  Being without electricity during the tornadoes made me appreciate canned goods all the more. Once we got the generator going, things got easier, but so much of life was topsy-turvy with the destruction, mess and time demands that canned items were a blessed relief for cooking meals. My canned hamburger came in especially handy. Canned hamburger is amazing for whipping up tacos or nachos, Sloppy Joes, spaghetti, soups, casseroles and anything else that requires ground beef. It is already cooked, ready for spices and seasoning and cuts any recipe time in half. I also cook sausage loose (not in patties) to use on pizza and can the very same way. Either one is great. We are very fortunate here to have a store called CHEFS that provides bulk purchase of just about anything you could want. Ground beef comes in 10 lb chubs for much, much cheaper than at a normal grocery store. And the meat is very high quality, less fat and ground fine. I buy several of these chubs and process the meat, winding up with around 10 pints of cooked, ground meat ready for a quick meal.  To make sure that my jars are sterile, I use a waterbath canner to boil them in water that completely covers.  Meanwhile, I cut the chubs into approximately one pound chunks and put them in a large bowl.  In a large pot, I brown the hamburger a little at a time, adding about a pound at a time, until most of the ground beef is browned. It does not have to be cooked all the way through. That will continue in the processing.  When all of the hamburger is lightly browned, a small amount at a time goes into a colander that is placed inside a large bowl. The grease is drained this way so that the meat is nice and dry and non-greasy. I place the drained hamburger in the jars and then put a little more meat into the colander to drain and so on.  Using a canning funnel, the meat is placed into jars. I use pint jars because I can figure right at a pound of meat (weight before it was cooked) per jar and that makes it easy for use in recipes. The hamburger is packed down pretty tightly by using a spatula or wooden spoon to tamp it between additions. The jars are filled to 3/4″ – 1/2″ headspace.  The rims of the jars are wiped with a warm, wet cloth to remove any oils.  Lids that have been warming in nearly boiling water are applied.  The rings are tightened and then loosened back a little less than 1/4 turn  The jars are processed in a pressure canner for 90 minutes for pints and quarts.  When the jars cool, a little fat will show up that is extracted in the processing. To use, just open a jar and pour it into a pan, brown a little bit and add seasonings or sauces for your favorite recipe. Or for pizza, just brown a little, add salt and pepper and sprinkle on pizza. You can do the same thing with your canned loose sausage.  |
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Posts Tagged ‘canned sausage’
Canning Ground Meat
Thursday, June 20th, 2013
Canning Sausage
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
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But in Oklahoma, we say, “Sausage” like you ‘orta’! I love sausage. There is absolutely nothing like it. And, yes, it has to be made with pork. I’ve made turkey sausage before and I’ve added olive oil to give it some ‘crisp’ on the outside, but heh, it was turkey. That just isn’t real sausage. My favorite brand of sausage, if I haven’t made my own, is Tennessee Pride Country Sausage. Yes, I was born in Oklahoma and I live in Oklahoma, but I had a stint in between there in Tennessee. “Tennessee Country sausage is the best part of the meal”, don’t you know? It is very lean and has a wonderful flavor. Best of all, we get it here in Okie land!!  Working in the meat department in Blaine, Tennessee, (and yes, we acted this stupid) I learned to make my own sausage. We ground enough hogs to feed Ireland. I remember when I was expecting my first child, we and our friends, who raised hogs, killed several hogs to put in our freezers and I spent the afternoon grinding, seasoning and wrapping nearly 200 lbs of sausage and curing and hanging the hams and bacon. I was in those first three months of morning sickness and I must say, it took me years to be able to smell sage and brown sugar again. I got ill to put it mildly. My mother-in-law taught me how to can that sausage (sorsage as she called it) and I have been doing it ever since. Either homemade or store bought, sausage does very well canned. It keeps a lot longer than in the freezer and it is so easy to pull out in a pinch. As a side note, the Ball Canning book says not to add sage to your sausage because it could become bitter in the canning, but I have NEVER had that problem…and how is it sausage without sage??! What’s the last 4 letters of sausage? Sage! When I make my own sausage, I use sage from our garden that has been dried and hand rubbed. I have been canning Tennessee Pride sausage for a couple of years, which has sage in it, and it tastes wonderful too.  I canned sausage just before Christmas when I found it on sale. I try to do this once a year to last us and so it takes quite a few runs and a full afternoon but one run only takes about an hour and 45 minutes total time (preparation and processing). You can make your own sausage into patties or if you are using packaged sausage, slice the packages into patties. I am using a serrated knife here with tiny teeth. A straight knife just makes mess of soft sausage. Also, you can freeze your rolls slightly to make them easier to cut. But a serrated knife is still needed.  Place the patties into skillet. I add a 1/4 cup of light olive oil because Tennessee Pride is so lean.  Brown patties on both sides. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get the sausage fully cooked as you would if preparing to serve it.  Carefully stack patties into sterilized and hot canning jars. Leave a 3/4 – 1 inch head space. Here, I am using half pint jars because there are just two of us, but when the kids were all home, I packed the patties into pint jars. I can get around 4 – 5 small patties per half pint jar. For larger jars, you can make your patties larger.  Pour drippings into jars, over sausage, leaving 1″ headspace. If you don’t have enough drippings to fill this high, it is ok. Just fill as much as you can as you see I’ve done in this photo. When the sausage is lean, it is hard to get alot of drippings. That is why I added extra oil in the cooking. Remove all air bubbles with a knife or canning spatula.  Wipe the rims of the jars with a hot, wet rag to remove all oils.  Add lids that have been simmering in nearly boiling water. Add rings and tighten slightly. I tighten and then back off just a smidge.  Place jars in pressure canner that has 2 to 3 inches of hot water in it. Pressure can at 10 lbs pressure for 1 hour and 15 minutes. For quarts, pressure for a hour and 30 minutes.  Remove jars from canner and let them cool. For those of you who have not canned before, you will hear a ‘pinging’ sound as the lids seal. All lids should look concave – sucked down toward the inside of the jar – if they are sealed. If the button in the center is still popped up, the jar has not sealed. When the jars are cool enough to handle, remove the rings and wash jars and rings in hot, soapy water to clean off any oils that might have escaped in the canning process.  Allow the jars and rings to dry thouroughly and then replace rings to store. It is not required that you replace the rings, but they do protect the edge of the seal from bumping.  When you are ready to use your canned sausage, just open and place patties in a preheated skillet and include drippings from the jar. Fry the patties to give a little “crust” to each side. The preheated skillet helps to give a nice sear to the outside.  Serve as you would fresh sausage and chow down! |
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