Have you ever tried canning venison? Here are the ups and downs of this great way to preserve your venison.
There are so many ways to handle our beloved venison, enough to produce hundreds of online articles and videos on the subject just waiting for your attention. This post will help determine if the canning process is a good option for you and your deer meat.
It's really not all that difficult, doesn't take a lot of time, and is a fairly straightforward process. You'll need to use a pressure canner, as it's the best way to preserve meat in a way that won't become rancid later.
You're going to want to start with some leftover venison, or in the case of many, whatever venison you have, canning salt, and some canning jars to store it all in. After that, you may have just found another way to enjoy your venison and that's a very good thing!
To be clear, we aren't explaining the venison canning process in this article. If you want full instructions, go here, or follow along with what your pressure canning equipment suggests.
The Benefits of Canning Wild Game Meat
Once you recognize the advantages of canning meat, it becomes clearer why people would go through the process.
The first thing you need to do is remove any excess connective tissue, silver skin, and fat. That means you'll be trimming the off-putting portions away from your meat, leaving only the good parts.
You're also able to cut up your game meat into the preferred size. Cubed meat (as opposed to thin sliced) works great and seems to be the favored way to proceed, but you can adjust the size of your cuts to suit your own personal desire or eventual meal plans. Ground venison is another option, and is also a common way of going about it.
Also, the equipment used to create and store canned venison (namely, the cans) are all reusable. Unlike freezer bags or vacuum sealed packaging, you can use these cans more than once, saving you money in the long run.
Note: The jars and rings are reusable, but you're supposed to buy new lids each time to guarantee the best possible seal.
There's room for customization, too, because after the jars are filled, you can add canning salt but also other spices to the jars to make it your own. Adding extra spices is an option but not the rule, as some folks find the meat has a better taste when they do.
Canned venison doesn't require refrigeration and has a nice shelf life of two years. Some claim four years is still safe, but two seems long enough and we've never tried going much longer than that.
One of the best benefits of having canned meat is the fact that you will not need to concern yourself over a power outage. If, like me, you've ever lost a good amount of frozen venison thanks to your freezer shutting down, then you can relate.
Canning will also tenderize venison, so tough cuts like shoulder, shank, and neck meat can benefit from the process. It will last a long time without compromising the taste or nutritional value.
Pressure Canning
The End Result
Even though some prep work is required and the process can take a little while, canning venison is a skill that every deer hunter should be familiar with. It's not so much a necessary skill as it is another learned method of saving our precious wild game meat for a later date.
Canned venison is an excellent source of protein and maintains many health benefits: it's low in fat but has a high iron content. You can prepare it in many ways, including stews or chili con carne style dishes, but one of the best of the bunch is a venison stroganoff that can be made quickly and easily from an opened jar of your hard earned deer meat.
Looking for a new way to display those antler sheds? Go to Rack Hub and use the coupon code Craiger. Be sure to follow my webpage, or on Facebook and YouTube.
NEXT: 3 WILD GAME MEALS TO MAKE WITH KIDS
