The Amish Canning Cookbook (19 page)
Read The Amish Canning Cookbook Online
Authors: Georgia Varozza
When grinding venison, many people choose to add 1 part pork or beef fat for every 4 parts venison because the meat is naturally very lean.
You can shape your ground meat into patties (make sure they fit inside the jar) or meatballs, or simply leave as is. No matter which style you decide on, lightly brown the meat and then drain off fat. Fill jars with the meat; add boiling broth, tomato juice, or water, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add salt, if desired (1 tsp. per quart, ½ tsp. per pint). Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Bear, Beef, Elk, Lamb, Pork, Venison
You can reduce the heavy game flavor of venison and elk by removing large bones and then soaking the meat for 1 hour in a brine solution consisting of 1 tablespoon salt per quart of water. Rinse before processing.
Hot pack:
Partially precook meat by roasting, stewing, or browning in a small amount of fat until almost done. Drain off any fat that appears. Fill jars with the meat; add boiling broth, tomato juice, or water, leaving 1-inch headspace. (Tomato juice is especially good with wild game.) Add salt, if desired (1 tsp. per quart, ½ tsp. per pint). Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Raw pack:
Fill jars with raw meat pieces, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add salt, if desired (1 tsp. per quart, ½ tsp. per pint). Do not add liquid. Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Preparing broth:
Crack trimmed beef bones, rinse, and put them in a large pot, adding water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover the pot, and simmer for 3 to 4 hours. Remove bones; when cool, pick off meat and set meat aside. Cool broth and skim off fat as it forms on top; strain broth, if desired. Combine the meat and broth and reheat to boiling. Fill jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add salt, if desired (1 tsp. per quart, ½ tsp. per pint). Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Whenever possible, choose freshly killed and dressed animals. Soak dressed game for 1 hour in a brine solution made by dissolving 1 tablespoon salt for each quart of water used. Rinse.
Larger chickens are more flavorful than fryers; these are sometimes called stewing chickens. If hot-packing chicken, cook the bird with the skin on for more flavor, but take care to skim off excess fat before canning.
Cut the chicken, rabbit, or squirrel into sizes that will fit inside the jars. Remove excess fat. You can remove the bones if desired, but it’s not necessary.
Hot pack:
Boil, steam, sauté, or roast meat until almost done. Fill jars with the meat; add boiling broth or water, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add salt, if desired (1 tsp. per quart, ½ tsp. per pint). Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process as follows:
•
Without bones:
pints 75 minutes; quarts 90 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
•
With bones:
pints, 65 minutes; quarts 75 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Raw pack:
Add salt, if desired (1 tsp. per quart, ½ tsp. per pint). Fill jars loosely with meat, leaving 1 inch headspace; do not add liquid. Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process as follows:
•
Without bones:
pints, 75 minutes; quarts 90 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
•
With bones:
pints, 65 minutes; quarts 75 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Chicken or Turkey Broth (Stock)
Place carcass in a large pot, adding water to cover. If desired, you can add a bouquet garni, celery, onion, and/or carrots for added flavor. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover the pot, and simmer for several hours (a large turkey carcass will take more time than a small chicken carcass). Remove carcass and bones and allow to cool enough to handle; pick meat off bones. Cool broth and skim off fat as it appears on top; strain broth, if desired. Combine meat and broth and reheat to boiling. Fill jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add salt, if desired (1 tsp. per quart, ½ tsp. per pint). Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Keep clams alive until ready to process. Scrub shells and then steam clams to open. Toss any that don’t open. Remove clams from cooking juice and save the juice. Remove meat from shells and then wash meat in a brine solution of 3 tablespoons salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water. Drain.
Next, blanch meat: combine 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a gallon of water; bring to a boil and then add the meat and boil for 2 minutes; drain.
At this point, you can mince the clam meat, if desired, using a knife, coarse grinder, or food processor.
Return the reserved cooking juice to a boil. (This will be used to pack jars for processing.)
Pack clam meat into half-pint or pint jars (
do not use quart jars
), leaving 1-inch headspace. If using minced clam meat, pack loosely (about ¾ cup in half-pint jars or 1½ cups in pint jars). Add boiling cooking juice; if you run out of cooking juice, you can add boiling water to obtain the 1-inch headspace.
Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process half-pints for 60 minutes and pints for 70 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Keep crabs alive and on ice until ready to process.
In a large pot, bring ¼ cup bottled lemon juice and 2 tablespoons salt per gallon of water used to a boil; boil crabs for 20 minutes (if boiling more than 3 or 4 crabs at one time, you may need to lengthen cooking time a bit). Remove crabs from pot and cool in cold water; about 10 minutes.
When cool enough to handle, remove backs and clean crabs. Next, remove crabmeat and place the meat in a cool brine rinse solution of 2 tablespoons salt and 1 cup bottled lemon juice per gallon of water used for 2 minutes. Remove crabmeat and gently squeeze to remove excess rinse solution.
Pack crabmeat loosely (about ¾ cup in half-pint jars or 1½ cups in pint jars—
do not use quart jars
), leaving 1-inch headspace. In each jar, add either vinegar or lemon juice as follows:
•
Half-pint jars:
1½ tsps. vinegar or 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice
•
Pint jars:
1 tablespoon vinegar or 4 tablespoons bottled lemon juice
Add boiling water to cover, leaving 1-inch headspace. Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process half-pints and pints for 80 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Fish (for tuna, see recipe below)
Use only fresh-caught fish that was cleaned soon after catching and kept chilled until ready to process. Soak the fish for one hour in a brine solution made of 1 cup salt dissolved in 1 gallon of water. Drain well. Pack fish into hot half-pint or pint jars (
do not use quarts
), skin side out, leaving 1-inch headspace.
Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process half-pints and pints for 100 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Keep oysters alive and cool until ready to process. Wash shells well. Steam or bake to open and then quickly cool them; remove meat.
Wash meat in a brine solution using ½ cup salt per each gallon of water used. Drain.
Pack meat into half-pint or pint jars (
do not use quarts
), leaving 1-inch headspace. Cover with boiling water, again leaving 1-inch headspace. Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process half-pints and pints for 75 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Remove heads immediately after catching; keep shrimp chilled until ready to process. Wash and drain shrimp.
In a large pot, make a brine solution using 1 cup salt, 1 cup vinegar, and 1 gallon water; bring to a boil and then add shrimp. Boil shrimp for 8 to 10 minutes; drain. Rinse in cold water and then peel shrimp.
Make another brine solution, which will be used to pack jars, using 1 to 3 tablespoons salt for each gallon of water. Bring to a boil.
Pack half-pint or pint jars (
don’t use quarts
) with shrimp, leaving 1-inch headspace. Cover with the boiling brine, again leaving 1-inch headspace. Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process half-pints and pints for 45 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
The trick to canning sweet-tasting tuna is in the preparation. After skinning, removing viscera, bleeding the fish, and deboning, take extra care in the final cleaning to remove all dark flesh, blood vessels, and membranes. Rinse well. The cleaner your meat is, the better it will taste once canned, so take your time and do a thorough job.
Also, you can pack your tuna either precooked or raw. Precooking removes some of the oils present in the tuna, and some people believe this helps remove strong flavor. But it’s easier to can raw tuna, and if you have done a good job cleaning the fish, strong flavor won’t be a problem.
To precook:
Place the cleaned tuna on a rack in a large baking pan. Bake at 225° to 250°F for 2½ to 4 hours, depending on size of fish. Alternatively, you can bake the fish at 350° for 1 hour. You can also steam the tuna for 2 to 4 hours. It’s done when the internal temperature reaches about 170°. Refrigerate tuna overnight to firm the flesh before canning.
Canning precooked tuna:
Pack precooked tuna into half-pint or pint jars (
do not use quarts
), pressing down gently and leaving 1-inch headspace. For half-pint jars, add ½ tsp. salt and 1 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, water, or a combination of oil and water; for pint jars, add 1 tsp. salt and 2 to 6 tablespoons vegetable oil, water, or a combination of oil and water. Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process half-pints and pints for 100 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
Canning raw tuna:
Pack raw tuna into half-pint or pint jars (
do not use quarts
), pressing down to fill in the space inside the jar and leaving 1-inch headspace. You can add water to cover, again leaving 1-inch headspace, but this isn’t necessary as it’s safe to can the raw tuna with no added liquid. Add salt, if desired. Following the pressure canning directions in chapter 4, process half-pints and pints for 100 minutes at 10 psi, adjusting the psi as necessary for your altitude according to the altitude adjustment directions.
SOUPS, STEWS, AND OTHER GOOD THINGS
W
hile this chapter will give you plenty of recipes for all sorts of canned goods that use more than one ingredient, you may be surprised to notice what
isn’t
included here. That’s because as testing and research continue over time, safety guidelines change. So what used to be considered perfectly safe—for example, pumpkin pie filling or beef barley stew thickened with flour or cornstarch—today might be considered risky. The best way to deal with these changing canning guidelines is to make sure your recipes are up-to-date and to follow sound recipes.
Unfortunately, this could very well mean that a favorite recipe that you or someone you know has used for many years won’t pass the safety test. It’s also likely that at some point you’ll hear someone say they don’t care about the latest canning guidelines because they’ve been using their recipes for years and years and “no one’s gotten sick yet.” And they are no doubt right because the incidence of home-canned food causing food-borne illness is almost nonexistent. Even so, I urge you to use only those canning recipes that you
know
are safe. Because when it comes to our families, why take chances?
That being said, you
can
devise your own recipes or tweak a favorite recipe you already use. Just make sure there are no unsafe foods present and look up each individual ingredient you’ve used when deciding how long to process. The processing time for your canner load will be for whichever ingredient needs the longest amount of time. So next time you make spaghetti sauce or a pot of soup for supper, make plenty and can the leftovers. By adding to your pantry shelves a bit at a time this way, you’ll soon have a full larder of good meals just waiting to be heated and eaten. What a good feeling that is!