Ground Meat
For grinding, start with fresh, clean, cold meat. Use small pieces of meat from less tender cuts.
Never mix leftover scraps with fresh meat. Don’t use lumps of fat.
If desired, add 1 level teaspoon of salt per pound of ground meat. Mix well.
Hot pack
Shape ground meat into fairly thin patties that can be packed into jars or cans without breaking.
Precook patties in slow oven (325° F.) until medium done. (When cut at center, patties show almost no red color.) Skim fat off drippings; do not use fat in canning.
Glass jars.—Pack patties, leaving 1 inch of space above meat. Cover with boiling meat juice to 1 inch of top of jars. Adjust jar lids. Process in a pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure (240° F.)—
| Pint jars | 75 minutes |
| Quart jars | 90 minutes |
Tin cans.—Pack patties to ½ inch of top of cans. Cover with boiling meat juice to fill cans to top; seal.
Process in a pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure (240° F.)—
| No. 2 cans | 65 minutes |
| No. 2½ cans | 90 minutes |
Raw pack
Raw pack is suitable for tin cans. Ground meat canned in bulk is difficult to get out of jars.
Tin cans.—Pack raw ground meat solidly to the top of the can. To exhaust air, cook meat at slow boil to 170° F., or until medium done (about 75 minutes). (See [p. 9].) Press meat down into cans ½ inch below rim. Seal. Process in a pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure (240° F.)—
| No. 2 cans | 100 minutes |
| No. 2½ cans | 135 minutes |