Beef Stew & Pot Roast

At the buy one get one free sale they had English roasts on sale for buy one get one free. I bought a total of four. Saved $17 doing so. I knew before I even bought that that I wanted to use them to can up beef stew and pot roast. Same for the red potatoes and carrots that I bought at the same sale.

As soon as all the food was put away that day and before started canning the oranges I cut all the roasts up into one inch chunks, removing as much fat and grisle as I could. I froze all of the meat in a gallon zip lock bag. Early Sunday morning I took the meat out of the freezer and placed it in the refrigerator to thaw in time for Monday morning. And on Sunday night I gathered all the canning equipment I would need to start canning early and peeled and cut the carrots so the next morning I could start in right after we had breakfast.

Right after breakfast I peeled the potatoes and cut them into chunks and placed them in water to keep them from turning black. Set all my ingredients and canning equipment I needed on the table and got the water heating. I browned half the meat in a tiny bit of oil and then placed it on a paper towel covered platter to drain.

I started with the meat, placing it in the jars then I added some drained potatoes and carrots to each jar. I added two teaspoons of beef soup base, a pinch of dried thyme, two tablespoons of V-8 juice to each jar, added boiling water and wipe the rims, added the two piece lids and placed the jars in the pressure canner. I processed them for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure which is what is called for in my area.

After the canner had cooled down I took the jars out of the canner and below is what they looked like.

When I go to use the beef stew I will drain the liquid out into a pan, add a little corn starch slurry to make a gravy then add the meat and veggies so they can heat through. Then  serve with homemade biscuits.

As for the pot roast it was a lot simpler to can. I boiled the meat until heated through. Placed the meat in the jars, added drained potatoes and carrots. Added the boiling beef water from meat, wiped the rims of the jars and added the two piece lids. Placed them in the pressure canner and processed for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. I added no salt as my family prefers the sweetness the carrots give the meat over a salty taste. Also because I like to control the amount of salt that goes into our foods.
I did not add salt to the beef stew either because it will get all the salt it needs from the soup base and the V-8 juice.

Here is what the pot roast looked like when it was done.

I know they look similar in appearance but there it a difference which you can see below. And the taste will be quite different between the two. I got a total of 7 quarts of beef stew and 6 quarts of pot roast from the four roasts, 10 lbs of potatoes and 1 pound of carrots. Each jar will need at least 2 adults unless you have a big eater like my son then he will have to have a quart on his own. He is 6'4' and I swear he is always empty from the toes up at meal times. LOL

 

Oh and here is a picture so you can see the difference between the beef stew and the pot roast.

Hope you all are enjoying reading my canning adventures. I will be doing more later this week and will show you those when I am done. My next adventure will be using chicken.