Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Canning Ham

Yeah, there is nothing in any of my canning books on canning ham. I guess no one ever thought that there would be enough ham left that you would need to can it but, of course, we still have plenty of ham left. I had 8 pint jars still unused so thought I would try it.
I cut the ham up in chunks and then put them in water and brought it to a boil. I just wanted it hot for when I put it in the jars.

I, then, put the chunks in the jars and added juice from the pan leaving an inch of headspace. When I looked up canning ham today I found a blog where they canned ham and didn't add the water. It did make about half a jar of juice on its own but I just don't like canned food that is not covered with liquid. It tends to go bad faster.
Anyway, here are my lovely jars of ham. They will be great in soups, casseroles and quiches.
We actually finished off the one ham and now just have the large one left. I will be making ham and potato soup tonight.

20 comments:

  1. I canned ham once and I turned so dark that it wasn't too appealing to look at. It did taste fine thought. I only did a few jars to try it. Yours looks much prettier than mine. I made ham salad out of mine because Dean does not like scalloped potatoes and ham which is what I would have done with it. Since then he has decided to try and like more food than he imagined so I may try that again.

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    1. They are a bit darker than when they went in but really don't look too bad. Scalloped potatoes and ham sounds really good. Thanks for the idea!

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  2. Jackie Clay has a nice canning book that goes over the canning of several kinds of meat, including ham. I regularly can ham, as well as pork chops and bacon!

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  3. I would love to have a Jackie Clay book but they are hard to come by here.

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  4. i have her most recent book on gardening and canning...got a special price on it through grit magazine i think...anyway, it is available on amazon.com and priced really good. another good place to go for canning meet is paratusfamilia.com or rural revolution.com these are blogs that feature alot of canning of meats and cooking on woodstoves too. i have done ham before and i add the hot water too. mine does not turn dark. i usually will freeze the scraps and hambone for beans.

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    1. The only Jackie Clay canning and gardening book I see on amazon is $99. I don't need one that badly.

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  5. go to backwoodshome.com this is a great magazine as well and jackie clay writes articles for it...you will find her cookbooks there for alot less than $99-wow i wonder if she knows that!

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    1. I love Backwoods Home magazine but don't have a subscription right now. I might as well as I pick them up whenever I see a new one anyway.

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  6. Interesting, never knew that ham can be canned.

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    1. Well, I haven't opened one yet but it looks pretty good in the jars. I imagine after 75 minutes in the canner that it is a bit crumbly and dry (like the chicken I canned) but it will still be great for soups and casseroles.

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  7. Why isn't it called bottling rather than canning?

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  8. What a great idea! I bet that ham and potato soup was heavenly!!

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  9. I enjoy your blog a lot. I just wanted to comment that for low acid food (vegies and meats), you should probably be using speacial canning processes. No amount of cooking can kill the bacteria that cause botulism, unless you use a pressure canner to reach temperatures that would not be attainable with water bath canning. The bacteria loves low acid/low oxygen environments to breed. Best of luck!!

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    1. I am using a pressure canner for meat, of course.

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  10. I have a question I haven't been able to find the answer to. Is a person able to can jars of scalloped potatoes and ham? Anyone ever tried that?

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    1. I don't see why you couldn't can scalloped potatoes and ham. I would not precook the potatoes as they would get too mushy going through the pressure canning process but I bet it would turn out okay. You might want to try a quart or two during your next canning session and let us know how it turns out.

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