How to Pressure Can Ground Beef Two Ways

Preserving food is a great way to ensure you always have food available to you. When you preserve food you make it shelf stable and it can last for years. No more worrying about freezers failing or food going to waste. Lets learn how to easily pressure can ground beef in two ways.

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How to Pressure Can Ground Beef Two Ways

I put off pressure canning meat for the longest time because it seemed so daunting to me. Come to find out it’s actually pretty easy. The hardest part is the amount of time it takes to process it.

Admittedly, I’m not an expert canner – I only just got my pressure canner just shy of a year ago. But it has been so much fun learning how to can and put food up on the shelf.

Canning food is a great way to ensure you always have food available to you. Canning meat allows freedom from the freezer, especially if you often have power outages like we do.

We once had an entire freezer thaw thanks to an outage that shorted the computer in our freezer. All the meat thawed and lost hundreds of dollars.

Thanks to learning how to pressure can meat, and a new freezer without the digital computer, we are much more confident in keeping our meat edible.

What To Know About Canning Meat

When canning meat, the only way you can safely can it is by pressure canning.

Pressure canning is used for low acid foods. Meat, soups, broth, most vegetables are low acid therefore requiring pressure canning to be heated to a high enough temperature to allow for safe canning.

If you are in the market for a pressure canner, this is the one I have. It is highly recommended for beginners and it is very easy to use. Always read the manual before using and be sure to follow every direction.

Another great option is an All American canner. This is a great option but it is on the pricier side. However, this is a canner that will last a lifetime and can be passed down to your children. I will be investing in one myself in the future.

Two Ways to Pressure Can Ground Beef

When you are canning meat, there are two ways to can it – Raw Pack and Hot Pack.

Brief explanation with the recipe to follow.

Raw Pack is the process of filling jars with raw meat, an inch of water, and some salt. As you pressure can the jars the meat will create its own juice so no need to add water.

Hot Pack is the process of browning the ground beef, draining the grease, adding to a pint or quart jar, adding some salt. Then you fill with boiling water or broth leaving a one inch headspace.

Your pressure canners manual should give you directions on how to can almost everything. Please be sure to read through your manual before canning.

How to Hot Pack Ground Beef

Remember hot packing is canning already cooked meat. Here is what I did:

I started by thawing out 10 pounds of ground beef. I then browned all 10 pounds until it was brown. I made sure to cook it just long enough to turn brown because it would cook a bit more in the canner.

I started out by putting all 10 pounds in one pot and that was a mistake – it would have taken forever to brown all of it so I separated it into two pots.

When the meat was browned, I drained it and filled 6 quart jars being sure to leave a 1 inch headspace. It is also optional to add a teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon for pints, purely for flavor.

Once all the jars were filled, I poured in boiling water, again leaving a 1 inch headspace. You could also use broth or sauce.

Then wiped the rims, removed any air bubbles, and placed the lids and rings on tightening until finger tight.

When filling the canner…

It is important that you don’t allow your canner to get too hot before adding the filled jars in. If the jars are cooler but the water is hot, you will end up with cracked or broken jars.

Be sure to allow the jars and canner heat up together. It does take a bit of time but it will spare you wasted food.

Add the jars to the canner and secure the lid, turn heat to medium and allow canner to heat and pressure to build. Refer to your owners manual and altitude for correct pressure.

For where I live I used 11 pounds of pressure.

Processing times for pints is 75 minutes and 90 minutes for quarts.

When the time is up, turn off heat and allow pressure to come down naturally. Do not remove lid until all pressure is down. Basically I turn the heat off and give a good half hour or more to let the pressure come down. Again refer to your owners manual for proper steps.

Once the pressure has come down naturally and it is safe to remove the lid, do so and carefully remove the jars and placing on a towel. Allow them to cool for 12-24 hours, then remove rings, wash them and store away.

How To Use Ground Beef

When you are ready to use your ground beef, simply dump it into a pan and heat up – be sure to drain the liquid or you will have some runny meat.

With the meat already cooked all you have to do is heat it through and add seasonings. This makes taco nights super simple! You can also add to spaghetti sauce to make a mighty meat sauce, or make a simple ground beef stroganoff.

I used my first jar to make a tasty cheesy ground beef and green beans dish.

With already cooked meat readily available to you right on your shelf, homecooked meals can happen every night in 15 minutes.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe!

Until next time,