Monday, November 22, 2010

Canning Shredded Pork

I'm having a bit of trouble with my pictures loading so until I get that figured out I'll just explain the beginning of the experiment.

I was at the Sam's Club last week and noticed their country spare ribs were on sale for $1.42/lb. My husband loves when I slow cook them in barbecue sauce and serve either as a sandwich or over rice. But, then I got this great idea. So, I bought three packages.

I am loving my new Nesco digital pressure cooker. I rubbed some bbq rub on the meat and put one package into my cooker. I put a little water in the bottom and a steamer insert inside onto which I put the meat. I set the cooker for 45 minutes. At the end, the ribs were perfect. The meat fell off the bones when I was shredding it for pulled pork sandwiches. That was about the easiest meal I've ever made.

I cooked the other two packages the same way and had quite a bit of meat that I could then can.

Here is most of what I cooked and shredded from the pork ribs. We did eat some for dinner the night I bought them. This is one of those big disposable plastic containers nearly full.
I filled up three and a half quarts with the pork. I had saved the broth from cooking the pork and used that as the liquid. The jar furtherest to the right looks a little different because I used water to fill that one. I ran out of the broth.

Make sure the rims are wiped down really well because the pork was a bit greasy and you want the lids to seal on to the jars successfully. I used a little soap on my cloth just to make sure. I know of some people who will use rubbing alcohol or white vinegar on the rims. I haven't found that necessary, but with the greasy food, I just wanted to do a little more.
Inside are the three quarts and one pint of pork. I filled the canner up with three extra quart jars of water. I processed the jars at 10lbs pressure for 90 minutes in my pressure canner.

I'm pretty thrilled with the outcome of this particular experiment. I bought the meat for $1.42/lb. We ate dinner from it and I got at least three more dinners from it. Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to record how many pounds I bought. I want to say about 7-8 lbs altogether. A couple of the packages were bone-in so they weighed a little more for a little less meat. But the rib bones are not that large.

You may wonder why there are a few bottles of water in the canner. I've learned to do this for a couple of reasons.
#1 - keeping the canner full helps to cut down on the jiggling inside, especially in a water bath canner
#2 - the water will be sterile and can be used for emergencies

I don't usually have a less-than-full canner, but when I do, I just fill up some quart jars with regular tap water and slap a lid/ring on it. No big deal.

3 comments:

kelli said...

hi wendi! i'm stocking and would love to know of an inexpensive source of glass jars in the area, if you have any to share!=)

BerginMania said...

You're best bet is to check yard sales, flea markets, Craigslist and Freecycle.

I was given about 500 jars once when I asked for jars on Freecycle. She gave me everything she ever used for canning. It was a gold mine and all for free.

Lots of "jar owners" have clued into the fact that canning is very trendy right now. So, they're offering them for like $1/jar. That's ridiculous! I don't mind paying .50/jar, but that's about as high as I will go. I also have a large supply.

Put a request out on Craigslist as well. Ask your parents' friends. The older generation isn't really canning any longer so they're looking to get rid of they're jars.

Be prepared also, to have to empty jars. I have friends that have been given hundreds of jars but they had to first empty and wash them. And the food had been in there for quite some time. Free is free though.

Hope that helps.

Sam Bergin said...

It's yummy!