 Alaska is a land of plenty when it comes to fresh game meat. We have moose, caribou, reindeer, buffalo, muskox. The list goes on and on. Canning is an excellent way to preserve meat so that it can be stored safely. While meat may be canned in a glass jar, many people prefer to use cans. When you use a can, you have a lightweight product that is unbreakable and is easy to transport. Hi, I'm Roxy Dinsdahl of Alaska Cooperative Extension, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Because game meat is naturally low in acid, pressure canning is necessary to kill dangerous microorganisms. For more information, refer to our learning module on pressure canning. Research on food preservation is an ongoing process. The United States Department of Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service continuously apply new research findings to their food preservation techniques. The guidelines in this module may be revised as we find new ways to increase the margin of safety or to increase the quality of the food. Consult your local Cooperative Extension Service annually for updated information. Let's take a look at the equipment you'll need for canning meat. First, you'll need a can sealer. You need cans and lids. You need a pressure canner, either a weighted gauge or a dial gauge pressure canner. We need sharp knives and a cutting board. The cutting board, if you don't have one, you can use a cardboard box or folded newspaper to cut on. You need a thermometer that's capable of coming up to temperatures of 170 degrees. You need a plastic knife to release air bubbles. You need a paper towels or a towel. You need a skillet, a timer, a marker for labeling cans, a pen or pencil and paper to put down our accurate times, potholders, and finally, a can lifter. Before you begin, review the manufacturer's directions for pressure canning. If you don't have an instruction manual, be sure to contact the manufacturer for a new copy. Your pressure canner must be in good condition. Inspect the gasket to make sure that there are no tears or nicks. You want to make sure that the pressure plug is seated properly. And finally, we want to check the vent port. Look through the vent port and make sure that there is no obstructions that will reduce the airflow. If you're using a dial gauge, have it checked annually for accuracy. Dial pressure gauges may be checked by your local extension agent. You may use either half pound or pound cans. They come in two different types. This is a two-piece can, which has no side seams, no bottom seam, only a lid, and three-piece cans. Three-piece cans have a bottom seam, a side seam, and the lid. It doesn't matter if you use a two-piece can or a three-piece can. They work exactly the same way. Before canning, make sure your can sealer is working properly. Run a few empty cans through the sealer and check the seal. If you aren't sure about the seal, refer to our two publications, Visual Inspection of Can Seams in Home Food Preservation, and Assembling a Can Sealer. Both of these are available from your local extension office. When you have game meat, handle it with care. Keep game meat iced, refrigerated, or frozen until you're ready to can it. The meat should be stored at temperatures lower than 40 degrees. You can either use fresh game meat, like I have here, or frozen game meat for pressure canning. Many Alaskans freeze their meat after harvest. After a year, if it still remains in the freezer, then they can it. This gives us an effective shelf life of two years. When you use frozen meat and you're going to can it, what you want to do is to thaw it in the refrigerator or under running water before canning. Trim away freezer burn that might have occurred for a quality product. In preparation for canning, you may rinse the cans. You want to be careful not to wash the lids. There's a delicate sealing compound right on the inside of this lid that may not seal if it's washed off. We want to cut the meat into chunks, or cubes, or strips, whatever final form you want the meat to be in in the can. Then we're going to precook the meat to a rare stage by roasting, stewing, or browning it in a little bit of hot oil like I'm doing here. I'll be back when I have the meat ready to go into the cans. Now that the meat's browned, we want to pack it loosely into the cans, leaving a quarter inch head space. Now that I have my cans filled, we're going to look at the meat being no higher than a quarter of an inch from the top of the can. Then I'm going to add boiling water to my cans, again preserving that one quarter inch head space. You can choose to use the broth out of the bottom of the pan, or you can use tomato juice, or other liquids that your family might enjoy. Once your cans are filled, we want to shift the meat to make sure that we've released any trapped air bubbles that might be in the bottom. Now that we have them to this point, we can add salt, garlic powder, pepper, any of those seasonings that your family enjoys. It's important to note that the seal is formed differently in cans than in jars. So the first step in the sealing process is to exhaust air from the can before sealing. This process prepares the meat so that a vacuum will be formed during the pressure canning step. First, we're going to put a rack in the bottom of our canner. I've already put enough water in it so that the water will come about halfway up the sides of my cans. I'm going to place my open filled cans inside the water in the canner. If you have more, then we'll fit in one layer in the canner. We're going to put the second layer in a different pan and heat it separately. I'm using a cake pan here. You can use a roaster or whatever pan works well for you. I'm going to place my cans again in the water where the liquid comes about halfway up the sides. And then I'm going to adjust the temperature so it's at a gentle boil. The next part is crucial. We want to check the internal temperature of the meat. It needs to be 170 degrees. But it's important that it be inside of a piece of meat because the temperature of the juice will come up faster than the temperature of the meat. So it's an internal temperature in the meat of 170 degrees. Now as they heat, we're going to check each can because they may not all heat at the same rate. When a can of meat reaches a temperature of 170 degrees, use the jar lifter to remove it from the heat. Use a paper towel or a regular towel to clean the edges. I'm going to use my potholder to remove it and place it in the center of the turntable on my can sealer. Put the lid on the top. I'm using an Ives Way can sealer today. Your can sealer may be different. Make sure that you follow the instructions that is with your can sealer. I'm going to pull the lever down and again center it so it's completely engaged all the way down. My window shows a zero. Means that this is at the beginning of the process. I'm going to crank it until the first set of rollers come in. Then they release and the second set of rollers start. And I'm going to continue cranking until my window shows a zero. I know I've been all the way around. Still very hot. So use your potholder, lift up, and then inspect your seam and make sure that it's done correctly, that there's no v's or no droops. This is a good example of a can that has a droop in it. This seal would be compromised. After sealing, inspect each seam on the can to ensure that it's completely sealed. Check for sharp edges or drooped edges. For the safety of the product, if a seam is formed incorrectly, the meat must be removed from the can, packed into a new can, brought back up to 170 degrees and resealed. Correctly sealed cans should be returned now to the hot water in the canner. After all the cans have been exhausted, sealed, and inspected, it's time to start the canning process. Filled cans have been placed in the canner on the rack in the bottom. If you have more than one row of cans, you either need to use a second rack or offset the cans by placing two here with a third one in the center. Add more water to the pressure canner if needed up to three quarts of water. When your canner is filled, place the lid on the canner. You wanna look for the little arrow here on this canner and it matches with an arrow on the handle. And I know that those two have to match up for it to go on. Canner lids go on only one way and most have an arrow like this one that shows when it's correct. Be sure that your lid locks completely. Leave the weight off of the vent port or if you're using one with a pet cock, make sure the pet cock is up. We're going to turn on our stove on high and we're going to heat the air inside the canner. As we heat the air, it's going to expand and push the excess air out of the vent port. So now I'm going to watch the canner until we have a steady stream of steam coming through the vent port. As you can see, we have a steady stream of steam that's coming out of the canner. We've allowed this to go on for the last 10 minutes and so now it's time to close the vent. With the dial gauge canner, we drop the dead weight on. With a pet cock, we're gonna flip the pet cock or if we're using a weighted gauge, we're gonna drop this on the vent pipe at the hole corresponding with the tint. Now we're gonna watch the canner and wait for the pressure to come up to 11 pounds on a dial gauge or 10 pounds on our weighted gauge. The way that we know it's 10 pounds on this weighted gauge is that it will jiggle gently. Now, we're gonna process our one pound cans for 99 minutes and the half pound cans for 70 minutes. For altitudes greater than 1,000 feet above sea level, be sure to check with your local extension office for correct times and temperatures. Now we're gonna wait until we have 11 pounds pressure to start the timer. Now that the canner is at the recommended 11 pounds of pressure, we're going to check the time and write it down. I'm gonna add to it the 70 minutes that is required for processing half pound cans. This number will tell me what time my canner needs to be turned off. I'm also going to set my minute timer so that I'll have two ways to check my processing time. Stay in the area where the product is being processed so that any changes in pressure can be corrected immediately. If the pressure drops below the recommended amount, you have to bring it back up to the proper amount and restart the timing. Time process is completed. Turn off the heat and remove the canner from the heat source if you can. Let the canner depressurize. Allow the pressure to drop naturally. Don't use a cold cloth or cold water to rush the process. It takes 25 to 35 minutes to depressurize the smaller canner, a large one like this one may take 45 to 60 minutes. Don't rush the process. When the pressure gauge reaches zero, we're gonna gently nudge the dead weight and make sure there's no pressure inside the canner. No steam should be released and no resistance should be felt. Gonna wait 10 minutes. Now that I've waited 10 minutes, I'm going to unfasten the lid and remove it with the facing away from me so I don't burn myself with the steam. I'm going to remove the cans with the can lifter and place them on a cutting board, a rack or even folded towels. And I'm gonna let these cool for 12 hours before moving them again. Do not put the cans in water and the can, as you can see, the canned lids are slightly domed right now. As they cool, they will pull in and this indentation tells us that a vacuum has been formed. When the canning process is complete and your cans have cooled for 12 hours, examine the seams, make sure that they're nice and smooth, flat and that there's no evidence of any leakage occurring during the canning process and that there's no sharp edges. Then you know you have a good seal. So what happens if your can didn't seal? You have three options. First, you can take the can and place it in the freezer and use that can just frozen. You can take the can and put it in the refrigerator. Keep it for three to four days. Use it within that time. You can also reprocess by opening it up, putting it in a new can. Reprocessing does not affect the quality of the meat inside. Wipe the cans clean. Write with a permanent marker the date, the product, the minutes of processing and the pounds of pressure. Store canned goods in a cool dark place. Do not allow cans to freeze as it may compromise the seal. For best quality, use canned meat within one year. Now you have fresh canned game meat ready to be used in your family's meals.