Canning venison?

[alwaysonthemove]

Is there any real secrets out there for canning venison? I have recently thought about trying it.

[thirdeye]

Not really any secrets, but you have plenty of flavor choices...

Do you prefer the raw pack or are you going with the hot pack method?

Do you want to slightly disguise the flavor, or do you want the traditional venision flavor?

Most folks will do a light brine on wild meat prior to canning, my Granny called it koshering. It will remove a little blood and take the edge off the gamey flavor.

[Dark Cloud]

My dad makes a few batches each year and it come out good. Very tender, almost too tender. If you put it in anything that get stirred a bunch, it falls completely apart. We use it in meat sauces for pasta(added right at the end) or for a quick stew over noodles. Cream of mushroom soup, peas, carrots, the meat - over some egg noodles.

He pressure cans cubed meat for 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure per the Mirror book that came with the canner.

Pack the meat in quart jars along with a teaspoon of salt. He then adds some water to cover the meat and runs a butter knife down in the meat to release any air bubbles and thats it. He did say that maintaining consistant pressure is a key...

[DinnerPail]

Just did up 40 pints the other day for our group. I raw pack if with 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt and pressure cook it for 75 minutes at 10 pounds. I've tried spices before but just like it for what it is. My friends kids can't get enough of it.

[Surface Tension]

You can't go wrong with non iodized salt and pepper.

Experiment with additional seasonings and sauces, do that one jar at a time.

If you don't like it you won't have a big batch to choke down.

If you like it then make more and do alterations if need be.

Canned venison is comparable to low and slow cooked venison.

I like it right of the jar heated or not.

[Farley]

I tried it last year and never thought it would be worth much, it stunk up the whole house, my roomates were mad opening all the windows and doors. Thought anything that smells this bad cant be worth anything. 4 months later I finally cracked the seal on the first jar.

WOW! It was unbelieveable. It was very similar to the beef chunks in beef stew. Put some on a saltine right out of the jar. Cant wait to can some more this year.

I used the pressure cooker, cant remember the specifics but I used the recipie from the book "Preparing and Cooking Wild Game" or something along those lines.

[BobT]

Quote:

He pressure cans cubed meat for 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure per the Mirror book that came with the canner.

Pack the meat in quart jars along with a teaspoon of salt. He then adds some water to cover the meat and runs a butter knife down in the meat to release any air bubbles and thats it. He did say that maintaining consistant pressure is a key...

I do it almost the same way.

Cube the meat and pack it in quart jars leaving only about 1/2" head room.

Drop in a beef boulion cube.

Don't add any water. It'll be about 2/3 full of liquid when it's done anyway.

90 minutes @ 10psi

Enjoy.

Makes a great strogganof by mixing with cr. mush., mushrooms, onions, celery, and sour cream served over wide egg noodles or rice.

[FishLocker]

BobT that sounds easy!

How big are your cubes? I assume the lid is on and ring screwed on slightly when proccessing, like pickles? Do you pack it tight and plan for the meat to shrink or do you just lightly pack them? Sorry for the 20 questions, but I have only pickeld fish and jalapeno peppers in the past. If this is for pint, and I want to do quart, how long would I cook it (and 2 boulion cubes?)? Thanks so much for the tips and help.

[BobT]

I use large mouth quart jars and a pressure canner with a wobble weight. I cut the trimmed meat into 3/4" - 1" cubes and leave about 1" space at the top of the jar. Soak the lids in hot water, wipe the jar lid clean before placing the lids on, screw the rings tight. Place about 2" to 3" water in bottom of canner and add jars. Follow instructions from the canner. For mine, I heat until steam begins to escape out the stem in the lid for a minimum of 10 minutes to be sure there is no air left in the canner. Then I place the weight on the stem to build pressure. Once the pressure builds the locking mechanism will lock the lid and the weight will begin to wobble. Start a timer for 90 minutes. Maintain heat to keep the weight wobbling slightly. After 90 minutes turn off heat and let the canner cool until the lock releasees the lid. Carefully remove the jars and gently set them on a counter to cool. I like to place towel on the counter becasue they will be wet and hot. You'll see they might even still be boiling. As they cool you should hear or see the lids convex to indicate a seal has been accomplished. Sometimes you'll hear them pop when it seals. Just finished some up yesterday.

[FishLocker]

BobT,

Thank you for the tutorial, you make it sound easy...now it is off to go bag a deer to can !

The FishLocker

[Dark Cloud]

BobT - thats about exactly what we do besides adding a little water and one tsp of salt to the quarts.

Infact the canner is full right now steaming away, time to add the weight...

[lovebigbluegills]

I do mine just like Bob described. Also, as mentioned above, I love to sit down and eat it right out of the jar, hot or cold--top notch stuff. Makes a great snack for ice-fishing or out in the deer stand.

I've got a neighbor that browns his venison with onions prior to packing it into the jars, but I didn't really care for that as much as packing it in raw.