How To Can Meat With A Pressure Canner

Wondering how to can meat with a pressure canner? Learn to preserve meat without refrigeration and increase your self-reliance.

By Andrea Chesman
Updated on July 26, 2023
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by Andrea Chesman
If you're planning to pressure can chicken at home, keep in mind that raw-packed chicken is perfect for chicken salad.

Wondering how to can meat with a pressure canner? Learn to preserve meat without refrigeration and increase your self-reliance.

Whether you raise your own meat, hunt wild game, or track down bargains at the store, the list of reasons to add home meat preservation to your skill set starts with money and ends with time. When properly done, putting up meat with a pressure canner is safe and economical — and yields excellent results.

Yes, canning does take time, but the commitment will be less than you think if your canning project includes reserving some of the results for dinner that night. And picture yourself weeks or months later, popping open a jar of home-canned chili for your hungry family. Two minutes sounds mighty good for prep time!

How to Preserve Meat Without Refrigeration

My advice is to can meat simply, without veggies and sauces (with a few exceptions) in the canning jar.

Most vegetables, such as zucchini and green beans, overcook in the time it takes to safely process meat. All the brassicas (cabbages, turnips, rutabagas, broccoli, kale, and collards) contain sulfurous compounds that will leach into the meat and broth, rendering it unpalatable. That leaves celery, carrots, and potatoes for your stew mixture; you’ll notice that most pressure canning recipes approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) contain them. These mixtures work very well for the occasional stew or potpie, especially if reheated with frozen peas, green beans, or corn for more flavor and texture. But as a steady diet? Not for my family — and maybe not for yours. We’re used to a more varied cuisine than our grandparents enjoyed — Italian one night, Thai the next, and Mexican after that. By canning meat with pared-down preparations, you can later transform them into a diversity of dishes to suit your tastes.

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