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I really like to can.
I canned meat (beef) today. Actually I am only 1/2 done but I am resting up for round two later today. I have 3 canners. No. No one really needs 3 canners. I used to have 4. It's true.
You see, Mom gave me her canner and that is all I ever needed. I canned green beans and beef and....well that is mostly what I can. But I use the canner to scald corn and to pressure chickens and to waterbath jelly so it is not too neglected. A few years ago, John's Mom gave me her canner too. Unfortunately it was missing a very important part....the jiggler. Without the jiggler, you can't get any pressure, but I would interchange the jiggler from Mom's to Sharon's and it was pretty nice to have two for those times when you have a lot of canning to do. And truthfully if you drag all that stuff out you sort of want a lot of canning to do. So, I got to thinking that it would be even nicer if I didn't have to wait on the jiggler. When I can beef, it has to process for 90 minutes so the time lag is pretty great to just be waiting on a jiggler.
So I decided to order a jiggler. Yes. It was possible....but quite a bit more expensive than I had imagined. I decided to advertise on Swap Shop for a jiggler, surely someone had one tossed in a drawer somewhere....no response.
Then.....I decided Ebay would be my best bet. It was terrific. Tons of choices. I could have all the jigglers that I wanted....as long as I wanted all that went with them too....including the canner!
The price of the canners were less than purchasing the jiggler as a replacement part so I went ahead and bid. The first one I bid on went over the $15.00 that I put as my highest bid. Oh well, there were lots of others so I just went to the next one and bid $20.00 thinking that I would for sure get it. Sure enough. I got a really nice canner. My quest was complete.
Wait a minute.....Ebay sent me a message saying that the winning bidder on the first canner had backed out and lucky me....I won the first canner for $15.00! Uhhhh. Great?
I searched the rules for how to decline one of the canners and didn't see any good way to do it. I even emailed the sellers to ask if they minded if I only won one. Ummm....they did mind.
So....now I was the winner (?) of two complete canners and I already had two minus one jiggler.
Ridiculous. My Ebay experience cost me a pretty penny.
The great thing is that I was able to outfit both of my canners fully, have a nice big pot to do whatever I want to with I guess and I gifted a nice canner to a friend that is really liking canning too. So I spread the joy. Fun.
The moral is that sometimes you win a few and sometimes you wish you didn't.
Or something like that.
3 comments:
What do you use your canned beef for? Do you have a favorite recipe (or two)? I should probably do that with some of the tougher cuts of meat.
Beef and Noodles mostly. But you can do vegetable soup too....I just almost always do Beef and Noodles. I think Mom just heats it up and serves it with Mashed Tates.
I get 30 lbs cut into canner meat when we butcher. I have 24 pints and 6 quarts of canned meat from that amount that I did yesterday. Right now, I just look at it. :) I never want to eat it right away unless one doesn't seal. I just want to look at it for some reason.
Meat is my favorite thing to can. You don't have to pick it, snap it or wash it....just pick it up from the butcher (they cut it all up into chunks) I brown it and stuff it in the jars, add canning salt and process it at 15 lbs for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts. I don't add any liquid cuz it makes it's own broth. When I get ready to use it I dump it out into the pan, add 1.5 to 2 jars full of water and let it simmer then put in my noodles and cook them. Easy and tasty.
I love canned veggies, salsa, fruit and the like! I would like to learn how to can. Hopefully next summer I will have time!
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