Drum roll, please……
I did it. With the help of some great friends I have officially canned my very first chicken. Deb came and taught us all and I posted a couple updates on facebook. It is done – my first batch. Yipee – I finally used my pressure canner for the first time. So glad I bought it a couple years ago and let it sit on the shelf until prices came down. Ugh. Oh well, it is now used!
In case you are wondering this is the pressure canner that I have.
It is wonderful!! Everything worked just like it was supposed to – whew.
Alright – here is the honest truth. It was nasty – it looks nasty, it smells nasty but if you can actually believe me – somehow it does not taste nasty. It tastes like chicken! lol. But really it tastes great – a friend forced me to try it once and I am glad she did.
I guess I should tell you though that I hate raw meat. If I loved beans more I could consider being a vegetarian unless someone else is cooking. So cutting the raw meat is no different than any other time – cutting off the fat and shoving it in a jar. Not bad. Deb says not to cut it up because it dries it out more. Good to know.
As for the smell – I have a overact sense of smell so smells bother me often when no one else notices. But I hate the smell of boiled chicken. That is what my house smelled like while we were canning. Well, then once I opened the canner it smelled like boiled chicken and vinegar since I exposed the water and vinegar in the bottom.
Oh and I learned that if you are canning meat DO NOT boil the lids it can mess up the seal. Good to know.
This is not an ad for 409 but it could work. Here the chicken is in the canner and we are waiting for the steam to pour out for 10 minutes. Deb, I hope you do not mind me using pics of you! You are an amazing lady and I learned SO much.
Deb also shared a couple of youtube videos that would be great to check out. they are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fINnsFJGyKU&feature=share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw_DOHrko-Q&feature=share
The second link says canning chicken – it is easier than you think. My friend actually made that comment after watching the demonstration. It really is easier than I thought.
Now the mere thought that it takes like 5 hours to do is a huge turn off. Hello – I have seven children youngest 7 months and the oldest 11 years old – I do not have time to just stand in the kitchen. But it wasn’t so bad. The prep work takes some time – trimming the chicken and getting the jars ready to go. Then it does take some time to get the pressure canner to the point where it is steaming – then the 10 minute wait for that felt like an hour. Once we were counting down the 75 minutes though and fiddling with the stove to get it to the right pressure – it wasn’t bad. So 75 minutes that you must be watchful – not too much to ask.
Then the cool down process – you have to take the rocker off (i think that is what it is called) when it hits zero pressure and then it just cools.
So you may be thinking – no way, I am not doing that. But I say – just watch someone do it ONE time before you make that decision. Deb said “Well, I am going to have a cupboard of protein while people with freezers have none.” Think on that for a bit. You open the can and it is completely cooked. Pretty neat.