Canning Pork

Canning meat is just about the easiest thing to do. No fuss, just a few minutes standing around cutting it up. This can be done with just about any meat except sea food, which is not recommended for canning. As always, start with clean jars and lids and the meat of your choice. Mine for now, is pork that was on sale.

This was a seven and a half pound chunk of pork and it filled 8 pint jars or 4 pints and 2 quarts. (I ran out of pints) Start by removing the visible fat. This is disgusting and a little bit of a chore. I'm a bit squeamish about touching raw meat, so I wear gloves. Having too much fat in your jars isn't good and can interfere with sealing.

After you have removed as much fat as possible, cut the meat into small chunks. They don't have to be really small, just small enough to fit into the jar and not leave big gaps between the meat inside the jar.

Place into jar leaving about an inch or so of space at the top. Do not add anything. I guess you can add seasonings, but no water. I choose not to season my meats before processing because I can always store things such as green chilis, bbq sauce, etc. separately. That way I'm not committed to a certain "type" of meat. My preference. After getting all the meat into the jars, wipe the rim of the jars well with a hot rag to remove any residue that may have been left from the meat. Put on lids and bands and put into pressure cooker filled with a couple of quarts of water.

Secure lid to cooker and wait till steam is coming out in a steady stream. Put cap on steam spout and wait for pressure to rise to at least 11 pounds, then start timing it. It's one hour 15 minutes if you are just using pints. If you have any quarts in it, you need to do one hour and 30 minutes. It ok if the pressure rises a little past that, just don't let it get below the 11 mark. You need to keep a watch on it during the processing time. Once it's done, remove from heat and let the pressure go down to zero. Do not remove the cap to the steam valve until then. Remove jars and let cool. See all the natural juices that show up!

Once your jars have cooled, remove bands and wipe around jar rims. For some reason, mine always boil out a little bit so there is juice in the water of the pressure cooker and under my bands. There is no need to replace the bands unless you just want to. Now listen for that beautiful sound of the "pop" telling you - well done! I like to do them in pints because it's absolutely delicious to use for BBQ pork sandwiches for lunch. It's about enough for 3 adult sandwiches. Don't forget to label and put an expiration date on it. I just use little sticky tab labels and I like to put when it expires, not when I made it. Saves me from having to think later. From everything I have read, processed meat lasts at least 2 years so that's when I put for the expiration date. There's no way it's making it in my pantry that long!