Canning Venison

The procedure for canning venison comes from the University of Georgia Extension. This procedure can be applied to a variety of meats such as bear, beef, elk, pork, sausage, veal and venison.
You want to choose quality chilled meat. Obviously if you are the hunter there isn't going to be a deer waiting near a freezer for you. Remove excess fat and soak strong-flavored wild meat for 1 hour in a brine consisting of 1 tablespoon salt/quart of water ratio. Rinse and remove large bones.

There are two ways to can meat. You can hot pack or raw pack. Raw pack is easy. Fill jars with raw meat leaving 1 inch head space. Add 2 tsp salt per quart. Process 75 minutes pints/90 minutes quarts at appropriate altitude.

Today we are going to hot pack. I've done raw pack many times and wanted a change. I am canning the venision and thought it might help with the flavor. This actually was a good experience for me as this deer has great flavor. Almost a roast beef flavor. Much to my family's happiness. We aren't big game fans. But I didn't want to say no to something free!
If you are not so lucky to have someone do the butchering for you - well roll up your sleeves and get to work. Here in the bag are 2 hindquarters, backstrap and a couple other cuts. I have no idea what they were.
I was wondering how long it would actually take to carve up this slab of meat. It didn't take as long as I thought it would. I wasn't aiming for steaks, roasts, etc. I just cubed the whole thing for the meat size I would use for stew.
And I don't think I could get anything else off the bone.

I did freeze some of the bounty. This bowl is what we are working with today. We are canning it.

According to the University of Georgia instructions for a hot pack we need to do the following...precook the meat until rare. There are various methods such as roasting, stewing or browning in a small amount of fat. I chose the browning in fat method. My fat of choice is bacon fat. I browned all the meat in batches and filled 8 quart jars.
Jars filled with hot browned meat. I haven't added any liquid just yet.
For precooked meat add 1 teaspoon salt per quart. The following may be added - boiling broth, meat drippings (I didn't have any), water, or tomato juice. Leave 1 inch headspace. I chose boiling water. Which I didn't take a picture of. Fill jars with the water, put on lids, screw on bands and put in pressure canner.
I have only quarts so I processed for 90 minutes at 10 lb pressure in my weighted-gauge cannner. Don't forget to let your canner vent for the required time.
The finished product. I will use this venison for stew, in a gravy over mashed potatoes and drain- heat and add bbq sauce for bbq sandwiches. We aren't adventurous in our venison usage just yet.

Stew and Homemade Rolls

These rolls won a red ribbon at the 2012 Tillamook County Fair!  The texture for some reason didn't turn out like the normally do.
These rolls. I love these rolls! It seems my mom made them every Sunday that I can remember for Sunday dinner. Maybe not every Sunday - but it sure seemed that's when we ate them. We have them at family reunions on her side of the family. Dinner is just not complete if we don't have mom's rolls. They are very light and fluffy and I dare you to eat just one.

Mom’s Rolls
2 cups hot water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 TBSP yeast
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
6-7 cups flour
Dissolve sugar and salt in water. Add yeast. Let rest 10 minutes. Add egg and oil. Add flour. Make a smooth but elastic dough. Let rise until double (about an hour). Shape into rolls. Let rise 30 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Brush tops with butter.
Yield: 24 rolls
(This recipe can be halved. If you do that still use 1 egg.)
Stew.
You are probably thinking this is a beef stew. Well - it's a good guess but not correct. Remember the part of the deer I had to butcher the other day? Well today I seared about 2 cups of venison cubes in hot oil and 1/4 cup flour. While the meat was browning I mixed 1 package of brown gravy mix, 1 package of onion soup mix and 1/4 cup flour in a bowl. I sprayed my crockpot with veggie spray and added the meat. I added 2 cups water to the gravy/soup mix and mixed well. I poured that over the meat. I added 1/2 chopped onion, 2 carrots peeled and sliced, 2 celery stalks sliced and 2 cups diced potatoes. (I used one of the pint jars of potatoes that I canned last month.) I let all this goodness cook on low for about 6 hours. I tell you what. Russell thought I made the stew with beef. The deer meat was that good! I am so glad because I was a little apprehensive of eating it myself. My parents used to disguise venision in a handful of different ways and we always knew something was up. The meat just tasted "funny." There were hardly any leftovers - which Russell wants to take to work tomorrow for lunch.