My Adventures in Canning Chickens

Here is a pic of my lovely new Presto Pressure Canner.


Here is a picture of the finished product, canned chicken meat:


How I got there? Ah you did have to ask, didn't you?

Well, I had these three kosher chicken in the freezer. Ralph's has been selling them frozen, so I've been picking one up when I think about it. We ran out of room in the freezer for my chocolate ice cream, and this is the Wrong Time of the Month for that crap.

So on Tuesday morning, I took them out and thawed them. (I DO have priorities, yah know.) On Tuesday in the late afternoon, I realized that the big meat pans were Somewhere in a box. My boxes of "stuff" are on the patio and in the garage. So, I located the two pans. Procrastinated. Surfed the Net. Finally boiled the chickens. It was 11PM when they were done. Cooled 'em and stuck 'em in the fridge.

Today was C-day. Cleaned and assembled the new pressure cooker. Picked the chicken off the bones and put back in the fridge. Made a big vat of broth from turnips, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, salt, bay leaves, parsnips and pepper.

Filled the pint jars with meat. Ladled the hot broth over them, cleaned off the rims and put on the caps.

Got the water boiling in the canner. Put the jars in the canner and tightened the lid. Got the whole thing boiling without the pressure controller on the pan, like the instruction manual said to do. Put the controller on, turned down the heat, adjusted in until the pressure was 11 psi. All good. Book said to keep on the pressure for 75 minutes. Cool.

Thirty minutes into processing time, I am in the living room eating lunch and I hear a "pop". I look up and streamy water is squirting straight up from the canner to the ceiling. Yeah, the overpressure plug blew. So, I got the canner turned off, the pressure released and the water mopped up. (BTW - a Swiffer mop with a towel works wonders to clean a ceiling. Darn it was filthy!)

The book, of course, said that you need a new plug. Try finding one in California. I ordered three on line. They'll be here sometime before my next birthday, I'm sure.

So, I go next door to talk to the neighbor, Lou. Lou is about 87 or so. He says to just try putting the plug back in and see if it holds the pressure. Dang, someone needs to tell Tom Dashle that old people are useful.

And it worked. Lou said it was probably just not seated correctly and blew out because of theimproper seal. So I finished up and can now do the other stuff I was planning before I cleaned the ceiling.

And I got out to yoga class at 6pm, too. Amazing.