A.T.--just curious?

I remember quite well when we didn't have air conditioning, nor central heat. Don't remember having any material problems with all the canned goods that I helped prepare in the summer. The biggest worry was about keeping the jars from freezing during the winter. Water in the kitchen waterbucket would freeze overnight. Had to go to the well for fresh water to cook breakfast.

BTW, routine summer temps go over 100 here. Can go for weeks at a time with highs in the 90's and several days at a time when it's 101-103/104. With the humidity to go along with it.

IMHO, while the nutritional content may go down faster when cool storage isn't available, there's still nutrition there for a long while. One of the main keys to home canned goods is to keep them in rotation. Can, each season, enough to last until the next one, with a little extra, in case of crop failure, and such.

Another BTW, we didn't have a root cellar. Canned goods were stored in the pantry. In both instances where we lived, the pantry was located centrally in the house, which helped temper the outside temperataures, both high and low.

Lee

I can meats as well. Whatever I find on sale at the grocery store for the past year. This year, we raised a pig and a steer. We plan to butcher them in the next few weeks and I will can large portions of it. We love canned ham, chicken, turkey, and ground beef. We eat lots of it, so I can't tell you about long term storage. DH and DS are building a root cellar to help extend the shelf life of the canned goods. I also buy canned tuna and salmon when it is on sale because it is so much cheaper than fresh. DH and DS like vienna sausages (gross) so I get them when they are 3 for $1.

I can chicken legs & thighs because our "dual purpose" chickens are TOUGH! Long cooking helps a lot, though. And I can rabbit legs regularly.

I'm making corned deer this year - ds got a nice large doe. When I corned moose in Alaska, I was able to leave it in the solution in the garage all winter, but in Oregon I suspect I'd better freeze or can it after it's finished being corned.

Of course, we had lots of salmon that I canned in Alaska, but fish isn't as available here. We do miss it.

Otherwise, we use our freezers, but all ready this year the power has been out several times - we've talked about our concerns, and need to get a generator. Or better yet, hook up that water-powered one ds has talks about. It takes so much money to get set up!

Kit

Rose, if you are anxious about canned chicken there is a recipe at www.creativecanning.com that you might like...really really good...scroll down to sweet 'n sour chicken. My DH loves this for an easy meal on weekends I work. After the first batch I did three more and only problem will be trying to keep it on the shelf! Personally, I find plain canned chicken kinda icky,too but I usually rinse it well and then used for whatever dish we're having. DEE