Back in the (Canning) Saddle!

Canning again!! What with one thing and another (buying and renovating a house, moving, a week-long stay in the hospital -- all in a matter of about 6 months!), I haven't done much canning -- or writing, for that matter. But I'm back in the saddle, with a couple of cases of cubed pork (pressure canned, of course), and strawberry jam under my belt. It's really nice to be back in the canning biz!! Took a good, hard look at our food storage today, and set a goal to can a case of meat, plus whatever fruit happens to be in season, each week, for the next while. (This will work great, so long as I can find something we use on sale -- this week, it's pork sirloin (aka tri-tip), which I picked up for $1.19 a pound. Guess the $.99 days are gone for good. Sigh.) So far, I'm ahead -- the third batch of cubed pork is in process now. Unfortunately, only 6 of the last 10 sealed. I think that's because I started with the heat too high, and ended up turning it down too quickly. So this batch I'll start a little lower. Contrary to popular advice, I also have a lot of trouble getting things to seal if I turn the heat down periodically during the whole processing time. So I'll adjust it a few times, then let it go. I've done some raw packing, which is wonderfully convenient, but the results always taste like tuna to us. Ham and corned beef, on the other hand, do not. So, operating on the theory that pre-cooking the meat will take the edge off that flavor, I elected to cook the pork before canning it. The first batch became pork "burger" -- through the grinder, then browned and canned in stock. That proved to be a lot of work, so I just cubed the next batch, browned it and simmered it until the pieces had shrunk and felt a little tough against the spoon. I cut the third batch into smaller cubes, browned it and simmered it with some garlic. I've gotten into pickling foods the old fashioned way -- in a salt brine --, and so used some of the garlic from a recent batch. Pork has such an affinity for garlic! The stock tasted great; hope the pork will too, when it comes out of the canner. Any of these options will provide a quick & easy way to get dinner on the table, as well as building up our food storage. Nothing lasts forever -- not even homemade jam. So the bottles from 2008, and maybe even 2009, aren't long for this world. Now that I've learned how we tend to use them, I can plan more effectively -- which means we shouldn't end up with jars and jars of brown apricot jam a few years from now... So this is shaping up to be a busy summer, but hopefully a productive one.