Experiments With Rebel Canning

Yes, I said it, I pressure-canned several gallons of 1% milk this past week. The people who swear by federal guidelines say this is a no-no, but I used old-school methods to do it, and it worked out well. I had one quart jar that didn’t seal, so that got made into pudding last night, but the others sealed and now I have shelf-stable milk for when I need it.

“Why,” you might ask?

I got tired of throwing away milk. I’d buy milk for the littles and to make Hubbin’s favorite pudding, or to use in salad dressings, and then the rest would go bad before I could use it. I was pouring money down the drain! I froze some but it didn’t turn out well, so I checked out videos of other ‘rebels’. Turns out there are safe ways to do this.

Having said this, there were a couple of experiments that did not fare so well.

Canning raw chicken. That was an epic fail – it looked so disgusting after it was processed that I could not bring myself to open the jar to even throw it away! Even now the memory of what it looked like turns my stomach! I took a picture of it before I tossed it so I could keep the image for an upcoming storyline, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to revisit that nastiness even then!

I want to try canning cooked ground beef, if beef ever comes down in price. Right now, beef is a whole lot more expensive than chicken and pork, so it might be a while before I can experiment with that.

I’m still learning, and today I’m planning to can chicken broth as well as some black beans.

Out to enjoy my Friday. Have a great weekend, and if you’re blessed to have a three-day-Labor Day weekend off, stay safe.