CHAPTER VII

MEAT

Canned meat adds variety to the diet in the winter-time and makes a pleasant change from the cured and smoked meats. You put meat into jars in the raw state and extend the sterilizing period or you can cook the meat partially or completely and then sterilize for a shorter period of time. Of course a reliable method of canning meat must be used, such as the cold-pack process, where the sterilizing is done in the tin or jar in either boiling water or steam under pressure. We usually recommend the partial cooking, roasting or boiling of the meat before canning especially for beginners. If you are a beginner in the business of cold-pack canning then by all means cook the meat before putting it in cans. If you have canned peas, beans and corn successfully for years then you are ready for all kinds of raw meat canning.

To save criticism of the cold-pack method of canning meat and to guard against any danger from eating poorly prepared and improperly sterilized meat we do not urge beginners to experiment with meat, although the meat can be safely canned by any one whether new at the canning game or a veteran in it if directions are carefully followed. But it is the big "If" that we have to watch.

Many farmers and farmerettes are canning meats of all kinds all over the country and there is never a can lost. We need more meat canning done at home and you can do it if you will practice cleanliness in all your work and follow directions.

The fear of getting botulinus bacteria from eating canned meat is just a "bug-a-boo." It should be clearly understood that botulism is one of the very rare maladies. The chances for getting it by eating canned goods, say the experts, is rather less than the chances from dying of lockjaw every time you scratch your finger. To regard every can as a source of botulism is worse than regarding every dog as a source of hydrophobia. Moreover, for the very timid, there is the comforting certainty that the exceedingly slight danger is completely eliminated by re-cooking the canned food for a short time before eating it.

There are always a few cases of illness traceable to bad food, not only to canned food but to spoiled meats, fish, bad milk, oysters and a number of things. There are also cases of injury and death by street accidents, but we do not for that reason stop using the streets. If you put good meat into the can and do your canning right then you will have good results. Never put into a can meat that is about ready to spoil, thinking thereby to "save it."

If you want to be absolutely sure, even if the jar of meat seems perfectly fresh when it is opened, you can re-cook the meat, thus insuring yourself against any possibility of botulinus poisoning. So you see, there is nothing at all alarming about that frightful sounding word "botulinus." Using fresh products, doing the canning properly and reheating before serving eliminates all danger.

For canning meat, tin cans are in most respects superior to glass, as they eliminate all danger of breakage, preserve the meat just as well as glass, and by excluding the light prevent any change of color. If you use glass jars be sure to get the best brand of jar rubbers on the market. This is very important.

If, as I have said, you are a beginner—cook the meat first by frying, roasting, broiling, baking or stewing—just as you would prepare it for immediate use. The meat is usually seasoned according to taste and is cooked until thoroughly heated through, before putting in the cans. Do not cook until tender as that will be too long with the additional sterilizing. If too tender it will fall apart and be unappetizing although perfectly good. See that nothing is wasted in the canning. If you are canning a young steer or a calf you would go about it as follows:

Select the meat that you would ordinarily want. Slice the meat wanted for steak. What is not suited for either of these can be used for stews, or be put through the meat grinder and made into sausage meat, formed into little cakes, fried and canned. What meat is left clinging to all bones will be utilized when the bones are boiled for soup stock. The sinews, the head and the feet, after being cleaned may be used for soup stock also.

The liver should be soaked in water, the coarse veins cut out and the liver skinned and prepared any way that is desired before canning it or it may be made into liver sausage. The heart can be used for goulash. The kidneys should be soaked in salt water, split open and the little sack removed; then they can be either stewed or fried and then canned. The sweetbreads may be prepared in various ways and then canned.

The brain is soaked in water to remove the blood, and the membrane enclosing it is removed. It can be fried or prepared in any favorite way and then canned. The ox tail is used for soup. The tongue is soaked in water, scrubbed, cleaned, salted, boiled, skinned and packed in cans with some soup stock added.

If you do not care to use the head for soup stock and if it comes from a young animal, split it open and soak in cold water. Use a brush and scrub thoroughly. Remove the eyes and mucous membrane of the nostrils and then boil it. After it is boiled, remove all meat and make a mock turtle stew or ragout. Prepare the tripe as for table use and then can.

After the soup stock is made and the bones are cracked for a second cooking, the bones need not be thrown away. You can dry them, run them through a bone crusher and either feed them to the chickens or use them for fertilizer. In this way not a particle of the dressed animal is wasted.

Here are a few ways to utilize the cuts that are really "left-overs."

GOULASH

2 Pounds of meat scraps which can consist of beef, veal or pork.
2 Ounces of any fat.
2 Onions chopped fine.
1 Stalk celery, cut in small pieces.
2 Carrots.
2 Cups tomatoes either canned or fresh.
1 Bay leaf.
6 Whole cloves.
6 Peppercorns.
1 Blade mace or a little thyme or both.
A little flour.
1 Tablespoonful chopped parsley.
Salt and paprika to taste.

Cut the meat into one inch squares and roll in flour. Melt the fat in the frying pan, add the vegetables (onions, celery, carrots) and brown lightly: add the meat and brown. Stir with a spoon or fork to prevent burning. When browned empty into a pan.

Put the bay leaf, cloves, peppercorns, mace and thyme into a cheesecloth bag and add to the meat, add tomatoes. Cover with soup stock or water and simmer 45 minutes if it is going to be canned. If for immediate use, 2 hours will be necessary to thoroughly cook it.

Remove the spices, season with salt, paprika and the chopped parsley. You can add Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce if desired. Use only small quantities as these sauces are very strong in their distinctive flavor. Put hot mixture into cans and sterilize.

If the different spices are not at hand a good goulash can be made by using the meat, fat, onions, tomatoes, flour, salt and pepper and omitting the rest of the recipe.

LIVER SAUSAGE

Beef, veal, or hog liver. Remove the membrane and cut away the large blood vessels. Soak in water 1 to 2 hours to draw out blood. Boil until done. When cooled put through a food chopper or grate finely. Take half as much boiled fat pork as liver. Divide this fat into two portions; chop one portion into one-quarter inch cubes; pass the other portion through the food chopper; mix all together thoroughly; add salt, ground cloves, pepper, and a little grated onion to taste. A little thyme and marjoram may be added to suit taste. (For a liver weighing 1½ pounds add ¾ pounds fat pork, 3 to 4 teaspoonfuls salt, ½ teaspoonful cloves, ½ teaspoonful pepper, 1 small onion, ¼ teaspoonful thyme, and pinch of marjoram.) This mixture is stuffed into large casings. (If no casings are available, make casings of clean white muslin.) Cover with boiling water, bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes. Pack into cans, fill in with the water in which the sausages were boiled. Sterilize.

This liver sausage may also be made from the raw liver and raw pork, but in that case the sterilizing is for a longer period, as the time-table indicates. This recipe is recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture.

HEAD CHEESE

Cut a hog's head into four pieces. Remove the brains, ears, skin, snout and eyes. Cut off the fattest parts for lard. Put the lean and bony parts to soak over night in cold water in order to extract the blood and dirt. When the head is cleaned put it over the fire to boil, using water enough to cover it. Boil until the meat separates readily from the bones. Then remove it from the fire and pick out all the bones. Drain off the liquor, saving a part of it for future use. Chop the meat up finely with a chopping knife. Return it to the kettle and pour on enough of the liquor to cover the meat. Let it boil slowly for fifteen minutes to a half-hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper just before removing it from the fire. Bay leaves, a little ground cloves and allspice may be added and boiled a short time in the soup. Pack while hot in cans to within ½ inch of top. Sterilize. This head cheese is always served cold.

CORNED BEEF

After beef has been properly corned for three weeks, remove the meat from the brine. Soak for two hours in clear water, changing water once. Place in a wire basket and boil slowly for half an hour. Remove from the boiling water, plunge into cold water, and remove gristle, bone and excessive fat. Cut into small pieces and pack closely into cans. Add no salt and proceed as in other canning.

CANNED PORK

After the animal has been killed, cool quickly and keep the pork cool for at least 24 hours. Can only lean portions, using the fat to make lard. Place meat in a wire basket or cheesecloth and boil 30 minutes, or roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Cut into small sections and pack closely into cans. Add salt and proceed with remainder of process.

Other pieces of beef and pork: Hamburg steak, sausage, venison, squirrel, raccoon, opossum, lamb, are canned as follows:

After cleaning, season and fry, roast, stew, or bake in oven as though preparing for serving directly on the table. Cook until meat is about three fourths done. Pack while hot into sanitary tin cans or glass jars. Pour over the meat the hot liquids, gravies, dressings, etc., or hot water. Add salt and proceed as in any other cold-pack canning.

HOW TO CAN POULTRY AND GAME WITH THE BONES REMOVED

Kill bird and draw immediately; wash carefully and cool; then cut into convenient sections. Boil until the meat can be removed from the bones; remove from the boiling liquid and take out all bones; pack closely into glass jars or enameled cans; fill jars with the hot liquid after it has been concentrated one half; add 1 level teaspoonful salt to every quart of meat for seasoning; put rubbers and top of jars in place but not tight. If using enameled cans completely seal. Sterilize the length of time given in the [time-table on page 108] of this book. After the sterilizing remove the jars; tighten the covers if glass was used; invert to cool and test joints. Wrap with paper to prevent bleaching.

FRIED SPRING CHICKEN

After cleaning and preparing the chickens, season and fry as though for serving directly on the table. Cook until the meat is about three-fourths done. If a whole spring chicken, break the neck and both legs and fold around body of chicken. Roll up tight, tie a string around the chicken and drop this hot, partially fried product into sanitary tin cans or glass jars. A quart tin can (No. 3) will hold two to four small chickens. Pour liquid from the griddle or frying pan into the can over the chicken. Proceed, as in any other canning, with the sealing, sterilizing and removing of the jars. Chicken fries canned in the late fall preserve the meat at the most delicious stage and furthermore we avoid the expense of feeding the chickens throughout the winter.

HOW TO CAN COCKERELS

When cockerels reach the point in their growth where it is no longer profitable to feed them, and when they are wanted for home use during the winter months they should be canned. This method of handling the cockerel not only saves money by cutting down the feed bill, but it places in the pantry or cellar the means of a delicious chicken dinner at a time of the year when the price of poultry is high.

The bird should not be fed for at least twenty-four hours before killing. It should be killed by the approved method and picked dry. When the feathers have been removed and the pin feathers drawn the bird should be cooled rapidly. This rapid cooling after killing is essential to a good flavor in canned meat. As soon as the bird has been properly cooled it should be singed and washed carefully with a brush.

CUTTING UP AND DRAWING CHICKENS

Mr. George Farrell, a most expert canner, tells us how to go about this job of canning chicken.

In preparing the bird for canning, care should be taken in drawing it so that the contents of the digestive tract do not come in contact with the meat.

1. Remove the tops of the wings, cutting at the first joint.

2. Remove the wings.

3. Remove the foot, cutting at the knee joint.

4. Remove the leg, cutting at the hip or saddle joint.

5. Cut the removed portion of the leg into two parts at the joint.

6. Place the bird so the back of the head is toward the operator, cut through the neck bone with a sharp knife but do not cut the windpipe or gullet.

7. With the index finger separate the gullet and windpipe from the skin of the neck.

8. Cut through the skin of the neck.

9. With a pointed knife cut through the skin from the upper part of the neck, thus separated, to the wing.

10. Leave the head attached to the gullet and windpipe and loosen these from the neck down as far as the crop.

11. With a sharp pointed knife cut around the shoulder blade, pull it out of position and break it.

12. Find the white spots on the ribs and cut through the ribs on these white spots.

13. Cut back to the vent; cut around it, and loosen.

14. Begin at the crop and remove the digestive tract from the bird, pulling it back toward the vent.

15. Remove the lungs and kidneys with the point of a knife.

16. Cut off the neck close to the body.

17. Cut through the backbone at the joint or just above the diaphragm.

18. Remove the oil sack.

19. Separate the breast from the backbone by cutting through on the white spots.

20. Cut the fillet from each side of the breastbone.

21. Cut in sharp at the point of the breastbone, turning the knife and cutting away the wishbone with the meat. Bend in the bones of the breastbone.

PACKING CHICKEN

Use a one quart jar. Caution: Do not pack the giblets with the meat.

1. Have the jar hot.

2. Pack the saddle with a thigh inside.

3. Pack the breastbone with a thigh inside.

4. Pack the backbone and ribs with a leg inside.

5. Pack the legs large end downward, alongside the breastbone.

6. Pack the wings.

7. Pack the wishbone.

8. Pack the fillets.

9. Pack the neck-bone.

10. Pour on boiling water to within one inch of the top; add a level teaspoonful of salt; place the rubber and cap in position, partially seal, and sterilize for the length of time given below for the particular type of outfit used:

Water bath, home made or commercial (pint or quart jars) 1 hour

Water seal, 214° 3 hours

5 pounds steam-pressure 2 hours

10 to 15 pounds steam-pressure 1 hour

Remove jars; tighten covers; invert to cool, and test joints. Wrap jars with paper to prevent bleaching.

PIGEONS

Young pigeons. Dress pigeons, wash well, and roast for 30 minutes basting frequently. Some pieces of fat bacon put over the breasts will prevent them getting too dry.

Old pigeons. Dress, wash, and fry pigeons.

Brown some onions in the fat with the pigeons, using a pound of onions to a dozen birds. Cover with hot water after pigeons and onions are a golden brown; simmer until the meat is tender and can be removed from the bones. Add from time to time boiling water, if necessary, in order to keep the birds covered. When tender, take meat from bones. Return the meat to the liquor, salt to taste and pack while boiling into cans or jars, fill with liquor to within one-half inch of top.

All small game birds may be canned like pigeons. Blackbirds may be treated like pigeons. They make an excellent stew.

PLAIN CANNING OF TENDER COTTON-TAILS OR TWICE-SKINNED JACK-RABBITS

1. Blanch in boiling water until the meat is white.

2. Cold dip.

3. Pack tightly in sterilized jars.

4. Add boiling water and 1 teaspoonful salt to quart.

5. Adjust rubber and lid.

6. Sterilize in hot water bath for three hours.

7. Remove from bath and complete the seal.

Rabbit meat thus canned, may be served in various appetizing ways.

RABBIT SAUSAGE

For rabbit sausage and mince-meat only the backs and legs of the carcass are used, discarding the sinews.

Grind together equal parts of rabbit and fat pork (or at least ¼ fat pork). The pork may be salt pork if all salt is omitted from the mixture.

To every ten pounds of the above add 6 teaspoonfuls salt, 1 teaspoonful of pepper, 2 teaspoonfuls powdered sage. Mix thoroughly. Shape in flat cakes and fry till nicely browned. Pack tightly in jars, pour over the fat in which the sausage was fried, and sterilize.

RABBIT MINCE-MEAT

Rabbit mince-meat is used a great deal on the plains and large quantities of it are canned. The mince-meat may be made by simply substituting the rabbit meat for beef in your favorite recipe. The following is an inexpensive recipe:

1 Cup of rabbit meat which has been parboiled in salted water and drained, then chopped finely.
1 Cup chopped apple.
½ Cup finely chopped suet.
½ Cup seeded raisins.
½ Cup currants.
1 Cup molasses or syrup.
2 Tablespoonfuls sugar.
1 Tablespoon cider, lemon juice, fruit juice or vinegar.
¼ Cup chopped watermelon pickles or green tomato pickles.
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg.
1 Teaspoon of salt.
½ Teaspoon cloves, mace or other spice.

Mix together all ingredients except the meat, add the meat broth and simmer for about 1 hour. Add the meat. Pour into jars, and sterilize. Remove and seal.

STEPS IN CANNING MEAT AND GAME

For all meat, poultry or game canning the following general instructions should be kept in mind.

1. Sterilize the jars, caps and rubbers.

2. Grade the meat for size.

3. Cut up into convenient portions for cooking or canning.

4. Sauté, fry or bake, broil or stew as desired. This step can be omitted if you are an experienced canner.

5. Pack in sterilized, hot jars or tin cans.

6. Add 1 level teaspoonful salt per quart of meat for seasoning if not already seasoned.

7. If glass jars put on rubber and seal, not too tight. Seal tin cans.

8. Process in boiling water or steam under pressure.

9. Remove, completely seal the jar.

10. Invert to cool and test the joint.

11. Label and store.

If you can in tin use the enamel or lacquered cans. A slight amount of water in the bottom of the jars of prepared meat will insure quicker sterilization of the air remaining in the jar. Where meat has been stewed the liquor can be poured into the jar for filling. If you use a steam-pressure cooker outfit of course the time of cooking will be much shorter than if you use a wash-boiler or some other homemade outfit. If you cook in boiling water we call that the water-bath method.

The following data will be of interest to those who contemplate canning meat.

Hog on foot—weight 500.

Liver, heart and a part of the ribs were eaten at the time of butchering, therefore, not canned. The remainder of the ribs canned six No. 3 cans:

Ham	18, No. 3 cans
Shoulder	18, No. 3 cans
Roast	18, No. 3 cans
Sausage	26, No. 3 cans
Hash	4, No. 3 cans
Gravy (which is also called stock)	5, No. 3 cans

The sausage weighed 52 lbs. before it was canned, making 2 lbs. to the can.

There were 200 lbs. of fat for lard. After it was rendered there were 176 lbs. of lard and 20 lbs. of cracklings.

TIME-TABLE FOR CANNING MEAT, POULTRY AND GAME

TIME TO STERILIZE PRODUCTS	IF USING HOT WATER BATH OUTFIT AT212°F	IF USING WATER-SEAL OUTFIT AT214°F	IF USING STEAM PRESSURE 5POUNDS	IF USING PRESSURE COOKER 15POUNDS
PARTIALLY COOKED MEAT OFALL KINDS
Roast beef Corned beef Sweetbreads Tongue Brains Headcheese Spareribs Kidneys Sausages and other meats Rabbits Pigeon Chicken	1½ hrs.	1 hr.	40 min.	30 min.
UNCOOKED OR RAW MEAT
Beef Pork Veal and all other meats Poultry and game	3 hrs.	3 hrs.	2 hrs.	1 hr.
All meat stocks with or without vegetables and cereals	1½ hrs.	75 min.	1 hr.	40 min.

NOTE.—This time-table is for No. 2 and No. 3 tin cans or pint and quart glass jars. If larger cans or jars are used more time must be allowed for the sterilizing. If canning in tin, scratch on the can at the time of sealing the initial of the contents. For instance—S.R. means spareribs; G. means goulash; R.B. means roast beef. You can make out your list and mark accordingly.