A couple of people sent me care packages of canned meat, which is always welcome but I did not realize how much that stuff costs.
Examples:
Yeah, I see you curling your lip. But this stuff works great in spaghetti sauce, turning normal crappy dollar-store sauce into outstanding crappy dollar-store sauce. Unfortunately $6.73 will buy a lot of hamburger at the local store.
This stuff is the very best for quickie stew. But for $28 bucks I could buy a couple of actual roasts. Seriously, you guys spent $7 a can? I am loved. But stop doing that, okay?
At $20 for a package of six (Landlady claimed it costs a lot less at Costco) this canned chicken breast is a better deal and it also works well in stew. But it’s still too expensive. No way you could put up a serious supply at that price.
So I’ve been thinking I need to take up canning as the only practical way to shelf-store serious supplies of winter meat. It would be far less expensive. Trouble is my pantry is unheated and I think about all those Mason jars freezing and breaking… Oy.
Maybe dig yourself a small root cellar. You don’t get the serious below zero weather we do, and I know several folks here who still use a root cellar. Might be a safe place to store ammo and reloading supplies too… out of sight, out of mind of potential intruders. Wish to heck I had one. 🙂
Can you raise your bed the height of a case of fruit jars? That is where my mother stored all of her canning was under our beds. One pint equals about one pound of meat. So for you, half-pints and pints would be all you would want, I would think.
Next option, could be to cook, then dehydrate everything. 1/4 cup of dehydrated gravel (browned ground beef) is a really nice serving of meat. One nice point is you can use odd ball jars and store it in the shed, spring/fall/winter. Not sure how hot the shed gets in the summer versus The Lair. The air is dry enough in the summer to make a DIY solar dehydrator a viable option. You will want to dry everything to the brittle stage to prevent any possibility of spoilage, but I’ve been accused of overdoing it at times. (Why use one 16 penny-nail when you could use 2 and some waterproof glue, too?) Check out DIY backpacking foods sites for great recipes and ideas for dehydrating and re-hydrating meals and food stuffs. I used this site a lot : http://www.backpackingchef.com/
“But stop doing that, okay?”
Haven’t you learned not to tell freedomistas what to do?
Freezing is actually not as big of a problem if you use widemouth pints, because the tapered jars have room for the food to expand slightly. Standard or narrow mouth pints have a shoulder to them, and no room for the food to move around if it freezes. Some canning jars are actually designed to be used in the freezer. For your purposes, I would say that widemouth jars and Tatter brand reusable lids would be a good combination. The biggest expense, of course, is the initial purchase, as you will need a supply of jars and a pressure canner (pressure canners run around $100 for a reliable one). If you do get started with canning, the USDA canning guide is freely available for download on pdf, and many land grant colleges still have an agricultural extension office that has canning information available as well. For other reference material, I use and recommend the Rodale Institute’s ‘Stocking Up’ – a collection of silly hippies who have been producing canning and preservation materials for 40 years and more.
I’d go with pints and half pints for meat. Wide mouth is best and new jars come lids new. You can wait until next season to decide on reuseable lids which are expensive. The Ball Blue Book is an excellent source of info. When the rabbit population is up we cook and bone out rabbits and can the meat for chili. I once bought an All American canner at a yard sale for $10.00. Watch yard sale and craigs list for used ones. I’d go with storing under the bed rather then letting it freeze. If you are going to let it freeze maybe go with a bit extra head space.
If you are serious about canning, or even semi-serious, start out by getting a copy of the recent edition of the “Ball Blue Book”. It is the bible for pressure canning., by far.
Um … yes, but if you’re going to start canning meat is not the item to begin with.
And I’m with Karen. You don’t tell generous folks who know how meat-starved you are to quit sending you goodies.
Landlady’s right, too. That chicken doesn’t cost anywhere near $20 at Costco. More like $11 or $12 last I saw. So I’m guessing the other meats can be found at less than those colossal prices, also.
Even though you already have the pressure canner, it would cost you more to set up to start canning than people are spending on those delicious meaty treats.
The next question would be, would you Joel accept other people’s home canned meats if someone wanted to send you some of those? The above input suggests that lots of your readers are experienced canners who’d produce a safe and tasty product.
I never turn down food, CH. 🙂
Amazon carries canned escargot.
I really enjoy that canned chicken breast when eating at the ranch. An envelope of mayo – chicken sandwiches. Chunked up in ramen – good meal extender, definitely adds to flavor. I’ve even heated the can over the coals when mixing with vegetable soups – Tasty !
The roast beef products – the ones I’ve tried (Wal-Mart Great Value seem more gravy than meat. Good when poured on top of a bed of rice, just not enough meat for the price.
Joel, I apologize. Really, from the bottom of my heart, I apologize. I failed to appreciate and understand the duress I placed you under when I sent you some canned meat. I had no idea of the depth of your concern for my financial well being when I paid for the cans.
You may rest assured I will not burden you further with such exorbitant gifts. I could not live with myself knowing the suffering such action would cause.
In fact, I’ve deleted your shipping address from my Amazon account to ensure that in the future it won’t even happen accidentally.
🙂 I appreciate that, Nosmo. The suffering, it’s…well. I try to carry on.
Seriously, I appreciate all such care packages very much. Just hadn’t realized how much they cost per can.
You can store glass container canned goods in a styrofoam or steel cooler for the winter, when you likely don’t use them anyway. If anything breaks it will be contained and the jars would have some insulation. You can make a shallow or deep root cellar with plastic barrels or a plastic lined hole in the ground. Lots of suggestions on the Internet for low to no cost in ground food storage. You can have fresh potatoes, carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, cabbages of all kinds all winter long with a root cellar. Like MamaLiberty, wish I could have one but my land is stream and river gravels in a clay matrix. If I ever find a lens of sand I’ll dig right in to it.