Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

I have little experience with canning any sort of meat and I would be a bit afraid of food poisoning to tell the truth. It is said that raw meat can still be eaten even if it is off but any meat heated over 60 C (and canning would go a lot higher) can be the end of you if kept under the wrong conditions. The right conditions being high acidity and a temperature never going over 15 C.

If something should go wrong, and you would not be sure because the worst bugs leave the meat without obvious bad smell or taste and would not blow up the can, ...alcohol neutralizes the toxins produced by Clostridia. Heavy drinkers may survive a contaminated can.

 

I have some experience deboning poultry and other critters though. We salt and smoke hams for instance to preserve them and we always take the bone out since decay will be almost unavoidable if you leave the bone in unless you use loads of preservatives. We can't even buy saltpeter here any more so the bone is removed.

After smoking the ham gets a thin coating of honey and is then stored in a closed barrel under a reduced oxygen, high CO2/CO atmosphere. This is still raw meat and it will keep well for us for years. Tastes good too.

 

Another old way to preserve meat (raw again) is by turning it into sausages.

 

To debone poultry, lay the bird on it's back and make a cut in the middle along the breastbone and belly. Peel the meat away from the "bone box"(you'll understand this when you have done one)  with a sharp knife.Wing and leg bones are pushed more or less out. Push bone as far as it goes while cutting gently around it. Then break the bone and push the other way. Quite feasible when you get the hang of it. I used to do this to fill a bird up with other stuff and then it was sewn together again and bound up with butcher twine

john

.

I am interested in canning chicken as a means of  preservation and would like peoples experience with deboning as opposed to bone in and how long it will keep.  Thanks

 

 

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened. -- Mark Twain

 

 

 

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