Just butchered some Got a Question

[Chicken411]

Quote:
So you need a pressure canner? What is hot packing?

Thanks

 

[NurseNettie]

Time to get a Ball Blue Book , go to the library for a good canning book, and do some online reading.

YES! You need a pressure canner for any non-acid food. Water bath canning will not heat your food higher than 212 degrees. In order to kill bacteria that causes botulism, you need to heat to 240 degrees.

Hot packing is a process in which you pack clean, hot,sterile jars with hot,cooked food--and then process (again--time to read and research so you knowwhat you need to do)

Lots of good threads with links here , and on the sister site sufficientself.com where you can start your canning-learning.

It's great fun, a super way to put up your own food, and you cannot beat homemade!

Quote:
So you need a pressure canner? What is hot packing?

Thanks

 

[Chicken411]

Quote:
So you need a pressure canner? What is hot packing?

Thanks

Thanks for the advice. Guess I better get cracking!

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

Good job!!!

 

[bnentrup]

Not to put down canning, since we do can some things.. but FREEZING is still a bit easier if you ask me. We boil down our stock, and then freeze in ice cube trays (try to flash freeze). After they turn to ice cubes, we dump em in a zip lock and zip out the air.

I have converted MOST of what we can to freezing due to simplicity. Yes, canning will preserve longer than freezing, but the way I look at it is that by the time you have used all your stock, you are ready to harvest a few more birds.

A side note; we have also started freezing our tomatoes (cut in half). We do the same process with those and have cut our preservation in half.

The downside? If your power goes out for a period of time, your work is in vein!

 

[petrelline]

Yeah, I freeze all my stock rather than can it. I water-bath can a whole bunch of high-acid stuff (jam, pickles, tomatoes, peaches, etc) but I've never found a real need to buy a pressure canner.

A full chest freezer should stay frozen a number of days when the power goes out. If this happens to you frequently you should really consider a generator. Our power goes down for 3-4 days about every other year, but we have a generator to top off the fridge and the freezer (and run computers during the day).

 

[tommboy1973]

We just butchered the first two of our meaties, and hubby just skinned the whole bird like he does with pheasant. We don't eat the skin anyways, and it saved us scalding and plucking mess. We did not waste any meat that way but it was way faster than plucking.

 

[Chicken411]

Freezing is probably a great way to store things as well and is what I have used for green beans in the past. I am running out of freezer space though and can borrow a pressure canner from the in-laws, so will probably do my stock that way because I have plenty of shelf space. Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[sassychickengirl]

Freezing is a great way to preserve, but canning is much more convenient and you don't have to worry about power outages ruining your food.

I love going to my food storage and grabbing a jar or two of something to use. Even better when I can gather an entire meals worth of ingredients.

It's a lot of work, but so worth it to me and my family. I really like to make stock from the chicken or turkey carcass, then pick off all the meat. There's at least a quart's worth of meat in those presumably useless bones

That's one of the reasons I've wanted to raise my own birds. I can a lot of chicken and would rather can what I've raised.

 

[burntmuch]

So when you guys talk about stock. You,re talking about broth or soup base. Very interested. I started with the chickens to have food canned or in the freezer. Thanks for all the input.