A prepping step most people will be able to do, even if they are living in suburbia. First, buy some chicken; I prefer dark meat, and I buy in bulk.
These are readily available here:
This ten pound bag was less than seven dollars, and will fill four quart jars.
I chose to do 3 quarts, because that fits in my favorite pressure cooker. We will eat the rest, so they went on to boil. This allows me to refrigerate this pot after they are cooked, so I can skim off the chicken fat the next day!
The 3 jars look Like this in my pressure cooker:
As everyone knows, there is a wire grill that fits in the floor of the pressure cooker; to keep the bottles up off of the bottom, for even heating. I always put water in the cooker about half way up the Jars, so they won't run out of water mid-cycle!
The cooker I use, runs 10 to 11 psi; so the recommended cycle time is 90 minutes for deboned chicken, and 85 minutes for bone in. I heat to pressure, and let it steam for about ten minutes to stabilize. Then I set my cook top to process temperature, and set the timer to 95 minutes. As a backup, I set a separate timer for 95 minutes too. All I need to do then is listen to the steam, and wait!
When the time's up, the cooktop turns off; and I let it cool enough to loose steam pressure. The jars are placed on a towel to cool, and the lids are tightened down. Once they cool, check the lids for vacuum, by verifying the center has popped down. Wash the outside of the cool jars, and put them on the shelf to store.
They look good?
These cost about $1.50 a jar, which is less than a fourth the cost of the canned chicken at the store. This is very easy to do, just make sure the pressure cooker will take quart jars, and run at least 10 psi steam pressure. The quart jar to the left, is dehydrated mixed vegetables.
The unprocessed chicken makes a good dinner:
We had chicken and dumplings on this, and it will likely last 2 meals.
This is an 8 quart pressure cooker:
It is my favorite pressure cooker, and works on an inductive cook top. This is especially handy, because I can set the temperature I need on the cooktop. The final judge on process temperature, must be the weight on the pressure cooker! Setting the cooktop slightly hotter than the process temperature, ensures the thermal control by the lid pressure regulating weight.
This is the model I like best:
I have no affiliation with this company, but I have purchased two of these units. They are reliable, and they are large enough to be useful. I canned some beans from my urban garden in this unit, because I didn't have enough of them to load my large pressure canner. The journey to full homesteading begins with small steps, and this is one of those steps! You can become comfortable with your canning ability, before perfection becomes a life or death issue.
If you mess up now, it affects only a small addition to your prepping stock while recovery is easy!
Let's address the 'recovery' steps to take if your jars don't seal. You have two basic options to use an unsealed jar's contents. The most common is to use the unsealed contents for dinner. The second option is to process the same jar again, after inspection. Inspection consists of removing and replacing the lid, in case it's damaged, and cleaning the seal surface with vodka. This kills any pathogen that might be there, and it allows you to feel the entire surface for Chips that might affect the seal.
Once this is done, the jar can be run with the next process batch!
I do have a 21 quart inductive pressure cooker, but using it is an all day job. This smaller one maybe cost me an hour to run these jars, so they both have their place.
We have a pressure cooker in the house as well, but we tend to use the air fryer or just fry our foods on the pan.
Also, you should consider using the 'proofofbrain' and the 'waivio' tags on your posts. You'll get more tokens and possibly more outreach for your posts.
All good cooking methods! This was primarily cooking for long term storage, but we do fry foods here for immediate consumption. We don't air fry, but I do use a convection oven a lot.
I'll look at those tags, thanks!
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Dark meat!Sounds like nothing I know.It may be because I am not a meat fan anyway .
I don't eat as much as I used too, but the breast of the chicken is white meat and the legs be and thighs are dark meat. White meat is supposed to provide long term flying power, while the dark meat is for burst power to run from danger. But white meat is dry, and dark isn't.
Oddly, quail are all dark meat, I suspect because they don't fly great distances.
This chicken can sit for years, and be good still; with just a little work!
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