Home canned corned beef hash that I canned yesterday with a couple eggs fried in butter.

Awhile back I was trying to decide on canning something with corned beef. I finally decided to try corned beef hash. I bought a bottom round roast that weighed 3.75 lbs for $3.88/lb, a pretty good deal with current beef prices.

Split the roast in half and injected it with a brine made with Tender Quick.

Then I threw in some pickling spices and granulated garlic and left in the fridge for 48 hours with the remaining brine.

Today I diced it up and it had a nice red color from the cure. Weight had increased to a little over 4lbs.

Packed 8ozs of beef with 4ozs of diced potatoes and added 1/4 tsp of finely ground pickling spice in pint jars. I didn’t add anymore salt because I’m pretty sure there was enough from the brine. Cleaned the jar rims with vinegar, put the lids on and into the canner.

Pressure canned at 11lbs psi for 75 minuets. Thank you SupplySergeant for the tip on the jiggler weight! It held nuts on at 11lbs with very little heat adjustments.

Out of the canner after cooling down and all eight jars sealed. I love that special sound when the lids suck down!

I can’t wait to fry it up tomorrow with some eggs on the side.

Well I jumped in and started asking questions immediately before finding this area. I want to thank those of you that already have answered questions! Sorry, I don’t know how to add your names to this post.

I’m from Silvis IL.

I was a retail meat cutter for Eagle Foods for thirty years. After they closed, I started working for Rock River Arms as a custom 1911 pistol smith for seventeen years and retired last year.

I’ve been smoking sausage on and off for the last twenty five years. I also smoke briskets and make Canadian bacon.

My current smoker is a small SmokinTex that I’ve modified to maintain consistent low temps while still producing smoke.

Tuesday I had a friend help me grind and stuff 12 lbs of summer sausage with the 8 lbs of venison my neighbor gave me. Thanksgiving day I smoked it. Turned out great even though I forgot to put the pound of high temp cheese I had to put in it. My friend was asking so many questions and I didn’t notice that I forgot the cheese until it was too late. I’m going to have to start using a check list.

After trimming the venison trim up a little more I had 7.25 lbs and added pork butt to bring the weight up to 12.5 lbs. I added 3 ounces of Walton’s sure gel and .5 ounces of sure cure with 20 ounces of water.

I think it turned out well and is very tasty. Total yield was 14.25 lbs, so I hardly loss any thing from smoking. Sorry I don’t have more pictures. I was too busy and didn’t think about taking pictures. My neighbor was thrilled when I brought it over to him. Our deal was that I would make it for him and give 8 lbs of sausage back to him no charge. He got about 9 lbs back. I ended up with almost 5 lbs for myself. I think it was a good deal for me too because he helps me so much around my house.

Suction cups modified and attached to stuffer. The weight of this stuffer combined with suction cups makes it rock solid. Just pop off the rubber feet and attach suction cups.

bocephus Here’s a buck that another one of my neighbors got a pic of in his backyard. I said too bad that they’ll hear your shotgun. He just shrugged his shoulders with a grin and said well they can’t hear an arrow…

Chef and processhead Back before boxed beef became the norm and we were only cutting hanging beef, we ground all of our ground beef with our trim and then brought the leanness up by adding boneless beef. This came in frozen in 60lb blocks. We called it bull meat but I believe the majority of it came from old dairy cattle. We did this strictly by eye.

The district meat supervisor would come in occasionally with a tester to check our burger. The tester was very primitive and was in a briefcase, the same tester the state used to do spot checking. It consisted of a small hot plate over a funnel that dripped into a test tube. After a 2 oz sample was cooked down you slid a gauge down the test tube to where the liquid fat had separated from the water and this would tell you the fat percentage.

If you had done the morning grind and you saw the supervisor coming back with that briefcase in hand it definitely increased your pucker factor. My grind got checked one day and one of my grinds was 2% too fat over the label. The supervisor was getting ready to chew me out and I asked him how he judged his grind when he was a meat cutter. He said well by how it looked. Before I could respond he smiled and said I honestly thought your grind was lean enough but I would prefer that you err on the side of caution. Of course after he left the meat department manager who was only worried about his bottom line told me you better not ever make it too lean.

Gonna date myself here. As Arte Johnson said on Laugh In “Very interesting”

Back when I was having back problems, I was going to an old osteopathic doc that still did spinal manipulation. He told me what he needed to do to help me. I said, oh you need to loosen the connection between my sirloin pin bone and my spine. He just sat there for awhile shaking his head and then looked up and said I think your right but I don’t know how to even respond to that.

Anatomy is the same in all mammals, even us. Once you learn how to break down a carcass you can break down any species.

Dr_Pain suggested that I make a post here about canning meat so here goes, sorry if it’s a little long.

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

Midwest_kc said in Tamales:

Chef Fair enough. Obviously larger companies there’s lots of info out there. I was thinking more along the lines of smaller, mom and pop places that you may come across while traveling, etc. It’s something that I don’t know how to find out, and wasn’t sure your strategy for these types of places.

My concern now is will I feel safe trying to visit some of these small mom and pop places though no fault of their own. I can’t imagine the stress these small operators are experiencing in crime ridden cities. There is a lot of great cuisine available in Chicago. Would I go there to eat, hell no!

calldoctoday I was out filling up the turkeys and this elderly lady shopping with her teenage granddaughter yelled across the store “hey butch I can’t remember what they’re called but do you got any n*tless roosters?” Her granddaughter about died from embarrassment.

My dad made divinity every Christmas. Half of it he put in black walnuts which no one else could stand. That way he always had more than enough for himself!

SupplySergeant, YooperDog

I was flying commercial one time and the passenger next to me before take off had a big three ring binder that he was intently looking through. I noticed it was an aircraft manual. I struck up a conversation with him and he explained that he was a pilot deadheading to get to his next flight.

Once our plane started rolling for take off his demeanor changed and I could tell he was a little tense. Once the plane gained altitude and leveled off he relaxed. I asked him, “You don’t like being back here do you?” He smiled and told me that he was much more comfortable when he was the one flying the plane.

Ridley Acres it was during the depression. They had to do whatever it took to survive.

ND Mike and wdaly Thanks for the tip on how to tag someone.

ND Mike I didn’t really modify the smoker. I only use the element for heat. I use a smoke tube with pellets in the bottom of smoker to create the smoke and it keeps smoking no matter whether the element is on or not.

I still have temp swings as the element cycles on and off. So then I have a six inch powered duct fan that you can buy at any home improvement store. I place that over the small vent hole on top. When the temp starts to climb over the max I want I turn on the duct fan to drop the temp down. This also provides enough oxygen to keep the smoke tube going. It’s the most control I’ve ever had over temp swings.

I’m wondering if I wired the the duct fan in to the thermostat on the smoker if would be a little more automated.

Sous Vide depends on water circulation as well as temperature control. I bought mine several years ago for $70 without a vessel. I use what ever size pot I have depending on what I’m cooking. I do a lot of pork tenderloin smothered in Riley’s Cajun seasoning in a 6 qt soup pot. If I’m finishing summer sausage I use my 23 qt Presto canner pot which will hold a 12.5 lb batch in 12 inch casings.

The first deer I helped process was for my brother in law. He had three very young sons that were intrigued and intently watching the whole process. When the first leg came off the oldest boy proudly picked it up like a trophy and went outside and marched around with it. Second leg came off and his middle son grabbed it and did the same. Youngest son just shook his head no when offered either of the two remaining legs. However when the head came off he was barely able to pick it up but he grabbed it by both ears and ran out to his brothers. My brother in law said oh great, now the whole neighborhood is going to think I’m raising a bunch of savages over here. All three boys grew up to be avid and ethical hunters.

Thanks to everyone for the warm and encouraging welcomes and comments! I’m a little confused about the purpose of the different team colors. Is it just friendly rivalry?

twilliams bocephus It comes with an extra gasket.