How to Can Ground Meat

I do a lot of canning. I do it primarily as a way to save money, but it also gives me peace of mind knowing that we have a large food storage for a rainy day. I put together a little video for those of you who would like to learn how to can ground meat. (Always consult the user's manual that came with your pressure canner before you start!)

So let's break down exactly how canning saves money. I drill on this same principle over and over again: the way to spend as little as possible on your food is to wait for each product to hit its rock-bottom price. Buy enough of it to last for several months, or until that product hits that rock-bottom price again. I love to buy my ground beef from Zaycon because I get enough of it that I only have to can/freeze it about once per year!

In the case of meat I am well aware that you can stock up and freeze the meat rather than can it, but I prefer canning to freezing for a few simple reasons:

• Freezing meat takes up a lot of room in the freezer, room that I prefer to save for other foods (see my post here).
• Once in awhile I hear of freezers breaking or shorting out while a family is out of town. Sometimes an extended power outage can make the food in the freezer spoil. If you have a lot of meat in there it could mean hundreds of dollars wasted. (This actually happened to my mom. She has a flood in her basement and somebody accidentally unplugged the deep freezer to plug in a fan. She lost hundreds of dollars on the spoiled meat we had to throw away. Also, it smelled HORRENDOUS!)
• Canning is a few hours of work, but then you have several cans of ready-to-eat meat that last on the shelf for one year or longer. That means quick, easy meals without the hassle of defrosting and cooking meat all the time. This also means no more handling raw meat on a regular basis!

You may be asking yourself what a really good price on meat is. It depends on where you live, but I can give you an idea of the prices I watch out for in Phoenix, Arizona:

Ground Turkey - $1.99/lb.
Boneless/Skinless Chicken - $1.67/lb. although a couple of months ago I found it for $0.99/lb. and you better believe I jumped all over that!
Chicken on the Bone - $0.35/lb. or so
Ground Beef - $2.99/lb. One of the things I love about canning beef is that you can buy the fattier cuts (they are usually cheaper) and the fat will float to the top of the meat and solidify there. I just skim it off before serving the beef and we have super lean ground beef!

You may also can wild game and sea food, but I have never done that. One other tip: I often find phenomenal prices on meat and produce at our Hispanic stores (Food City and Phoenix Ranch Market), so go check them out if you have one close!