Canning Beef Stew

In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ). I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew.

Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew..

6# beef
2# potatoes
2# carrots
1# onions
1# celery

After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery.

I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like.

I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my 7 hot quart jars. Then I divided up the beef, followed by the potatoes, carrots, onions and celery until the jars were full. While I was doing this my veggie stock was heating up to a boil. I then poured the hot stock in each jar..

I put a lid and ring on each jar ..

And canned the jars for 90 minutes at 10lbs of pressure…