(food) canning chicken

[Dinghy]

I have been canning chicken leg quarters for a few years now. Problem is I haven't come up with a good way to cook and de-bone them. I put about 30#, partially frozen and skin taken off, in my big roaster and slow cooked them overnight. By the time I got to them this morning they were swimming in broth and falling apart. So I spent hours digging through it all to separate the meat from the bones. I was afraid that if I waited until today to cook them they wouldn't be done early enough for me to be done canning early. I tried taking the bones out before I cooked them once, but it was just too much time handling a knife for my liking. (I'm accident prone when it comes to sharp objects!) I just wondered how everybody else does theirs?

 

[blueberry]

I can chicken and turkey the same way. If it is turkey, I roast it first, or if it is chicken, I roast it first, or cook in the pressure cooker first.

Then comes the hard part. I agree, that it is a lot of work to get all the meat off the bones. By the time I am through, I never want to eat another bite of chicken...laugh!

Then I can the meat in my pressure cooker. A lot of work, I know, but the sight off all those glass jars lined up on my pantry shelf are worth it all.

 

[ParanoidNot]

What is the shelf life on canned turkey and chicken? one year? more?

PN

 

[Dinghy]

We're eating some now that are two years old, and they're fine. As long as the lids don't rust they will last for quite a while.

 

[breezyhill]

hi

from the other way...I cut up my chicken and even cut the breasts in two pieces, so that there are four pieces of breast. I use the legs, thighs and breasts and put them in raw into the quart jars...wide mouth works best, and process in the pressure canner.

the reason for doing it this way is that you get the most flavorful broth. the fat rises to the top and when you open the jar you can spoon it off.

as for the picking out of the bones, it doesn't take long to do one or two quarts at a time when you make something.

breezyhill

 

[goatlady2]

I have always raw packed my chicken and game hens also. They end up being cooked for 90 minutes or more anyway and cooking in the jar does produce such good flavor. My friend always pre cooks hers like you do cause she likes it better than way, but seems to me to take soooo much more time. I raw pack all my meats. Wide mouth jars are a must for me. Easier to remove when using the meat.

 

[Dinghy]

Thanks for the replies! I'll have to try the raw packing. I've done it with beef and venison, but I thought chicken was supposed to be precooked to avoid salmanela. I have seen directions for raw packing, but it's always with the bones left in. Does that really make a difference?

 

[Kathy in WV]

hi Dinghy,
Leaving the bones in when you raw pack helps transfer the heat to the center of the jar for more even cooking. I'm not sure about the Salmonella thingie but I'll see if I can find out from somewhere. Kat

 

[ParanoidNot]

OK, I am a complete newbie at home canning meat. When I was a kid, we lived on a farm and canned hundereds of garden veggies every year, but never meat.

When you are "raw" canning poultry, how long do you need to presure cook the jars with meat (90 minutes seems a very long time). How much time for lamb, beaf, and/or pork?

Does anyone pre-season the meat with spices, salt, pepper?

I guess what I am asking, could one of you experienced canners give a step by step receipe. I would like to give this a try, but it has been so many years that I am feeling intimidated at trying.

I was visiting with my 90 year old neighbor who grew up on a farm in Wisconson. He said his mother "canned" beef the following way:

(1) cut the meat into 1 inch cubes;

(2) pan seer (brown) all of the outside surfaces of the meat to kill any bacteria on the serface of the cubes (i.e. the cubes were still raw on the inside);

(3) place the cubes in a Ball jar; and

(4) finally, fill the jar to the top with Lard to seal out the air. He said that the meat would easily keep for at least a year. (edited to add, just for completeness, melt the lard in a pan, and then pour the lard into each jar slowly, allowing the lard to force the air out of the jar; the lard then solidifies and seals the jar; finally put a lid on, if you have one, to prevent insects from invading the jar).

It seems too simple, but the old ways are disappearing, so I thought I should share this method. Does anyone else know this method, or something similar? I asked him if she also salted the meat using this method and he said she did not use salt, just the lard.

He said they would sometimes smoke and salt pack racks of ribs, but no salt in the jars with lard.

PN

 

[Dinghy]

All meat has to be pressure canned for 90 minutes for quarts. When I raw pack beef and venison, I cut it into chunks about an inch in size. Sometimes I add worchestershire sauce, but nothing else. I don't add any liquid, it makes it's own. If I can pre-cooked ham, then I add boiling water. You could add a little bit of water to the beef or venison (maybe 1/4 cup) if you want a little more broth.
The old ways of preserving aren't considered safe any more. Meat has to be pressure canned to kill the botulism and salmanella. I've often wondered how many people died from them in the old days and thought it was the flu or something, when it was actually some form of food poisoning?

 

[Sarrah]

When I do chicken I boil it. Put as many chickens as I am dealing with, or will fit in my big canner and cook them up. I seperate the meat and bones. I can fit 4 5lb birds in a batch. I feed the skin and non desirable meat veines etc to the animals. I put the meat into jars and then strain and process the broth seperately. I use the broth to cover the meat in the jars.
All in all it takes me a couple of days. I like to do it in cold/cool weather as I am very limited in refridgeration.
That way I have nice clean ready to use meat in jars and clean ready to use broth in jars. Works for me.
Takes a bit of time. But what doesn't?
Takes me awhile to grow the darn birds.
I don't like to do more than about 4 birds at a time. DH will kill them but the plucking and cleaning alone takes me some time. Usually the first day I do that then cool in ice overnight then cook and can the next day. Often it runs into two days.
There are always regular life chores to do and I'm not as fast as I once was.

 

[ParanoidNot]

Hi Dingy and Sarrah,

Thanks for the information! When you say 90 minutes, is that for sea-level, or are you at high altitude?

I wasn't suggesting that the old method was preferred, just passing it on. It was a curiosity to me.

I was actually amazed that this method would work at all, but I guess in the days before refrigeration and cheap, reliable canning lids, it was this method or over-salted meat.

As a sidenote, I mentioned this method to my mother this morning (she's in her seventies), and she said her mother also used this technique when she was very young, but switched to pressure canning when she was about 10 years old . . . . It never ceases to amaze me what my mother, and others know, but never mention unless you specifically ask. We never canned meat on the farm when I was growing up, we just rented space at a meat locker (until my dad bought two full sized freezers so we could slaughter both a steer and hog the same week). I grew up in the age of electricity, my mother grew up in a trailer in the Arizona desert without electricity.

PN

 

[Army Girl]

ParanoidNot,

I believe the method you described is called "potting meat" and here is a little more information on that method:

http://www.waltonfeed.com/old/pot.html

 

[ParanoidNot]

Thanks Army Girl, I will check it out.

PN

 

[Sarrah]

I didn't read your post carefully enough the first time ParanoidNot.
I'm wondering if your elderly neighbour isn't confusing potted meat and lard storing pork. Either method will in diferent methods cook the meat really really well.
With the pork you fry it hard first and then store it in a crock and add the cooking fat as you go sort of thing. Potted meat using beef or venison you cook it a long time in a small crock and water on top of the stove and seal it with fat. Usually butter if I recall corretly. It is delicious.
Both have to be kept as cool as possible for storage.
When you can pressure can whatever you want as little fat as possible in the jars, or they can get greasy and not seal properly.

I know it isn't published anymore for home canning methods but prior to my owning a pressure canner I use to do fish and venison with a boiling water bath. As usual cleanliness is mandatory. Fill the jars, top off with broth or water (not the fish) and do in a rolling boil 2 inch covered in water for 3 hours. It is hot work. You have to be vigilant as the water boils away.
As I say, you will be told never ever do this. This is my disclaimer.

 

[goatlady2]

Paranoidnot, You really need to get yourself the Ball Blue Book. that is THE book on canning anything. The 90 minutes is for any meat at any altitude, the altitude makes a difference in the pressure needed. I live at 5600' and use 12-15 pounds pressure depending on which canner I'm using.

 

[blueberry]

True Story:

For Thanksgiving 1999, my employer bought frozen turkeys to give to the employees as gifts. Many of my co-workers were not interested in even taking them home - too much work, they thought. (except for the one who took hers home, and tossed it into the back yard for her dogs to tear up)

I was given all the unwanted frozen turkeys, being the only one who offered to take them all home. Each weekend I baked two or three, carefully took each piece of meat off the bone, and canned them in my biggest (22 quart) pressure canner. My goal was to have them all canned before the rollover.

It was a tremendous amount of work, but I did it. It was a wonderful feeling having all that meat on my pantry shelves on December 31, 1999.

Well, I still have some of those jars of turkey. I know they are getting too old, but when I remember all they work that went into those jars...........