Pressure canning recipes can be a bit harder to find, as most beginning canners are all about simple water bath canning for pickles and jams. Once you have a pressure canner at home, you’ll be able to can almost anything at home, including meat and low acid foods like vegetables.
A selection of pressure canned food. Back Row (left to right): Beef Broth, Pumpkin, Tomatoes, Pinto Beans, Sweet Potato. Front Row: Pasta Sauce, Corn, Beets, Black Beans.
(If you’re not familiar with pressure canning, I’d strongly suggest you read this beginners guide to pressure canning before proceeding. Be aware that a pressure canner is different than a “pressure cooker,” and you cannot make these recipes in your instant pot.)
Water bath canning is a great place to start for beginners, and it’s an easy way to preserve jams, jellies, fruits and pickles. If you really want to put up a substantial amount of food for your family, you’re going to have to graduate to pressure canning.
Pressure canning allows you to put up nutrient dense meat, vegetables, soups, stews and stock. Since they’re low acid foods, they cannot be preserved in a water bath canner, and they require the higher temperatures of a pressure canner for safe preservation.
What Foods Need a Pressure Canner?
Certain foods, namely low acid foods with a pH above 4.6, must be canned in a pressure canner if they’re canned at all. This includes:
- Meat of All Kinds ~ Beef, Chicken, Pork, etc.
- Stocks and Broths ~ Both Meat and Veggie
- Vegetables ~ Potatoes, Pumpkin, Green Beans, Etc.
- Dry Beans ~ Black Beans, Pinto Beans, Navy Beans, etc.
- Chili and Baked Beans
- Soups and Stews
- Some Tomato Products, like pasta sauce with low acid ingredients such as mushrooms, onions and peppers included.
You can also process water bath canning recipes in a pressure canner, and it’ll allow you to get the job done quicker without steaming up the kitchen (as much). Keep in mind, that while you can convert water bath canning recipes to a pressure canner, it doesn’t work in the opposite direction.
For example, we can water for emergencies in a pressure canner, though you can also easily do that in a water bath canner.
Things You CANNOT can in a Pressure Canner
Root vegetables are often stored in a root cellar, but that’s not an option everywhere. Locations dry arid locations out west without basements can’t successfully root cellar vegetables, and it’s not the best option for small homes and apartments either.
Even though we successfully root cellar many crops on my homestead here in Vermont, I still love the convenience of canned root vegetables. I eat canned beets right out of the jar as an afternoon snack, and I absolutely love the convenience of canned potatoes on busy weeknights.
Pressure Canning Meat
Preserving meat without refrigeration can be tricky, especially if you’d like to avoid massive amounts of salt (as in bacon, salami and dry cured meats). Living on a solar powered homestead, our freezer space is at a premium and I’ll often can up meat for quick weeknight meals when I need a bit more room in the freezer.
Many of my readers born in the ’30s and ’40s have related fond memories of eating home canned beef right out of the jar, stealing it from grandma’s pantry shelf as an after school snack. Great nutrition and convenience to fuel growing bodies!
- Pressure Canning Beef – Practical Self Reliance
- Canning Turkey – Practical Self Reliance
- Canning Chicken (or Rabbit) – National Center for Food Preservation
- Canning Pork – National Center for Food Preservation
Pressure Canning Wild Game Meat
Since game meat is often a bit tough, and harvests are sometimes much larger than even the biggest freezer, pressure canning recipes can come to the rescue. They tenderize the meat while at the same time allow you to store a huge harvest without additional freezer space.
This can be a lifesaver if you’re in a rural cabin without dependable access to electricity.
- Canned Canada Goose Meat – Cornell University
- Elk, Moose, or Caribou – The Canning Diva
- Canning Quail and Other Game Birds – On Big Turtle Creek
- Canning Chicken or Rabbit – National Center for Home Food Preservation
- Canning Squirrel – Meats & Sausages
- Canning Turtle – Life With A Good Wife
- Canning Venison Cubed and Raw Packed – Simply Canning
- Canning Bear Meat – Montana Outdoor Radio Show
Pressure Canning Organ Meats
While these days organ meats are often tossed, they’re actually some of the most nutritious parts of the animal. Canning up organ meats means you preserve the best parts and can slowly eat them for all their benefits throughout the year.
- Canning Beef Lengua (Tongue) – Kusina ni Manang
- Pressure Canning Giblets – A Traditional Life
- Canning Organ Meat Stock – Practical Self Reliance
Organ Meat Stock
Mark G Bomalaski
What brand/model pressure canner do you recommend?? I am having a hard time navigating the online reviews.
Ashley Adamant
I use the All American 30 Quart, and I did a LOT of research on models before investing in this beauty. I absolutely love it, and I’ve been using it constantly (at least 3-4 times a month, often 2-3 times a week) for 10 years now. No signs of wear, works great, no parts to replace…this thing is going to last 100 years.
(The reason for the 30QT size is that you can fit twice as much in it as the next size down. You stack jars double-decker and can put in two layers of 7 quarts at a time for 14 quarts total, or as many as 19 wide mouth pints.)