Pressure canning your own meals in a jar make for a convenient way to store an entire meal in your pantry, while also saving space.
Why start canning meals in a jar?
- It provides food security.
- Canning meals in a jar provides healthy convenience food.
- It’s perfect to take camping or even traveling.
- Canned meals in a jar are shelf stable.
- Learn a new skill!
Food Security
Canning your own meals in a jar can help fill you pantry shelves with shelf stable food. If you are already used to canning your summer veggies, this is just one step up. There are so many safe recipes for canning you can try out that your family will love. Everything from chicken pot pie filling to sloppy joe meat can be made safely.
Canning meals in a jar can also be helpful when the unexpected happens. If everyone in your house falls ill, you need to have food to eat. Having meals in a jar on your shelf can provide that. If there is job or income loss, you can feel better knowing your pantry is stocked well with already made, healthy meals. Plus, you don’t need electricity for canned meals in a jar because they are ready to eat when you open them!
Healthy Convenience Food
Most of us live busy lives. Canning meals in jars allows you to have a super quick convenience food on the shelf that is way healthier than frozen pizza or corn dogs. You can have real food with no preservatives ready to go on your pantry shelf. And best of all, you can source all of the ingredients yourself. Maybe even straight from your garden or homestead! Just taking one or two free days to can several meals can save you a load of worry and stress on busy weeknights.
Perfect for camping and travel
While glass jars are breakable, these canned meals in jars are still great to bring on family camping trips. Simply dump into a pot over the fire, heat and serve! If you are going on a family vacation, take a couple of jars that you can quickly fix up if you’re staying somewhere with a stove.
Shelf stable
While the recommendation is to eat up your home canned food within a year, these meals in jars can last longer than that. Especially if kept in cool, dark rooms. As time goes on, your home canned foods will lose some nutrition. But it is still a very shelf stable option to keep in your pantry.
Learn a new skill!
If you have canned green beans, potatoes, etc. from your garden, you should have no trouble canning meals in a jar. You are basically following a recipe with all safe canning ingredients. Every recipe is different, but all of them very simple to follow. Plus, how cool is it to pull out a jar of home canned chili for your guests?
What kinds of meals can I start pressure canning?
There are tons of meals in a jar that are safe for pressure canning. The best sources for these are in canning cookbooks with recipes that have been tested for safe canning such as a Ball Canning cookbook. There is another I love called The Homestead Canning Cookbook by Georgia Varozza. Her book has tons of information on safe canning, and a lot of fun, creative recipes that are still practical.
Some of my favorite meals to can include:
- Chili con Carne
- Chicken pot pie filling
- Sloppy Joe meat
- Beef stew
- Roasted Tomato Soup
Other Ideas for Quick Canning Convenience Food:
- Beans
- Broth
- Chicken or turkey meat
- Ground beef
- Chuck roast
- Relishes (for adding to chicken or tuna salad)
- Tomato sauce
- Diced tomatoes
Once you master the basics such as these other ideas, canning meals should be easy and not so intimidating. However, here is a quick list of things that should NOT be canned by pressure canning or water bath canning.
- Dairy
- Nut butter
- Wheat, oats, flour, grains of any kind
- Cornstarch
- Mashed or pureed veggies. They are too dense for safe canning. It is better to chop up veggies for canning instead of mashing.
- Eggs
- Pasta
- Nuts
Tips for safe canning:
- Make sure that your pressure gauge is functioning well. Your local extension center should be able to test this for you. New ones can be found online along with other supplies.
- Follow a tested recipe carefully. Follow all of the steps!
- Skim or drain extra fat from meat products.
- Be sure to keep your canner at the correct pressure for the full amount of time. If the pressure drops below the recommended amount, your timer will have to start over.
- Use the freshest ingredients that you can.
- Be sure to clean the rims of your jars well so that you’re not disappointed by a failed seal all because of the jar rim being dirty.
If you would like to know more about how canning can save you money, check out this article here. Also, if you have any tested and loved recipes for canning meals in a jar, let us know in the comments below!
