If I thought that the stew looks real bad but the meat is still good I would put the thing through a colander and get the meat and use it some other way. Maybe in another batch. I would not rinse it with water, maybe with some beef broth.
As you said, meats are VERY expensive. It would be a pithy to waste them.

Boiling the stew would kill any active toxins, so that is an option if you're comfortable with it, but you would have to be extremely careful in opening the jars and removing product so that nothing splatters.

If you have any freezer space you could freeze the stew as it is currently. A good whisk while heating should take care of any separation of the flour.

Stew meat tends to be long-cooked anyway, so I doubt more cooking would do much harm, so you could salvage the meat and re-process.

There is a significant learning curve with canning and you've just had a hard lesson. Don't let it discourage you from future canning.

Carol

How long ago did you can it? If less than 24 hours you could open the jars, put in ziploc bags or other containers, and freeze it.

It was last night. So this morning, it would be safe to freeze?

Thanks for all your advice. I like this forum. I promise I will never alter another approved recipe :)

Which reminds me... I canned a meat loaf recipe I saw on youtube. It had eggs in it. Should I dump those? The hamburger meat wasn't as expensive as stew meat, so I'd be willing to dump those if you think I should.

Yes, you can freeze as Carol and I said (I just wanted to check that it had been less than 24 hours).

Definitely dump that meatloaf - wrap in paper and place carefully in the trash, don't open the jars!

That's the good thing about multiple posters. One catches what another didn't mention. So thanks ajsmama for asking about the 24-hour limit.

I would also dump the meatloaf, sad to say, because I'm not sure baking would reach a sufficient internal temperature for a long enough period to kill any potential pathogens.

Of course, it may be fine. That's the great unknown. There are a lot of old canning formulas people continue to use despite the lack of current testing. Meat loaf used to be in the canning books, though I think it was dropped way back in the early 1980's. It presents real density issues and it may have been that the longer processing time required to meet today's standards compromised quality.

I am sorry you are having these problems. Youtube can be the devil sometimes.

Carol

Nettie, contrary to the (joke, I hope) statement that you can believe anything you read (or see) online ... I guess you've learned that you can not.

If you don't have it now, please purchase and use the Ball Blue Book (about $6 sold in thousands of places) as a bible, along with the website below.

The only online site I would absolutely trust for canning and food preservation information is the National Center for Home Food Preservation. See below, if you need the link.

Good luck. Thank you for writing -- as opposed to believing that everything would be OK -- and doing nothing. I think you've probably saved your family and yourself from some serious illness. It sounds like you have missed a bullet. Keep up the good work, and continue to keep in touch please.

Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

Boiling the stew would kill any active toxins, so that is an option if you're comfortable with it, but you would have to be extremely careful in opening the jars and removing product so that nothing splatters. ...
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Op's problem is not a health and safety issue IMO. It is just a visual appearance. For a blind person it would not make a difference.LOL.

Upon opening and re heating, the separated flour wil mix in again to make the stew nice and creamy

Op's problem is not a health and safety issue IMO.

Actually it is as others have pointed out. The addition of flour and other types of thickeners is heavily restricted in home canning as it changes the density of the food and so invalidates the recommended processing time. A substantially longer processing time would be required but how long is unknown.

When density is changed then the heat cannot adequately penetrate the food to kill any bacteria in the time called for. What are called "cold pockets" results and pathogenic bacteria including c. botulinum and e. coli can grow in those pockets and contaminate all the food in the jar.

Dave

It should be tossed if it was not frozen within the 24 hour time frame.

I got it all frozen about 12 hours after it came out of the canner :)

Posted by nettie3 none (My Page) on
Thu, Oct 3, 13 at 0:34

Made a HUGE batch of stew. Used recipe in blue book as a go-by, but thought I knew better and added some flour for thickening.
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Ok. ExactlyHOW MUCH FLOUR did you add to HOW MUCH STEW?

huge batch === how huge ? .... a gallon ?

some flour === how much ? .... half a cup ?

If the amount percentage wise is very small, it is not going to make a significant change in density.

If the amount percentage wise is very small, it is not going to make a significant change in density.

Yes it will because the effect of thickening is exponential. Feel free to add it to your foods if you wish. It is your risk to take. But the the USDA guidelines for home canning make it very clear that adding it or any other thickeners is not approved.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - use of flour

Yes it will because the effect of thickening is exponential. ...(Dave)
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The effect of thickening (increase in density) can be calculated. But this NCF... organization does not say that . AND they do not give a reason WHY eg flour should not be added (!!!) Probably they, themslelves, do not know exactly why !. If the concern was density, you could solve it by adjusting processing time. If it is enzymes, bacteria, they say that @ 240F they are all destroyed. So what is in flour or spaghetti that cause problem? Campbell does it all the time.

seysonn - NCHFP isn't just some unknown organization. It is the research labs for USDA/FDA and are the recognized national authority in safe food preservation/canning for both commercial and home food canners. All other approved sources of home food canning info/recipes/instructions are based on their recommendations and regulations.

And yes, if you explore their many publications (or take their classes) they are well aware of the whys and do explain how density can be calculated and why their testing has determined that adding flours, pastas, and other thickeners cannot be recommended.

Basically it because the amount of processing times required to compensate for the increased density would be so detrimental to the quality of the food that it would be unpalatable.

Further since the thickener of choice is easily added at preparation/serving time after the jar is opened there is no justifiable reason to process it to death simply to compensate for the thickeners. So it isn't a matter of just adding 5 or 10 min here or there. Not to mention that very few home canners are able to or have the interest in measuring the density of their foods and doing all the calculations. Especially when it has already been done by professionals.

Beef stew is already processed for 90 min. (quarts) so say you add flour to it. Now you have to calculate the density.

Density = mass divided by volume. Calculate the mass of the container, then the mass of the container with all the liquids and subtract the mass of the container and you have the mass of the liquid. Then you do the same for all the solids. Then measure the volumes, etc. etc. etc.and discover that the density of it has now increased x fold. How many min do you has to that 90 min processing time for each increase in density? 10 min, 20 min, 60 min? What happens to all the vegetables in that stew? Slushy mush with a scorched taste most likely. You really want to do all that?

If it is enzymes, bacteria, they say that @ 240F they are all destroyed.

No they say at 240+ for a specific period of time and that period of time differs from bacterial pathogen to pathogen. The time is always the variable.

Campbell does it all the time.

Lots of discussions here about the many differences between commercial processing in high pressure autoclaves that you can play football in and use 260-280 degrees F at 50-70 psi (after first irradiating the foods) vs. the common home pressure canner at 240 and 10-15 psi. No comparison what so ever.

Dave

I just have to say that I learn so much from these threads, even when they diverge from OP. Thank you to those who take the time to share their knowledge and experience with the rest of us so freely, even when badgered regularly. And, even some of the badgering reveals knowledge that might have been on past threads that I still learn from.

I can't say as a home canner that I'm eager to emulate Campbell's.

It amazes me that some operate on the assumptions that

1) The staff of the NCHFP (and previously USDA) are incompetent and incapable of applying well-known scientific principles in their own research

and/or

2) They somehow have a "secret agenda" and that their mission is to inflict upon home food processors meaningless and unnecessary rules designed to inflict maximum inconvenience.

It's the age-old question Cui bono or who benefits implying there must be some sort of hidden motive benefiting the NCHFP.

Honestly, I cannot imagine what it could be. What possible reason would the NCHFP have for promulgating poor science or misleading home food preservers? If that were the case they wouldn't post so much of their research online as targets for the disaffected to attack.

Cui bono? No one.

Carol

I am sure NCH ... do a lot of good things, but like any government organization are bureaucratic and always behind.
A am sure Campbell and Hormel have better research scientist and that is why they can produce spaghetti soup, gravy (made of flour) ..etc. Not that I like those companies. I rarely eat canned foods. I would never touch their soups and other things.

So you are frees to praise them (NCHF>>)as much as you want. Nobody is stopping you. But I thing we can criticize them too. It is a free country and we have the freedom of speech and expression. So then just keep your cool

I apologize to OP and I am sure she has already got the advice she was looking for, anyway.

It is not due to their research being better , it is due to the fact they have multibillion dollar equipment, chemical additives, etc. in those plants.
You have at the most a canner worth about $200.

Plus, most of us preserve foods to get away from the chemicals. Plus rat hairs, rodent droppings, insect parts, etc. all allowed by percentages in your commercial foods, even baby foods.