Canning dilemma... pork or pears?

[texican]

My pears have been getting ripe for a week or so, and I'd rather pick them when they're ripe, instead of having em in the house ripening, tempting my flock of fruit flies. But, the deer and crows during the day were thinning them heartily, and the coons were working em over at night. {I worked on the coons a bit, and the Great Buzzard Spirit thanked me}. Picked 30 gallons, probably lost 300, but I have more than I'm going to be able to utilize anyway. And, this morning, an Aunt told me I could come pick a truckload off their yard pear trees if I wanted.

So, I've got ~30 gallons of pears outside (protected from the critters).

Went to town this afternoon, and stopped by my favorite grocery store, to pick up my boxes of meat (I get 40-50lbs of pork trimmings in one box, bones in another, meat scraps, and expired meat for the dogs). They had a special... last month they got a delivery of frozen pork shoulders (fresh hams) and had to throw them out, since the date on the box was expired. Told the butcher if it happens again, call me. Well, he didn't call, but he did put three cases of em back in the freezer, after noticing a shipment arrived with expired dates...knowing I usually show up on Wednesdays. Got three large boxes of frozen pork shoulders... ~185 lbs. They opened one up as asked if I wanted em... well, yeah!!! Got home and they were still mostly hard as bricks.

Unfortunately, all five freezers are overflowing with the bounty of the earth... I've been canning furiously all summer. All but three found homes... they'll be thawing out overnight.

My dilemma............

Would you rather put up a couple cases of canned pork or canned pears? Freezing either of them is out of the question... I have stuff leaning against the upright freezers to keep them from 'opening themselves', and stuff on top of the chest freezers to keep the lid from rising. BTDT.

My first thought is I should do the meat, as it's going to go bad in a day or two, where the pears can survive longer, and might actually benefit from getting 'more ripe'.

[Canning Girl]

I would say that meat is a more important food storage item. I would much rather put away more canned meat than pears, if I had to choose. My advice would be to can the meat now; make the pears wait. Can the pears that are not too ripe, and turn the overripe ones into jam or pear sauce. BTW, I am totally jealous of both your pork and your pears. Good for you! Happy canning!

[Cyngbaeld]

Find the other canner?

[manygoatsnmore]

Can the meat first! You can always dehydrate the pears.

[AngieM2]

dehydrate some pears, make some pork jerky and can the meat then the pears

[elkhound]

can that meat now.....i would rather have pears go to waste than nice pork.

[radiofish]

Can the pork up 1st..

I am also looking at a bounty of pears and apples, if the deer don't get to them 1st. I am going to try drying the fruit, besides making and canning up some pear/ apple butter, apple sauces, and pie fillings.

I thought that I was the only person to weigh down the lid of a chest freezer since it is soooo full. I need to make room in the chest freezer for the world's dumbest deer coastal blacktail buck with a large rack still in velvet that I am calling 'rump roast', come this fall's hunting season.

[Texasdirtdigger]

Meat, do the meat.....Pears are in yards everywhere! There will be more! I'll bet you have some yard critters to help you out with the ones you have! Pears are good... Pork is BEST!!!

[wogglebug]

Cook the pork roasts you can't freeze, then they'll keep longer in the frig.

Are there any empty crevices in the freezers you could stuff some bagged pear pieces into?
Dehydrate some pears if it's possible (I almost wrote if you can, but that's a trifle confusing, isn't it?).
Can the rest of the pears;
then move back to canning whatever's left (whatever you haven't eaten) of the roasted pork shoulders.
Then move on to canning the meat you put in the freezers.

You could consider salting down some of the meat too. We all know you've got tons of salt stored - this could be the time to experiment with using some of it.
Do your own research, but I understand you can bury the meat in dry salt.
I KNOW you can mix a strong brine (use boiled water), use a brining needle (a super-sized syringe) to inject some of it into the middle of large pieces of meat, and along any bones; then weigh down the meat under the rest of the brine. Move the pieces around every day so there aren't any areas protected from the brine by other pieces.
Standard instructions - cool dark place.
Your brine can be just salt, but the meat colour isn't real great.
Adding some saltpetre keeps the meat pink. Also add herbs, spices and sweeteners to taste.
Or you can use a commercial mix, which is mostly salt and saltpetre anyway.

Maybe it's time to re-assess the value of what you've got in the freezer too.
Maybe it's time to free-up some freezer space by simmering down some of the pork scraps so they end up cooked crisp, dehydrated and buried in lard, then just store them that way either for later stews, or as dog food.

[7thswan]

Yum, Pork First!

[soulsurvivor]

I'd offer wogglebug half of the pork/pears to come in and put it up for me.

[nehimama]

Please, do NOT make "Pork Jerky". The jerky process dries the meat; does not cook it.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

check free cycle or craigs list add freezer 6 as an over flow , i have freezer 3 in the garage that i only plug in when overflow comes in usualy never runs more than a few months

or eventualy work down to 5 freezers , and save that sixth for overflow , but think about it this way if you loose power can you Can 6 freezers worth of food

when i am running out of freezer space i make a point to inventory and start eating at least 3 meals a week from the freezer to make room wile not buying any extra at that time.

even with 5 of us if i have 3 freezers 22-26 cubic feet each full there will be somthing that waits to long so it won't be good any longer

some times it is to easy to put it up in the freezer and forget to eat it

but pick the pears to keep loss down , can or jerky the the meat , especialy the stuff for the dogs can be dried , and it will keep a long time
i think i would be looking to reduce the freezers from 6 that is a lot of juice to keep them al running.

[beachcomber]

mmm...pear brandy

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

Originally Posted by nehimama

Please, do NOT make "Pork Jerky". The jerky process dries the meat; does not cook it.

the dehidrator gets the temp up to 165 thats cooked it is just cooked very slowly for a very long time, cold smoking a ham is done at around the same temp and if it is for the dogs any way why not jerky it , plus salting it in the brine would kill much of the bad stuff.

[JuliaAnn]

I was thinking you could make a big batch of perry. All you'd need is some 5 gal. food grade buckets with lids, some yeast and sugar etc. I just love perry. I think that's how it's spelled.

Definitely can the pork, and then dehydrate or ferment the pears. If you can't eat the fruit, at least you can drink it.

[Ohio dreamer]

Buy me a plane ticket! I'll bring 4 caners and an outside cooker - we can have a party!

OK, back to reality...meat first. Meat could be harder to come by in the future....trees will produce again next year. Then again toss a few pears in each jar with the pork....built in pear sauce on your pork.

[Trisha in WA]

Originally Posted by Ohio dreamer

Then again toss a few pears in each jar with the pork....built in pear sauce on your pork.

That sounds like the best idea yet! YUMMO!

[Texasdirtdigger]

Texican could probably get several of us to bring our Canners and come to the rescue. I have 7. He's probably afraid we wouldn't leave!!! LOL !!

[mpillow]

I think pears are yucky...no dilemma for me!