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.