Many years ago when I was a meat cutter, a customer started talking to me about him and his mom reminiscing about the good ole days back on their farm. He said one of the things she missed was having canned beef. He explained that in the fall they would slaughter a steer and they would can parts off the shoulder to preserve it and she wanted to make some. So I sold him a whole boneless shoulder clod which is where you get the best pot roasts.

A couple of weeks later he came back in and asked me if I wanted to try some as he had a couple of pint jars. Of course I said sure and took it home and my wife at the time, said you’re not going to eat that are you? I said I’ll give it a try and she said not me no way. It honestly didn’t look very appetizing.

So I popped a jar open and and started heating it up in a sauce pan and threw in some seasonings. It started smelling really good and my wife walks into the kitchen says what are you going to do with it? So I boiled up some Reams frozen noodles, mixed it all together and it was delicious. After I ate some, she couldn’t resist and had some too.

I started reading up on canning meat and shortly after bought my first pressure canner.

Doing this properly is just as critical as curing meat. If done properly it is perfectly safe. You must have a pressure cooker with a pressure gauge like this.

It, as my customer said, was the original fast food before micro waves. It’s like having slow cooked pot in your pantry anytime you want. You can make as many meals as your imagination can come with. My favorite is to make it up like sausage gravy and have it over freshly baked biscuits