* Canning Ground Beef & Beef Chunks *

The last day of canning week here! Today we are going to talk about canning meat...most specifically beef. We are so lucky that my in-laws are cattle ranchers. They are amazing people and they are so nice to provide us with beef throughout the year. We have a lot of beef in our freezer and I always rationalize that my food storage is in the freezer. This last year, I started thinking about what I would do if our power went out. All of the stuff in our freezer would go bad fairly quickly. So I decided to learn how to can some of our beef in case of an emergency!

I found a website called Preparedness 365 and it is awesome! She has recipes, instructions, and great ideas on how to be prepared for emergencies. Here are her links for canning ground beef & beef chunks.

* Canning Ground Beef & Beef Chunks *(I realize this picture does not look super appetizing but they really taste pretty good and think about how nice it would be to have your dinner meat cooked already!)
For the beef chunks, you could use steaks (I did all of my beef chunks out of round steak since it is a tougher cut of meat and this process is supposed to tenderize the meat very well), or roasts (which you could cook in a crockpot).

The process for both of them is pretty much the same. Always have your jars & rings washed (waiting in the dishwasher), & new lids (you'll have them heated in a bowl of hot water by the time you use them).

Thaw the meat overnight in the sink. Cut your steak/roast into chunks. Cook the ground beef or meat chunks by putting them in a large pot with a little bit of water. Cook until the pink is gone. Rinse the meat to get as much of the fat out of it as possible.

Pack meat into jars (quart or pint--whatever you have or want to use) up to the neck of the jar. After packing the meat in, fill each jar with boiling water or beef broth (I used the beef broth--it adds more flavor). Run a knife or small spatula around the edge to get air bubbles out and to fill in the cracks with the liquid. Wipe the jar rims with a clean cloth, and put new lids & the rings on. They are then ready to process in a pressure canner. Always follow your pressure canner's instructions but a general guideline is to process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes.

After processing, allow the pressure on your canner to drop to zero before removing your jars. Place on towel and let cool (24 hours).

The ground beef is good for tacos, sloppy joes, spaghetti, chili, etc. The beef chunks would be great in stew, used in straganoff, quesadillas, etc...basically any ways you use your beef in!