How to Can Ground Beef {or any other ground meat}
This freezer saving shelf stable homemade convenience is so great to have in the pantry!
Equipment
- Pressure Canner
Ingredients
- Ground beef 1 lb per pint or 2 lbs per quart
- Hot water
Instructions
- Brown your ground beef until browned, but it doesnt need to be fully cooked.
- While the meat browns, prep your jars. They dont need to be sterilized just very clean, and check for any cracks or chips, especially on the rim.
- Get your canner ready according to the instructions. Get your lids and rings. Make sure your rings arent bent/dinged/rusty.
- Either drain most of the fat/liquid out of the ground meat, or use a slotted spoon.
- Fill your jars with the meat, using a canning funnel to keep jars as clean as possible, leaving 1 inch head space.
- Fill your jars just to cover the meat with hot tap water or if you tap water isnt great, heat water to approximately 110-120F and then fill the jars.
- Wipe your jar rims clean with a clean wet cloth, put a canning lid on the jar (no need to presoak for pressure canning!) and put a ring on to finger tight tightness.
- Put your jars in the canner and follow instructions as to venting, pressure weight etc and what PSI for your altitude.
- When it gets to pressure, set timer for 1hr and 30 minutes.
- Keep an eye on the canner, adjusting heat or sliding pot off the element a bit if the pressure starts getting too high. You dont want it to go below your required PSI, but its okay if it goes a bit over. (Mine frequently sits around 13 PSI cause I cant quite make it sit at 12 reliably...)
- When the timer is done, gently move the pot off the heat and let it cool.
- Look at your pressure canner manual as to when you can take the lid off. Often mine just sits overnight.
- When the time is right, take the lid off, using oven mitts, and opening it AWAY from you. Its going to steam a lot if it didnt sit overnight.
- Using jar lifters, move your jars to somewhere they can sit for 24 hrs- I put a tea towel on a side counter. You could put them on a cookie sheet or roasting pan so if you need to gently move them you can. If a ring is really loose i may ever so gently tighten it a bit.
- When your jars have cooled, check the seals. I always take the rings off and gently pry the lid. If they dont stand up to me gently prying them- they werent sealed well enough.
- Wipe your jars clean if needed, label your jars, and then my least favourite part of canning- haul it all down to the root cellar.
- To serve, simply open your jar, drain if desired, heat up with spices, dump into a pot of spaghetti, whatever you please!
Video
Notes
- Feel free to can a combination of things in a pressure canner as long as they have the same processing times. This means ground meat, dried beans and cubed meat could all be done at once, if you're wanting to fill up the rest of your canner load, I highly suggest canning some dried beans!
Tried this DIY?Let us know how it was!