Jarring Chili con carne...

[bwaymark]

Hiya Everyone,

I don't suppose anyone has ever jarred chili con carne or other meat-based products before and could offer some tips on how to successfully preserve meat this way?

-Ben.

[Wombat]

G'Day Ben,

Welcome to the site!

Weren't you over at that American homestead site!

Nev

[bwaymark]

Ya, I was indeed... the one that nutmeg and all them were doing....

[Shirley]

Hi Ben

:welcomeish:

Sorry - I've never tried jarring meat at all. Good luck :)

[Wombat]

Ya, I was indeed... the one that nutmeg and all them were doing....

Cool!

Nice to see you here!

I have never done much with meats but I suppose there is no reason why not, so long as you got it hot enough for long enough to kill botulism spores. The acid in the tomatoes in the chilli would help as well.

Nev

[bwaymark]

Hiya Nev,

Nice to see you again! Its been a while! How's things?

Well, tried putting some Chili con carne into kilner jars. Boiled the jars for an hour, put the chili in, the boiled for another hour. One jar looks fine, the other started fermenting after five days and managed to spit bits of tomato past all over my pantry.... not sure if that worked.... :-)

-Ben.

[Wombat]

Everthing's going pretty well, mate! What have you been up to since I saw you last?

I've been mostly working, but have asked for three months off early next year for a bit of long service - to try out a more self sufficientish lifestyle. And boy am I hanging out for that!

Sounds like the seal on the bad one was a bit dodgey! let the air in and that's what you get, a jar of bleuch!

Nev

[the.fee.fairy]

Can you not use a potted meat style recipe to make the chilli?

Does it have to be jarred? You can freeze it quite easily to keep.

[Luath]

Meat and vegetables have to be bottled (canned in the US, or jarred, as your term) using a pressure canner - NOT the same as an ordinary pressure cooker. This will amke them safe to eat; without it, there is a fairly high risk of botulism, as the foods are not sufficient in acid to keep safely.

This subject comes up at the same time every year. You can bottle fruits safely and easily with a water bath method; tomatoes are possible, but add in a good squeeze of lemon juice to raise the acidity for safety. I have bottled courgette curry, but again, a goodly squeeze of lemon juice was added.

At the moment, pressure canners only available from the US; shipping costs are quite high, so would only be sensible if you were going to bottle a lot of meat and vegetables as well as fruit. I am considering getting one over the next few months maybe.

Have a look here:

http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/search/ ... re+canners

Hope this helps.

[bwaymark]

Lovely! Thanks for that info! Very useful....

I binned my chilli after a few people raised concerns about botulism....

[Stonehead]

At the moment, pressure canners only available from the US; shipping costs are quite high, so would only be sensible if you were going to bottle a lot of meat and vegetables as well as fruit. I am considering getting one over the next few months maybe.

Have a look here:

http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/search/ ... re+canners

Hope this helps.

They do pop up on ebay UK from time to time - usually being sold by science graduates who've been using them as autoclaves. Of course, botulism might be the least of your worries if you buy one...

[Luath]

Why's that, then? What do they sue these autoclaves for? I've come across this suggestion elsewhere, but I think I would rather get the real thing.

[2steps]

hi there :)

Luath bet me to what I was going to say I'd love a pressure canner but there really hard to get here and not cheap either