Sunday, July 7, 2013

Canning Hamburger - - Second Try - - Success!

A couple of years ago I canned some hamburger.  I fried it up, drained and pressed out all the grease I could and canned it in beef broth.  A lot of work for something I could not eat.  The texture was like cat food and it had almost no flavor even though it had been in broth.  I felt pretty much the same about the meatballs I canned in broth and they were used in spaghetti sauce.  At least the cats got a treat.
So I tried again after watching several videos on YouTube from folks that had the same experience I did.  They canned it without liquid so I did too.  It turned out MUCH BETTER!  

This jar was full when I canned it but processing compacted it.  I drained the meat but did not press out all the grease.  I used a 73/27 burger mix and I think a leaner meat would do better--but it was not on sale.

I opened one jar and made sloppy joes with it as it was and it was pretty good.  It would be better to re-fry it to crisp it up first and definitely do something with it that involves spices or flavorings as it is extremely bland.  I did not use any salt or any other spice when I canned it as I wanted it to be versatile.

This is something I will do again, it is perfect for sloppy joes, tacos, chili and that sort of thing.  

From 5 lbs of hamburger I canned up 5 pints of meat and 2 half pints of tallow.  The tallow can be used for frying things (not my first choice) or can be mixed with kerosene to be used in some oil lamps or can be used to make homemade soap.  

1 comment:

HermitJim said...

I've been wanting to try and can some meat. Thanks for the encouragement!

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