CANNING VENISON

By Pooch

Over the years I have been lucky enough to harvest my fair share of venison and as much as I love a good roast or nice steak, I am not particularly fond of a piece that is frozen for any length of time.

As far back as I can remember, all the members of my family, aunts and uncles, cold packed their venison. This has a flavor that I find so delicious that as I get older I prefer it over most other methods of preserving and cooking. I will take the lid off, stick it in the microwave and eat it right out of the jar or toss it in a skillet, add a little pepper, make a gravy and eat it over noodles. I add it to chili, spaghetti or any recipe that calls for meat.

Cold Packing Venison

Though I call this cold packing, this method has a few different names. Raw pack, hot pack and hot water bath are all used to describe it. All the canning books say you should pressure can meat, as does the Department of Agriculture. I have never pressure canned a jar of venison ever. I have always hot water canned or canned in the oven.

With that in mind I have decided to share my methods of canning venison. Before anyone panics and says, "What about food poisoning?" let me say this, I have grown up eating canned venison, as has all my family. I know that the only people around my neck of the woods that pressure can venison are new to canning and after they learn about cold packing, they switch over. In my family I know first hand from my oldest surviving aunt that she has cold packed for her entire cooking life and she is 85. She told me that is the way her mother taught her, and her mother started in the 1800's, and before that her mother. So, with the fact that my grandmother had 13 kids, all raised on cold pack and none ever got sick and they have raised their families the same...guess I'll stick to it.

Okay, to the reason for this literary work. Basically, cold packing venison consists of placing your meat in a jar, the jar in the water bath, and cooking it for a predetermined time, simple. Well, there is a little more detail to it, but that is the basic idea.

First, I sterilize all my jars. I do this by running through a cycle in the dishwasher and then directly into a 400 degree oven until I am ready to fill them. While the dishwasher is running, I cube up my venison, I usually cut the meat into 3/4" to 1" cubes. I always use smaller cubes in the pint jars, but either in the quart jars. Trim any membranes or fat. Luckily, venison has no internal fat like beef. It is very lean so there is very little trimming.

At the same time, I have my water in my cold packer on and boiling. When the jars are ready and the water bath is boiling, I pack my jars. This is done with the raw meat, not precooked. I fill the jars up to the neck with the raw venison right below where the threads start. For pints I add 1/2 tsp of salt and just enough water to moisten it so it doesn't clump in one spot, maybe about a tablespoon. I've always eyeballed it, never measured. For quart jars I add 1 tsp of salt per jar. I occasionally place a slice of onion on top of the meat before putting on the lids. Then I place the lids on the jars, then the rings, finger tightening them but not cranking them down tight.

I place them in the cold packer and pour enough boiling water to cover the tops of the jars by about an inch. I place the lid on the cold packer and when the water is back to a boil, I start timing it. If I am doing quarts I leave them in for 2 and 3/4 hours and if I am doing pints, 2 hours. At the end of the processing time I remove the jars and set them on towels laid on the counter, this insulates the hot jars from a cold counter and keeps them from breaking. That's all there is to it.

Oven Packing Venison

The other method of canning without a pressure cooker is one I have only learned over the last 10 years or so. This was taught to my brother and his wife by a lady in her 90's and she had been doing it for maybe 30 years. My brother has never had a problem with it and in fact other family members have started using this method to can venison. This method is oven canning. You prepare your jars and instead of a water bath you pack them in the jars and put them in the oven. Pretty simple really, but it takes a little longer and occasionally you have a jar boil over in the processing.

In this method of canning you cube your meat the same as before and pack your jars the same, from that point the recipe changes slightly. For quart jars you place 1/4 tsp of salt and 2 TBS of boiling water per jar, at this time you can, if wanted, add 1/4 tsp of either onion powder or onion soup mix per jar. If you are doing pint jars cut the ingredients in half, 1/8 tsp salt, 1 TBS of boiling water and 1/8 tsp onion powder or onion soup mix. Place the lids on the jars and finger tighten the rings about 1/4 turn. Place the jars on a cookie sheet, making sure they do not touch each other and place in a 300 degree oven for 3 hours. At the end of the 3 hours remove the jars and turn the lids down tight on the jars and set on a towel on the counter to cool. The main reason for the cookie sheet is occasionally a jar will boil over and this keeps the mess contained.

That's it, I own a pressure canner but only do vegetables and pork or poultry in it. I have always canned my venison in the cold pack method and I know people that can their beef this way. I haven't tried much of that. This is simple and I know with my family alone there have been thousands of jars canned this way over the years and never a sign of any problems, PLUS, you don't need to go to the expense of a pressure canner. A hot water bath canner can be had for less than $30.00. I'll break down the recipes below for convenience and I hope these are useful to some of you.

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