What I did Thursday....and you can do it do!

Okay, it has been dismal seeing my home canned goods dwindle in my pantry.  We had a so so harvest this past year and so my stores so to speak are depleting.  Feeling the need to add something, I figured I would go ahead and cook up a turkey I bought during the holiday season, can the meat and make broth.  It is really nice to have cans of meat whether beef, chicken, or in this case turkey.  It is definitely a convenience.  When you are wanting to make a quick meal and are tired from work, pulling out a jar of meat and using it in a recipe is a life saver.  In addition to that, making and canning your own broth is a much healthier alternative to the canned broth or bouillon bought at the store.  So since this is what I did on Thursday, I thought I would share a little how to for those adventurous souls among us.

First let me say I Do Not Mess around when it comes to canning meat.  I make sure Jars are washed thoroughly and heated, lids and rings are hot but not boiling.  No cross contamination with utensils or hands.  Once all of this is done, you are ready to start you process.  Believe me this is easier than it looks and so worth it. 

Remove the meat from the bone and cut your meat, in this case it was turkey, into bite size pieces and place in a pot.  Cover with water.  You then want to cook the meat til it is half done.

Once the meat is ready, remove it with a slotted spoon and place into your hot jars leaving about 1 inch of space (head space) at the top.

Once your hot jars are full, add 1/2 tsp salt for each pint.  Wipe off the rims with a damp cloth.  This removes anything that might keep the jar from sealing and also will give you a heads up of any cracks in the rims.  Put on your hot, but not boiling, lids and rings. 

Put them all in your pressure canner(which has 3 quarts of water in the bottom).  Put on the lid and start heating.  You want to get to where there is steam coming out the vent  pretty strongly.  Let the steam vent for about 2 minutes and then place the weight on the vent. 

Bring pressure up to 10 lbs pressure.  I know my gage says 11 lbs, but that's cause mine is special and I have to have it at 11 lbs.  Mine is uhhhh 72 years old (it was my grandmothers).  The gage is off a little so according to the county extension office I have to can my stuff 1 lb higher.  Anyway, I digress.  You are going to process turkey for 90 min at 10 lbs pressure.  Other types of meats will vary in processing times.

Once the processing is done, turn off the burner and let the pressure reduce (don't remove the weight).

Once the pressure has returned to zero, you can remove the weight and open the lid. 

Remove the jars to the counter and over the next 2 hours they will cool and begin to POP! as they seal.  This is the cool part, as your children determine you are nuts as you yell the numbers as they seal. You know "THAT"S TWO!".  Let the sealed jars cool for a day without moving them.  Once they are completely cool you can store them in your pantry.  Jars that don't seal you can store in the fridge and use them for that nights dinner.

Okay now that you have an almost empty turkey carcass (I know.  There is no way to make that sound better), place the carcass along with 3 whole onions, 3 or 4 good size carrots (washed but unpeeled ), Celery, 1 TBS salt, and 2 TBS vinegar into a stock pot.  Let it simmer on a low heat for at least a day.  You can also put it into a crockpot, but it would need to be a good size one.  This broth I made was cooked for about 36 hours.  Once it is done, remove the bones, carrots, etc.  Place your broth in the freezer or fridge to cool and allow the fat to solidify at the top.  You can defat it this way.  Just scrape the fat off the top.  Bring your now defatted broth to a boil.  Put the hot broth into hot clean jars.  Wipe rims, put on lids and rings.  Process at 10 lbs pressure for 25 min for pints.  This is what you get:

Check out that color!  All the wonderful nutrients from the veggies are in there.  The vinegar draws minerals and other nutrients from the bones.  This is the type of broth that cures colds I garauntee!