JonB_in_Glencoe
11-28-2013, 12:51 PM
I have always heard canned Beef was a tasty treat. I never have had the opportunity to try someone else's or it was never really cost effective to make my own...Til this week.
I got the opportunity to buy a Quarter of Beef from a friend who was selling his last two red Holsteins. His animals wonder and graze on his 5+ acre meadow in summer, and get hay and grains in the winter. After the butcher was done processing, I picked it up on tuesday and began cleaning out my freezer. I found 9 beef roasts from the last beef purchase (1/2 of a milk cow). The hamburger was great, but I recall the roasts were grissled and some were tough. Well, i wasn't going to be cooking any of these before The Beef I just brought home. I opened one of these older packages and I couldn't see any freezer burn...My 50 year old freezer without automatic defrost is set quite cold and only poorly packaged items get freezer burnt.
ANYWAY...Opportunity strikes !
Yesterday I canned the 9 roasts...27 pt jars.
first I put the meat in a 190º smoker for 20 minutes, to put a layer of smoke on them. Then cut them into jar sized pieces. Also in the Jar, I put one thick slice of Onion (quartered) and a short 1/2tsp of Beef bouillon paste. I left an inch of headspace as per the canner book, that left the jars not as full as I expected, but that was probably because of the onion. But that's OK, a full pint of roast Beef is probably more that I should have for a serving ;) Processed in a pressure canner (10lbs) for 75 min. funny it took over an hour afterward before I could open the canner and the jars were till bubbling, but not uncontrollably like they were when I snuck the lid off at the 30 minute mark.
I opened one jar from the first batch soon after it cooled down, to see if the amount of salt from the bouillon was too much for what was in the jar. Actually it was a bit light on saltiness, but lots of beefiness...a Good thing.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/jarsobeef_zpsad45fb8b.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/jarsobeef_zpsad45fb8b.jpg.html)
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/jarsOBeefprocessed_zpsf83d458c.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/jarsOBeefprocessed_zpsf83d458c.jpg.html)
I got the opportunity to buy a Quarter of Beef from a friend who was selling his last two red Holsteins. His animals wonder and graze on his 5+ acre meadow in summer, and get hay and grains in the winter. After the butcher was done processing, I picked it up on tuesday and began cleaning out my freezer. I found 9 beef roasts from the last beef purchase (1/2 of a milk cow). The hamburger was great, but I recall the roasts were grissled and some were tough. Well, i wasn't going to be cooking any of these before The Beef I just brought home. I opened one of these older packages and I couldn't see any freezer burn...My 50 year old freezer without automatic defrost is set quite cold and only poorly packaged items get freezer burnt.
ANYWAY...Opportunity strikes !
Yesterday I canned the 9 roasts...27 pt jars.
first I put the meat in a 190º smoker for 20 minutes, to put a layer of smoke on them. Then cut them into jar sized pieces. Also in the Jar, I put one thick slice of Onion (quartered) and a short 1/2tsp of Beef bouillon paste. I left an inch of headspace as per the canner book, that left the jars not as full as I expected, but that was probably because of the onion. But that's OK, a full pint of roast Beef is probably more that I should have for a serving ;) Processed in a pressure canner (10lbs) for 75 min. funny it took over an hour afterward before I could open the canner and the jars were till bubbling, but not uncontrollably like they were when I snuck the lid off at the 30 minute mark.
I opened one jar from the first batch soon after it cooled down, to see if the amount of salt from the bouillon was too much for what was in the jar. Actually it was a bit light on saltiness, but lots of beefiness...a Good thing.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/jarsobeef_zpsad45fb8b.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/jarsobeef_zpsad45fb8b.jpg.html)
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/jarsOBeefprocessed_zpsf83d458c.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/jarsOBeefprocessed_zpsf83d458c.jpg.html)