Canning ground meat Q

[Belfrybat]

I put up 14 qts of ground venison yesterday. Followed the Ball Blue Book directions to brown meat first and add water or broth up to 1" from top of jar. When they were finished and cooled most of them only have 3/4 of the jar filled. Should I have packed the meat down into the jar before pouring broth over and processing? I left it loose. No problem with having partial jars except I'd like to get full advantage of the jars since they are so expensive.

[lmrose]

I have canned ground beef before. I cook it in an iron skillet with chopped onions, garlic and pepper. I cook it until browned and done enough to eat and add water to the skillet to cover the meat. Then I pack the meat in the Mason jars firmly with some of the broth in each jar. The jars are filled to the neck. I process them in a water bath canner for three hours. Meat shrinks when cooked. If your meat was almost raw it probably shrunk during processing.

[Belfrybat]

Thanks. Next time I'll pack it more firmly. It was mostly cooked through, but not completely. I pressure canned mine for 95 mins at 10#. Better safe than sorry.