Canning Game Meats

Caution - Do not can meat unless you have a pressure canner. Low-acid foods, such as meat and most mixtures of foods, should never be canned using the water-batch method.

Pressure and adequate time are necessary to produce safe canned meat. Only good-quality properly cleaned and cooled game should be canned. To ensure safety of canned meats, all jars or cans must be processed in the pressure canner to get a sufficiently high temperature for a long enough time to kill all bacteria that cause spoilage or food poisoning. Large game animals are canned like beef, and small game animals and birds are canned like poultry. Either type of meats can be raw packed or hot packed.

Small Game Animals and Birds:

Choose freshly killed and dressed healthy animals or birds. Dressed meat should be soaked 1 hour in water containing 1 tablespoon of salt per quart, then rinsed. Remove excess fat. Cut meat into suitable sizes for canning. Can with or without bone.

• Hot pack: Boil, steam or bake meat until about two-thirds done. Add 1 teaspoon salt per quart, if desired. Fill jars with pieces and hot broth, leaving 1¼-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process as indicated in Tables 1 and 2.
• Raw pack: Add 1 teaspoon salt per quart, if desired. Fill jars loosely with raw meat pieces, leaving 1¼-inch headspace. Do not add liquid. Adjust lids and process as indicated in Tables 1 and 2.

Large Game Animals (Strips, Cubes or Chunks):

Choose high-quality chilled meat. Remove excess fat. Soak strong-flavored wild meats for 1 hour in brine water containing 1 tablespoon of salt per quart. Rinse. Remove large bones.

• Hot pack: Precook meat until rare by roasting, stewing or browning in a small amount of fat. Add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart, if desired. Fill jars with pieces and add boiling broth, meat drippings and water or tomato juice, leaving 1-inch headspace.
• Raw pack: Add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart, if desired. Fill jars with raw meat pieces, leaving 1 inch headspace. Do not add liquid.

Adjust lids and process according to Tables 1 and 2 using without bone schedule.

Canning Method for Ground or Chopped Meat (For bear, beef, lamb, pork, sausage, veal, venison):

1. Choose fresh, chilled meat. With venison, add one part high-quality pork fat to three or four parts venison before grinding.
2. For sausage, use freshly made sausage, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper (sage may cause a bitter off-flavor).
3. Shape chopped meat into patties or balls or cut case sausage into 3- to 4-inch links.
4. Cook until lightly browned; ground meat may be sautéed without shaping.
5. Remove excess fat and fill jars with pieces.
6. Add boiling meat broth, tomato juice or water, leaving 1-inch head-space.
7. Add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart to the jars, if desired.
8. Adjust lids and process according to recommendations listed in Tables 1 and 2.

Sources:

South Dakota State University Extension Service. Wild Side of the Menu No. 3 – Preservation of Game Meats..
Garden-Robinson, Julie, Martin Marchello and Pat Beck. A Pocket Guide to Care and Handling of Deer from Field to Table. NDSU Extension Service. NCR 525, April 1994.