Canning: Breakfast sausages

Why would anyone 'can' breakfast sausages? I just did it to see if it would work, because if you live without refrigeration, it's another food item you can preserve and have on hand. It did work, but before you run out to buy half a dozen packages to put into jars, keep the following in mind...

They were okay after canning, but not at all like cooking them up fresh. Canning any meat changes the taste and texture... there's just no way it's going to taste like fresh after being cooked under that kind of pressure. Some meats are tastier, some are not. These are not, in my opinion. My sausage loving husband actually liked them, and said he would eat them this way! The change in taste and especially in texture did not bother him like it bothered me. As sausage links, I was not crazy about them, even after browning, However, when I sliced them and used them in breakfast burritos and omelets, they worked out very well, indeed. So, if I can more of these, that's how I will plan to use them.

Should you decide to give it a try...

I tried it two ways: browning the sausages first, and not pre-cooking. The pre-browned sausages were a bit darker after pressure canning than the uncooked, but tasted the same, in the end. So, when I was canning some ground beef, I put uncooked sausage links in a half pint jar with parchment paper in the bottom and processed them.

The result was a lovely, light brown cooked sausage. If you taste the sausage right out of the jar, at room temperature, it tastes more like ham than sausage. It better after it's heated up (we prefer in a skillet). The texture is what changes the most in these sausages - they almost don't need chewing (though they weren't actually mushy). I guess that bugged me and why I won't be canning them as frequently as I do other meats, but I will keep some on hand for omelets, pizzas, breakfast burritos, or casseroles.

As I said before, if you are living off grid, camping or living on a boat part of the year, this is a good way to have sausage links on hand, same as canned bacon strips, bacon bits and other meats. Otherwise, most of our breakfast sausages will be frozen or refrigerated.

Canning Ground Beef or Ground Sausage

Thirty years ago, as I thawed and browned ground beef or sausage every time I needed it for a meal, I wished there was a way you could buy it precooked and ready to go, so there wouldn't be the dirty skillet and grease to deal with, not to mention the time it took before you could even start on the rest of the meal. "They can other meats," I thought. "Why can't they do ground beef?"

I don't know if anyone sells precooked ground beef in a metal can these days, but I process plenty of it by pressure canning just like other meats. My goodness - it's wonderful to be able to take a jar of ground beef or sausage off the shelf for spaghetti, lasagne, sausage gravy, chili, burritos, tacos, etc!! I would rather process 2 or 3 canner loads in a day and get the mess over with than to do it one pound at a time. I have watched a lot of YouTube videos on how other folks were doing it, and I believe I have it down to about as easy as it gets.

How to pressure can ground beef or ground sausage

Today I processed 10 pounds of ground beef. I canned it in pints, so that made ten jars. A pound of most meats fits into a pint jar - very convenient for recipes. A quart jars holds two pounds and is a good size to use for a family of four or five.

- Cook your ground meat just until the pink mostly disappears.
- Then drain the ground meat and cut the bigger chunks into smaller pieces. I really like using a pastry blender (with blades instead of wires) for this, but a spoon will work, too.
- Then the meat can be packed straight into clean canning jars. I do this as the next couple of pounds of meat is browning, but you can always cook all the meat first, then pack it into jars. I just like to keep the process moving so there's no wasted time waiting around.
- You will need a smaller jar, juice glass, or spoon to push/compact the meat down. Stop filling the (any size) jar when the meat reaches the first ring (about an inch from the top). You have to leave head space.
- I wipe the rims right after I fill a jar with any meat, because meat residue is harder to clean off if it dries on the glass. I wipe them again before I apply the lids.
- Process pint and half pint jars for 75 minutes; quarts for 90 minutes.

TIPS: 

- Remember, you do not have to sterilize jars before pressure canning. They WILL need to be clean, tho, and check the rims for chipping. Do not use jars with chipped rims.
- You do not have to BOIL lids... bring them to a simmer. You do not have to simmer rings - they just need to be clean. (These tips are per the Ball Canning Book.)
- You do not have to rinse the cooked meat before you pack it, just drain it well. Some remaining fat will settle around the top of the meat when it cools. It's ok. Just drain it off after you warm the meat in the pan.
- Use straight-sided jars for meats. It only took a couple of canner loads of meat in regular mouth jars with 'shoulders' to realize what a mess it made trying to dig the meat out past those curves. However, if all you have is regular mouth jars, the ground meats come out easier than the solid chunks of chicken, beef, ham, pork or fish. Mostly because it doesn't matter if the ground meats gets mangled, since you're using them in something anyway.
- If you don't have time to cook a lot of meat AND run the canner in the same day or evening, it's ok. Just cook up the meat, drain it, and either put it in a bowl in the refrigerator or pack them in the jars, cap and ring them and put the jars in the refrigerator. Within a few days, get the meat out and pack it into the jars and can it OR get your jars of meat out of the refrigerator, let them sit at least 30 minutes to get the chill off them, simmer clean lids, get the jars in a canner with cool water and fire it up.
- Never put cool or cold jars in hot water and never put hot jars into cool water. Start the food-packed jars and the water in the canner at similar temperatures.

A plus to pressure canning ground meats

One great benefit of pressure canning meats is how gristle breaks down and is no longer a problem! What a pleasant surprise it was when we discovered 'no gristle' even with cheaper brands of meats. Pressure canning even dissolves small bones in fish.

Story: The Amish boy and the cat

Several summers ago, we hired an Amish builder and his sons to remove two old porches and replace them with a new room and outer entry porch. Every morning my husband drove 22 miles to pick them up in his van and bring them to our house, then repeat the drive after 5 pm every evening when they finished. They promised to have the work done in a week, and they did.

At noon, they would break for lunch and sit on the grass and eat, then nap or read a book. 

We have barn cats (that are pets as well). They would stroll around as the work was progressing.

One day, our black cat, Onyx, was sleeping under a winding stand of flowers by the garage. She is a soft, long haired cat and loves attention. One of the young men spotted her and asked if the black cat was friendly. Yes, my husband said (from around the side of the garage). So the young man walked over to pet her, calling out to her. But Onyx did not move.

The young man called out again, moving closer. He moved very close, detected no movement, so he walked back and said, "I think your cat is dead."

"No," my husband said, "she is probably just asleep."

So the young man walked back to Onyx, moved in closely clapping his hands and speaking, but she didn't move. So he touched her.

"AAARRRR!" Onyx flew up and off like a rocket! Across the yard and around the barn. The young man jumped up and and stumbled backward.

The others turned around to see what was happening. My husband asked the startled boy, "What happened?"

"I was checking to see if your cat was dead and I touched her, but I guess she wasn't," he said. "She jumped up and ran away!"

"Ohhhh, I forgot to tell you, the two older cats can't hear anymore," my husband said. "You have to stamp on the ground to alert them before you pet them."

The poor kid's brothers had a good laugh over that.

(As a side note, my husband did the same thing just yesterday. Bent down near the barn door to pet Onyx, because he thought she was awake and knew he was there. "AAARRRR!" and up away she went.)

Another story from that same week: I was getting ready for work upstairs one morning and the men were all outside working. The windows were open and it was already warming up. As I was brushing my hair, WHOOSH... something flew past my head! What the...? I thought. WHOOSH  there it was again, and I knew...

A BAT! Ooooo I hate those things! We live in a very old house and they get in the crawlspace above the second story. How they get into the house, who knows? Anyway, everywhere I went, that bat seemed to go. So I crawled to the hallway window and call out to a boy standing below, "Where is my husband?"

"Around back somewhere," he replied. 

"Tell him to come here! There's a bat in the house!" I hollered. I crawled back to the bathroom and shut the door.

But no one comes to my rescue. So I opened the door, looked for the bat and, not spotting it, crawled back to the window. I saw my husband below.

"Why didn't you come in? There's a bat loose in the house!" I shouted. 

"I'm busy," he called back. "It won't bother you anyway. We have the doors open. It will fly out."

What? He's not coming in to save me? Boy, was I mad. I could hear the fellows outside chuckling. There was nothing to do but finish getting ready and keep my head low going downstairs. I grabbed my keys and bags and headed for the garage. I was fuming.

"Did you find it?" my husband asked. 

"No! It's still in there!"

"Aw, it'll probably be gone by the time you get home anyway," he replied.

The older man, who had been somewhere else, asked, "What happened?"

"Oh, his woman is afraid of a bat," answered one of the sons, and they all laughed.

How I got my revenge:  When they were working on the outer porch, the man and his sons agreed to pour a new patio (at an additional cost, of course). My husband had taken up the old concrete patio stones and prepared the area so one day, they all poured a 12 x 24 foot patio. I came home just as they were packing everything up after 5 pm. It was just beautiful, that smooth, clean surface... so nicely done. I looked it over carefully, then got an idea.

My husband was talking to the father at the van, and the others were already inside. I called to them, "Wait! This isn't right!"

"What's not right?" asked my husband. The father was now on super-alert.

"The patio is crooked, and isn't over here far enough!" I said. "You need to move it. It has to come up!"

The father looked at my husband and said, "What did she say?" My husband repeated it to him, and the man's face just fell.

Oooops.  "Just kidding!" I called out. "I was just kidding, it's fine."

The young men in the van were laughing, and the poor father was trying to. Now that I think back on it, that little joke could have caused him heart failure! He gave me a watermelon when we visited his farm later in the month, so I guess there were no hard feelings.

Food hacks: Pie dough; Easier cooked filling

In search of a workable Pie Dough 

I don't know where my brain has been all these years to miss this great product: Jiffy Pie Crust mix.

I like to be able to say my pie is from scratch, so I still cut my own pie dough, roll it out, and battle to get it into the pie pan in one piece. About a month ago, I wrote down 11 pie crust recipes, hoping to find one easy to handle and lay into a pie pan. That's how desperate I was for a good crust.

Going through the pantry yesterday, I found 3 boxes of Jiffy Pie Crust I bought on sale and never used. Why not try it, I thought? If I don't like it, I'm only out 60 cents a box. So, today I thought I'd make some mini lemon pies using cupcake and mini tarts pans. I mixed up the Jiffy crust per the instructions (but ended up having to add a bit more water) and made a ball of dough.

Imagine my shock when I realized I had pliable dough in my hands that wasn't splitting at the edges! I divided it and rolled the first piece out on floured wax paper and thought I was living in a dream! The dough cooperated! I could mend tiny splits! I could even pick it up with my hands and it didn't fall apart! I cut my little discs and shaped them over my pans... success! How could this be? All I did was add water! So, I checked the ingredients. The mix uses lard, like cooks did in my mother's and grandmother's day. Maybe that's the secret, and that's okay. Jiffy Pie crust mix is my new best friend!

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 Lemon or cooked Pie Filling tip

For those pie fillings or puddings that are cooked in a saucepan on a stovetop, I have a little shortcut I use. 

I dreaded making these fillings because it seemed to take forever to stand there and stir, stir, stir while I waited for the mixture to thicken. Plus I never felt like my whisk was coming into contact with the bottom of my pan well enough ( I didn't want the mixture to clump up or develop 'cornstarch balls').

So I started using my stainless steel skillet instead of a saucepan and a potato masher in place of a whisk. I felt more of the skillet would come into contact with the heat from the burner and the mixture would not be so deep in the saucepan, possibly heating quicker. The potato masher is flat and I move it across the bottom of the skillet in circles, and it keeps the mixture on the bottom from sticking. We all know you can't rush a cooked filling; turning the heat up too high risks burning it. I feel it gets thick quicker this way... my filling today was done in less than 15 minutes, start to finish.