Since I can't get any pressure cooker where I live, I found a way of canning meat without it and I think it is pretty sucessfull. I just have to put some raw cut pork meat into a jar, put some salt, pepper and any other herbs as you wish.
On the top of the meat, I put some pork bacon in tiny pieces (or rendered animal fat) so during the canning process it will melt and form air-tight can on top of the meat. For hundreds of years where I live people used to preserve the meat for a long period by placing a salty meat into an animal fat, so I used the same principle. It is not my invention. I just talked with people and saw some people do this way on internet.
At that point I hand tightened the lids and place the jars into a big pot with water.The water level should be ut to the lids level. Next, put all that on a stove on a mild temperature and left it to boil for at least 3 hours.
Then turn off the heat and leave the jars in the pot with water to cool down slowly in the next 12 hours. At the end it looks like the jar on the picture.
There is a fat, airtight cap on the top of the meat, and the lids are vacuumed on the jars during the process od cooling.
I am making this for the first time, so I will leave these jars for a month and then I will open one to see how the meat tastes.
In conversation with other people, they told me that the meat was much better like this even compared with fresh one. So wait and see.
A three weeks ago me and 2 other friends of mine, bought a fresh pork bacon, about 45 Kg so we could make pork scratchings (or how else are they called on English) and render some nice fat from it. I am doing this for years, and they taste great and can stay in the refrigerator for a long time.
The process is relatively simple. Cut the bacon on 3 x 3 cm squares, Put is in a big pot, add some water to cover the bottom of the pot up to 1 cm, place it on fire and stir well so the bacon wont stick to the bottom and burn. It will give the burnt taste to the fat at the end. When water evaporates, the bacon is already started to melt so there is enough melted fat in the pot to prevent burning of the bacon. Keep string until the bacon pieces are frying in their own rendered fat and until they get a nice golden color.
Drain the rendered fat through gauze or a strainer and put the fryed bacon pieces to the fire again. Next you can add salt or any other herbs that you want. Some people add just a little milk so the bacon will get more darker color. The milk sugars caramelize, and it gives the bacon darker color.
You can achieve the same effect by frying the bacon more. It is up to your personal prefferences.
You can see all the stages od preparation on the collage image.
The hot rendered fat is clear, with golden color and pleasant smell. When it cools down it becames white and solid. It is a great fat for frying or preparing meals. We are using it very much at home.