Canning again

One of the local grocery stores had a fantastic sale on hamburger, so I spent the last two days canning up 25 pints of cooked hamburger. You might think that hamburger canned in water doesn't sound very good, but it's actually really useful in things like spaghetti sauce, hamburger stroganoff, and other recipes that call for already cooked ground beef.

One of the nice side benefits of doing it this way is that it's really easy to get all the fat out of the meat. I've found that I can get a little under pound of hamburger into a pint jar, if I cook it first (you can can it raw; the processing time is enough to cook it through.) So, what I'll do is boil it. It cooks up large amounts easily and it's easy to skim the fat off the top. If I'm feeling in the mood to be really careful about fat, I'll put the cooked hamburger in a strainer lined with cheesecloth, suspended over a large stockpot, and pour boiling water over the hamburger. That gets out everything but the smallest quantities of fat. (That's important, actually, because when you're canning, too much fat in the product can cause problems that can keep your jars from sealing. And I hate to waste all that work!)

So, now I have 25 pints of convenience food, which is very nice to have on hand for those times I'm in a real hurry.

I've been doing peaches, jam and juices lately, too. I'm going to be canning up a bunch of apple products next. Applesauce, sliced apples, apple pie filling, and spiced apple rings. No apple butter this year. I still have plenty left over from last year to use up. Lots more cinnamon applesauce, though. Michael loves that stuff.

I had a chance to pick up a juicer last spring, for practically nothing. So I've been juicing up apples and peaches and anything I've been able to get my hands on. Traditionally, to make juice, you cut up your apples, say, and cook them in some water for a while until you have everything cooked down and can strain it to get the juice. Using the juicer, though, is a lot easier! Not to mention faster. And since I can get apples from the orchard around the corner for $9/bushel, it's pretty cheap, too.

I was talking with a friend yesterday and I mentioned what I've been doing. She was impressed and said that she would like to do that, but just doesn't have the time. (She is a very busy working mom.) I told her it's how I help to support my staying home. It's not a matter of the time, it's the finances, for me. Not impressive, just survival.

But fun, too!