Easy Way to Pressure Can Ground Beef and Use It
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Pressure canning meat is overwhelming for many, mostly because of two things I’ve found: meat is expensive and they don’t want to ruin it and also, what the heck do I even do with it after I can it because it kinda looks gross. My goal of this blog post is to help with those two and raise your confidence level to actually try canning ground meats. Canned meats are quite convenient and a great way to flip meat depending on a freezer to store (electricity is expensive and unreliable) to shelf stable with not that much effort.
What Do I Use Canned Meat For?!
Whatever you use cooked meat for. Any recipe that you would cook and crumble your ground meat prior to adding all the other ingredients is a contender to use canned meat.
No, seriously.
Don’t over think this! Canned meat is fantastic for tons of applications and dishes, you just gotta be okay with using it and get past the mental block that it’s going to be gross, since it looks pretty gross in the jar sometimes. I have found that with ground meat, when I open the jar, the taste and texture is best if I drain the jar and then brown the meat in a hot cast iron pan. This just helps with that grainy, mealy canned texture and flavor and brings it back to a fresh taste. It also brings it back to a browned meat color instead of the strange pink it turns after canning. I think half the battle is knowing how to use the meat and prepare it to get the best flavor. Many times folks tell me they don’t like canned meat because it’s gross and they refuse to try anything outside of dumping it and eating it. Sometimes preserving meat takes some trial and error on your part for you to find out which way of preserving it is one that you and your family will enjoy and eat.
Meat is Expensive!
Exactly. So why are you willing to gamble with your freezer, electricity, and electronics to store ALL of your meat. Especially if you’re purchasing half a beef… that’s a lot of money to gamble with. Yeah, they make freezer alarms which are great and I use, but all electronics can AND WILL fail you. It may have never happened to you before but it’s always a possibility and even if you don’t want to can your meat, having the skill is quite vital. Why? Because WHAT IF your freezer does die and your alarm is going off. A chest freezer completely defrosts in like 24-48 hours depending on how full it is. Maybe you can’t afford to run to the store and immediately buy a new freezer. Maybe they’re not available right away (2020 anyone?!) or maybe there’s been a natural disaster that knocks your power grid out for a week and gasoline is scarce because people are panic hoarding it…. these have ALL happened to me. And once you lose the contents of a freezer because you were unprepared and experienced the heartbreak of it, you’ll never want it to happen again.
You will have the skill to be able to flip all that meat that is thawing to shelf stable real quick. Yeah, it’ll be a lot of work, but dang if you’re not preserving meals to eat instead of tossing everything to the buzzards. I never said it would be an easy fix, but you have to be prepared. So don’t come at me with the “just freeze it” argument like everyone does. Once you experience devastating food loss like that, you’ll never say those words again. Canning meats isn’t the only way to store them, as I use a freezer too, but having some canned and on the shelves is convenience and peace of mind that serves me well!
What Size Jar Do I Use?
It all depends on the size of meals you make and your family and how many you’re feeding. Pint jars will hold approximately 1 pound of meat and quart jars will hold approximately 2 pounds of ground beef. So plan accordingly. I do a variation depending on what kind of meat it is and what recipes I like to use. For example: I can ground beef in both pints and quarts. Pints for recipes surrounding 1 pound of ground beef, like spaghetti sauce, and quarts for things like sloppy joes for a crowd. You don’t have to choose one jar size and marry it; some variability is nice in a pantry!
Depending on the size of jar, you will adjust your processing time. Anything pint (16 ounce) and smaller will be 75 minutes at your elevations recommended weight for low acid foods. Anything quart size (32 ounces) or smaller but larger than a pint (16 oz) will be processed for 90 minutes at your elevations recommended weight. The canning rules are simple… if there’s times for a jar size, you can size DOWN the jar size and process it safely, but not UP.
​Raw Pack vs Hot Pack
I will always tell you to hot pack ground beef… any meats. If you raw pack them, you’re going to get a weird pink solid meatloaf. Yeah, you can do it, it’s rebel, and I’ve tried it and it’s just not my thing. But I have talked with and know people that do and love doing it that way for less steps. My recommendation is to brown, even lightly, your ground meats prior to packing for better texture and flavor afterward. It makes it much easier to dump into a preheated cast iron pan and crisp back up as compared to schloooping out a big pink meat tube from a jar and breaking it apart into a weird, mealy mix. Again, MY OPINION, and my recipe instructions will reflect that.
Seasoning
I prefer to just salt my ground beef when canning so I’m not stuck with a certain seasoning and can use it for whatever the heck I want. BUT, you can do whatever you want and add taco seasoning or whatever seasoning blend pleases you. The beauty of home canning IN YOUR HOME is making this exactly the way you want them. So season them exactly how you want them!
Equipment You Might Want:
- Pint or Quart canning jars
- Cast Iron Pan
- Jar Funnel
- Jar Lifter
- Canning Lids & Screw Bands
- Pressure Canner
Ingredients:
- 1 pound ground beef
- water or beef broth, optional
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
Step 1: Brown Beef
If using frozen meat, thaw completely first.
To a preheated cast iron pan, add thawed ground beef and break apart into smaller pieces, browning lightly. Don’t worry about cooking through completely.
If there’s too much fat, drain if desired using a slotted spoon as you fill the jars. I like a little fat in the jars because fat is flavor and feeds the brain!
Spoon browned beef into a clean pint jar to 1-inch headspace, packing moderately but not super tight or you’ll have siphoning.
Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the jar and top off with boiling water or your own broth you made if desired. It’s rebel canning, but I prefer to “dry pack can them” and not add any further liquid. The approved method is to add liquid to headspace, remove any air bubbles, and add more to maintain 1 inch of headspace.
​Step 2: Canning
Wipe the rims of the jars and add a lid on top of the jar and secure with a screw band.
Process pint jars in your pressure canner for 75 minutes at your elevations recommended weight for low-acid food; quarts will be processed for 90 minutes.
Once processing time is complete, shut off heat and allow pressure canner to completely depressurize.
Once canner has depressurized, remove jars and set aside on a heat proof surface to cool undisturbed for 18-24 hours.
Step 3: Storing
Once jars have cooled, remove bands, test seals, wash jars, and label. Any jars that did not seal can be refrigerated and used soon, dumped and frozen, or reprocessed.
Store jars in a cool dark place away from direct sunlight. Room temperature is fine, just keep away from direct sunlight and know that ideal food storage temperatures are 55-70 degrees F.
Shelf life is ’til you eat it. Aim to rotate canned foods out every 2 years for maximum palatability and nutrition but they will last much longer than that if needed as long as the seal is intact.
To Use:
The first step is to completely drain the canning liquid if you added any and dump into a preheated cast iron skillet and cook until browned and slightly crisp. This step isn’t required but does help with flavor and texture after canning.
I don’t normally can much ground beef, but do choose to keep 5 or so pint jars of ground beef on the pantry shelf at all times just in case I forget to thaw something for dinner. We enjoy cooking it from frozen much more. But, thankfully, I have the ability and know how to flip that ground beef to long term storage in case I would need to!
Notes:
This method isn’t just for canning your own ground beef. It works well for ground venison, ground turkey, ground pork sausage, ground goat, and even groundhog.
Equipment
- Pint or Quart Canning Jars
- Cast Iron Pan
- jar lifter
- Canning lids & screw bands
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- water or beef broth optional
- 1/2 teaspoon salt optional
Instructions
- If using frozen meat, thaw completely first.
- To a preheated cast iron pan, add thawed ground beef and break apart into smaller pieces, browning lightly. Don’t worry about cooking through completely.
- If there’s too much fat, drain if desired using a slotted spoon as you fill the jars. I like a little fat in the jars because fat is flavor and feeds the brain!
- Spoon browned beef into a clean pint jar to 1-inch headspace, packing moderately but not super tight or you’ll have siphoning.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the jar and top off with boiling water or your own broth you made if desired. It’s rebel canning, but I prefer to “dry pack can them” and not add any further liquid. The approved method is to add liquid to headspace, remove any air bubbles, and add more to maintain 1 inch of headspace.
- Wipe the rims of the jars and add a lid on top of the jar and secure with a screw band.
- Process pint jars in your pressure canner for 75 minutes at your elevations recommended weight for low-acid food; quarts will be processed for 90 minutes.
- Once processing time is complete, shut off heat and allow pressure canner to completely depressurize.
- Once canner has depressurized, remove jars and set aside on a heat proof surface to cool undisturbed for 18-24 hours.
- Once jars have cooled, remove bands, test seals, wash jars, and label. Any jars that did not seal can be refrigerated and used soon, dumped and frozen, or reprocessed.
- Store jars in a cool dark place away from direct sunlight. Room temperature is fine, just keep away from direct sunlight and know that ideal food storage temperatures are 55-70 degrees F.
- Shelf life is ’til you eat it. Aim to rotate canned foods out every 2 years for maximum palatability and nutrition but they will last much longer than that if needed as long as the seal is intact.
To Use:
- The first step is to completely drain the canning liquid if you added any and dump into a preheated cast iron skillet and cook until browned and slightly crisp. Â This step isn't required but does help with flavor and texture after canning.
