Canned Venison
5November 9, 2015 by Buffy
Spotty and his first buck of the season.
It is hunting season in Arkansas! Deer hunting season to be exact. My boys love to deer hunt and are really good at it. They have already got 3 deer this season. Our freezer was full after the first one, so I had to come up with something new to do with all that meat. I had researched every Pinterest pin on canning deer meat, but still wasn’t brave enough to try it. I thought that meat in a jar looked gross, so of course it would taste gross. Then one of my friends posted a simple recipe for canned deer meat on Facebook. This was not just any friend. This friend enjoys all my favorite things, gardening, canning, chickens, and cheering on Mustang sports. If she was posting a recipe it must be good! That was all I needed! I drug out the pressure canner, jars and lids. Then waited for opening day of youth gun hunting season! Sure enough the boys each bagged a buck.
So I went to cubing the meat up.
Then I diced some onions and peeled some garlic. 
It was time to get this experiment under way. I packed the sterilized quart jars with meat until they were half full. Then I layered in half a chopped onion, a garlic clove and a beef bullion cube.
Then I finished packing the jars firmly with more meat leaving 1 inch of head space in the jar. (Do not add any water to the jars!)
I added a lid and ring. Then into the pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes! They come out bubbling and cooked to tender perfection.
Finished product!
To serve I just poured into a skilled and heated up with a package of brown gravy mix. I served with mashed potatoes and corn. This makes a great dinner in less than 10 minutes, but it taste like you cooked it all day!
So be brave and give it a try! You won’t regret it! Thanks Judith for inspiring me to be brave.
I’ve always had this “thing” about canning meat as well. But if you says it’s good, I’m going to give it a try. Thanks for the recipe!
Give it a try! The jars of canned meat still don’t look great but wow did it taste good.
Wow it looks great!! I’ve never canned just meat before unless it was in soup or sauce. So this is very interesting!!! Glad you overcame your fear lol
I might have to get brave and try this too. I’m going to have to overcome my fear of pressure cookers! Is it necessary to add the bouillon cube? I try to keep sodium down but if it’s necessary then so be it!
You can can it with out the bouillon cube. But I do think it adds a nice flavor. I understand, needing to reduce the sodium. One recipe I saw when researching how to can deer meat, said to brown the meat instead of adding the bouillon cube. Maybe I’ll test a few different recipes soon.