sterilize your jars or lids before filling, they do need to be clean. The whole lot (meat and all) will get sterilized in the pressure cooker (think home autoclave)

Dont worry about trimming every last piece of sinew, it will cook down to gelatin

Do use real canning jars, not old mayonnaise and the like. Canning jars are tempered so are less likely to break from thermal shock. Do check the jar rims for chips or cracks as they will not seal and the contents will spoil.

Add spices (if desired) and a bit of salt. I've used all sorts of things, onion, garlic, chipotle peppers, jalapeno slices. Season salt, Tony Charcharis, black pepper.. you get the idea.

Recipe for quick stew;
1 pint meat
2 cans mixed vegies
1 pack low sodium gravy mix
combine and heat through
Thanks for the additional insight!
 
Just gotten into canning meat the last couple years and love it. Very easy to do and makes for quick easy meals at home or camping.
 
I also love how it takes the pinch out of freezer space on a more successful fall. The thing I like about it the most is being shelf stable without a freezer it's still good long term storage. I once looked at my freezer and tried to imagine how many quart jars of meat we would have if the power went out and fuel was running low for the generator. We enjoyed canned turkey with mashed potatoes and noodles last night a wild turkey cubed up in a can is about as good as legs get.
 
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