Favorite "meal in a jar" canning recipes

[Zenmonkey]

Good call @CatInTheHenHouse

To up the stock game a bit more.
1. Don't add any salt. This is best done at the last stages.
2. Brown the scraps (including bones) under the broiler or at 450F (I think that's s about 210C) for 45 minutes, or until the smoke detector goes off.
Cook those scraps down with a carrot or two and a stick of celery and onion, all diced.

Then cook out down to half it's volume to reduce storage space. You can dilute it and add salt when ready to use.

Meals in a jar, vegetable stew is good. Cube and seat your favorite meats, cube up some tastes and veggies.

https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=easy-beef-stew-pressure-canning

This is a pretty detailed explanation.

 

[Bsmac]

Can you give some more info? What size potatoes, or do you cut into chunks? Red, white? Any seasonings? Pints/quarts?

How long do you pressure can them?

You can just put small ones in whole and cut larger ones into bite sized chunks. We don`t peel them. Just use a bit of salt, garlic powder, onion powder or a little parsley. What ever you like! We use quart jars, they work well! If i`m not mistaken my wife looked up the process time on the canner manufacturer`s web site. Can some beef too and put the two together warm them up instant dinner! Very good!

 

[Zenmonkey]

I generally don't use anything except quart jars in the pressure cooker. Especially when you're aiming for a meal in a jar, a pint is good for a person, a quart is fewer jars to handle and process.

I lean towards salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper for 90% of my cooking. I prefer the larger bits of granulated onion/ garlic when I find it at the grocery, and I buy it in the largest containers they've got. Granulated vs powdered, that is.

The exact seasoning is up to your tastes, and it is reasonable to do every batch a little different so you're not eating 40 jars of exactly the same thing.

You cash take a different approach and make the potatoes to order, allowing for more diversity in your starch, and more room for protein in your jar. That way maybe you get 3-4 meals out of a jar, because the jar is just your protein, and you're adding the starch and the vegetable ad hoc.

It depends on how much prep work you want to do, how much convenience you're looking to squeeze out of this process, and how many people you need to feed.

If it's just you and your spouse, take a trip through the grocery store frozen food aisle. Nearly every "meal in a bag" item that you see on the shelves can be reimagined to be precooked into a jar, stored on a shelf, and ready to reheat and serve.

If you see chicken thighs with rice and asparagus in the store, you can pack two chicken thighs, some asparagus spears, and some uncooked rice into jars. Sear the chicken thighs first to brown them a little. Then deglaze the skillet with water or cooking wine or whatever suits you. Put that deglazed material in the jar, and your rice will soak it up as it cooks. Use the blue ball caning book and follow whatever it says for chicken. Use chicken thigh or breast if it gives multiple settings.

A meal that is canned and shelf stored will have a different texture and flavor to the same thing frozen fresh and cooked to order. But the canned material lasts longer and freezer space is expensive and limited compared to shelf space.

 

[Zenmonkey]

Oh, and the size to cut to? Personal preference for the most part. You don't have to cut it at all except to fit in the jar. Proteins generally shrink up as they cook, so I think most people tend to cut things a bit smaller than they need to. One inch cubes are pretty good for a lot of things.

Time spent cutting is time not spent with loved ones or watching the sunset, so try not to over think it too much.