Canning Sausage Ideas?

[thirdeye]

I usually can chicken, pork shoulder and trout/salmon and recently have seen some articles or posts about canning sausage.  There is an approved method in the Ball Blue Book and the standard procedure I've seen is to form patties, brown them, stack in jars, add hot liquid and process. I've also seen a few people take stuffed sausage, slice them 1.5" long (leaving the casing on), brown, load into jars, add hot liquid and process.  So far so good.... what I'm thinking is to can slices from a smoked fatty (the 1# logs that are cooked whole).  This would give them more flavor, and since I would slice after smoking I could make very uniform pieces and could make them as thick as I wanted.  If I try a few jars of stuffed sausage pieces I think it would be better to smoke or grill the links, then slice after partially cooking.... again for uniformity. I'm wondering if any other canners have tried canning sausage, or what anyone thinks about my plan.  The first photo are a couple of fatties on my smoker.  The next photo shows sliced fatties I'm taking to work, so this is how I'd slice them for canning.

 

 

[Jim Almquist]

Just wondering what the hot liquid would do to the flavor of the patty's over time. I would guess another method might be to take the sausage and put in canning jar and vac-u-pac a lid but then storage would be limited to freezer. I use this method with spaghetti sauce with great results. Seems to keep the flavor very fresh tasting for a long time.

[thirdeye]

1 hour ago, Jim Almquist said:

Just wondering what the hot liquid would do to the flavor of the patty's over time. I would guess another method might be to take the sausage and put in canning jar and vac-u-pac a lid but then storage would be limited to freezer. I use this method with spaghetti sauce with great results. Seems to keep the flavor very fresh tasting for a long time.

 

I guess it's more of an experiment for now... and you are right about freezing slices of the fatty in vacuum bags, they hold well and reheat like a dream in the micro.  I would most likely use pork broth, and it would be pretty easy to smoke a  chop of pork steak to use when making the stock.

[Mike89]

I'd have to wonder about flavor lose too.  I'd do the vacuum bags myself but try it.  you could be onto something!!

[delcecchi]

I think it would work fine, just process enough so it doesn't kill you.  

 

It is different from freezing but not necessarily worse.   And you can take it places that don't have freezers.  

 

It can always be crisped up. 

[Jim Almquist]

When I vac my sauce I don't use bags but instead use the wide mouth jars and use the attachment for Ball lids. I think the glass along with the metal lids keep thing way fresher for a longer period.

[pikestabber]

I don't think there'd necessarily be a loss of flavor...with a pork jus, as you mentioned, perhaps it might even enhance the flavor. What I would be more concerned with is a loss of texture. Canning anything tends to run the risk of overcooking, and the beautiful thing about a sausage (any variety) is the natural juices created when your product is cooked through the first time. Cooking it down again might over process the fats and fibers in your fatties...just wondering if it would get a mealy texture? I could be wrong, and I agree it never hurts to experiment, but as someone who dabbles in many home processing and meat processing activities, I just think it's a lot of extra steps for something that freezes very well to begin with. I'll stay tuned, however, to see what you come up with. After years of reading your recipes on here, I imagine you will find a way that works!

 

 

[thirdeye]

51 minutes ago, pikestabber said:

I don't think there'd necessarily be a loss of flavor...with a pork jus, as you mentioned, perhaps it might even enhance the flavor. What I would be more concerned with is a loss of texture. Canning anything tends to run the risk of overcooking, and the beautiful thing about a sausage (any variety) is the natural juices created when your product is cooked through the first time. Cooking it down again might over process the fats and fibers in your fatties...just wondering if it would get a mealy texture? I could be wrong, and I agree it never hurts to experiment, but as someone who dabbles in many home processing and meat processing activities, I just think it's a lot of extra steps for something that freezes very well to begin with. I'll stay tuned, however, to see what you come up with. After years of reading your recipes on here, I imagine you will find a way that works!

 

 

 

I did consider texture changes as well and all I can tell so far is that folks sharing online recipes and photo's didn't have serious issues with that.  They did mention having to cook out absorbed liquid when they heated up the canned slices.  When I get around to my experiment I believe I'll do some jars with fatty slices and some with cased sausage.