Unusual Canning Method (chicken)

While I was sick and home watching YouTube videos of cooking in other countries I started to come across a few things I know you won’t find in the Ball Blue Book. Wait till you see this!! And no need to buy new jar lids every time either from what I can tell...


Comments

  • monica197
    monica197 Posts: 332 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The only safe way to can meat is in a pressure canner - it has to do with the temperature being able to raise past that which botulism can survive. This cannot be accomplished in a water bath canner, no matter how many hours you do it for, because the temp cannot get that high water bathing. I would really caution against this - water bathing meat for shelf storage.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    I'm in agreement with @monica197. A pressure canner is the only way to do meat.

    If you were going to follow the instructions given in this video, I can see several flaws. For one, the pot isn't big enough for the size of the jars. It needs to be deep enough that the water covers the jars by at least an inch for a water bath. For such an extended cooking time, you would have to add more water through out the boiling time to keep the level high enough. Water bath canning (for anything) is supposed to be done at high heat with the water at a continuous boil, not at a simmer as demonstrated. The centre of the jar just won't get hot enough for long enough. Also, the pot has a rounded bottom, which could cause the jars to bang into each other and crack during the canning process. These lids shown are not proper canning lids for preserving meat. I have seen them used for pickles and fruit done in a water bath but not meat and not in a pressure canner. While you might be able to sometimes reuse lids for canning fruit or pickles, lids used for canning meat should never be re-used.

    If for some reason, in an emergency situation, you didn't have a pressure canner and you had no other way to preserve meat, you could try to do a water bath but I would find an older canning book with instructions. I believe a minimum of 4 hours at a hard boil is required. And I would use proper lids.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    She boils it for 5 or 6 hours. I just find it interesting that people in other countries are doing this. And they they’re not all dropping dead. So I feel like there’s more to the story.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The seasonings look good but I would definitely only use pressure canning methods. Don't want to make my family sick or worse.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    I would suggest, if anyone tries water bath canning for meat, that you open one of the jars immediately after processing and stick a thermometer into the centre of the meat in the jar. If it registers above 250F, then it might be safe enough to store for an extended period of time. A temp of 250F is required to kill botulism spores.

    Perhaps the addition of vinegar as done in the video is helping to acidify the contents but its not much vinegar for all that meat. But I think if you added enough vinegar to make it safe, you would wind up with pickled meat. :)

    I'm going to attach a PDF here of a document from the USDA from 1963 that is a revised edition of the publication from 1958. So even 60 years ago, they were recommending that only pressure canners be used for meat. Its an interesting document in that it has instructions for the glass canning lids that have separate rubber bands as well a tins.

    Does anyone use tins for canning?

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Just for reference (and a bit of historical perspective), here is a similar publication on fruits and veggies.

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,290 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Megan Venturella thanks for bringing this to our attention. @torey thank you for the other information as well.

  • monica197
    monica197 Posts: 332 ✭✭✭✭✭

    https://nchfp.uga.edu

    This is a site that I refer to quite a bit for safety in preservation.

    @Megan Venturella People may be getting sick from using these methods and we just are not aware of it, you know? The thing is that the temp needs to be above a certain level to kill the botulism. If that does not happen then the spores begins to develop. I think that if I was in a dire situation, before I canned meat in this way, I would dehydrate it. Since the video recommends such a long cook time, running a dehydrator would be similar in energy consumption. Actually, dehydrating in a sun over would be really good come to think of it.