i messed up bigtime this year and wanted to share the experience so others would not do the same.
I pressure canned a few pints of meat this year and after processing (over-processed) at 15lbs for 75 mins (for pints, it's recommended to process at 10lb for 70 mins, quarts for 90) as i always do, but when the cooking was done, i quick cooled the canner.
DO NOT QUICK COOL YOUR PRESSURE CANNER. this will cause the jars to expel all juice from the jars and you will end up with a canner full of venison broth.
i immediately cooled the jars, and re-processed (for the full time again, as directed by the Penn State Agricultural Extension) with some diluted gravy added to the jars to replace some moisture/flavor.
sampled one of the jars tonight and though the meat is super fall apart tender - it does not hold to chunk form at all anymore, it was still tasty as heck so all was not lost. actually, it was downright amazing considering how close i was to chucking the whole batch or using it for dog food.
the AgEx also said i could have immediately dumped the cans into freezer bags with a little broth and then froze to retain some moisture and avoid overprocessing the venison. either way would have been safe but i wanted to have the protection from loss of a freezer...power outages have caused me some venison loss in the past.
I pressure canned a few pints of meat this year and after processing (over-processed) at 15lbs for 75 mins (for pints, it's recommended to process at 10lb for 70 mins, quarts for 90) as i always do, but when the cooking was done, i quick cooled the canner.
DO NOT QUICK COOL YOUR PRESSURE CANNER. this will cause the jars to expel all juice from the jars and you will end up with a canner full of venison broth.
i immediately cooled the jars, and re-processed (for the full time again, as directed by the Penn State Agricultural Extension) with some diluted gravy added to the jars to replace some moisture/flavor.
sampled one of the jars tonight and though the meat is super fall apart tender - it does not hold to chunk form at all anymore, it was still tasty as heck so all was not lost. actually, it was downright amazing considering how close i was to chucking the whole batch or using it for dog food.
the AgEx also said i could have immediately dumped the cans into freezer bags with a little broth and then froze to retain some moisture and avoid overprocessing the venison. either way would have been safe but i wanted to have the protection from loss of a freezer...power outages have caused me some venison loss in the past.
