I don't raw pack meat, and never actually measured how much went in each jar. I just browned and partially cooked with broth, then put in jars with clear broth. I had refrigerated overnight to reduce the amount of fat.

I don't want to brown them (no nonstick pan, and I don't want to use too much oil), and if I raw pack I can use in chili, stroganoff, stew, whatever. Plus the beef broth I have has yeast and soy in it. I guess I need to buy some boullion.

I brown mine in the oven, just enough to brown the outside. You can still use in all the mentioned items, or just meat chunks like a roast already cut up. I won't use boullion because of all the sodium it has in it. I have to watch all salt intake. the broth does just fine, I use Swanson brand.

Agree with Marla on the raw packing. No reason to do it. You can easily brown meat in 1 tsp of vegetable or olive oil or even in cooking spray like PAM. Don't know of any reason why pre-browned beef can't be used in chili or whatever.

But if you want to do it then yeah, basically a pint = a pound (give or take a few ounces).

So assuming minimal if any trimming 6.5 lbs. = 6-7 pints.

Dave

Thanks Dave - I usually don't brown the meat before throwing it in the crockpot for stew or chili - though it might taste better that way. I didn't know (since NCHFP didn't give amounts for meat) if that 1 tsp of oil in a SS fry pan would be enough for 5-5.5 lbs of meat (we'll eat a pound or so for dinner tonight, and there is some fat to be trimmed). Plus I'd have to do it in batches so raw pack is a timesaver. Processing time is the same.

OK, looks like I have a full canner load so I'll do some pints - 1 pint should do for a meal for us.

I'm also thinking raw pack would be less likely to siphon than hot pack with broth? I only have 1 can of broth anyway, plan on using that for dinner ;-) Too late for slowcooker, so I'll have to do a stroganoff or something (onions, mushrooms and broth) on the stovetop. STILL have a big pile of leaves on the front lawn of the church and the annual Holly Bazaar starts tomorrow.

Oh, NCHFP just says "fill jars, leaving 1 inch HS" - so loosely fill, don't pack it in there, right? I'll weigh the meat (trim and cut up what we're having for dinner first) but as long as it's 1" HS and about 1 lb/pint I've got it right?

This post was edited by ajsmama on Wed, Oct 16, 13 at 15:59

I didn't do them last night since I let DD stay up late to watch a Halloween special and then didn't want to be up til 11PM canning.

Took me a little while longer to prep and pack the jars (I'd cut up the meat last night and left in a ziploc bag in the fridge). Prepped 4 jars but then needed another - and I hope I didn't pack them too tight, I didn't have enough for a 6th pint so I opened the first 4 jars, put the lids back in hot water (Ball demo on green beans they said not necessary but some of my lids were older) and kind of pushed down the cubes where I saw a big space (first couple of handfuls were just dropped in) so I could fit a little more in each jar, then wiped rims and put the lids back on. I know this is usually frowned upon, you don't want to pack too tightly, but since Dave said about 1 lb per pint and I got 0.8 lbs (4lbs 1 3/4 oz, including weight of gallon bag, packed into 5 pints with 1" HS) I figured it was OK. If I had had 5 lbs I would have gone for 6 jars.

Venting now - since I'm at 997ft I'm doing 10lb weight for 75 minutes. I'll post pix when they're out of the canner so you all can let me know if they were packed correctly. And since I haven't processed anything for this long yet, and my burner cycles, I'm going to stay in the kitchen and keep checking the gauge (as an indicator - it seemed to be accurate, read 10.5-11lbs for 10 lb weight) as well as listening to weight rock. I've got the burner set on 8 so it might take a little while to vent/come to pressure but I don't want to be adjusting it, even with the weight set, since if I turn it too low I'm afraid the burner will cycle and it will drop below 10 psig.

Did you raw without broth, or browned? I always add some liquid to anything that I can, BWB or PC.

Raw without lquid, as per NCHFP instrucitons. We'll see in about half an hour how they turn out - almost done processing but need to depressurize and cool.

Ok, when I canned meat, was before I found the NCHFP, and I overcanned (90 minutes for any beef), and always turned out fine, I still have some as emergency supply, over 4 years ago. I wished I had canned some of the cow that we had butchered (much better/leaner tastier than store beef).