Venison Stew Meat

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:13 pm

Yesterday I tried out my pressure canner for the first time. I canned 17 pints of venison. After the pints had cooled down enough, I opened one and sampled the plain venison meat. It was superb! I used 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt per pint, but nothing else. Using the raw pack method, I cooked the meat at 240 degrees (10 psi) for 75 minutes. The resultant meat was so delicious and flavorful. I couldn't believe that it was just plain meat with a touch of salt. Now the long-term test will be to see if the jar seals hold up.

If you've never tried canned stew meat, I highly recommend it.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:24 pm

I really prefer canning to freezing, particularly for meats. My dad freezes everything, and we just don't like what it does to the flavor.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:37 pm

Is he letting the frozen meat sit too long? the reason I ask is we primarily freeze our venison, pork and beef. And as I'm sure you know we buy in bulk. We've never had any quality issues.

I'd say he's either letting the meat sit too long in the freezer, or his processing is off.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:08 am

No, Ana and I are just super-picky.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:58 am

3278 wrote:My dad freezes everything, and we just don't like what it does to the flavor.

Does his freezer have auto-defrost? Auto-defrost freezers, while great for keeping the amount of frost build-up to a minimum, are notoriously bad at keeping food fresh for long periods of time. Any food stored in an auto-defrost freezer should really be used up in a few months.

But, I also notice a slight change in the quality of the food after it has been frozen, regardless of the type of freezer (I have both a non-defrost chest freezer and an auto-defrost freezer in my fridge). I don't necessarily find it objectionable, but different nonetheless.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 3:31 pm

Huh. I guess my taste buds are just worse than other peoples. I never notice anything funny with our frozen meats-and we've generally had fresh pork, venison and beef on a regular basis. But again it might just be because we have so many more people eating ehre we go through it quicker.

Nicephorus · Post by **Nicephorus** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:31 pm

The thing I've noticed with frozen meat is it affects the moisture content. I think the freezing bursts many of the cells so they don't retain moisture. Where this comes up the most is when I'm fryign burgers from fozen meat - quite a bit of water comes out and keeps the temp too low at first to get decent browning.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:44 pm

That may explain it. Since I like my food cooked lean, and dry.

sinsual · Post by **sinsual** » Sun Dec 18, 2011 4:24 am

Funny I should log in after a bit of absence and find this thread.

We are going to be getting 30lbs of Elk in the next week or so and I was trying to figure a better way to preserve it than just freezing. Though, our stash is going to be delivered in vacuum sealed frozen packs.

One of the crew I will be going hunting with next year tagged an elk this year, along with a white tail and two Mule Deer...

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Sun Dec 18, 2011 2:42 pm

sinsual wrote:Funny I should log in after a bit of absence and find this thread.

We are going to be getting 30lbs of Elk in the next week or so and I was trying to figure a better way to preserve it than just freezing. Though, our stash is going to be delivered in vacuum sealed frozen packs.

One of the crew I will be going hunting with next year tagged an elk this year, along with a white tail and two Mule Deer...

I started out with frozen meat, thawed it in the fridge for a few days, and then canned it. Make sure you only use a pressure canner if you're going to try it...water bath canning is not acceptable for low-acid foods like meat. I have an All American pressure canner that I got as a gift. They are very expensive, but they are also the cream of the crop. Unless you are going to be doing a lot of canning, I'd opt for a Presto or something similar. You can get a decent size one for around $50. I did pints, which equal about a pound of meat per pint. For the size recipes I plan on making (more than 2 servings), quart jars would be a nice option. However, it's just as easy to use 2 pints, and you can general process more meat using pint jars in a single session. My canner can hold 16 pint jars, but only 7 quart jars. Using pint jars, I can get 1 more quart worth of meat each canning session.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:15 am

It's been over 2 weeks, and all of my canned meat has stayed perfectly preserved (and delicious). I started with 8 jars of meat. After I make my soup or stew tomorrow or Wed, I'll only have 2 pints left. Working on getting a whole deer (minus the prime cuts) to pressure can.

I've been simply eating the canned meat right out of the jar after re-heating and it is phenomenal. Garnish with some mac-n-cheese & a side of vegetables and it makes for a damn good meal.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 3:09 am

Made some simple homemade soup with 2 jars of my canned venison today (now I'm down to 1 jar left). Just put two cans of store-bought canned carrots, 2 cans of store-bought canned potatoes, 1 jar of store-bought Holland-style onions in a crock pot with some salt, pepper, oregano and dill weed, and it was awesome. Heat and serve was all it took. the juice from the canned vegetables and venison made a plenty-tasty broth! I was worried about not using enough meat stock broth, but the vegetable broth was just fine.

Now I need some more venison!

Tiny Deev · Post by **Tiny Deev** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:22 pm

I have no idea what this canned shit is all about. Like, seriously. No clue. Canned meat? What?

3278 · Post by **3278** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:52 pm

Why, we're talking about l'art de conserver, pendant plusieurs années, toutes les substances animales et végétales! Sorry, a little food preservation history joke there.

I'm guessing you know this much, but when we talk about home canning, what we're talking about is preparing food for long-term storage. In order to prevent bacteria and fungus from rotting the food, the food to be prepared is brought to a high temperature to kill those microorganisms, and then sealed so that no more microorganisms can re-infest the food. Pasteuriseren. That's the part I assume you already know.

For us, we typically do it at home in Mason jars, but the basic process isn't any different in an industrial plant producing canned tuna or green beans. And it's not limited to just tomatoes and carrots and whatever: you can do meat, too [although the recipe is somewhat different].

Obviously, there are other things you can do to preserve food at home - smoking, salting, pickling, and so on - but canning preserves the flavor of the original food better than other methods, and works in many situations in which they wouldn't. It's not nearly as common today as it used to be, since the advent of refrigeration and freezing, but it's cheap and easy and the results are great.

They don't bother, in your country: they just leave lunch meat in a drawer. "Honey, where's the lunch meat? No, I looked in the meat drawer, and there's just cheese in there. What do you mean the meat drawer next to the silverware drawer?" And in there, with all the papers and pencils and whatever, there's just packages of meat. Barbarians.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:56 pm

Take your handy-dandy pressure canner:

And process your food under high temperature and pressure until it looks like this:

Better tasting and better for you than most commercially processed foods. 2-year shelf life if kept in a cool, dry, dark place.

Tiny Deev · Post by **Tiny Deev** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 6:53 am

Goddamnit now I need this for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. Thanks for the explanation guys.

Oh, I totally don't keep meat in a drawer! I have it in the fridge if its short term, freezer if its for long term.

SumDumQuim · Post by **SumDumQuim** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 6:54 pm

My mother used to force us to eat this while growing up. Two words;

PEH

Sorry UncleJ, you know I love you, but dog food is dog food. I eat venison all the time, and by venison I mean elk, white and mule deer, antelope etc, and it all tastes good, but once you can it? It's dog food.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 7:45 pm

SumDumQuim wrote:Sorry UncleJ, you know I love you, but dog food is dog food. I eat venison all the time, and by venison I mean elk, white and mule deer, antelope etc, and it all tastes good, but once you can it? It's dog food.[/i]

Then you're not canning it right!

Jeff Hauze · Post by **Jeff Hauze** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 9:29 pm

Canned meat? *shudders* That's more horrifying than scrapple. Or roasts.