Canning meat loaf

Yes folks, it can be done, but why? Well... if you live with a serious meat loaf lover and you happen to can other meats anyway, it makes for a 'quick fix' when somebody really wants meat loaf but you don't have time to prepare and bake one or don't have the ingredients on hand.

Or, just because you CAN do it. I first saw it in a video by Bexar Prepper here, and she canned it in wide mouth quart jars. Then I watched her try to remove the meat loaf from those jars and, because of the shoulder on the jar, it had to come out in chunks. I suppose that's alright, but I wanted mine to come out cleanly so I could slice it and heat it for the dinner plate or sandwiches. So I do mine in wide mouth pints or the straight sided 3 cup jars designed for asparagus.

Anyway, if you are interested in giving it a try, here's how to do it. Mix up your meat loaf as you would normally (but don't use milk). Using about 15 ozs of mixture for a pint jar, shape it into a long loaf smaller around than the diameter of your jar. The tricky part about doing meat loaf is trying to get it uniformly into the jar in one piece, without big air pockets in the bottom of the jar. The reason for the one-piece method is, the first time I canned meatloaf, I packed it in the jar by spoonfuls, pressing it down well. When it was done and I removed it from the jar, it came apart in the same spoonfuls. It wasn't one unit. I suppose this doesn't matter if you're just going to heat it up and throw it over mashed potatoes, but I wanted it to slide out in one piece so I could slice it. So, if you're going to keep it in one piece, it takes a bit of effort to pack it carefully without air pockets.

Keep the top of the mixture no higher than where the threads start on the jar, about 3/4 of an inch. Clean the rim of the jar with white vinegar to remove any residue from packing the jar. The rim has to be clean.


Use the pressure and time guides for beef (75 min. for pints, 90 min for qts at 10 lbs) and let the canner cool on its own (takes 20 min) before removing the jars, which will still be bubbling. A couple of hints when you are processing raw ground beef: use the leanest ground beef you can get to minimize the grease, which will still be present but to a minimum AND when the jars cool and seal and you remove the rings to wash the jars, they are going to be slimy because some of the fat has cooked out. Take care and use plenty of very warm sudsy water to wash the thread area and jar.

In these photos, I did not use lean ground beef but will scrape the grease away when I slide the meat loaf out of the jar. Yes, it looks a little like Alpo when you take it out, but tastes a WHOLE lot better! Just heat and serve. People will call you crazy until they try some.

It's always ideal to store canned foods in a cool, reasonably dry place.