Canning meat/what Equipment is needed, how much canning is necessary

[Foxx]

I just did my first bone broth canning session the other day and it turned out decently. 5 jars appear to have good seals and look good overall, but one jar broke (the batch wasn't all new jars, so it could have been from an old jar) and one jar didn't seal properly (I ate it instead of re-canning). I'm still working on perfecting the broth so hopefully the canning results will get better with time.

 

[Gawan]

Yes, I started canning broth last year around this time. Looking at those jars now, they seem to be fine. In my more recent attempts at canning broth and soup, I noticed a lot of fat escaping through the process. My jars were coming out very oily with a lot concentrated along the lid. I am figuring it boiled over while processing. I left the recommended 1 inch headspace. After the jars cooled, I wiped them down and checked the seals and they look OK. I was just worried with the amount of fat concentrated along the rim on the outside, if that disrupted the sealing process.

We get that too. We just wash them before putting away. You have less of it if you allow the canner to cool completely before opening.

How do you proceed, exactly? Do you first make the broth, and then pour it in jars, and then process the jars in the pressure canner? For how long do you process those? I've noticed that just pouring hot broth in a jar, and closing the lid is enough to produce the "pop" as the lids seal. But I don't know if one should still process the jars with broth in the canner for safety measures. On the other hand, if one makes the broth in a pressure canner for like 3 hours at 15 PSI, then any problematic bacteria should have been destroyed, I guess.

The canning litterature doesn't address preserving any kind of fat (except that canning butter isn't considered safe - not sure about that), so in that sense I'm still unsure how to do this.

I know e.g. The Blue Book on Canning warns against any fat coming between the lids; it won't make a proper seal, they say. But I don't see how this is a problem as long as the lids "pop" down after processing.

I'm also considering and wondering if someone tried it so far canning butter? As Aragorn wrote there are different information on the web, one side says yes, the other no.

Most bloggers refer to this 2 youtube videos when it is coming to can butter:

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjpY3Kv5mRY

Or this blog, which just is canning butter:

_http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.de/2009/04/canning-butter.html#.UFxcwqRIahM

 

[Ollie]

Yes, I canned some a week ago in a water bath; in effect the product is practically ghee. :)

 

[sebbe]

I'm also considering and wondering if someone tried it so far canning butter? As Aragorn wrote there are different information on the web, one side says yes, the other no.


...

I canned ghee and it works fine. I made first ghee, and when it's ok, i put it in jar. There is no problem.

 

[Lee.T]

I have canned butter and had no problems so far. To make sure the process was safe, I brought the butter to a boil, skimmed of the foamy stuff, and then pressure cooked for and hour and a half.
I am using the two piece lids which are the only type I can find in the UK. They are expensive at around 2.00 pounds per jar. So if these single lid jars defiantly work, I will look into shipping a batch to the UK
I have also canned beef tallow, which also went well, only a couple of hiccups so far, one being a jars lid and ring deformed in the process and was blown completely off... a real mess inside the pressure cooker. If you using the two piece lids check for any slight deformity and if so I would discard, and use a fresh lid and ring.

 

[aragorn]

I have canned butter and had no problems so far. To make sure the process was safe, I brought the butter to a boil, skimmed of the foamy stuff, and then pressure cooked for and hour and a half.
I am using the two piece lids which are the only type I can find in the UK. They are expensive at around 2.00 pounds per jar. So if these single lid jars defiantly work, I will look into shipping a batch to the UK
I have also canned beef tallow, which also went well, only a couple of hiccups so far, one being a jars lid and ring deformed in the process and was blown completely off... a real mess inside the pressure cooker. If you using the two piece lids check for any slight deformity and if so I would discard, and use a fresh lid and ring.

It's not the actual canning process that is the problem with canning butter, supposedly. It's how it will last, will there be any nasty bacteria that will make it unsafe. If fat gets between the rubber seal and the jar rim, it will compromise the sealing - at least, that's how the "experts" put it. As I see it, canning pure ghee would be okay, if you can get all the milk proteins out of it.

It's difficult to make any proper assessment about this. Maybe the experiences of the 'old canning folks' are more reliable...I guess they canned all sorts of things that would be considered unsafe. Maybe 'they' are just trying to scare us from canning fat.

Btw, freezing butter seems to work without problems. I've had butter in the freezer for a couple of months and it was as good as new when I took it out. Don't know how it turns out after a year or so, though.

 

[The rabbit]

Just a thought and maybe too cuckoo, but is there a place for silver in any of these processes?Colloidal or other.

 

[anart]

I have canned butter and had no problems so far. To make sure the process was safe, I brought the butter to a boil, skimmed of the foamy stuff, and then pressure cooked for and hour and a half.
I am using the two piece lids which are the only type I can find in the UK. They are expensive at around 2.00 pounds per jar. So if these single lid jars defiantly work, I will look into shipping a batch to the UK
I have also canned beef tallow, which also went well, only a couple of hiccups so far, one being a jars lid and ring deformed in the process and was blown completely off... a real mess inside the pressure cooker. If you using the two piece lids check for any slight deformity and if so I would discard, and use a fresh lid and ring.

It's not the actual canning process that is the problem with canning butter, supposedly. It's how it will last, will there be any nasty bacteria that will make it unsafe. If fat gets between the rubber seal and the jar rim, it will compromise the sealing - at least, that's how the "experts" put it. As I see it, canning pure ghee would be okay, if you can get all the milk proteins out of it.

That applies to everything you can, so I don't know why butter would be any different. There is protein in all the canned meat and fat, for goodness sake. It may not taste quite like regular butter after it's been canned, (probably taste more like ghee) but I see no reason it wouldn't keep like everything else.

 

[Alana]

It's difficult to make any proper assessment about this. Maybe the experiences of the 'old canning folks' are more reliable...I guess they canned all sorts of things that would be considered unsafe. Maybe 'they' are just trying to scare us from canning fat.

I noticed a fear-mongering regarding canning fat in most canning blogs/websites. They advice to make sure you can only trimmed meat, or cut out all the fat, and such nonsense. We've been canning with fat for almost a year now and it all looks (and tastes, because we tried some) very good. As long as you clean the "lips" of your jar really well with vinegar and make sure there's no fat there - and your lids shouldn't have touched any fat to begin with - it works very nicely.

Btw, freezing butter seems to work without problems. I've had butter in the freezer for a couple of months and it was as good as new when I took it out. Don't know how it turns out after a year or so, though.

We've had frozen butter for over a year and it's still good to go, fwiw.

 

[LQB]

I have canned butter and had no problems so far. To make sure the process was safe, I brought the butter to a boil, skimmed of the foamy stuff, and then pressure cooked for and hour and a half.
I am using the two piece lids which are the only type I can find in the UK. They are expensive at around 2.00 pounds per jar. So if these single lid jars defiantly work, I will look into shipping a batch to the UK
I have also canned beef tallow, which also went well, only a couple of hiccups so far, one being a jars lid and ring deformed in the process and was blown completely off... a real mess inside the pressure cooker. If you using the two piece lids check for any slight deformity and if so I would discard, and use a fresh lid and ring.

It's not the actual canning process that is the problem with canning butter, supposedly. It's how it will last, will there be any nasty bacteria that will make it unsafe. If fat gets between the rubber seal and the jar rim, it will compromise the sealing - at least, that's how the "experts" put it. As I see it, canning pure ghee would be okay, if you can get all the milk proteins out of it.

It's difficult to make any proper assessment about this. Maybe the experiences of the 'old canning folks' are more reliable...I guess they canned all sorts of things that would be considered unsafe. Maybe 'they' are just trying to scare us from canning fat.

Btw, freezing butter seems to work without problems. I've had butter in the freezer for a couple of months and it was as good as new when I took it out. Don't know how it turns out after a year or so, though.

Since making gallons of ghee and storing it in the basement exposed to open air through loose pot lids, I'm not convinced that canning is even required (probably due to MCTs). Nothing grows in it. And the taste is the same over many months. I was told by someone that they read an article about opening a (Egyptian?) tomb, and finding a pot of ghee - apparently the stuff looked just fine. I have yet to see even a spec of mold take up residence. Probably best to can anyway - just to be safe.

 

[Cosmos]

I'm currently making another batch, I reused one used lid to see if it seal up again and it worked!

so the twist of lids seem to be reusable!

 

[Ollie]

...
That applies to everything you can, so I don't know why butter would be any different. There is protein in all the canned meat and fat, for goodness sake. It may not taste quite like regular butter after it's been canned, (probably taste more like ghee) but I see no reason it wouldn't keep like everything else.

That was my experience of the butter that I canned, it tasted, and handled, just like ghee.

 

[aragorn]

It's difficult to make any proper assessment about this. Maybe the experiences of the 'old canning folks' are more reliable...I guess they canned all sorts of things that would be considered unsafe. Maybe 'they' are just trying to scare us from canning fat.

I noticed a fear-mongering regarding canning fat in most canning blogs/websites. They advice to make sure you can only trimmed meat, or cut out all the fat, and such nonsense. We've been canning with fat for almost a year now and it all looks (and tastes, because we tried some) very good. As long as you clean the "lips" of your jar really well with vinegar and make sure there's no fat there - and your lids shouldn't have touched any fat to begin with - it works very nicely.

Yeah, I hear you guys. :)

I guess I've been little of a fear-mongerer, too. It's just that I want to play it safe when it comes to feeding my family with canned products.

But, to put things in perspective:

_http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/9/03-0745_article.htm

Foodborne botulism cases in the United States, 1990–2000.

From 1990 to 2000, 160 foodborne botulism events affected 263 people in the United States, an annual incidence of 0.1 per million. No discernable trend was evident in the overall or toxin type–specific annual case counts (Figure). The median number of cases per year was 23 (range 17–43), the median number of events per year was 14 (range 9–24), and the median number of cases per event was 1 (range 1–17). The highest incidence rates were in Alaska, Idaho, and Washington (Table 1). One hundred and thirty-one cases (50%) were caused by toxin type A, 27 (10%) by toxin type B, and 97 (37%) by toxin type E (Table 2). Among case-patients for whom data were available, 67 (26%) persons were intubated. Forty-one (84%) persons with type A intoxication were intubated, compared with 6 (33%) persons with type B and 17 (33%) of those with type E. For case-patients with available data, 7 persons (5%) with type A intoxication died, compared with 1 (4%) with type B and 3 (3%) with type E.

and

_http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-making/meat-safety/botulism

Experts estimate that up to 90% of U.S. food-borne botulism cases can be traced to eating contaminated home-preserved food. Between 1975-1992, 543 people fell victim to food-borne botulism in the United States and Puerto Rico. In the early 1900s, 71% of botulism victims died, but with early diagnosis and advanced treatment, the fatality rate had dropped to 7.5 % by 1984 and fewer than 2% by 1993.

In the United States, an average of 110 cases of botulism are reported every year. Approximately 25% are food borne, 72% are infant botulism, and the rest are wound botulism. Outbreaks of food borne botulism involving two or more persons are the most frequent, and are usually caused by eating contaminated home-canned foods. The number of cases of foodborne and infant botulism has changed little in recent years, but wound botulism has increased because of the wide spread use of drugs.

I just canned 9 pints of ground beef and 5 quarts of pork cubes, and I didn't cut out any fat! ;)

@Alana: One question though - I noticed that after I processed the jars with ground beef there was some fat in the water at the bottom of the pressure canner. And that had smeared on the outside of the jars, too. Is this normal?

 

[Gawan]

I just canned 9 pints of ground beef and 5 quarts of pork cubes, and I didn't cut out any fat! ;)

Lol, that's great :).

And thanks for the other hints. At the moment I'm piling butter and will process next week a full canner.

 

[Gaby]

It's difficult to make any proper assessment about this. Maybe the experiences of the 'old canning folks' are more reliable...I guess they canned all sorts of things that would be considered unsafe. Maybe 'they' are just trying to scare us from canning fat.

I noticed a fear-mongering regarding canning fat in most canning blogs/websites. They advice to make sure you can only trimmed meat, or cut out all the fat, and such nonsense. We've been canning with fat for almost a year now and it all looks (and tastes, because we tried some) very good. As long as you clean the "lips" of your jar really well with vinegar and make sure there's no fat there - and your lids shouldn't have touched any fat to begin with - it works very nicely.

Yeah, that is not only fear-mongering, that is downright disinfo. When there were no pressure cookers nor any fancy systems for canning, older generations preserved their food in FAT. That's it. They cooked it and they submerged in fat and it will stay good for the entire year. I have spoken with people raised on that kind of food. They are much healthier than any family I ever met who thought that they were protecting themselves with super sterilized food.

I went today to a fish place and the lady told me oftraditions for preserving fish, an old generation recipe that people still practice. It only involves spices and a load of fat. Now that there is canning, people had moved on. But it helps to keep things into perspective, a lot of fat in your jars will help it preserve it better. Viva la fat! :)