How Long is Canned Venison Good?

Good Question.  The pat answer is a year or so.  But wait that is about the same as freezing.

That’s because no one will go out on a limb in case there is a problem.

First, the quality of the canning job and the canning materials will determine your outcome.  If you did a good job prepping and preparing the product it will last a long time.  In my case I have, with the appropriate disclaimers for this is an example not true in every case, eaten four year old canned elk.  It was excellent.

You have to pay attention to your canned products to tell if there is a problem.  If the lid is not concave and does not make the sucking noise when you open it, the food is spoiled.  Unless you find this problem right out of the canner, that food is garbage, no exceptions.  If the food has the smell of rotten meat, in the case of canned meat, it is garbage.  If there is mold growing on the food, it is garbage. 

I do have to say canned meat will turn dark, and the fat separates and will collect on the top of the meat.  This is normal.  The process of cooking kills the germs in the jar.  It drives out the air in the jar through the boiling process.  As the jar cools it seals and there is now a vacuum in the jar.  No air.  For most contaminants, this process eliminates the possibility of spoilage as long as the seal holds.  It is important that the jar be stored in a cool dry place for this to remain true, however. 

The process of canning is designed to eliminate the causes of spoilage, and allow the canned food to last a long time.  If a step in the process is done wrong, the results can be more than inconvenient.  Some bacteria can’t be smelled or tasted.  They don’t off gas so they don’t cause the vacuum to disappear.  These bacteria are anaerobic or non air dependent.  They are killed by the cooking process.  So it is critical that the process be done right.  If you are in doubt about the food, don’t take a chance.  If you are brave, try a small sample.  It will take hours to be sure of the foods safety.  Don’t serve food you are unsure about to a crowd and especially not to the very young or elderly.  The effects of a small amount of food poisoning can be fatal in small quantites to the weak.

If you are diligent and thorough you can be confident that the food is good as long as the good indicators I mentioned are present.  You should also be aware of rusty lids as these can be a source of bacteria infiltrating the jar and ruining a good thing.

As always look around at other sources and don’t take any chances.

Brutus

Fowl Game Birds

This is not a problem with all game birds but some are downright fowl to cook.  Let’s talk Grouse for example.  We hunt Ruffed and Blue Grouse here.  They are decent sized birds.  About chicken sized, but when you go to cook them it smells like you through the guts in the pot and the meat in the garbage.  If you can get through that smell the end result is pretty tasty but it does have a residual ‘gamey’ flavor.

I started changing how I cooked these because of this problem.  If you have a similar problem with the game bird your harvesting you might give it a try.  The first thing I did was bone out all the meat.  Here in lies most of the problem with both the smell and the taste.  Game birds are no different than any other meat, a lot of flavor comes from the bone, in this case the putrid and fowl odor and taste.  We have to wait until we get home because of regulations here about keeping identifiable parts attached to the bird, but before they go to the freezer, they get de-boned.  What a difference this alone makes in the atmosphere at dinner time.

The second thing I did, was I canned the bird meat.  At first since step one and two were on the same batch of birds I thought it was the canning that did the trick.  No, but the results of canning did make using the birds in a dish of our choice later easier than just freezing them.  One advantage is that game birds are not like chicken from the store, they have led a hard life and have the toughness to prove it.  By canning the birds they were tender and ready for gulosh or dumplings right out of the jar.  Secondly since these can be a bit smaller than a chicken and quail are even smaller, you can wait for a full batch without fear of freezer burn. 

Now I don’t hear the whining and complaining about birds for dinner.   I even cooked a batch for dinner with our daughter and her friends (yeah teenage) without a single turned up nose.  They had seconds too.  Okay, I guess that would be a downside, sometimes a little strategic stink can be useful.  Hope this is useful to you.

Happy hunting,

Brutus

Fried Canned Venison or Hash

You can substitute Bear or Elk for Venison.

As with any process, desirable or undesirable, there is more than one way to do it.  This is meant to be a starting point.  When I go to cook a dish, I will  do it different from one time to another.

First I take a jar of canned meat and drain the juice in a bowl.  I keep it for another dish.  The juice is a great base for gravies or soups. 

I put the meat in a frying pan with oil or butter. 

I start by cooking on medium heat and I use a fork to break up the meat and turn it so that it gets hot on all sides.

As the meat gets coated in the oil and gets warm I sprinkle some flour across the meat.  Continuing to turn and coat the meat with flour I continue heating until the flour turns brown and the meat takes on an almost crunchy character.

Its ready to serve at this point and can be used in a gravy on noodles or in a sandwich.  The meat prepared this way is very versatile.  Typically canned meat will have plenty of salt already in it but you may find pepper, garlic, or other spices you like useful in this dish.

Though this is a simple preparation the flavor is outstanding.  Mostly because of the wonderful flavor of the meat.  Game meat, if it is properly cared for, has much more flavor than the domestic cuts we are familiar with.  I hope you get the chance to try some of this great food.

Brutus

Canned Venison

You can substitute elk  or bear meat for venison in this post.

Canning is, first of all, a great way to preserve game meat.  It lasts for a long time in a cool place. I can the meat many people use for ground meat.  The canning process makes even the most cantankerous piece of 50 year old buck meat (yeah, a little exaggeration) into a tender morsel that doesn’t take three breaks to finally finish chewing.

Canning is a great option to consider for the trim meat on your game animal.  You have to make sure you are thorough about processing the meat when canning.  If you use canning jars, new lids, make sure everything is good an clean, cook the meat thoroughly, and make sure the lids sealed properly after cooking.  You should use a recipe for canning meat and follow the directions that come with your canner.

Canning meat takes about as  long to process as any food you would want to can.

Standard procedures should be followed for cleaning and otherwise preparing the jars and the lids.  I can’t stress  enough the importance of being diligent in this process. 

It can be done with cooked or raw meat.  Raw meat will not need any water or other liquid added to the jar. This is a matter of your experience. If the meat is quite lean a little water added over the meat may be in order. Hot pack or precooked meat does need some liquid added over the meat.

The meat should be cut into chunks no larger than 3/4 of an inch in size.  It is recommended that a pint jar have 1/2 a teaspoon of salt added and that a quart have 1 teaspoon of salt added.

The meat should be packed in the jars with about an inch of headspace.

Pints should be cooked at pressure for 75 minutes and Quarts for 90 minutes.  For raw pack meat I go a little longer than this, mostly for my own piece of mind.  The pressure is suggested to be 11 pounds at 1000 feet of elevation or less on dial gauge canner.  If you have a weighted gauge canner, 15 pounds will do fine.  According to the Prestowebsite that will be good up to 8000 feet at the above times.  The extra pressure doesn’t hurt anything but you do want to make sure you don’t overpressurize the canner, as they can be damaged.  You don’t want to go too much over the times listed as the fluid made by the cooking meat in the jars will be boiled out if you go too long.

The directions and procedures in the directions of your canner or on the website of the manufacturer are worth following.  With these directions you can have the best meals and all the confidence that your food is as safe as it can be.

I like canned meat better than anything else I get out of the animal, except tenderloins.  Backstrap is a close second.  Backwards, I know.

Here’s to the pursuit,

Enjoy yours

Brutus

It’s that time of year again

Hunting season is in full gear in this part of the country. That would be Oregon in case such details matter to you.  I’m in that part of the state where we have small mountains and big hills, so going after the big one can involve diving off into a deep hole or making a long hike up a steep hill back to your starting point after a long hunt.

Actually much of the forest has logging roads providing decent access to most of the good hunting areas.  We do have some nasty holes to contend with, however.

Let me make it clear that I am not a great hunter.  I’m just OK.  I am perfectly happy to get any decent buck these days.  A lack of time to do extensive scouting and a lack of energy to hike for days at a time leaves me at a disadvantage against a wise old trophy buck in the great outdoors.  The hunting however is still quite fun.  For those who haven’t done it or don’t get it, its like no other pursuit. 

There are some bummers we have to deal with though.  I had the displeasure of reporting a poacher on the second day of season.  Later that day the buck our party was putting a move on got away from us and was shot by a road hunter. 

It was in an area with roads nearby and since it is close to town a lot of people were out driving around looking for deer.  We normally go farther away from town but with such high gas prices we decided to conserve our dollars and join the crowd.  OOOps.

All was not lost however.  My son went out with a friend the next weekend and got a three point.  Yes on the west coast we only count the points on one side and we don’t count the eye guards.  Anyway it was a nice little buck and he was quite happy, until the work of dressing it started.  In the end he was still excited, but a little worn out.

I hope to get one of my own this year too.  A little luck and keep the road hunters from beating me to the punch and I’ll have my shot.  The best part is the meat.  Wild game of all kinds is the best meal there is.  Steaks and especially canned meat.  I’ll post a recipe or two I like to use for canned game meat.  It is the best thing in the whole big world.

Anyway, best to you in your pursuits.

Brutus