Meatballs in tomato sauce

We love your book Growing and Canning Your Own Food but I evidently lack the imagination to come up with a use for the meatballs in tomato sauce except for use on pasta. Surely I am missing something here. The meatballs in mushroom sauce are awesome! All the rest are really good also. I spent almost an entire month just canning your recipes and this is the only one that I can not really say I just love.

Joyce Baum
Pattonsburg, Missouri

I use the meatballs in tomato sauce as a meatloaf substitute, baking them in a casserole, sometimes topped with grated cheese. I also make an awesome meatball submarine sandwich with them, heating the meatballs in sauce, then ladling them on toasted garlic bread and topping with grated cheese. You can also make a pretty good stew with them, boiling up your veggies first, until tender, then draining and adding the meatballs and tomato sauce. Or bake a spaghetti squash, cut it in half, pick out any seeds, fluff up the “strings,” then pour on the quart of meatballs in tomato sauce. Add grated cheese and bake on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is just starting to get golden on the edges. I hope this will give you a few ideas. I want you to love ALL the recipes! — Jackie

Limited garden space

Dear Lady Jackie Clay; Needing especially to maximize nutrition and quantity, this due to living in town and having very limited veg. garden space . . . along with our 4′x8′ cold frame and a 4′x8′ hot bed, please advice your thoughts as to how best to accomplish that sought goal , ASSUMING THAT IT IS ATTAINABLE/DO-ABLE. This area, about 30 miles NNE of Chattanooga, TN, is zone 9. Although we now are experiencing some freezing weather, the desire is to do now what can be done utilizing the ‘frame’ and ‘bed’. Disabled, in our mid 70s, I, taking it ‘slow’, can manage . . . but maximizing veg. quantity and quality is obviously our major need as we have only minimal income, the purchasing power of which seems to be decreasing weekly.

James and Frances Wyatt
Cleveland, Tennessee

Have you considered adding a few containers here and there in your yard? Friends have a small yard in town yet manage to grow a lot of food, using free or cheap 5-gallon buckets, available at local groceries with bakeries. By drilling a few holes in the bottom for drainage, you instantly have containers for pole beans, tomatoes, peppers, and much more. Our friends line their driveway with buckets of tomatoes, buckets of peppers on their patio, and have pole beans lining their back walk. Your best bet with your cold frame and raised bed is to raise several crops a year, starting with cold season crops such as kale, broccoli, spinach, early cabbage, onions, etc. Then follow with warm season crops, such as beans, tomatoes, okra, etc. Trellis all crops you can. They take up so much less room that way. You can even trellis cucumbers, melons, and vining tomatoes. In this way they’ll only take up inches of your bed instead of feet, enabling you to grow much more food in a bed than you would have otherwise. Think hard about where you might be able to grow extra food. Do you have a patio, porch, or walkway where you might set a container to grow food? It doesn’t take much to grow a bunch of spinach, a pot of okra, a bush squash. Everything you can manage to grow is a plus for you. I even grow patio and hanging basket tomatoes and peppers right in the house and hanging from our house eaves during the summer. You can add a few shepherd’s hooks and grow these hanging basket vegetables right in your lawn, in place of flowers. You can also add flowers to the veggie baskets to make them look even prettier! All the best luck in your endeavor to become more self-reliant in your table food! — Jackie

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Besides arranging for our first homestead seminar in May, we’re taking care of our year’s meat. Last week, we hauled our big, 1,400-pound steer in to the processing plant. To pay for the expense of raising this steer, we sold the front two quarters and we’re giving our son, Bill, a hindquarter. So we’ll still end up with a lot of beef. But we like a variety of meat, not just beef, beef, beef — no matter how good it is! David also did some hunting this year. We didn’t need two deer; one would do. He wanted a buck, but finally, on the last day, he picked a big doe with no fawns. This last week, I’ve been canning venison and making jerky too. Only one hindquarter to go, and I’m done with that. Then we get to butcher our extra roosters from our experimental home-bred Cornish rock crosses. They’re all big and meaty, although not as big-breasted as the commercial Cornish rock broilers. But they can walk, are vigorous, and are plenty nice for us. We also have a pig to butcher in January, so that’ll round out our meat for quite a while.

Seed catalogs are already coming and we spend evenings drooling over tomatoes, peppers, and other great things we just have to try this year…as well as a lot of varieties we’ve grown for years. Planning a spring garden sure makes winter go by faster! — Jackie

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Is pH stable after canning?

I just heard that the Extension folks have found that pH does not stay stable after canning (guess this came out in 2008 or so). Have you heard about this, and what implications would that have on our home canning? At first it sounded dire, but the more I think about it, the more I think we should still be fine as long as we processed at the correct pressure and for the correct time in the first place. I sure don’t want to have to restrict myself to “official” recipes only.

Tracey Roberts
Cave Junction, Oregon

As long as you process at the correct pressure and time, your home canning will be fine. There are always new scientific “findings” that seem to be meant to alarm the public. — Jackie

Dehydrating frozen vegetables

Have you ever dried frozen veggies?

Linda Hinkle
Gig Harbor, Washington

Yes. It works quite well, especially with corn, peas, and broccoli. Not so hot with carrots and green beans that tend to get a little tough. They are good enough for stews and soups, however. Just thaw them and proceed as if they were fresh. — Jackie

Canning turkey

With Thanksgiving coming soon, and turkey prices will be very low in my area, could you give hints for canning? I’d like to can larger chunks, but with some flavoring added. Are there some seasoning not favorable to canning? Such as bitterness, and increased strength? How different is already roasted, vs. cold raw pack? I’m by myself so pints sounds better for my use.

Philip McRae
Massachusetts

That’s a great idea and one I use nearly every year; buying several turkeys on a very good sale before holidays. What I usually do is to bake the turkey until it is partially done; so that you can handle the meat easily. Then cool the turkey and cut the meat off the bone into chunks/slices/dices to suit you. In bowls, separate the types of meat. When done, place the turkey carcass in a large stockpot. If you need to, cut it up to fit in one or more pots. Cover with water. Add salt, pepper, a bit of sage, onion powder, and any other spices you wish. Sage can get bitter from canning, so don’t overdo that. Simmer the bones/meat for about an hour, then strain off the broth and taste. If it needs more salt or seasonings, add them. While you bring it back to a boil in another pot, pack the turkey meat in jars, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Cover with boiling broth, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. If you live at an altitude above 12,00 feet, consult your canning book for directions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, if necessary.

I nearly always process my poultry like that, sometimes substituting simmering the meat to roasting it, depending on the size of the bird (turkey vs. chicken). I have also raw packed, to save time, but the meat tends to “blob” at the bottom of the jars and the broth is not as attractive. The taste is good, however. — Jackie

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How much canning in a year?

How many jars of canned food do you put up in a years time; on average? I have been canning all summer and probably have put up about 500 jars; and still have hunting season to go. I am very proud of my pantry but i am running out of room. I also am very resourceful so I will take care of it. Happy canning.

Joyce Pierce
Greenville, Alabama

I honestly can’t say how many jars I can in a year. (Maybe I wouldn’t want to know!) It’s hard to keep track, as I can all year around and jars are constantly being used and then washed and reused right away. Then there are jars down in the pantry that have been there for a year, two…or ten. When we moved here, we were kind of hard up for cash…then we inherited my elderly parents, who didn’t have a whole lot, either. So we ate mostly from our pantry for two years…with a tiny in-progress new garden. So my jars emptied out a whole lot faster than I filled them. Now I’m actually having to buy jars! Everything is full and the pantry is once again fat. What a good feeling! I hope you get to can venison soon! Happy canning to you, too. — Jackie

Cornish cross update

Do you have any new updates on your “homegrown” Cornish cross meat birds? I am interested in doing that myself and just wondered how they turned out? Another question, is it possible to pressure can on a wood cookstove?

Gayle Rush
Eugene, Missouri

Our homemade Cornish rocks are doing very nicely. They didn’t grow as fast as the hatchery Cornish crosses, but not one is inactive or stupid and none health/leg-related problems. All are active and are also pretty darned big. They are not as big as Cornish broilers. They do need to be crossed again, several times, to stabilize the characteristics we want but we’re not poultry breeders and will go about it incorrectly, I’m sure, but we have fun and the extra roosters are sure fine to eat. We will be butchering soon!

Yes, definitely, you can pressure can on a wood cookstove. I did it for years and years. You get smart and learn to gently drag your canner slightly off the hottest spot and pull it back on, when necessary, to adjust your pressure. With a wood range, canning with a weighted gauge is a lot easier because then you drag much less than when you use a dial gauge! — Jackie

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Canning chicken stock

I was canning some chicken stock last night. After the recommended processing time in the pressure canner, I let the steam go down to normal and started removing the jars, pints. Two of the jars immediately popped down to ping a seal, but after a few seconds would pop back up, then in a few seconds would pop down. I also noticed every time it popped up, bubbles would release. I’m assuming this was air rushing in. This cycle of pinging went on for probably 20 minutes, they eventually sealed, but I’m uneasy about them. They are in the fridge for now, but is this normal and safe?

Casey Eaves
Hallwood, Virginia

I wouldn’t say it’s “normal,” but it is fairly common and nothing to worry about if the jars end up properly sealed. It’s possible that you had some excessive pressure (pressure going over recommended pressure, then down again) during processing. That sometimes happens with me when I get distracted during canning because of a phone call or some other event. I wouldn’t worry about your sealed jars. — Jackie

Canning celery

This isn’t really a question, but I wanted to tell you thanks! I was looking through your book and found your recipe for potato soup and decided to give it a try. I noticed you had said to add 1/2 pint of celery, and I did not know you could can celery. I don’t ever get much celery because it usually goes bad before I can use it all, so canning it up would be very handy. I actually stopped at the store today and picked up two stalks — used a bit for the soup today and the rest are in the canner as I type this!

Just a suggestion, if you ever re-do your canning book, perhaps you could put in about how many jars each recipe makes. Keep in mind there’s lots of dummies out there (like me!) and simple information like that is helpful for us.

Donnie McIlwain
Lowman, New York

The reason I didn’t put how many jars each canning recipe would make is that there are a whole lot of variables; many recipes you might get say 5 pints of a certain food, but by using juicier fruit or tomato varieties, you may end up with 8 pints…or maybe only 4. But several readers have requested this and we may include it in the next printing, if the “powers that be” agree. An index is also definitely planned. Thanks for your input! And I’m glad you’re canning celery. It’s SO handy! — Jackie

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Pectin and fruit questions

I read your posts this morning on the Pectin and the Cider and had a question. After we can that Pectin following that Cider recipe, how long will the pectin be good for?

Got a couple of fruit questions too, we were blessed enough to get several fruit trees at some unbelievable prices. 4 Elberta Peach, 1 gala Apple, 1 Jonathan Apple, 1 Santa Rosa Plum, 2 Kiefer Pears, 16 Blueberry Bushes (2 different varieties), 14 thornless Blackberry Bushes (2 different varieties). The Berry Bushes, believe it or not were $1.00 each and are in gallon pots. All were 1 to 1 1/2 foot tall (not counting the pots). We have hard clay for soil. After we dug our holes, we added some potting mix and peat moss to each and then put a good 3 inch layer of cypress mulch around the base of each plant/tree. My questions are, is there anything else we need to do, to prepare these new plants for winter. We live in Central Alabama. Also, what should I feed them in the spring? We have access to horse manure right now and just started a compost bin.

Jenny
From Alabama

Jenny, your pectin, once canned, is good for years and years. You got a real steal on your fruit! Good for you. Be sure to water your trees and berries until freezing weather hits. (If it doesn’t freeze tight in your area, give them a drink once in a while all winter.) In the spring, mulch them out to the drip line (trees) and around your berry bushes with rotted compost and manure. Do be sure your manure doesn’t contain hay that comes from a field that was sprayed with herbicides to kill weeds in the hayfield. Those chemicals can kill your garden plants and trees, too. Fortunately, this practice is not yet widespread. — Jackie

Ground meat jerky

I want to make some ground meat jerky. I have conflicting recipes, however. Some say to bake in the oven first, then put in the dehydrator and dehydrate, while some say to simply use the dehydrator. Do you have a preferred way of doing it? I’d love to get your recipe.

Sarah Axsom
Natchitoches, Louisiana

I just use the dehydrator or my oven with the heat turned down as low as it goes. Mine goes down to about 160 degrees. I do several different flavors and really don’t have one recipe I use exclusively. Here’s a start for you, though. Remember that the marinade is just that; it has nothing to do with the keeping ability of the jerky.

3 lbs. ground, lean meat
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder or one clover garlic, crushed
1 tsp. liquid smoke
1 tsp. salt

Mix this well and either use a jerky gun (very cheap and really makes a nice product) or form meat into jerky-sized strips about 1/2-inch thick. Briefly lay the strips on a paper towel to absorb extra marinade, then lay another on top of the meat to absorb any extra from the top. Place in your dehydrator at 145 degrees. When your jerky is nearing doneness, raise the temperature of your dehydrator to 160 degrees and finish it at that temperature. Dry until it is leather-like. Store in the refrigerator or freezer. (In the “old days” people dried their jerky to stick-like dryness, which took real effort to chew. But it kept without refrigeration. Modern, flexible jerky won’t keep long at room temperature without getting moldy.) — Jackie

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Hopi Pale Grey squash

How do you get your Hopi Pale Grey squash to ripen in your climate? I am south of Detroit and last year they barely made it. I planted them in mid-June. Great job on your homestead. Why don’t you square the logs up on your bandsaw mill for the loft in the barn? Keep up the great work..

Jim
Petersburg, Michigan

We have no trouble getting Hopi Pale Greys to mature here. If I have the time and room, I start the seeds inside, in cups, four weeks before setting them out. If not, I just direct seed them in warm soil, about June 1st. They grow real fast and mature nicely for us. Try planting them earlier, as you live a zone or two warmer than we do.

Will didn’t square the logs as logs left with more rounded sides are 25-30% stronger than those that have been squared and we plan on putting tons of hay in that loft. — Jackie

Jalapeño jello

How do you make your jalapeño jelly? I just made some using the liquid pectin — per recipe — and it didn’t work. We have sweet jalapeno sauce.

Margie Buchwalter
Bowersville, Ohio

I use the recipe in the Ball Blue Book, but use 1 package of powdered pectin or 1/3 cup bulk, instead of two pouches of liquid pectin (Certo). This is 3/4 lb. jalapeño peppers, 2 cups vinegar, divided, 6 cups sugar, green or red food coloring (optional), and 1 pkg. powdered pectin.

Seed and stem peppers. Puree peppers and 1 cup vinegar in blender. Combine puree, 1 cup vinegar and pectin in large pot and bring to a boil. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Add pre-measured sugar. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.

This makes a hot, hot pepper jelly, depending, of course, on what variety of jalapeños you used. — Jackie

Canning meat

As a kid I remember the wonderful beef my mom canned; so convenient to prepare quick meals (soups, stews, hot roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy). YUM!! She is now 89 years old and can’t remember how she did it, whether she packed it raw or browned it and packed it hot, or whether she just added water and salt to create the delicious broth. Which method do you prefer? I also remember that she made sure to pack at least one or two small bones into each jar. Do you know why she would do that? Our local grocery store is having great buys on beef chuck roasts and I would like to take advantage of the great prices. The canned meat is so much more tender than frozen, not to mention quicker to prepare for a meal. I plan to purchase your canning book soon but thought this may provide a quicker answer. My mom also canned delicious sausage. Does your book have a method/recipe for canning sausage? I apologize for being so lengthy. I cannot imagine accomplishing all that you do and certainly appreciate your time, and thank you so much for your input.

J. Phillips
West Virginia

I brown my meat lightly, then add water to the pan drippings to make my broth. I used to pack my meat raw, but found that by using the broth I got a more tender, juicier meat. I have no idea why she included the small bones; perhaps for the flavoring of the marrow?

Yes, my book does cover canning pork sausage, in patty form on page 173. Basically, you season (lightly) your ground pork, shape into patties, and lightly brown them. Then pack hot patties into hot wide-mouth jars (pints work well), then make broth from pan drippings and pour over patties, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, consult our canning book for directions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, if necessary. — Jackie

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Canning sausage patties

I processed 17 pints of sausage patties. I browned them and then put 4 Tbsp. of water and fat from the pan (as you suggested in an article I read) into each jar, which contains 4 patties. However, I did not fill the jars up with any additional water or other liquid. I thought that fat would render out from the patty and it would be sufficient. I processed the jars in my pressure canner at 11 lbs. pressure for 75 minutes. Everything sealed perfectly, but only the bottom patty is covered with liquid the other 3 are not. My question is are the patties good or should I throw them out?

Angela
Vero Beach, Florida

Your patties are still good. Most people cover the patties with broth to keep them soft, but I prefer them without it. When they are heated, you can add a little water while heating, if you wish, then let them fry down, evaporating the water. — Jackie

Shelf life of canned meats

I’ve been successfully canning meat for years but with money being tight, want to determine the best financial avenue for storing meat. Cans of meat from grocery stores have a 3-4 year shelf-life. What is the approximate shelf-life for properly pressure canned meats kept in a dry, 70 degree storage?

Ruth Knutson
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Who says store meat only has a 3-4 year shelf life? I’ve kept it for a dozen years or more and it does nearly as well as home canned foods. Home canned meats will remain good for as long as the lids are solid; the most common cause for them going bad is rusted out lids (often caused by damp basements or leaving the rings on during storage).

In my opinion the “freshness dates” stamped on store cans are a marketing ploy meant to make people fearful and throw away perfectly good food and go buy more. It is true that foods stored for a lengthy time may lose a little of their nutrition, but they are still good tasting and definitely good to eat provided that the container is solid and store cans are not dented or bulging on the ends. — Jackie

Flavor of canned meats

It seams that all my canned meat — beef, pork, lamb, etc. tastes the same. Can you give me suggestions to help improve the flavors of the various meats or is there a different way to process the different types of meat?

Teresa
Grover, Colorado

You process most meats the same, but you can certainly vary the flavor by using different flavorings and spices. For instance, we like our venison canned with a little powdered beef stock added to each jar. I add black pepper and onion powder to my pork, and beef gets nothing but salt or a combination of seasonings such as onion, garlic, black pepper, basil, etc. Flavorings do not alter the time or pressure necessary for safe canning but can dramatically alter the flavor of the canned meat. Be a little stingy on using the spices at first as some really get strong during storage.

Once you open a jar of your meat, get creative in using it. I don’t just dump my meat out into a saucepan and heat it up. I make such things as sweet and sour chicken, orange beef, tamale pie with Mexican seasonings in the ground meat, casseroles, stews, soups, and much more. (Check out my new book, Jackie Clay’s Pantry Cookbook for tons of recipes for using your home-canned meats and hundreds of other yummy things from your pantry shelves and home garden.) — Jackie

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