Author Topic: Canning Bacon (Read 31533 times)

CBP · « **on:** December 30, 2010, 10:03:27 AM »

I saw this in the recent Backwoods Home magazine

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/gay127.html

Mine just came out of the canner!!! With the proper sales, this could be a bit cheaper than Yoders. I was was not able to fit an entire pound on the 18" paper recommended (I had trimmed mine to that size) so I have slightly less than a pound per quart, about six pounds of bacon per eight quarts -- a good size for two people. If I had left my paper the original 24" the entire pound would have fit and there was certainly enough room in the jar.

I paid $8.97 for three pounds of Hormel Black Label (the cheapest I could find this week) for about 45+ strips of bacon.

I'll be giving this a taste test over the weekend.

archer · « **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2010, 10:08:50 AM »

Let us know how it tastes! this is a great thing to try.

Nicodemus · « **Reply #2 on:** December 30, 2010, 11:41:25 AM »

I definitely want to try this!

monkeyboyf · « **Reply #3 on:** December 30, 2010, 08:37:23 PM »

I originally read about this on Enola Gay's blog Paratus Familia. She experimented at first with a brown paper sack cut out flat. So glad Backwoods Home did her article. She has lots of great ideas. She also cans butter.

NWBowhunter · « **Reply #4 on:** December 30, 2010, 08:48:32 PM »

Thanks this a great article.

TwoBluesMama · « **Reply #5 on:** December 30, 2010, 08:52:40 PM »

Read this article last week and bought a roll of brown paper today to use to can bacon sometime this weekend. Was glad to see someone else had tried it already.

CBP let us know how yours turned out.

Morning Sunshine · « **Reply #6 on:** December 30, 2010, 09:33:08 PM »

huh. I wonder if my overly picky hubby would eat this....
I might have to give it a try

oh, Hi, DEV.

boboroshi · « **Reply #7 on:** December 30, 2010, 09:59:19 PM »

Would love to see how this turned out. I have a subscription and read the article as well. Looks like a great solution.

mamabear · « **Reply #8 on:** December 31, 2010, 01:54:23 PM »

I can't wait to get a canner and try this out. I love bacon and would love to know that I had some for anytime. Storing it in the freezer, while convenient now, may not always be. Not to mention the time I have to take now for thawing it. We don't always know that we want bacon for breakfast the night before. Right now it's in the freezer and there is no eating it cuz we want it now, canning it myself would solve that problem. Let us know how your bacon turned out.

Hi DEV.

d37fan · « **Reply #9 on:** December 31, 2010, 08:57:49 PM »

I am going to try this also, but I am going to use parchment paper since it is designed to be cooked with. Using masking paper or something else where it will be exposed to this amount of heat worries me a little.

TwoBluesMama · « **Reply #10 on:** January 01, 2011, 07:21:26 AM »

Quote from: d37fan on December 31, 2010, 08:57:49 PM

I am going to try this also, but I am going to use parchment paper since it is designed to be cooked with. Using masking paper or something else where it will be exposed to this amount of heat worries me a little.

I thought of this too but the parchment paper has a very faint "shiny side" and I didn't want any wax or plastic in my bacon. Not totally sure about the brown paper but I'm willing to try it. I'm not so worried about the paper and the heat as I am if there are any chemicals in the paper. If I'm not around in a week or too you'll know it poisoned me and I'm dead. Otherwise I'll let you all know how it turns out!

CBP · « **Reply #11 on:** January 01, 2011, 07:25:49 AM »

Oops pardon me a moment, I need a napkin.

I took out a quart of canned bacon this morning and cooked it up. This particular quart had some good strips and some rather thin strips in it -- the odds and ends that were left over. There is about an inch of juice, little fat in the jar. Probably could go in a pot of soup. I had no problems unraveling the roll of bacon and all the pieces made it in the pan intact. This bacon is not like the packages of Hormel precooked -- it needs pan crisping or microwaving. I fried it up on med-low and it crisped up (and maybe a bit too much) in 7 minutes. The strips seem to stay "original size" with minimal shrinking either from the canning process of frying -- and stayed very straight while cooking, no curling. There was probably two spoonsful of bacon grease remaining in the pan when the bacon was cooked. This had minimal spattering and I just carefully rolled up the parchment from the jar and threw it away, no spills.

Neither of us could tell the difference in taste or texture. I will certainly keep some of this on the shelf! We don't eat lots of bacon, but that's because of it never being thawed when we want it and frankly the extra cooking time and gobs of grease. This has to be one of the easiest canning recipes I've ever done. Minimal preparation, no boiling water, just stuff the jars and blast 'em!

TwoBluesMama · « **Reply #12 on:** January 01, 2011, 07:32:54 AM »

Hi CBP - did you use brown paper in your canning process? Just curious. Thanks

CBP · « **Reply #13 on:** January 01, 2011, 09:01:22 AM »

Quote from: TwoBluesMama on January 01, 2011, 07:32:54 AM

Hi CBP - did you use brown paper in your canning process? Just curious. Thanks

I used 24"x16" parchment sheets I had at the house for baking cookies. I trimmed them down a bit for this. I went ahead with the parchment rather than the brown paper only because I wasn't going past a store that would carry it. My parchment doesn't appear to have much coating on it. Not that it would probably stop me in the long run, but I'm wondering how food safe/sterile/clean the rolls of brown paper are since they are made specifically for non-food tasks?

bartsdad · « **Reply #14 on:** January 01, 2011, 10:39:22 AM »

Might butcher paper be a good choice for this process? It's built specifically for food use.

TwoBluesMama · « **Reply #15 on:** January 01, 2011, 04:25:20 PM »

Quote from: bartsdad on January 01, 2011, 10:39:22 AM

Might butcher paper be a good choice for this process? It's built specifically for food use.

Well that was my first thought too - except butcher paper has lots of wax/plastic (?) on the one side and not sure what that would do with the heat of pressure canning. I use it all the time to wrap meat but didn't want melted "stuff" in my bacon. I think I'm going to try the brown paper just cut off a hunk from the outside rolled edge to insure a little cleaner paper. Maybe I'm being too fussy. Oh well I'll jump in both feet and let you know. Again if it kills me know I died happy with bacon in my tummy.

OKGranny · « **Reply #16 on:** January 01, 2011, 06:51:02 PM »

My parchment paper is just plain paper, no shiny side or waxy side so when I get around to it I'll use that. I definitely want to try this but now that the holidays are finally over and I have time I've caught some stomach virus and have spent most of the day flat on the couch. Hopefully it'll be gone in the next few days and I can give this a whirl.

TwoBluesMama · « **Reply #17 on:** January 03, 2011, 05:16:30 PM »

Canned bacon today - learned a few things doing so. If you use thick sliced bacon (which I believe Enola Gay referred to in her Backwoods Home Magazine article as holding up better) I found I could only get about 10 slices in a jar. Since I was keeping my jars hot I thought I'd get all my bacon rolled and then grab them and the lids and add the wrapped bacon. Um - no - they all ended up being rolled too thick to get into the jars. So I had to unwrap and remove a few slices and then re-roll and jar. Advice - roll one and see if it fits first. Used almost 6 lbs of bacon in 5 quart jars. Other than that this was so easy to do. Here's some photos since I love it when people post their photos for me and to prove in case you feel it's to hard to do, it's not. The last photo is the finished product just out of the canner.

Can't wait to eat some! Thanks everyone for the inspiration to try this. Happy canning!

OKGranny · « **Reply #18 on:** January 03, 2011, 07:47:31 PM »

Looks good, it's making me hungry for bacon too.

idelphic · « **Reply #19 on:** January 03, 2011, 08:05:26 PM »

Thanks for bringing this up - interesting process, and one I have a thought about...

In the BHM article, she mentions that it wanted to tear and the fold - Last few years, I've cut all my strips in half before I fry them up,.. Why not start with that if you are concerned with tearing? That is of course,.. if you are worried about it.

TwoBluesMama · « **Reply #20 on:** January 03, 2011, 08:09:32 PM »

Quote from: idelphic on January 03, 2011, 08:05:26 PM

Thanks for bringing this up - interesting process, and one I have a thought about...

In the BHM article, she mentions that it wanted to tear and the fold - Last few years, I've cut all my strips in half before I fry them up,.. Why not start with that if you are concerned with tearing? That is of course,.. if you are worried about it.

You know I thought about that but since I started baking my bacon (400 degree oven around 20-25 minutes on foil lined cookie sheet) I quit having to cut it in half to get flat pieces fried in the skillet. I'm thinking this canned bacon would only take a few minutes in the oven and yipee it's done.

When I un-can some I'll let you all know how it turned out and if cutting it in half would be worthwhile. Thanks Idelphic for the idea.

TwoBluesMama · « **Reply #21 on:** January 18, 2011, 07:36:16 AM »

Okay lessons learned. One don't use brown paper - my bacon stuck to it and it tasted like, well brown paper. When I try this again I will use parchment paper. Make sure to use very thick sliced bacon otherwise it dissolves. Some of the bacon turned out okay but somewhat disappointed in results although haven't given up yet.

Nicodemus · « **Reply #22 on:** January 18, 2011, 08:27:45 AM »

Thanks for the update TwoBluesMama. Sorry to hear that the initial trial didn't go well. Hopefully this information will help others who want to give canning bacon a shot.

LvsChant · « **Reply #23 on:** January 18, 2011, 11:29:21 PM »

Thanks for the tips, TBM. I'm thinking I'll need to do this eventually. My boys love the Yoder's bacon in the cans

NWBowhunter · « **Reply #24 on:** January 19, 2011, 06:50:04 AM »

I canned four pounds of Bacon on monday made 5 quarts. Used the parchment paper folder over both ends. I had one jar that didn't sea, I probably didn't get the rim wiped clean enough.

Fried up the open batch this morning it was great bacon. The bacon did want to tear where it had been folded. But with a little care it transfered to the skillet fine.

One option would be to cut the bacon down by an inch and throw the small pieces into a seperate jar for recipies that call for bacon bits.

Next time the thicker cut bacon is on sale, I'll load up an do another batch.

NotAGrasshopper · « **Reply #25 on:** January 21, 2011, 01:14:57 PM »

Okay, I'm sold. I'm going to can some up in metal cans.

LvsChant · « **Reply #26 on:** January 21, 2011, 01:27:49 PM »

I have no idea how you would can them up in metal cans at home... please share how you do this. Canning jars... in the canner, I get. I'm trying to envision just how you would modify the factory method for cans at home.

NotAGrasshopper · « **Reply #27 on:** January 21, 2011, 01:30:23 PM »

Quote from: LvsChant on January 21, 2011, 01:27:49 PM

I have no idea how you would can them up in metal cans at home... please share how you do this. Canning jars... in the canner, I get. I'm trying to envision just how you would modify the factory method for cans at home.

Easy: I have metal cans and a can sealer.

Everything in the process is the same except you heat the contents of the can to 170 degrees *before* sealing the lid. Then you seal the lid and process at the same pressure and time.

LvsChant · « **Reply #28 on:** January 21, 2011, 01:37:12 PM »

very cool. thanks.

NotAGrasshopper · « **Reply #29 on:** January 21, 2011, 01:40:32 PM »

Quote from: LvsChant on January 21, 2011, 01:37:12 PM

very cool. thanks.

\

BTW, manual can sealers can be had on eBay for < $100 or so (search for Ives-Way) and cans... well they are kind of expensive and not reusable. I got a great deal on some. I plan to buy a ton from the LDS wet-pack cannery in Colorado Springs next time I'm up there (in June or so).

News:

Author Topic: Canning Bacon (Read 31533 times)