Pressure Canning your Stews

I made this chunky chili yesterday in my new crockpot.  I cooked it for about 5 hours and it was very tasty.  But rather than eat it right away, I thought this might be a good chance to practice with my (also new) pressure canner.



If I had thought about preserving this stew in advance, I probably would not have fully cooked it before processing.  But since this was a brisket, the meat was still very firm.  So I thought I would give it a try.

I also had a liter of chicken broth in the fridge.  I also preserved it with the pressure canner.  The chicken broth would not take as long to process but I didn't want to go through this twice.  It is recommended that meat stews be processed for 90 minutes.  Chicken stock only requires about half that time.



I like the idea of preserving food for use later.  I can remember as a child, my mother would can chickens using the water bath method.  I loved the flavour of the canned chickens but there isn't a chance I would do that without using a pressure canner.  The risk for botulism is too high.



I have been canning with the water bath method for years - tomatoes (with lemon juice added), fruits, jams and jellies.  Having a pressure canner broadens the range of items that I can put away.  



I left about a 1-inch headspace and both jars lost a bit of liquid.  I was way more intent on being sure I didn't have an explosion or have the pot run dry so wasn't focussing much on the end product - not that I could do much about it anyway!

Have any of you done any pressure canning?  I would love to hear about the types of things that you have considered successful using this method.