How long to let meat rest? And canning ?s

[Storybook Farm]

Hi all,

We are breeders, so we end up with lots of heritage roosters to process. (This is the hard end of breeding for sure.)

Anyways, we live in a remote place where power is iffy, so we are planning to can our meat and chicken stock, not freeze it. I have the outstanding book Putting Food By and it is adamant that you handle butchering carefully. So, I have questions for other experienced canners.

1) We have always let our birds rest more than 24 hours... they seem to need it... but the book says "no more than 24 hours." What do you do?

2) We let ours rest in fairly open (grocery) bags. Should I be buying sealable bags for the resting phase?

3) Do you can bone-in or bone-out, and why?

4) Any other tips/tricks with canning? The book makes the point over and over that this is tricky business. I have a pressure canner, but am a novice, and am questioning the wisdom of canning at all. Need a confidence boost here, or a warning to not even try.

 

[Kiki]

If you don't find an answer here on BYC you may want to check out BYC's sister site:
www.sufficientself.com

 

[Storybook Farm]

Cool; thanks!

 

[B Redhawk]

These are the sites with the whole of canning protocols
http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
and https://www.extension.purdue.edu/usdacanning/

You can save the instructions as PDF or print out the parts you need.
Canning is particular but not really hard to do.

 

[BlueShadow]

Canning is a great choice for the meat and stock. Turns out so tender and flavorful! I haven't canned chicken, although I have canned stock.

I let my meat rest in the fridge until the legs move easily (rigor mortis relaxes). Usually this is 2-3 days. That is to cook the meat fresh. Its kind of a toss up for canning. The meat is so cooked, it might not matter if you do the full rest anyway. I guess you will have to choose what you want to do there.

I let mine rest in water so they do not dry out. Granted, I skin my birds at butchering so I don't have the skin to protect the meat. I think you can let them rest however you want. A large cooler filled with ice is a popular choice if you have quite a few and don't want to fill your refrigerator.

I haven't canned chicken, but I would do bone-out. A) The bones take up a lot of space and the meat wouldn't be so easy to pack so you would be using LOTS of jars with bone-in, B) I would be worried that the bones don't get hot enough during the canning process, C) I use the bones to make my stock! I wouldn't want to can them or they would no longer be good for stock.

Canning isn't really TRICKY so much as you just have to pay attention to detail. Especially with pressure canning (which is a must for meat and stock). Things like everything has to be hot, pre-heating the canner, waiting until it gets to a certain pressure, leaving it at that pressure for a specific time, waiting for it to cool, etc. You just have to do it in the right order and pay attention to the details or you don't end up with a product that keeps on the shelf. The first time you do it, it will take awhile because you will keep flipping back and forth the pages of your book, to make sure that you have caught all the details. After you have done it a few times and are more familiar with the details, it will go LOTS faster.

You could practice pressure canning something else first to learn most of the details. Do you have lots of green beans in the garden? They are pretty easy to can

I would recommend the Ball Blue Book as a canning resource. I know it has instructions for canning stock, I think it has meat as well. It has lots of pictures and details so its good for a beginner (its what I used starting out, and still my favorite). You usually can find it at any store that sells canning supplies (especially the farm stores, not so much the grocery stores) and its only $6 or $7.

 

[Maeschak]

I raw pack pressure can most of my chicken instead of freezing. One of the best parts about pressure canning chicken is that you do not have to rest the chicken before processing.
I simply butcher my chickens, bring them inside, and start cutting meat off the bone immediately. (And FYI cutting raw chicken meat off the bone is not the easiest job... it stinks really- particularly the drum sticks).
As I cut the meat off the bones I place it directly into pint jars for canning. I tend to add 2TB of water or stock to each pint but most people do not do that as the chicken miraculously makes its own stock! I also add 1/2tsp of salt. Then just place the jars into the pressure canner and start canning! (I fit about 14oz of chicken meat into a pint jar). I do not cut the chicken up in any particular way as raw packing will not allow the meat to hold its shape. If you want the meat to hold its shape like cubes or whatnot, it is best to cook it before canning but that is just too much trouble for me.
Then once all of the meat is pressure canned I throw the carcasses into the pressure canner/cooker and pressure cook the carcasses for an hour or two to make my stock. Then the next morning I pressure can the stock.

 

[Maeschak]

PS- these are the recipes/instructions I use:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_05/chicken_rabbit.html
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_05/stock_broth.html (except I cook the carcasses in my pressure cooker- much much quicker than stock pot).

 

[NanaKat]

I follow those guidelines too. I debone and put breast and thigh meat in the jars. For broth I add some celery, onion, bell pepper to the pot. I have pressure cooked the bones and also used the stock pot.
I render the fat and freeze it for use it in cooking and soap.
For the freezer....wings and drumsticks, I package for Hot Wings and roasted drums sticks. Livers are packaged separate but I put gizzards and hearts in together.

 

[Rebecky54]

Hi! I started canning chicken a few years ago when my freezer was full, and I will never freeze chickens again! I skin my chickens because it's so much easier and canned skin is not pleasant to me, but a friend will only can with the skin on because she believes it adds flavor.

I do not rest my birds because I don't have the refrigerator space and the meat is very tender after canning. Be aware, though, it separates in strings just as the muscle grows so it looks stringy but it is not tough stringy. (Hope that makes sense). Since we live 20 miles from town, it's our fast food! Open a jar and you have creamed chicken, chicken fajitas, chicken pot pie, etc. I can with the bones in using quart jars and one chicken will just about fill the jar, but it depends on the breed and butchering age. You must de-bone the breasts due to size, so last year I froze them and only canned the dark meat. I do not can the backs, but cook to make stock and then can the stock.

I have had trouble getting the level of stock that the chicken makes just right. I have not added stock because I didn't want the jars to overflow. If you don't cram the chicken into the jar, you will have chicken above the stock level. Although it's safe to eat, it doesn't look very appetizing. This year, I am going to add a little stock to each jar and a chicken bouillon cube instead of salt. I like the idea of veges for flavor!

I had never canned much (only tomatoes) until I started canning chicken. And as stated above, it's not hard, but follow the instructions to the letter and you will be successful.

We are out of canned chicken now, so I can't wait to butcher and can.

Good luck,

Becky in NoDak