Saturday, February 21, 2009

Frugal Friday: Can Up Your Frugal Foods.



My frugal tip is to can your foods that you get on sale. Last week at our local grocery store, London broil roasts were on sale. That is our favorite cut of beef and I only buy it on sale. My extra freezer is not very large so I decided to try canning the meat. It worked!

Let me explain, I just learned to waterbath can only 3 years ago. Last summer I did a little side job of sewing and earned enough money to buy a pressure canner. Oooh, now I was in the big league! I had never done any pressure canning so I got out the instructions and worked my way through.

It was great! I got over my fears of something blowing up (I've heard horror stories!). I really like homemade soup so now I make up a big batch and can it.

Some of you veteran canners may be saying, "But of course! I've done that forever!". Well, it is a thrill for a newbie.

Now I can store meat and soups for a year and free up my freezer for other things. This week's sale was chicken so Monday I'll be canning up the birds.

A tip that worked for me was to cook the meat in the crockpot and then immediately can it when it was cooked. I started it early so it was cooked by early afternoon. It made the beef so tender that way.

If you have never tried canning, check it out! You may actually fall in love with it like I have.

Happy cooking,

Gloria

2 comments:

The Cole Family said...

I would love to learn how to can!

Cindy

Jacque Dixon said...

I came over to get the link to the soup stock for Sisterlisa. Her dh and children have the flu and bronchitis. :(

We just canned for the first time a few years ago also. I loved it. This is a great reminder to me! We were going to butcher our roosters a year ago, and I was going to can the meat. (then we ended up with 60 hens and 5 roosters! - and we like two of them) It seems like such a much better way to store than filling up the freezer! Thanks for the tips.
Peace and health to your family!
blessings~
J