How To Can Beef Stew
Man, I’m really enjoying this canning thing! I especially love that my pantry shelves are slowly being filled with beautiful jars of home canned goodies. Seeing as our freezer is stuffed with a quarter of a long horn steer we bought from a local farmer, I figured I’d free up some space and can all of the packages of meat labeled “beef stew meat”.
Canning beef stew is very easy. It’s the prep that takes forever! Once all of the meat was chopped into bite sized pieces, and the veggies were nice and diced, I was ready to roll.
Here is the recipe I used. It’s from the Ball Blue Book: Guide To Preserving
Beef Stew For Canning
Yields 14 pints or 7 quarts
- 4-5 pounds beef stew meat, cut into bite size pieces
- 1 Tbsp oil
- 3 quarts cubed and peeled potatoes (about 12 medium)
- 2 quarts sliced carrots (about 16 small)
- 3 cups chopped celery (about 5 stalks) (I didn’t have any, so I substituted 2 Tbsp dried celery flakes.)
- 3 cups chopped onion (about 4 small)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp salt
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Brown meat in oil. Combine meat, veggies, and seasoning in a very large pot (I actually had to use two pots to hold all of this). Cover with boiling water, and bring back up to a boil. Ladle hot stew into hot jars, leaving 1″ headspace. Tap jars to remove air bubbles, then cover with lid. In a pressure canner, process pints for 1 hour and 15 minutes, quarts for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at 10 pounds of pressure.
That’s it! I was thinking, next time I can this I’m gonna fill some smaller pint jars to send with my husband when he goes to work. They’d make a nice, hearty meal!
I was the same way last year, we were expecting a baby at the end of the year and I figured like with our past children’s births that dh would only be able to spend a few days with us and then he would have to return to work so I canned and I canned and I canned determined to have easy ready to go meals in the pantry to make it easier on me.
I canned beef veg soup and chili for the first time ever, and I also canned dried beans, well just about anything I could get my hands on!!
Suprisingly dh was able to stay at home for 2 weeks with us but the ready to go meals did not to go waste!!
I’m not expecting a baby this year but I will be canning a bunch just the same!!
Great job branching out on your canning!!!
Dana
Your last sentence? Yes, yes they do.
You can also add a few spices or extra veggies here and there, too. To make it more yours. You’re already processing for over an hour for the meat anyway.
Kendra,
How thick or thin does the broth come out to be once it’s served? The liquid in the jar looks to a bit thin?
Thanks,
Jeff
Jeff,
If it’s too thin for you, you can always add some cornstarch to it when re-heating
I love your website! I have been looking for a recipe like this! Thank you so much for sharing! I have a question…does it need to be fully cooked before putting into the jars or does it finish cooking while in the pressure canner?
Carissa- Glad to help! Canning it will finish off the cooking
Thank you for sharing this. I was raised on homecanning and am so thrilled that so many others are taking an active interest again and that there are reliable resources like this one to refer to. I love this website. Please keep up the good work!:-)
A trick I use for the meat (especially wild meat like venison) is to drop the cubes into the deep fryer for one minute before adding to the veggies for cooking. Seals the juices in the meat completely and results in tasty, easy to chew meat stew.
Hi Kendra,
I am a prepper or have been for the last year now, storing food and created a large self-sufficient garden but have not canned yet. Just bought canner tonight after seeing a few youtube vidz including yours. All this time I been storing canned food from the grocery stores for when the bad times get here and they are coming, knowing that the grocery store bought foods are either bad for you or do not contain enough vitamins and minerals anymore to do you any good so will be doing canning on everything now using only organic. Anyways just wanted to say great job and thanks for the great info. I read your about you page and I know just how you felt. I too was from so called Paradise (South Beach, Miami) and moved to middle of no where in the backwoods of Georgia. Hated it for the first year but now I would never go back to living in the city so good for you.
How long is the shelf life?
Angie,
I wouldn’t let it go for more than a year.
Canned foods have an indefinite shelf life, once canned the food is good for many years, like 25 or so.
Research indicates over time you will have some slight loss of color, texture and only a very small loss of nutrition.
I like to make a roux for a thick gravy or stew ( made with flour) is it still ok to can after adding the extra ingredient of flour?
I do the same thing with venison or elk depending on what my husband gets during hunting season. If he gets one of each, my shelves and freezers are just stuffed full. It looks so wonderful and taste even better on those long rainy days here in Washington. Looking forward to canning peaches and pears in the fall. Has any one canned wild turkey? Would you do it just like chicken? I have always put the turkey in the freezer and wondered why I couldn’t can it just like I do the chickens?
How long to you have to cook the jars if you don’t have a pressure canner only a stove top canner?
Dorothy,
You must use a pressure canner to safely can beef stew. Sorry!!!
This may be a dumb question but is this meet fresh when you start the canning g process or can I thaw my frozen meat to can?
Jaci,
There are no dumb questions here
Yes, you can thaw frozen meat for canning. HTH!
Hi, I’m just getting started with canning and the first thing I wanted to can is my home made beef stew. I Always roll my stew in seasoned flour and brown the outside before throwing it in my stew, this gives the meat a great flavor and the stew just the right thickness. I keep reading not to use any thickener when canning but I can’t find anything that says why. Is browning my meat in the flour mixture before and browning before adding to stew going to make it a problem for canning? Thank you for your advise.
Tracie,
Back in the day, our grandmas used to add flour to stew before canning it. But now the FDA or whoever says it’s not safe. They recommend using Clear Jel for a thickener instead, which I guess you could bread your meat with? Honestly, I’m just not sure about breading before canning though.
Hi, Tracie: I am so glad I found your website. I am totally new to canning. My husband works away from home at a coal mine in northern B.C. Canada, and he has to cook for himself. I haven’t actually canned anything yet but I would like to start. I wanted to make him some homemade soups, stews, etc. and I was going to use a large pot to boil the canned jars in, but I guess that’s not going to work, eh? It sounds like I’m going to have to buy a pressure canner. What all do I need to buy? I bought some small bottles and the snap lids. I need to make 7 supper time meals for my husband while he’s away. I am not sure how big do the bottles need to be to hold a supper? I hope you can help me with all my questions about canning. Thank you so much.
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