Canning Meat

Canning meat is so easy, although a little time consuming.  It takes me about 2 hours to can 18 pints of chicken.  This includes washing the jars, cutting the meat, filling jars, and a little bit of clean up.  This does not include the processing time.  If I had an adult helper I think I could do this same amount of work in less than an hour.  Washing hands frequently (because I'm working with raw meat) is the big time waster.
That said, here are the basic steps on how to can meat.  You should consult the manual that came with your pressure canner or Ball Blue Book prior to canning meat, or anything else for that matter.

1. Cut meat into uniform pieces.
2. If using ground meat, cook.
3. Fill clean jars, leaving 1-inch head space.
4. Place in pressure canner filled with 3 quarts water.
5. Place lid on pressure canner, according to canner instructions.
6. Cook 75 minutes at 13 pounds pressure.  (Pressure changes according to altitude)

Enjoy!

People often ask how the meat tastes.  Chicken tastes like boiled chicken.  It's good.  I use it in enchiladas, soups, barbecue chicken, and other meals calling for cooked chicken.

Pressure Canning Basics

Back in January I bought a pressure canner.  This allows me to can meat and vegetables.  Actually, I can can pretty much anything except dairy products and eggs with it.  Since I bought a lot of meat in June, while it was on sale, I have been using my pressure canner quite a bit, as well.  Since I knew very little about pressure cookers and canners until about a year ago, I'd like to start with some basics about them.

The basic idea behind pressure canning and cooking is that steam is hotter than boiling water.  This allows food to cook faster, and allows you to preserve foods in a pressure canner that you cannot in a boiling water bath canner.

Pressure Cooker-  Pressure cookers are amazing!  I have done very little myself, since mine is huge, but I understand the basic idea.  Just imagine a crockpot that cooks food in less than hour, and you have a pressure cooker.  In addition to the traditional pressure cooker that you put on the stove and watch the pressure gauge, you can now buy electric pressure cookers that do all the work for you (you just press a few buttons).  A pressure canner can be used as a cooker, but a cooker cannot be used as a canner.

Pressure Canner-  This is what I own.  It is a 23-quart canner.  I can can 20 pints at a time.  I can also use this pot as a boiling water canner, in which case I cannot double layer jars, allowing me to can up to 7 jars at a time (I think-better check on that).

Did I leave something out?  Let me know if you still have questions.  I will post next about canning chicken.  So easy!

Canning

I'm posting about my canning experience last week only to give you a few ideas, if you have fruit readily available, and to give you a few tips so that you don't have to make the same mistakes that I do.
My friend and I made peach applesauce!  The peaches growing in my backyard are not very flavorful, but they are sweet, so my sister gave me the idea to put them in with my applesauce.  It was delicious, and I didn't have to add any extra sugar!  Here was the problem, though:  I didn't soften the fruit enough prior to putting it in through the strainer.  When making applesauce, you're supposed to cook the apples (peeled and cored) on the stove just enough to soften them, then stick them through a strainer machine to get anything out that may have slipped in (such as a little peel, a seed, etc.).  Because the fruit wasn't soft enough, it ended up shooting out quite a bit of good fruit with the little bit of stuff I don't want in my applesauce.  I didn't realize that this was the problem until a day later, though, and ended up throwing away a lot of good fruit. 
The next mistake was that the jars weren't warm enough before going into the boiling water.  So one of the jars broke in the boiling water bath.
So there's my mistakes.  I intend to not make the same mistakes next time, and I hope that you won't either.

Salmon Enchiladas

I adapted this recipe from The Well-Fed Heart.  Yummy!  You will notice with both this recipe and my chicken enchilada recipe that I don't roll tortillas for my enchiladas.  I just layer the tortillas and filling.  This saves time; I have also found that rolling corn tortillas is quite tricky.  They tear a lot.

Salmon Enchiladas

1 15-oz. can salmon
1 4-oz. can diced green chilies
1/4 cup chopped onion (I used yellow, but green or sweet would be great)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2-1 cup black beans (depending on how much you like beans)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (monterey jack and cheddar are good)
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
corn tortillas
cream cheese, softened, if desired
salsa

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Cook onion in a fry pan covered with cooking spray over medium heat, until soft.
3. Mix first eight ingredients in a large bowl, reserving ½ cup shredded cheese.
4. Cover bottom of 9 x 13 baking dish with salmon mixture.  Place tortillas on top.  Repeat layers until all of salmon mixture is used, preferably ending with tortillas on top (although this doesn't matter too much).
5. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes.  
6. Remove from oven. Spread the cream cheese on top, followed by the salsa, and then reserved shredded cheese. 
7. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, or until cheese is browned, and salsa is warm.

Chicken Enchiladas/Freezer Meals

I have decided the past several months that as much as I like cooking, I do not like cooking every night. So I try to make extra large recipes sometimes, then freeze a portion for a meal on a later date.
Chicken Enchiladas is one meal that freezes quite well. When I make them I don't follow a recipe. I just throw everything together. So, sorry but the measurements are not exact. Proportion ingredients according to your taste and what you have on hand. You may use flour, corn, or wheat tortillas.

Chicken Enchiladas

1 1/2 lb. chicken, cubed (cooked or uncooked)
1 med. onion
3 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can green chilies (optional)
12 oz. sour cream
8 oz. cottage cheese
12 oz. cheese (cheddar, monterey jack), divided
Tortillas

Cook onion with uncooked chicken, if using, in fry pan over medium high heat, until chicken is cooked and onion is soft, adding a little water as necessary. It is good to let it brown a little, as this enhances flavor.
Mix all ingredients together, reserving some cheese, except tortillas, in a large bowl. Spread a small layer of chicken mixture in the bottom of a glass baking dish. Layer tortillas on top, then spread with a layer of chicken mixture. Repeat until all of chicken and sauce is used. You may need to use multiple glass dishes. Pour reserved cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, uncovered.

Easy Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Mix canned chicken with barbecue sauce. Cover a pizza crust or roll (cut in half) with a small layer of barbecue sauce. Pile on the chicken, followed by your choice of cheese. If using a pizza crust, cook as usual. If using a roll, broil in oven or toaster oven until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.