Who Cans food? cutts up, smokes and stuffs there own game.. age?

[3006softpoint]

I'm 43 years old....Started canning 5 years ago and have been doing more and more canning after getting my mother inlaws pressure cooker....1975 harvest gold presto pressure cooker! We have 2 gardens raise and can sweet corn,beans,carrots,potatos,cabbage,strawberries,ect....I also dug my grand mothers cabbage cutter out of my mothers basement.....Made 2 gallons of sour kraut....4 years ago I started processing my own meat..seasoning the meat ,stuffing it,and now smoking it. in a home made smoker.... My wife and kids like helping make sausage, we made 65 lbs of venison, summer sausage,snack sticks, ring bologna & hot dogs... I smoked them in my 14 cubic foot hand made electric smoker, it holds 50 lbs of meat....We live in a very german community so supplies are always available...But have been picking the older peoples brains for tips and hints & recipies...Are area butchers makes great sausage but its expensive starting at $5 per lbs on up to $20 per lbs .... I can make it for $1.60 a lbs up to $2.50 lbs depends what i'm making....Yes I'm full german and so is the wife...We like sausage and beer, and wine in moderation... Dale

[Conan The Librarian]

I tried canning years ago and found it's not worth the trouble, except for a few things like tomatoes and pickles. Most everything we preserve is preserved in the chest freezer. One notable thing that freezes well for about a month or so is bread. It's easy to make, is better than most any commercial bread, and it doesn't have all those preservatives in it.
 
I do make my own sausage. It's the only way to go. Much, much better than commercial. I make mine very lean, and with no nitrites or nitrates. Then freeze it. I have been using natural casing, but found a place that sells collagen casings, so I'll try that with my next batch. I just wait for pork to go on sale, then buy about 15 pounds of it and make sausage. My tool for it is a KitchenAid mixer with food grinder and sausage stuffer attachments. Works great. I do it in the winter so I can set the meat out on the porch to firm up and chill.
 
I also make my own chicken stock, then freeze it. Definitely better than commercial.
 

 
 

[Fred McIntire]

How about posting a "How To" on making the "14 cubic foot hand made electric smoker" ?

I'm hearing more and more on people canning and curing their own harvest.

Thanks !

Fred

[rockbilly]

Several years ago when I raised a big garden the wife and I did a lot of canning, lately its been so dry here in my part of Texas that I don’t have enough water to maintain a garden, We did freeze two bushels of peaches this year, as well as several flats of strawberries, but I can’t say we saved much.  For years we have shelled, vacuum packed and froze pecans, usually about two five gallon cans full. Usually, I do my own game, cut and process, mostly sausage, steals and jerky, its froze.

In most respects I harbor the same feelings Conan does, it doesn’t save anything by doing it, but I must agree it taste much better than bought. We have pretty much put the canning items away and freeze what few foods we want to preserve today.

I could go for a big bowl of my homemade vegetable beef soup today, it sure taste good with a big slice of cornbread and glass of tea on a wintry day, when the kids were growing up we made 30-40 quarts each year, they also loved it…………wish I had some now.

[Hit or Miss]

I do it all!  Grow it, kill it, butcher it, can it and cook it.  I'm a firm believer that if you don't know these skills, one of these days you won't be eating. 


As far as a deep freeze goes, have you ever discovered a dead freezer at 10 o'clock at night and had to find someplace to put all of that stuff until the next day so you could buy a new one?  I have, I no longer rely on the freezer for storing too much.

[Sourdough]

We do not buy meat at the store.  Too much steroids and antibiotics given to the animals in feed lots, and before getting to the slaughter houses, or processing plants.
 
I bought a canner, two flats of jars with lids, and a case of cans, back in 1985.  It's all just like the day I brought them home.  The wife refuses to use them.  And I just have not gotten motivated to do it either. 
 
We do make 80 to 100 lbs of sausage (Bear, Caribou, and a little Moose) every year.  I grind two to three hundred pounds of Moose and Caribou meat into burger every year.  I also put up one to two hundred pounds of Moose and Caribou, steaks and roast each year.  It all gets vacuum sealed then into the freezer.  It's a lot of work, but we stretch it out over a few weeks.  I end up giving a lot of it away each year to friends, and new arrivals to Alaska.  I make lots of Stews, Burgers, and Meat Loafs, for parties and office functions every year. 
 
Every summer we also put 50 to 100 lbs of Halibut into the freezer.  40 to 50 lbs of Salmon get froze as well.  Some years more, some years less, depending on the runs and how much we catch.
 
My neighbor has a smoker made from an old Refrigirator.  Once he gets it fired up he will smoke anything I take to him.  I usually take him all my Salmon for the year.  I sometimes will have him do some Black Bear Meat as well.
 
Then we go and eat often.  At the beginning of each season, I donate what is left in the freezer to the local soup kitchen.

[Spirithawk]

 Wanna cheap, easy, but awesome smoker? Find yourself an old apartment size cooking range that is cheap or being tossed. They are ready made smokers. The oven compartment is the smoker, complete with racks. The bottom drawer, used for pans, is where you put your coals and wood chips and most slide out making it very easy to tend your coals and add chips. Works fantastic! We smoke our Turkey and Hams in one. So simple that our friends, and folks seeing it for the first time, are always going, " DUH! Why didn't I think of that? " lol I'm going to modify one and put an electric coil in the bottom. You can buy replacement coils for smokers off Ebay for about $40.

[Sourdough]

Norm took a big Refrigarator, one with metal insides.  Stripped all the electrics out of the bottom, and replaced them with a small propane burner, and a fire box.  He puts the chips and wood clippings in the fire box, then lights the burner.  Once it gets hot and going good he turns off the burner, no longer needed as long as he keeps an eye on it and keeps it fed with fresh wood and chips.  He mostly uses dried Alder that we cut along the banks of rivers, and bring home for this purpose.
 
He also took out the freezer, and placed more metal racks.  He has racks every six inches from the bottom to the top.  He put a 3" smoke stack on the top, but the pipe runs flat to keep it from drawing too fast.  He also added a damper to the stack.  He added temp gages on the outside with the senses on the inside.  One near the bottom, one in the middle, and one near the top.  Norm loves smoking, and once he get this thing fired up he will keep it going for several days.  He smokes Salmon, Cod, Moose, Caribou, Bear, Rabbits, Grouse, Ptarmigan, Turkey, and even pigs, brought in by friends that have raised them over the summer.  I and another neighbor often go over and relieve him so he can get some sleep, or just sit and talk, and learn from a master smoker. 

[3006softpoint]

I have tryed to attach some pictures of my home made smoker..... 14 cubic feet on top smoke box holds 50 lbs of sausage....heat & smoke start in the oven and rise to the smoke box on top.... Its electric!

[Spirithawk]

I have tryed to attach some pictures of my home made smoker..... 14 cubic feet on top smoke box holds 50 lbs of sausage....heat & smoke start in the oven and rise to the smoke box on top.... Its electric!

Pretty cool and great idea.

[Conan The Librarian]

Yesterday was a cooking day for me. Had the place to myself and wanted to stock up on some things to freeze and refrigerate. Am lately successfully experimenting with bulk packs of ground turkey from Costco. Bought about six pounds of it Friday night. Saturday I did this with it:
1) Two meat loaves, cooked, cooled, then frozen in portion size slices
2) Wontons for wonton soup, frozen and bagged
3) Stuffed cabbage, with sauce, frozen in meal size portions for two.
4) Then had enough left over to make moussaka tonight (Greek eggplant/tomato/meat dish).

Also made up a batch of red jalapeno sauce (like the red chili sauce at Thai restaurants).

We'll be doing more with that ground turkey. It's a good value, is lean, and with proper seasoning and preparation has the right texture and flavor. It was about 2.30 a pound and the bulk pack had four individual packs in it, totaling about six pounds.

[3006softpoint]

There is nothing I would do different with my smoker in the above picture......Works great.. Has both heating elements in it, the lower cooking and broiler element.... I have used it outside as low as 5+ degree temp.......It has one  8 inch stove pipe and two 4 inch pipes cut from smoke box to oven box.... the oven dials make heat control easy....the chips sit right next to the lower element ....It also has wheels....... only con. is its top heavy when moving...

[flintlock]

I started canning deer meat about 10 years ago...We did this with pork tenderloin growing up, tastes just like it...All my brothers and sisters expect some now each Christmas...
 
If you've never canned deer meat you need to try it...It can be put on rice, bbq sauce added, used for your base for vegetable soup or warmed and eaten as is...