Meals in a jar

[Archangel]

IIRC, I think I saw something on Doomsday Preppers about putting an entire meal in a canning jar. I'm not sure if these were mixes for "eternal soup" or something more elaborate.

At any rate, the Bride is doing canning today and it came to mind. Does anyone know HOW this is done or can you pint me in the right direction to get this information? To have an entire meal ready to go instead of just beets, bens and pickles, would be pretty great!

Thanks TOL'ers,

Gabe

[R-Tex]

Archangel,

Here's a start. Look like a pretty good idea to me!

http://www.cheftessbakeresse.blogspo...r-recipes.html

http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2011/07...-meals-part-1/

Let us know if you you try any of the recipes and whether or not you liked the results.

HTH,

R-Tex

[Archangel]

Thanks, Tex. Will be giving a couple of these a shot. I'll report back.

Blessings,
Gabe

[PyratePrincess]

I've been doing this for several months now. As with anything, some I liked...some not so much. WHEN I have extra time (yeah, that's an oxymoron) I'm working on my own recipes...but it really IS like setting up a test kitchen-and with expensive dehydrated items like meat/cheese you really want to make one test batch...eat it and see what you think. I posted some time back about my problem with Emergency Essentials brand of dehydrated ham. #10 can...was 3 years old and when I opened it-was definitely rancid. Second can...same thing.

Don't get me wrong...I LIKE the folks at EE (and they did make it up to me after a bit of protest)...but with cans that are "survival foods" that you're told will last 25-30 years-this was an eye opener.

I LOVE the concept of the dinners...because instead of having a case of meat-a case of vegetables-a case of whatever...you've got shelf stable meals...that are better tasting than the bagged variety...and less expensive.

A lot of videos can be found on you tube. Check them out and try a couple!

[grower]

My mom used to put up quarts of "soup mix" every summer from her garden. It was tomatoes, okra, lima beans and corn -- all canned in a Mason jar. When I was in college, she would always load me down with jars of soup mix when I went back to school. I would brown a little hamburger in a skillet, then pour the jar in and heat it up. Made a great stew, very filling.

[Summerthyme]

I can up beef stew and chicken stew (meat, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions)... fully seasoned. I usually wait until after I am heating it for supper before thickening the gravy (and you might want to either can up some gravy separate, store some commercial canned gravy, or use a gravy mix to make some quick while heating it)

But just as often, I just use canned meat, canned carrots, canned potatoes and some dehydrated soup veggies (onions, garlic, sweet peppers, maybe some celery) for a quick stew. It sure beats Hamburger Helper when you're in a hurry, I can tell you!!

I also devised a recipe for canned Tortiere de Viande (French Canadian meat pie) which only required heating, adding to fresh bread crumbs, and pouring into a pie crust to bake. WONDERFUL, and saved tons of time (since cooking the beef and pork, onions, etc plus grinding up the bread crumbs and making the pie crust often was more than I had time for at the end of a day, or before milking the cows. I'm pretty sure I posted that one here once (I remember somoene freaking because they didn't like the idea of "meat pie"! LOL!) but it may have gotten lost in the archives thanks to the Righthaven pukes...

I think I need to pull out about 40# of boneless pork loin that I bought on sale and vacuum sealed a couple years ago and can it up as a seasoned pork stew. Canned meat stays fresh a lot longer than frozen, although the vacuum sealing helps a lot. But I could use some room in that freezer- I know I have about 40# of butter I bought before the price went nuts, but I can't find it!

Summerthyme

[PyratePrincess]

I can up beef stew and chicken stew (meat, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions)... fully seasoned. I usually wait until after I am heating it for supper before thickening the gravy (and you might want to either can up some gravy separate, store some commercial canned gravy, or use a gravy mix to make some quick while heating it)

But just as often, I just use canned meat, canned carrots, canned potatoes and some dehydrated soup veggies (onions, garlic, sweet peppers, maybe some celery) for a quick stew. It sure beats Hamburger Helper when you're in a hurry, I can tell you!!

I also devised a recipe for canned Tortiere de Viande (French Canadian meat pie) which only required heating, adding to fresh bread crumbs, and pouring into a pie crust to bake. WONDERFUL, and saved tons of time (since cooking the beef and pork, onions, etc plus grinding up the bread crumbs and making the pie crust often was more than I had time for at the end of a day, or before milking the cows. I'm pretty sure I posted that one here once (I remember somoene freaking because they didn't like the idea of "meat pie"! LOL!) but it may have gotten lost in the archives thanks to the Righthaven pukes...

I think I need to pull out about 40# of boneless pork loin that I bought on sale and vacuum sealed a couple years ago and can it up as a seasoned pork stew. Canned meat stays fresh a lot longer than frozen, although the vacuum sealing helps a lot. But I could use some room in that freezer- I know I have about 40# of butter I bought before the price went nuts, but I can't find it!

Summerthyme

Now ya done it. GOTTA find that one! I'm now actually hungry thinking about a good meat pie (course I spent 20 years in cajun country!)