Does anyone know how to can turkey---thanks chris----

-- chris evensen (chris_evensen@hotmail.com), November 16, 2001

Answers

Hi Chris. I just finished canning 3 turkeys. There may be easier ways to do this but this is the way I've found to get the best flavor. First I roast the turkey until its almost done, very brown. Then I slice us some for a meal and cut or pull as much of the meat as I can get off the bone. Refrigerate that immediately. Put the bones, skin and juice from the bottom of the pan in a crock pot. I pour hot water in the bottom of the pan and scrape up all the good brown stuff from the bottom and add that to the crockpot. Add water to just cover the bones. I let it cook all night and part of the next day. When I have time I take out all the bones and stuff and strain the broth through a strainer. Dont line it with anything as you are just trying to get rid of the small bones. I then scrap through the bones and get as much meat as possible and put it in the fridge. I put the broth in wide mouth jars and let stand in the fridge till the next day. On day 3 I take all the fat off the broth and put it in a large pot to heat. I cut the turkey in large chunks and put in 7 qt canning jars. What I usually wind up with is the jar about 2/3 full. Then taste the heated broth and season according to your taste. If it's not rich enough sometimes I add a couple of tablespoons of good chicken boullion and some celery salt or seed. Divide it between the 7 jars. Finish filling the jars with boiling water to the shoulder. Be very careful to wipe the rims of the jar. Just a tiny dab of fat will keep them from sealing. I usually wet a cloth in very hot water and wipe the first time and then wipe again with a dry cloth. Put on sterilized lids and process in a pressure canner at 10 lbs. pressure for 90 minutes. You can fill the jars with meat and just barely cover with broth/water and can the same way but the dishes we like turkey in use broth so I can it half and half. Usually from a 12 to 15 lb turkey we eat sliced turkey the day its roasted. Maybe sandwiches a couple of times and turkey and dressing another day. With the 7 qts I can we get 10 or 11 meals from a $7.00 turkey @.37 a lb. I know messin with it for 3 days seems like a lot of trouble but it really isnt. I've tried to can raw turkey and you just dont get the flavor like roasted. Also the flavor stays good longer if you remove as much fat as possible. I usually dont get more that 1/8 of an inch of fat on top after canning it this way. Another thing...after thanksgiving or xmas dinner immediately put the bones and skin and scraps in the crock pot and cover with water and can the broth. It makes wonderful dressing or soup even with little or no meat. Hope this helps Blessings Peggy

-- peggy (peggyan2@msn.com), November 16, 2001.

peggy,, where do you get turkey for .37 a pound??? best I can get is 59 a pound, frozen

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 16, 2001.

The Bi'Lo grocery store in Cookeville has them for .37 a pound. Krogers has a deal of taking $5 or $10 off and it figures to .50 + a pound. At Bi-Lo you are supposed to buy $20 worth of groceries but every time I've checked out with just $5 or $10 the turkey is still .37. Blessings Peggy

-- peggy (peggyan2@msn.com), November 16, 2001.

Stan, thanks for asking and Peggy, thanks for responding -- Your timing is perfect!!!

I have been wanting to do this for a long time. Here in SC in the Greenville area also, Bi Lo has turkeys for $.37 a lb.

I am curious, can you water-bath preserve meat? It seems like you WOULDN'T be able to, but at 50 years old this city gal turned country gal is learning......who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks???

MissJudi

-- MissJudi (jselig@clemson.edu), November 16, 2001.

Runs fast and pulls store ad from fireplace...

Stan-

$0.25 cents a pound if you buy a min. of $20.00

$0.39 cents a pound buy one get one free with a min of $25.00

you really need to keep an eye out for the Grocery Store ads and sales. Most of the sales for Turkey start mid October (buy one get one free) and so on through to New Year's Day.

If you don't get the ads then ask friends to alert you when they get theirs.

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), November 16, 2001.

NO!!! you cannot hot water bath can any kind of meat.

-- ruby (mcfays451@aol.com), November 16, 2001.

around here,, 59 a pounds frozen, , and you get 10 items for free,, just little stuff,, nothing real great,, but its free.

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 16, 2001.

Peggy, do you think it is OK to can a turkey that was frozen first this way? (after it has been cooked, of course.)

-- Joli Beevers (rjr9@ev1.net), November 16, 2001.

Hi again. Ruby is right sort of. You can waterbath it and it would seal. Amish folks have been doin it for years but it really is not safe. Its too time consuming and expensive to waste doin it that way not to mention the about of time... 5 or 6 hours processing. Be sure to let your canner vent steam for at least 10 minutes before putting the pressure thingy on and dont skimp on the time. I've been canning all kinds of meats for years and havent lost a family member yet. The kroger store last month put really nice pork on sale for .99 a lb. I bought 20 lbs and canned it after roasting it and making a rich almost fat free broth. I'm waiting for them to put ham on sale...the cheap picnic hams to can ham and broth for beans and soup. I raw pack venison and beef without broth for stews. Oh and ground beef for chili,spagetti,tacos,casseroles. Usually by Jan. I'll have enough meat canned for the next year till October. You cant beat the convenience. Blessings Peggy

-- peggy (peggyan2@msn.com), November 16, 2001.

i can ours similar to peggy's method (only at .59 a lb this year!) ha - seriously, the only thing differently i do is to can the meat the same day i've cooked it (and yes, eaten a meal of roasted turkey from it), putting hot water in over it instead of broth. then, i take all the bones, make broth from them and usually just freeze that until i've cooked up several batches, then have a big "broth canning" day! same basic method, only i like to get the meat put up right away. we love using it, and also can most of our venison - any recipes that call for cooked chicken, beef, burger are all an excuse to use our home-canned meat instead! we put ours up in pints and get around 14-16 pints, depending on the size of the bird and how much freshly roasted turkey we pigged out on!

-- leslie in mo (whomestead@hotmail.com), November 16, 2001.

Around here King Sooper & Safeway stores have $4 and $5 turkey deals. The $4 is usually for turkeys under 15lbs and the $5 is for ones over. These are frozen & usually an "off" brand or store brand, but heck turkey is turkey! They limit it to one per family and you must use the store's club/discount card. I go in to both stores & buy the biggest turkey I can find. Last year both of mine were over 20 lbs, so I got well over 40 lbs of meat for $10! Best part is they normally run this special twice, Thanksgiving and X-mas. We had plenty of Turkey for both holidays, plus 2 more to cook later.

-- ellie (elnorams@aol.com), November 16, 2001.

You are right--turkey is turkey. I used to work in a turkey plant. All the same turkeys, just put into different bags. We used to be able to get "c" turkeys, which had a wing torn off in a machine or meat torn someplace very cheaply. Don't know if they still do that with so many more uses for turkey now.

-- Barb Fischer (bfischer42@hotmail.com), November 16, 2001.

I was a manager for BI-LO/Red Food for years in the Knoxville area, and always got good deals on older meat. 1 tip that few people think of, and most meat departments will honor, is to have the cutters split a turkey with the band saw. If it has the metal clip in it, they may not be able to cut it completely, but it gives you an option of roasting only a half bird. Jim

-- Jim Deweese (jedeweese@earthlink.net), November 17, 2001.