Hi Carolyn, you have probably been canning your venison by now, but if you need tips I always read through Jackie Clay's common sense advice before I do it. Here's a link. [url]http://www.backwoodshome.com/you-can-safely-and-easily-can-your-own-meat/[/url]
Many will tell you its not safe to home process meat in a pressure canner. That's hogwash. You have to be careful of course but if I can do it, anyone can.
I do venison in chunks, cutlets, and meatballs in both broth and tomato juice. I also put up chilis and soups.

Congrats on your deer!
erin :)

Many of us here pressure can meat I just had some the other night for supper. :yes:
Worth

Hi Erin... and Welcome. I don't get to the welcome page much. I should do better, but life is really crazy busy here. I don't even get on here much to read many threads.

Anyway, Yes I can meat, but I didn't do any of the venison. It all went into the freezer as it was the quickest way to deal with it for me this year. I haven't had many consecutive hours to do meat, so I didn't do any, yet. Maybe I will if we get another one.

Speaking of canning I just had a pint of stuff I made and canned this last spring.
It is a soup I made based on Peruvian beans peppers pork and really huge hominy you cant buy in just any store.
Man I was starving and didn't want to cook.:lol:
Worth

[QUOTE=Langley Ranch;520348]Hi Carolyn, you have probably been canning your venison by now, but if you need tips I always read through Jackie Clay's common sense advice before I do it. Here's a link. [URL]http://www.backwoodshome.com/you-can-safely-and-easily-can-your-own-meat/[/URL]
Many will tell you its not safe to home process meat in a pressure canner. That's hogwash. You have to be careful of course but if I can do it, anyone can.
I do venison in chunks, cutlets, and meatballs in both broth and tomato juice. I also put up chilis and soups.

Congrats on your deer!
erin :)[/QUOTE]

Good page there, I thought, until the end. The author says you are supposed to bring the meat to boiling for 15 minutes after you open the can.

Shouldn't the meat be able to be eaten cold? It has already been cooked for 75+ minutes at 240F/10psig.

JR, the advice to boil pressure canned foods like meat before eating is a precaution in case it wasn't processed properly (thus leaving you with a risk of botulism). It is wise to do if you are given a jar from someone else. If you can the meat according to the USDA tested as safe guidelines, there is no need to go the extra mile by boiling the meat. Also, if there is a person in the at-risk group (elderly, very young, pregnant, immune compromised) who will be eating the food, it is advised to boil it for them. Just follow the directions, make sure your canner doesn't drop pressure during processing and follow the directions for venting, cooling down exactly and you are good to go.

[url]http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can5_meat.html[/url]

[QUOTE=JRinPA;520402]Good page there, I thought, until the end. The author says you are supposed to bring the meat to boiling for 15 minutes after you open the can.

Shouldn't the meat be able to be eaten cold? It has already been cooked for 75+ minutes at 240F/10psig.[/QUOTE]

Right.
I just warmed mine up.
Probably more CYA on the persons part.

I just left 2 pounds of butter out on the counter for two days.:lol:

Worth

Carolyn, thanks! I haven't canned any deer yet this year either. I think.you're way ahead of me, 'cause you have hamburger already!!

We do it this way... We let the deer hang in the cooler for at least five days, then my husband skins, quarters and removes the backstraps and tenders. I take the quarters and neck and turn them into three piles of meat to be divided and packaged for the freezer. They are: roasts, to be hamburger and to be dog food. When I'm ready to make hamburger, I pull out all the packages of to be hamburger from all the deer and have at it. Dog food has come out as needed in the past as a kibble topper but this year I hope to make it up with brown rice and vegetables and freeze into portions. Sometimes after I've ground up all the hamburger I'll can meatballs that day, or start a big batch of chili to can, but not usually. Mostly I freeze all the hamburger packages up and then just do the canning on a separate day. Similarly, when I want to can cutlets, etc, I just thaw out some roasts partially and then cut them up however needed. Like you said, you've got to have enough hours in the day to go through all that. I've found it's easier for me to do it all in those stages.

I always feel a little nervous having it all in the freezer in case we have a power loss or the freezer tanks, etc. And i is awesome to have it in cans. Lasts practically forever! Good job on getting all that poultry done! I hope I can catch a turkey sale after the holidays and can some...it is so great to have for sandwiches, soups, casseroles, etc. Gosh, now I'm in the mood to can...;)

Thanks,
erin. :D

Worth that big hominy IS hard to find. I've been told you have to look for the posole type hominy, but I don't know if that's correct or if I lost something in translation! I've also heard good things about the hominy from New Mexico. ??? All I know is I like it and your stew sounds good! What kind of peppers?

I am not surprised there are a lot of canners here, gardening seems to attract certain skill- and mindsets!

Thanks,
erin. :)

Erin you can get it at Mexican stores or at Fiesta in Austin.
Posole/pezole is just another word for hominy.
My Package comes from Peru and it is called Mote Pelado/White Hominy.
The peppers were Aji Amarillo and Guajillo.
The beans are red cargamanto beans these beans are native to the area and are the same type of bean called cranberry beans and com in many colors.
You can go nuts at Fiesta looking at all of the crazy beans and peppers they have scattered everywhere.

Worth

Worth, Fiesta sounds wonderful, I bet I could spend hours in there. Almost grew Aji Amarillo one year but I think that was before I found a good place to start the babies. Never have grown guajillo, but I try to keep the dried ones around, along with a few other varieties.. Peppers have taken me a long time to get the hang of, but I've started becoming adventuresome. Would really like to grow and dry enough for cooking each year, plus freezing/canning. Considering dry beans, too, so I will look into the variety you mention. Have good results with field peas so if I can devote the space I might trial something.
And, so as not to hijack Carolyn's thread completely, will just add that I think venison makes for the best chili!

Thanks,
erin..:)

" will just add that I think venison makes for the best chili!"
It does. I made a batch of chili for my last farmers market a couple weeks ago and never mentioned it was venisone to any of them except one of my fellow vendors who uses game for food, too. not one person noticed or mentioned it was "different". I had a market that I provided the food for a donation since we were there from 9-2, which makes for a long day if there isn't anything available (which is an issue,,, since the health dept. makes it prohibitive to actually sell something nourishing.)

Yes! A lot of the aversion to venison is mental. The best advice I ever received in regards to venison came from my MIL when she gave me a few packages. The first time I had ever cooked it. She said, "Just treat it like extremely lean beef". Lot of weird recipes out there to mask flavor! If you need to mask the flavor, something else is wrong, right?
That was nice of you to donate to the cause. What do you sell at your market (If I may be so nosy?) ... I always enjoy hearing what people sell and make.

Thanks,
erin. :)

Most people dont have any idea how to butcher deer to get the most out of it.
This isn't their fault because you cant even find a good butcher anymore.
The critter is like any other and certain muscles do certain work.
Some are tinder and some not.
We had 7 deer in two days one time and I showed the guy how to cut one up like he had never see before because I have a huge meat saw.
I cut the animal in half trimmed the ribs and made crown roasts and little T bones.
He also learned how to eat it rare instead of cooked to death.:lol:

Worth

"He also learned how to eat it rare instead of cooked to death.

Worth"

good night! good for you. there is almost, nothing worse than well done meat/steak. it becomes tough.

Erin, for this market I baked. I made poppyseed kuchen and nut kuchen, raspberry ribbon cookies and chocolate chip cookies. banana bread and zucchini pineapple bread. all I brought home was 1 loaf of banana bread, 1 tray of raspberry ribbon cookies and 1 doz. ( I think, it all got eaten by us) of chocolate chip cookies all my other markets I do vegetables and small fruit and potato bread and sour dough bread. I also made the chili and I made a crock pot of potato ham soup.