Bottled Beef

1. Fill pint jars with beef. If you are using raw beef, cut it into sizes that are easy to fill bottles. If you are using *cooked beef, cut it into easy to manage pieces.

2. Fill the jars with a ½ inch space at the top.

3. Put ½ teaspoon of salt, and a ¼ teaspoon of granulated garlic (for quarts – 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon garlic) on the top of the beef in each pint. (I prefer to use pints when bottling meats)

4. If necessary, fill with a little hot water or broth and use a wooden utensil to make sure that all the trapped air pockets are filled.

5. Wipe the bottle rims and put on **lids and rings. Hand tighten the rings, but don’t over tighten.

6. Place jars on the canning rack in the ***pressure canner with the water going about halfway up on the bottle.

7. Close the canner and turn the heat on high and listen for the air to escape out of the vent.

8. Once the air starts to come out, time it for 10 minutes and then put the weight over the vent to help continue to build pressure.    

9. Depending on your elevation, you will either let the dial go to 11 pounds (altitudes 0-2000 ft), or 12 pounds (altitudes of 2,001 to 4,000 ft.).

10. Once it has reached the correct pressure, process pints for 75 minutes (quarts for 90 minutes).

11. Turn the heat off and let the pressure release slowly by itself.

12. Once the gauge registers 0, release the lid being careful not to burn yourself with the steam or the water dripping off of the lid.

13. Using a bottle lifter, carefully remove bottles from the canner and place on a towel on the counter to cool down. Don’t touch them until the next day.

14. After they have rested overnight, wash them with soap and water to remove residual broth and remove the ring.

15. Label item and date on the lid (don’t put cute tags on the glass because they are too hard to remove) and store in your pantry.

*If you cook the meat beforehand (which is not necessary if there are no bones. Cooking makes it easier to separate the meat from the bones), don’t throw away the broth. Bottle it separately for soups.

**Follow the directions on the lid boxes

***Anytime you are canning anything with meat, it needs to be pressure canned.