Canning Dog Food From Offal

[Beekissed]

I still have to fuss with my canner. Front burner is great at getting it up to pressure. Then, I have to slide the canner to the smaller back burner. I love cooking with gas, but wonder if the flame is more variable than electric heat?

I find it to be just the opposite. To me, electric is VERY hard to cook on and I invariably get things too hot or not hot enough but can never seem to find the sweet spot on an electric range. With gas I never have a problem...guess because I can actually SEE the flame and how much flame it takes to make something the right temp.

With my gas stove, I just turn it on high and never have to adjust the flame at all to get the right rhythm on the pressure gauge for canning. I love that!

 

[Beekissed]

I sit and stare at the canner like it’s going to blow up. It’s not, it stays right on a bit over 10 pounds, but I still won’t leave it alone. So here I sit for an hour and a half, thinking about all the other things I could be doing besides watching a dial that don’t move.

My Mom used to have a canner with the gauge and found the same thing...couldn't get a thing done from watching that gauge, especially since she was canning on a wood cook stove. She ditched that one for one with just the wts and never had a problem since....we can wait until it gets up to rocking or spinning rhythmically and then set the timer and walk away.

Love that!

 

[baymule]

Mine has the weight on it, but I still sit and watch it. OCD I guess.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

The problem I had with the Mirro (with weights) was: it would never rock, or spin, or do the rhythmic steam release. It would either release a constant stream of steam. Or it would do nothing. There was absolutely no middle ground with that thing.

I never could cook with electric. With my current set up, i start the canner on the large front burner to get up to pressure. Then, I have to move the canner to the back burner, b/c the front burner can't be turned low enough. Now, we all know how heavy a full canner can be, and I suspect that it's not best practice to be lifting a full canner that's rocking along at 10# of pressure! But... that's what I must do.

 

[wyoDreamer]

@Lazy Gardener That is what I must do also! If I try to start it on the smaller back burner, it takes forever to get going, but the big burner doesn't go low enough. My stove has 1 big burner, 2 medium burners, 1 small burner and a center dual burner for the grill. I think I may try the center burner next time, because I can start with both burners on and then turn the front 1/2 off.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Sounds like a plan. I'm always juggling. Love that big front burner. It's my go-to when I'm cooking anything in my cast iron, and to START almost everything. But, then... I must shift the pot/kettle/pan to an other burner to finish the job. I could retire a wealthy woman, if I designed a system that would easily and safely roll a heavy pot from front to back! It really wouldn't take much ingenuity to come up with such a system. It would need safety lock so that a pot wouldn't inadvertently go for a hike when you were not intending it to do so!

 

[baymule]

We butchered roosters. I parted out some of them, so I had backs, necks, and wing tips for the dogs. I canned it yesterday and got 6 quarts, plus a quart of broth and rice. I put a half gallon of broth in the refrigerator. Still have a pen of old layers to do. I’ll can the meat and broth for us, backs, necks and such for the dogs.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Dogs are gonna love it!

 

[baymule]

We ran out of canned offal for the dogs!! Oh no!! So we went to the slaughter house, Mr. Jim priced us beef lovers at 25 cents a pound! He had beeves coming in for slaughter, so we went back later and got 69 pounds for $17.25 YAY! One liver fills up a wash pan.

So I cubed them up, simmered in big pots and canned 28 quarts, but one broke in the canner, so I got 27 quarts. Plus I froze 6 quart bags, raw. Got 4 quarts of broth that I put in the refrigerator. Dogs are over the moon with this stuff on their kibble!

I’m going to get more and get a bunch canned up. Got to get more quart jars. I’d like a 2-3 month supply. One quart per day split 4 ways, I really love my dogs to do all this. LOL LOL

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You do love your dogs to do that. I need to make up some more for my dogs - they're down to maybe six quarts. DH is the dog feeder around here. I make it - he feeds it!

I got tons of ham that was rejected by the food pantry...there was nothing wrong with it except that it arrived thawed out and they weren't allowed to distribute it if it wasn't frozen solid. I soaked it in water to try to get some of the salt out - dehydrated it - and powdered it with a blender. I'll mix it with some cooked rice to add to the dogs food. They'll probably only get it mixed in their feed a couple times a week as opposed to every day because I'm still concerned with the salt levels.