Canned venison recipes

[hockeybc69]

I have some venison left and I have never tried canned venison. I have heard its quite good.

Anyone do this and is it truly worthwhile to try?

What recipes are out there?

[LABS4ME]

I did it for the first time last year... Turned out great. Very tender. Really speeds up dinner making... I used pint jars.

What I found out is this though... If you do not have a pressure canner, you should never can meat. Luckily My pressure cooker is large enough to do 6 jars at a time... needs a minimum of 10 pounds of pressure (mine is set at 10 pounds from the factory) and 15 is better. I was going to go the porcelien canner route as my buddy and his Dad do it that way every year and never had a problem... but if you read on line, you run the risk of bacteria contaminating the meat... some of them you cannot smell or taste. The old fashioned canners do not get over 212 degrees (boiling) and water under pressure gets up to 245+ thus destroying all bacteria. There have been rare cases where people have died from canned meat that went bad. I did not want to have any issues and obviously used the pressure cooker...

Mine was simple, salt, pepper, couple slices onion, dash of garlic powder, and a tsp of beef stock granules. If I had a piece of beef fat, I would have put that on top. no water, makes it's own juice. 45 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure and walla, canned venison.

I know many guys eat it right out of the jar, but I use mine for chili, stroganoff, burrittos and even used it to make BBQ sammies. Very tender and pretty darn good!

Good Luck!

Ken

[pikestabber]

It is a very versatile ingredient, and once it's canned it can go on the shelf and out of the freezer which frees up freezer space and extends the shelf-life of your venison.

Use it for...

--Tacos, Fajitas and Burritos (just add appropriate seasoning and heat)

--Pulled venison (simmer in BBQ sauce)

--Simmer with beef stock and add a roux to make gravy for spuds

--Use for stews, chili, and soup

--Many, many more uses, too

The recipe from the poster above is a good basic canning method that allows you to customize the flavor later (which is a good thing), but you can also add all kinds of extras if you wish, too, such as garlic cloves, jalapenos, tomatoes...whatever you want to flavor it with. Your recipe selection is only limited by your imagination. It is well worth the effort and I don't think you will be disappointed!

For the canning, I leave about an inch of head space. Let us know what you think.

[eyeguy 54]

I'll trade Northern for venny ;>)

[BLACKJACK]

Great idea!!!

Do you have a venison quarter in the freezer or are you going to just can up some venison roasts??

For you guys that have done it, how big are your pieces that you put in the jars??

Are the pint jars enough for most recipes or would quart jars be better?

I've always wanted to try canning venison, I've heard its good, just never got around to it. My mom has an old canner and book thats over 50 years old, I know that there are some canned beef and chicken recipes in it, will have to dig them out.

[SpecialK]

My brother has done it for years and my gf and I did it this year. We just took the scraps from butchering that would normally have gone to make sausage.

You will get tired of the chatter while it's running but after you eat some the first time you will be looking forward to hearing it.

As for recipes, we just heat it up in a frying pan and put it over mashed pototoes or rice and make a gravy with the juice to pour over.

[Farley]

I've done it. One time it turned out really good. It tasted like the beef in a can of beef stew, which is suprising considering how the house smelled when I made it, bad enough to open all the windows and doors in the house. The second time I made it, I smoked the meat first and it kind of left the meat dry, so if I went that route again I'd use a stronger wood like hickory or mesquite and smoke it for a shorter time like 2 hours or less. I went by the recipie in the book "Cooking wild game" I think it was called.

[rexlan]

We canned Moose for many years. I always use Qt.jars.

I cut it into 1-2" chunks, just the good lean meat. Add a generous 1/2 tsp of canning salt, a dash of pepper and a dash of garlic.

Fill the jar 3/4 full of meat chunks and just cover with water. Be sure to leave 1" head space.

Pressure cook for 60 minutes at 10 Psi. min.

This will keep 5+ years on the shelf and is good just about anyway you fix it. We would just pour off the liquid, put the meat in a pot and add 1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce ... heat and put on open face buns for Sloppy Joe's. Great in chili and all sorts of stuff too. You can also pour the entire jar in a pot and whip up a real nice stew.

[LABS4ME]

I did (2) one qt jars... for things like chili. Otherwise the pints are perfect for dinner sized meals for two. Which can be as easy as a stew or just dump the jar into a small pot, heat through, thicken juice into gravy and serve over masted potatoes.

Last night, cracked one open, a little oil in the fry pan, dumped off the juice, browned them with fajita seasoning and a good squirt of fresh lime juice, then sauteed 4 kinds of peppers and red onion, fresh avacado slice, a little fresh pico de gallo with a little extra cilatro and a couple good splashes of Chipolte Tabassco on a burrito shell... fantastic fajitas! Made 2 for dinner and 2 for lunch...

Read up on-line about using a porcelien canner before you do so. I know guys use them and have had not had any problems, but just a fair warning, that it is a risk if you do. I read guys do so for 4 hours with the old canners... The extension services will help you with canning questions and will tell you absolutely no meat canning without a pressure canner/cooker. They do not get the temps high enough to ensure safe meat canning. Pressure canners raise the point of boiling by 30-40 degrees.

I cut them into one inch pieces, trim ALL silver skin and fat off meat. essentially 100% lean ment. Put in jar and add onion and spices. No water (makes plenty of it's own). Real tender, real easy, real tastey! House never had an off smell when I did it. But it was in a sealed pressure cooker so that wouldn't surprise me.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Farley]

If I remember right, I used vinegar that time it stunk up the house. I'm guessing thats why it smelled bad.

[Whoaru99]

No vinegar in the canned venison I've had. Not making pickles/pickled.

And, yeah, a qt of canned venison is a lot of meat. The recipe I used was simple. Just some salt and a thick slice of onion on top, from memory.

Don't need the TOTL chunks because it'll really tender them up, but they need to be clean trimmed chunks.