Pressure Canning Bacon – Preppers’ Guide to Preserving Bacon

There are a lot of people who have the tendency to feel overwhelmed because of the different things that they need to do in order to have enough food that can last their families for a long time. People can always have dried beef and other dried meat but sometimes, it can be too much. Pressure canning bacon is something that people would like to do. You may find it a bit overwhelming and hard in the beginning but with proper guidance, you will know what to do. Check this out: Pressure Canning Bacon – Preppers’ Guide to Preserving Bacon

You have to remember that it is normal to feel a bit apprehensive about doing this in the beginning because you are not quite sure if what you would do will work especially if it is your first time but with proper guidance, you will know what to do. Just imagine being able to have bacon and sausage without the need for a freezer. This can help you out a lot.

Do remember that there are a lot of experts who are discouraging this process mainly because they think that it is unsafe. Generally, it will highly depend on what you believe in. You may choose to do this process because you feel that you need it or you may just try it out because of curiousity.

You have to remember that before you start out with the whole process, you have to make sure that you will use the right jars. You are recommended to use new mason jars so that you can pressure cook them without any problem. You are also not recommended to reuse lids if they have already been used before since they might have a trace of the food product that you have placed there before and this can lead to food poisoning.

How to Can Bacon

Now that you already know that you need clean jars in order to can bacon with fresh and brand new lids, you can already start with the process of canning bacon. Here are the steps that you have to do:

1. Prepare plain brown paper. It is recommended that you get it a foot wide or maybe even more depending on the amount of bacon that you are planning to can. Plain brown paper will work well because they are not too thick so it will be easier for you to place the bacon inside the jar. You may also use butcher or parchment paper depending on what you want.

2. Place the paper on a flat surface. You will then place bacon at a time as close as you possibly can. You know that you are doing it correctly if you are going to have one neat role of bacon all together. Make sure that the bacon that you will place will not overlap with each other since this can cause problems when you are already placing the bacon inside the can.

3. Trim down the excess paper. Make sure that you have enough just to cover the bacon.

4. Cover the bacon again with another paper that is of the same length as the first on in order to cover the whole bacon line that you have created.

5. Starting from one side of the bacon, you have to roll the bacon with the paper slowly. You have to remember that you need to tuck each time you roll to be sure. You need to roll until you reach the end of the bacon line that you have created.

6. Once you have already rolled down all the bacon slices with the paper, you would need to try to let the roll fit. It will be a tight fit so do not get discouraged if you are having a hard time placing the bacon inside the jar. If it really won’t fit no matter how hard you try, you may choose to unroll one bacon slice and try again. If it still will not fit, unroll another one. It is likely that your bacon will start to fit well after that.

7. Depending on the amount of bacon that you have, you would have to repeat the various steps mentioned above all over again until such time when you will be able to can most of it. If you have other bacon slices left over, you can cook them to eat or at least mix them up with some of the salads that you have created.

8. Once you have already placed all the bacon inside the jar, you would have to place the lid of the jar tightly. If the paper and the bacon is a bit over the jar, you would have to squish in further so you will not have much problem.

9. Place the jars inside the canner of the pressure cooker. You can be sure that the jars will start to move around a bit as they are being cooked. Place the lid and fasten the lid of the pressure cooker. Make sure that it is secure so that nothing will go wrong. You can expect that a lot of steam will start to go out from the pressure cooker.

10. You would have to make use of a gauge to ensure that the pressure inside the cooker is just right.

11. You have to make sure that you will cook the bacon inside the jars for approximately 90 minutes or 1 hour and 30 minutes.

12. After you have cooked the bacon just enough, you would have to remove each jar from the cooker that you have used. If you see some liquid inside the jar, this is normal because this is the fat and grease from the bacon. It will start to turn white once it cools down.

13. Once the jars containing the bacon have cooled down, you have to check if they have sealed properly. One of the reasons why you are recommended to use a mason jar is because of the dip in the middle of the lid that will dip down if the pressure inside the jar has been established. If you do not see this sign, it is highly likely that the jar has not been sealed properly.

14. Label the jars and store in a cool, dry place. Do remember that for canned bacon, you may use it for about 6 – 8 months although some people who are already experts at canning say that they are able to use it even after a year. This can be highly beneficial for you.

15. To enjoy your bacon, you have to take out the paper with the bacon and get the slices that you need. It might be a bit hard to remove in the beginning but it will remove even with the grease and fat of the bacon trying to stop you from doing so. Remove any traces of the brown paper before you fry the bacon to be sure.

Some Tips to Remember

There are some tips that you have to remember to ensure that your bacon will be canned properly. Some of these things include the following:

• Always remember that you need to use a fresh lid for canning purposes all the time because using old lids might lead to food poisoning especially with the process that you are willing to take.

• You may have to label your bacon so that you will not open another jar by mistake and cook the wrong food. When they are all in similar jars, they might all look the same especially if you would also try to can ham.

• Remember that if you did not seal the bacon properly and after processing it you have discovered that the pressure did not quite build up, you have two options. Your first option is to place a new lid on the bacon jar and repeat the whole process mentioned above. This time, make sure that you have sealed your bacon jar properly so that pressure will build up inside. Your next option is to just consume the bacon immediately because if you would not do anything with it, chances are your bacon will spoil.

• Do remember that there are some people who feel that using the brown paper is unnecessary. Instead, what they do is they bake the bacon beforehand and place the pre cooked bacon inside the jars. They also add a bit of water and vinegar to the mix before pressure cooking the bacon with a 10 pound ring. Some do not like this process because the vinegar may alter the taste of the bacon a bit but some people find this the easier process of canning bacon.

What about you? Do you think that after you have learned this process you will be more interested in caning bacon the way that you want it? Just imagine being able to cook bacon when you need it without having to defrost it before cooking. You can cook bacon whenever you want and your bacon does not have to be freshly bought too. This can save you time and money.

Here's a video to learn more on how to pressure can bacon.