Adventures in Canning... Don't Do This...

texican · #1 10/04/10, 11:41 PM

Two weeks ago, I brought home too much free meat from the butcher... I can 7 quarts at a time, three or four times a week. I can't utilize all of the meat, and canning large chunks of prime pork is the best thing I can do with it.

Well, for some reason, I ended up with 8 quarts. Canner only holds 7. Put the uncooked quart in the fridge, thinkin I'd go to town the next day, get more free meat, and have one quart all ready to go... well that didn't happen. It sat in there for three or four days, and when I noticed it, realized it'd probably already started to 'sour'. So, took it out, set it by the trash can, next to the door... the idea being take it out and feed it to the chickens.

Well, it sat there for several days... when I 'saw' it, it was inconvenient to take it out to the chicken house.

Do not EVER let a jar of uncooked meat sit on a warm day, sealed up in a glass jar.

Was cooking lunch the other day, and all of a sudden, a 44. magnum round went off four feet away! Folks that have a .44 mag, or other large caliber weapon, know what the feeling is like. I seriously thought one of the handguns or rifles had fired off for some reason *there are at least three within several feet of the door*. Looked over to see who shot who, and saw my experimental "canning bomb" had exploded... glass and meat juice everywhere... hardest part of the cleanup process was keeping the furbuddies out of the 'sweet' smelling juice.

This is the first time I've had a bomb go off in the house. Occasionally, I'll hear a tinny 'pop' when a canned jar of whatever has become un-sealed. Until I read up about headspace, I was having about a 5% failure rate. Since adjusting the headspace issues, I've only had failures because of jar irregularities.

I'll not be making any more jar bombs.... if the door hadn't blocked the blast, can imagine the fun I'd'a had picking glass out of my legs (still summerish here and shorts are de rigeur).

P.S. I didn't get to take 'Home Economics' in High school. I wonder if they covered this issue?

Jerngen · #2 10/04/10, 11:51 PM

Well I'm glad no one (human and furkids alike) was injured! What a lesson to learn tho!!

JuliaAnn · #3 10/04/10, 11:53 PM

But boy, what a stinkbomb that could be in the right conditions...

CrashTestRanch · #4 10/04/10, 11:57 PM

yup, had a similar issue with a fermenting bomb. Brewed a batch of cider. Fined. Bottled in expensive Molson flip-tops. Put in my brew fridge. It popped the breaker. A few weeks later, it got very warm and popped about a dozen bottles, that was a crazy chain reaction ...

JuliaAnn · #5 10/05/10, 12:10 AM

Texican, your story triggered a memory I haven't thought about for decades, probably. In 7th grade, one of us girls bought an extra little carton of milk one day. I was good at climbing so I climbed up high enough to slip the carton of milk onto the metal roof of the breezeway between the lunch room and the snack bar. It sat up there for a few days, if I remember correctly. Then we remembered it and during lunch I climbed partway up there and peeked over the edge of the metal roof ---eeeek! It was *very* swollen. I gingerly handed it down to another girl, and she rared back and flung it out into the baseball diamond (this girl was a black sheep like me and a few other girls, but oddly enough she was one of the best slow-pitch pitchers on the softball team). Where it hit this hip, cool guy with the John Travolta hair-do right smack in the middle of his back, and it went POP! Oh we RAN as fast as we could. Nothing ever came of it, so I don't know if anyone actually saw us or not. Hard to believe no one saw us, because there were dozens and dozens of kids around at the time. The rest of the day I was sitting in class sweating, wondering if anyone was going to come haul me out and expell me for having a part in it.

I can't imagine but the poor guy had to go home and change clothes.

longshadowfarms · #6 10/05/10, 01:11 AM

Glad no one got hurt, but still...

nehimama · #7 10/05/10, 06:37 AM

Is this a "stinky stuff" thread? One summer day a couple of years ago, I had lunch with a friend at an all-you-can-eat ribs buffet. I took a pile of bones out in a take out container, thinking to make broth in the crock pot (for the dogs). You know where this is going, right? Yup. I forgot that take out box in the truck box - for several days. Couldn't IMAGINE what that horrible odor was that was centered around the truck. I nearly gagged when I opened the truck box - eeeeewwwwww!

7thswan · #8 10/05/10, 06:56 AM

Wow, Texican, Thank Goodness everyone is OK. Sounds like the time I made Root Beer.

lisa's garden · #9 10/05/10, 07:44 AM

Glad you didn't get hit by the shrapnel! Ok, my biggest question is, how do you get free meat from the butcher? (I think we've all forgotten something smelly somewhere before, I left a fish in my husband's car trunk when we were dating) ;-)

Our Little Farm · #10 10/05/10, 07:58 AM

Glad you were ok Texican!

If you have a cracked egg, don't put it in a newly emptied trashcan. It won't take long for it to start stinking big time.

Reb · #11 10/05/10, 08:08 AM

I have absolutely nothing to add to this but a :smiley-laughing013:. Glad you're okay tho.......

Take care, Reb

beaglebiz · #12 10/05/10, 08:27 AM

(shiver) uhhhhh
YUCK
glad you are ok

Curtis B · #13 10/05/10, 08:44 AM

I had a similar bomb with saurkraut, only the just the lid blew off as I was putting in in the WB canner. It took three showers to get the smell out of my hair and many hours of cleaning the kitchen, but at least DD got a good laugh as a witness.

Pelenaka · #14 10/05/10, 10:33 AM

Yeah yeah about the glass shrapnel glad your alright ... tell me what I really wanna know Texan, how are you getting free meat ? I sleep with my butcher (hubby) and all I get is the other white meat (rabbit) and venison. I need to step up my game.
Seroiusly, glad that your alright.

~~ pelenaka ~~

jlrbhjmnc · #15 10/05/10, 01:27 PM

Glad you and the furbuddies are unhurt! What a mess, eww and ick; sort of stinky with a lot of sharp edges...

Sonshine · #16 10/05/10, 01:38 PM

My goodness, that would have given me a heart attack!

ninny · #17 10/05/10, 02:08 PM

I don't care about the explosion, I wanna know where you're getting all this free meat?

.

Mel- · #18 10/05/10, 02:32 PM

ha ha ha

lol. I took home ec (only because it was required) and yet I still know how to explode an egg. you just put some on to hard boil, walk away and fergit all about them. they explode really nicely and will hit the ceiling leaving a nice little dent. make quite a bang too but I'll bet nothing like that.

makes me think of the moving holiday inn where the peach jam jars were exploding

texican · #19 10/05/10, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lisa's garden

Glad you didn't get hit by the shrapnel! Ok, my biggest question is, how do you get free meat from the butcher? (I think we've all forgotten something smelly somewhere before, I left a fish in my husband's car trunk when we were dating) ;-)

I'm really a shy, stand-offish hermit kind of guy (at least, that's what I tell myself)... everyone else thinks I chew the ears off of anyone that'll sit still long enough...

So, year fore last, I was asking the local butchers at one of our local grocers if I could get the white fat every now and then, to boil down to make soap with. Manager said sure, they were just throwing it away. So I got a box. Brought home, boiled down the 'white' fat, and fed the dogs all of the nifty trimmings attached to the fat (not the fat itself.... >pancreatic problems in dogs< After awhile, I started getting "all" the waste. I could get enough trimmings to feed the dogs, and keep the grease can full.

I was doing this two or three times a week. Early this year, the store got an 'official fat-man' that had to drive down from DFW to pick up their 'fat'. They had to pay him, for something I was doing for free. BUT, once this guy got into the pic, they had to put all of their trimmings together, and a bin for their expired meat (chicken/beef/pork/fish). I started taking all of it home... the dogs got fat from eating so much good raw food... I had to start feeding the extra fat to the buzzards (I have happy buzzards... they love me!)

I started talking to the four butchers, got to know their names, their hubbys, their hobbys, and would talk with em anywhere from a few minutes up to a quarter hour. I'd stand around, watching em cut meat. Saw they were wasting (in my book) about 1/3 of their pork, by trimming it excessively. Shoulders and loins. Sorta got it into their minds they should put this in another bag. Now I bring home slabs of pork, four plate size chunks up to 3" thick of meat and fat. Three or four slices of loin, half the size of my hand, off of every loin they trim. There's a lot of fat on both types... but it makes great lard.

At least once a week, they do inventory, and pull their frozen meats and toss them in a bin. Don't know about ya'll, but fresh by dates on frozen food is different than fresh by fresh food.

Last month, I got five cases (~200 lbs) of pork shoulders still frozen in the cases. They'd been sent cases of the same product the month before, and the youngest butcher threw them out... told him to call me next time... well, he did, and one freezer's full of em now.

Also have gotten bookoodles of t-bones/rib-eyes... while there cutting, they'll throw the first and last piece into my 'box'... with a wink wink nod nod... they can't sell these 'ugly' ends... I can't taste the difference.
.....................
So, anyone interested, get to know your butcher, ask what he does with his meat trimmings, fat, bones... never know you might get lucky!

Patt · #20 10/05/10, 05:07 PM

I want your butcher!

Seems like they could donate some of that meat to a local charity though instead of tossing it? I would guess eventually you will get full up on meat even with your dogs.