Date: 12 June 2014. Sausage Canning Recipes.
©
janice142
Aboard Seaweed I enjoy eating
well a variety of tasty foods that are not loaded with chemicals I
cannot pronounce. Fresh is best, however I love those out of the way
anchorages where my nearest neighbors are dolphin, turtles and fish.
There, life is peaceful, quiet, and picturesque. Few of my favorite
spots have a nearby grocery store. That is why canning meats
helps make my lifestyle amazing, and delicious.
When the nearest neighbor has feathers and likes
fishing, life is good.
Yes, now you can purchase lots of
products in foil packages and many of them are quite palatable with
a bit of help from your galley seasoning skills. The
Food in Foil
article offers hints in that regard. I do take advantage of
some of the foil packages for my larder aboard Seaweed.
The dollar stores and groceries also sell a variety of
canned meats for those so inclined. Hint: shake the can.
If it sloshes, there is a lot of liquid and not so much of the
product. Skip those.
Truly, most of the
foil packets I would avoid simply because I am not a big fan of
sodium. Salt belongs on popcorn and alas, many of the canned meats
are too salty for my taste. They are however economical. You
can find many items at a cost of a dollar each and that is not bad
at all in my view.
The taste though leaves a lot to
be desired. In that regard, I have chosen to can my own meats.
I do not advocate canning vegetables -- they are economical and
quite good in the canned goods section of your grocery store. In my
mind if the work involved does not create a better end result, it is
not worth my time.
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Sausage
Chips canning recipe ala Seaweed |
I am fond of Italian
Sausage, however you will want to chose what you prefer for your
version of the sausage base. For Seaweed, I buy the link
sausage, usually with sage because my grandma's had sage in
it.
First add about one or two inches of water to your
pan and then boil (you read that correctly: boil) the sausage.
Prick the sausage casing up and down the length of the sausage. As it cooks the grease comes out of the sausage.
Flavor is retained.
Next, remove from the pot, let the sausage cool, then cut into
chips. Do not discard the liquid. |
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I do a fast chill on the
leftover liquid in the pan so that I can remove the layer of
grease and still have the flavorful broth left over. Sometimes
I add a bit more water to the stock.
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Next add the chips to the
jars then add a bit of the liquid to cover the chips. I have
also added salsa, petite tomatoes, and tomato sauce as filler
in the sausage chip jars.
I like a variety of ready
to eat fixings so there are choices available and ready to eat
-- all without refrigeration.
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Directions
for canning/processing at the end of this article. |
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If company arrives I can open a small jar of tomato
sauce and add one of my canned sausage chips. Voila: instant dinner to
share. Otherwise often I will just have the sausage over some pasta.
Perfect for one. |
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The reason we boiled the sausage
is so that the grease would be gone. I do save the water the that I
have cooked the sausage in for the next step of the process. It's
got great flavor, so we will use it.
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Meatballs
'n Sausage ala Seaweed |
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Aboard Seaweed I prefer
to use the lean ground beef and fancy it up with a bit of
diced onions, garlic and perhaps some salsa. I did try canning just
ground beef without seasoning and found it bland.
Frankly, I am not particular as to what type of
salsa to use. I raided my daughter's refrigerator and used the
rest of of a couple of jars she had in there.
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I prefer smaller bite-sized meatballs, so mine
are about the size of a shooter marble.
Reheat the leftover
stock from cooking the sausage to a simmer. Then add your
meatballs to the liquid and cook until done. It does not take
long, and yes, they stay in pretty good shape too.
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I used a fryer scooper
gizmo thingy to fish out the meatballs. Some of the
meatballs I canned alone, while others were mixed with sausage
chips.
All had liquid to cover
the meat added. Some of the liquid was the juice I had cooked
everything in, while other jars had tomato sauce, or petite
diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, and/or salsa.
Also, green pepper was
added to some of the jars I processed. Garlic was in every jar
-- love the flavor! |
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Canning or processing meats has a
couple of tricks I have learned over the years. It is important
to note that the old canning book (circa 1920's era) had different
standards than we use today.
The reason why I theorize is a lot
of the storage over the winter months in basements meant practical
refrigeration. If you have ever been in a basement in Maine during
December you know it's doggone cold down there. Even in the summer,
with no outside windows it was dark and cool. No wonder stuff stayed
fresh so long.
The following two articles
describe exactly how I get good canning results aboard Seaweed. The
novice should start with Part 1, but if you are familiar with canning
Part 2 would be your kick-off place. It has cooking times along with
instructions for making sure you have had success.
Canning Primer
(Preserving Meats, Part 1)
and/or
Processing in Pressure Cooker (Preserving
Meats, Part 2)
Good luck and have fun. As for me, I watch for sales
and when the Italian sausage I like is discounted, that is when I buy.
Usually three pounds of sausage and two or three pounds of lean ground
beef will keep me busy. I cannot give you a quantity of jars filled
because I also made stuffed green peppers, lasagna and taco soup this last
time in addition to sausage chips and meatballs. Those recipes will
be in upcoming articles though of course you could "wing it" and get good
results no doubt.
Measuring is not a strong suit with me which is probably why
recipes tend to come out a bit different each time I make them. Such
is life on the waterfront.
I'd love to hear what your favorite home canned food is.
Do you like having the essentials for your family available 24-7-365? Does
that make me a prepper?
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Categories: Galley,
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