I Think I Can! I Think I Can!

Sometimes I get obsessive about canning and filling my freezers.  I make a point to get to it the markdowns at the meat counter and in the produce department.  You get great deals that way.  The butcher was marking meat down as I was making my selection today.  I simply handed him my purchases and he checked the date and marked it right then.  If I had been five minutes earlier, I’d have paid thirty percent more.  It made my day.  I make sure to watch the dates in he freezer and can the meat up if it’s been there a few months.   I buy whole turkeys after the holidays, bake them, and can the turkey and broth.  I still have four quarts of canned turkey from Christmas.  It makes great soup, turkey salad, pot pies, and casseroles.

Yesterday I got twenty pounds of assorted apples off the markdown rack for six dollars. I canned seven quarts of apple pie filling, five pints of apples in light syrup and juice and five pints of apple jam from the peelings.  It’s incredible to think of all that produce for just six dollars.  I’d cooked two pounds of dried navy beans and pork the night before, so I canned four quarts of beans as long as I had the canners out.  I’d been wanting to can sausage gravy, so I made a batch and canned two quarts of that, as well.  It turned out great!  The main thing to remember when canning meat, is that it has to process at least ninety minutes at ten to fifteen pounds pressure to kill off microbes.  Vegetables and fruit take far less time, so they will fall apart if you process them with at the same time as meat.

I have two of these pressures canners, so I can can fourteen quarts at once.  I have an smaller canner I can use for pints or smaller.  Should you stumble up on a used pressure canner, you can find replacement parts easily on line.  You can also find brand specific instructions and parts lists on line.

Bud built shelves in the garage for storage.  I mark and date jars with Sharpy.