Canning Butter

Canning Butter

After doing a LOT of research, I believe there is a SAFE way to can butter for long term use. There is much information on the internet about canning butter in your oven. DO NOT buy into it as it will only keep for about 6 months and it is not safe. Various home canners have reported to me that they have tried that method and within 6 months, a thin layer of black mold begins to grow on the butter. Others have tried a BOILING WATER BATH with only a slight improvement in the product.

Butter is a LOW ACID food; therefore, it will only get hot enough to kill all bacteria in a pressure canner. I found a few people who have said they found satisfactory results with canned butter that was dated 1999, however it WAS pressure canned.

I experimented with three methods of preparation.  All methods require vigorous shaking of the butter as it cools to keep it from separating.

First, I did one jar by simply filling it with soft butter. That jar (it was brand new) broke in the canner. Perhaps I didn’t leave enough headspace. I don’t know . . . 

Second, I melted the butter and stirred it well before filling the jars. This appears to be a satisfactory method, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the texture is not as smooth as the third method.

Third, and preferably, I melted the butter and brought it to a boil in a large pan. Allow enough room for it to foam up within the pan.  I continued cooking it at a slow boil for a minimum of 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. The last thing we want is a burnt butter flavor.

Fill the jars leaving standard headspace. Be sure to stir the butter well and scoop up from the bottom of the pan. Wipe the rims and place the lids and rings on tightly. Pressure can for 10 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure for ½ pints or pints.

After you remove the jars from the canner, allow them seal and to cool a bit before shaking them. Shake about every half hour until the butter begins to congeal. You may sit them in the refrigerator to speed up the process.

I assumed that I would need ½ pound of butter for each half pint, however, it required a bit less than that.  I ended up with two pints more than I had planned and still had an extra pound of butter left over. I had purchased 12 pounds of butter with the intention of ending up with 24 ½ pints. 

Butter was on sale at a good price ($1.99 per pound). Though I store butter in the freezer, I wanted some shelf stable butter as well. It’s great to take camping with you!

The next time I can butter, I plan to make some garlic butter and perhaps experiment with a few other herbs and spices as well.

Pressure Canning Dried Beans, Baked Beans & more . . .

                                     (Before Processing)

Pressure Canning Dried Beans, Baked Beans and more . . .

CHEAPER & GASFREE!!

Food prices are skyrocketing with no end in sight.  Storing dried beans long term is not always successful UNLESS you want to grind them into flour. They become so hard that no amount of cooking makes them tender.

My inventory of empty canning jars was good thanks to the severe drought this summer (our garden pretty much dried up).

You must use a pressure canner but the cost is much less, I can ‘de-gas’ them which is my biggest problem with buying them already canned and you can make them the way YOU want them. Have you checked the price of canned beans in the grocery store lately? They are rising at an alarming rate.

I just spent $17.88 on dried beans. Not counting the cost of new lids and the electricity required I now have:

4 quarts baby lima beans @ $.89 per quart

8 quarts of kidney beans @  $.62 per quart

2 quarts, 7 pints & 2 half pints of black beans @ $.195 per cup

6 quarts of baked beans (from navy beans) @  $.78 per quart (instructions to follow)

1 BONUS quart of mixed beans for soup or bean salad @ FREE!

1 BONUS 3 servings of  mixed beans for immediate use @ FREE!

The general process is easy.

Sort the beans and rinse. Cover with lots of water and bring to a rolling boil. Continue cooking for 30 minutes. Drain and rinse very well. (This will remove the gas and who would have thought it could be so easy!)

Place pickling or Kosher salt in the jars at 1 tsp. per quart or ½ tsp. per pint.

DO NOT USE TABLE SALT

You may also add any other seasoning you would like. One friend adds 1 Tbs. per quart of taco seasoning for pinto beans, then mashes them after opening the jar. A favorite refried beans with NO ADDED FAT.

Fill the jars leaving a full one inch of headspace. Cover with water or brine (see below). Wipe the jar rims, seal, and pressure can at 10 lbs. of pressure:

75 minutes for pints

90 minutes for quarts

That’s it! It’s very easy and at quite a savings I would say even over sale prices!

PORK & BEANS – use tomato juice, 1 Tbs. sugar per quart and a piece of fatback, bacon or your preference to cover the beans with. Process as above.

BAKED BEANS – I made a ‘sauce’ of tomato juice (about 1 cup per quart), brown sugar, garlic powder, dehydrated onions, molasses, mustard, bacon (diced, fried and drained well) and a couple of drops of hickory smoke flavor per quart).

I don’t use measurements because everybody seems to have their own preference for baked beans. We prefer them a bit sweet and savory. You may use almost any baked bean recipes simply mix all the ingredients except the beans and pour over the pre-cooked beans. If you don’t have enough ‘sauce’ you may add more tomato juice or water.

I still plan to put up pinto beans, refried beans and garbanzo beans for making hummus and other things. Try this soon. I know you will be pleased with the tasteful result and the savings!

Mosquito Repellents

Easing the Bite of those Pesky Mosquitoes 
 
There are many remedies to prevent attack from mosquitoes . . . those pesky little critters who can make being outdoors miserable. 

At stores you will find many 'chemical' remedies to this problem but they abound with questions about whether or not they are good for us to inhale and frankly some of them seem to do a better job of attracting them than anything else.

I have tried many suggestions. Two that work for me are Skin So Soft bath oil from Avon. Just put it in a spray bottle and squirt liberally. It is a bit greasy and is terrible for your drains so I like this use better.

The second one is my preferred one: Listerine. I buy the generic for it at the Dollar Store and keep a small spray bottle handy. It works every bit as well as the Skin So Soft, but it does NOT leave that greasy feeling on skin and possibly stain clothing.

Here is a link to a homemade remedy for insect repellent. It may work really well . . . .

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/06/make-it-natural-mosquito-spray/

It seems a bit pricy to me when I consider how inexpensive a bottle of generic Listerine is, but suit yourself.

Hopefully, I will get back into regular posts . . . it's been a while, and I've been a little bit out of pocket but I'm anxious to start helping you get prepared for any possible disaster, store food (the price continues to rise - so everybody best be putting a little bit by), grow, produce and preserve some food, and a few other hints about how to stretch a dollar.

See you real soon!
 Mary Lou

Turkey Carcass Soups . . .Very Tasty!

To my followers I owe you an apology. I had planned to take pictures and make a couple of kinds of soup with my turkey carcass a key to the rich and tasty broths . . . HOWEVER, my dear husband shot a deer (an eight point buck) on Wednesday evening (while I was busy cooking for Thanksgiving dinner).

Needless to say, instead of making turkey soups the day after Thanksgiving, we spent the day instead processing venison. He skinned it out while I put up some Christmas decorations and made room in the kitchen for our project.

After a light lunch, he brought the sectioned deer into the kitchen and for the next six plus hours, we worked our tails off. I am including pictures of our bounty, and will include turkey soup recipes at the end of the post.

We now have in our freezer several steaks, a huge roast, eight packages of backstrap (tenderloin), twenty-five pounds of ground venison and a few steaks. The rest I canned and we ended up with seven quarts and eight pints of tasty, tender venison to add to our food storage. It is a tedious job to remove as much meat from the bones as possible (we cannot tolerate waste), our backs and feet hurt, but we are satisfied with our accomplishment.

Now for the soup! Remove most of the skin and any stuffing. Include the wing tips (and the wings and part of the thighs if they are not popular at your table). Break the bones apart so that they will fit into a large stockpot. Cover with water, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour. Remove the bones and any meat, fat or skin and let them cool enough to handle them comfortably. 


Strain the stock to remove any small bones or undesirables. You may now use the stock to make soup or store it in the freezer or can it (I pressure can mine).


Pick the meat from the bones. You will be amazed at what a good amount of meat you will get. Set it aside.


Here are my family's favorite turkey soup recipes:


Turkey & Rice Soup
 To the strained turkey broth add:
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 T. chicken bouillon or soup base
1 c. of rice (parboiled such as Uncle Ben's works best)
1 can of mushrooms
Cook until the vegetables are tender and the rice is done.
Add the turkey meat (coarsely chopped) and season with salt
and pepper to taste.


Turkey Noodle Soup
To the strained turkey stock add:
1 large onion, chopped 
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 T. chicken base or bouillon
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 lb. fine egg noodles
Cook until the vegetables are tender and the noodles are done.
Add coarsely chopped turkey meat.


Turkey & Cabbage Soup
 To the strained turkey stock add:
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
1 T. chicken base or bouillon
Cook until vegetables are tender. 
Add coarsely chopped turkey meat.


Turkey Vegetable Soup
To the strained stock add:
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 cups cabbage, shredded
1 quart tomatoes, diced
1 can (or pint) green beans
1 can whole kernel corn
Any other vegetables you and your family like including okra, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, asparagus, etc.
1 T. chicken base or bouillon
Salt & pepper to taste.
Cook until vegetables are tender.
Add turkey meat and enjoy.
 

Save That Turkey Carcass!!!!

Don't throw out that turkey carcass after Thanksgiving dinner.
I will be posting AFTER Thanksgiving how to use that rack of bones to make some delicious soups!

After dinner on Thursday, remove the meat from the bones (yes, it's okay to leave a bit on them) and store it in the refrigerator. To make it easier to store the bones, separate them into smaller pieces and store in the refrigerator.

Every year, our family awaits the aroma and flavor of freshly made turkey soup . .  what is your favorite? Turkey and rice with mushrooms? Turkey noodle? Turkey vegetable? Whatever it is, it's easy to make and there is a LOT of flavor left! Stay tuned.

Really FAST Food - Canning Meats

This week was busy and stressful for me. I had a cousin and his wife coming for a visit. I hadn't seen him in 52 years and never met his wife. They planned to come in Thursday and stay for a couple of days however, they called on Wednesday while I was in between appointments, to tell me they were on their way and would arrive in about 3 hours! Yep! You guessed it. 

MY plan was to get up Thursday morning and do some cooking and cleaning. Needless to say, there was a good chance they could arrive home before I did . . . after a minute of panic, I thought . . . well, IF I can beat them home by about 15 minutes, all will be well. I did and that gave me just enough time to freshen the guest bathroom and vaccuum the living room. Now what about dinner?

Well, dinner was a piece of cake . . . I've been canning meats for a number of years now and when I have meats all cooked and fork tender in the jar, I can create all sorts of good home style cooking in a matter of minutes! Truly!

The first few choices that ran through my head were:
Sauerkraut & Kielbasa or smoked sausage;
Beef Stew or Beef and Noodles; 
Pulled Pork or Turkey & Dressing;
Chicken & Noodles; Chicken Casserole or Chicken & Dumplings!

Seriously I could have prepared and set any of them on the table in less than 30 minutes from the time I walked in the door. I decided on Chicken & Dumplings, a comfort food if there ever was one and a huge favorite in my family.  Since I had canned chicken just last week (a local store had boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.49 a pound) I was good to go. But then, I still had canned chicken from several years ago so I opted to use that up first.

When canning meats, you MUST use a pressure canner. You can roast or precook the meat first if you want to, but most of the time it is quicker and easier to just pack the raw meat and process it. You may also opt to add broth or water if you choose, but it has been my experience they are not needed (except for ground meats or processed meats).

You can also season it any way you choose. My personal preference is to add just a pinch of garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart of Kosher or canning salt, then pack in the meat; wipe the rims and seal tightly. Process pints for 75 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure and 90 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure for quarts. That's it! Now how easy is that? In about three hours time you can process two batches (8 pints per batch) and have 16 meals for ready consumption! Each pint will hold about one pound of fresh meat (trimmed of visible fat).

We have also canned hamburger meat or ground turkey but I do recommend precooking it so that you don't end up with a solid glob of meat. I do add a little broth to the ground meat and also to thick slices of processed meats such as smoked sausage or Kielbasa. For raw chicken, turkey, pork or beef (cut up as you desire to use it - cubed, chunked or in steaks) I simply leave enough head space and it creates it's own broth.

Need chicken salad in a hurry? Open up some and there you go! Need to take a meal to a sick friend? No need to wait for meat to thaw. Unexpected or early arriving guests? Not a problem Need to take it easy for a hectic day? Serve up a scrumptious meal that tastes slow simmered in nothing flat. Rachel Ray? You have nothing on me. I've been serving 30 minute (sometimes 15 or 20 minute) meals for decades.

This spring, a friend made the comment that when her power was out for an entire week (from the April 27th tornadoes that ravaged our county and state of Alabama), as they worked to save the meats in their freezer, she told me that she just kept thinking about me and my canned meat!    

Don't Throw Out the Peelings!

Wow! I forgot to add a very important footnote to my last post about Canning Apple Pie Filling! Don't throw out the peelings.

Cover them with water, bring to a boil and cook 5 or 10 minutes. Let them cool just a bit and then squeeze them through a cheesecloth or run them through a juicer. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste and boil together until it reaches the Jelly Stage on a candy thermometer. Fill jars and seal. Process for 30 minutes in a boiling water bath or 10 minutes at 5 lbs. pressure in a pressure canner and you will have the best ever Cinnamon Apple Syrup.

This Cinnamon Apple Syrup is tasty served over pancakes, waffles, ice cream, you name it. My two favorites are over Gingerbread Pancakes or Pumpkin Waffles. This frugal hint has been a staple in our family for many decades.