Pretty much, I draw the line at opening the can and eating them. Yeuch!

That alone would be reason enough to do it. I did the calculation on my baked products. The per unit cost is below that of commercial products. I just use more of it though. That kind of reduces the overall savings.
Around here we have two or three cases of "food scandals" in the press (e. g.: rat droppings in bread and rolls, whole mice processed in baked goods, retired cart horses in meat balls, rotten meat put in ground meat). And they only publish the extreme cases.



I bet some people would be happy to acquire a product of that quality at all.

I agree the quality of most canned meat is terrible. And expensive! Thats why I stick with Chicken, Tuna, Sardines, and Herring mostly. Hopefully one day I'll be able to do my own pressure canning. That would open up the variety. Then sky's the limit as they say.

The only canned meat that I keep in significant volumes is Spam, it is fashionable to dislike spam but I enjoy it.
In emergency it may be eaten straight from the can, but is much better fried IMHO.

Spam and corned beef seem to have much longer "best before" dates than other canned meats, which is a decided adavantage for long term stocking up.
I dont take dates on cans too seriously, but still prefer longer dated when possible.

Does anyone know for how long canned goods remain wholesome ? under normal indoor conditions.
I normally allow an extra year on the shorter life canned goods, and an extra two years on longer life goods including spam.

Jars are fragile, but also reusable, which means if you are careful, you can reduce the per-use price considerably over time. Some of my jars have been used 8 times already. Since a box of jars cost me about $8, that is quickly becoming a negligible expense. With using tattler lids now (reusable plastic lids and seals), the cost will continue to go down.

I wouldn't have a problem canning using tin cans, only the equipment is a bit more expensive for the volume I do. Using retort bag canners would also be handy and useful. But again, the capital expense is a bit much.

PLEASE continue beating this dead horse. The video is absolutely incredible and the PDF is VERY good. Ms. DeWitt is an great, engaging speaker. It is difficult to listen to a topic as this without falling asleep and she was incredible! The PDF is full of useful information.

Conway Yee

How big is equipment for canning, and how many cans do you need to make to be "worth your time" in a sitting?

-For example, is it worth the time/effort to can 1 chicken (which to me is 2-4 meals), when you have to cook it first?
-Or should I have made as many as my oven could fit?
-How long would it take to can said chicken after cooking (for an average user)?

The big detractors for me are space and time. I have an infant and my wife and I both work - out the door at 0630, home around 5-6pm. kid in bed around 7:30pm, so obviously food/bath/bed takes most of that time. Bed by 10pm (and usually dinner around 8). Doesn't leave much time, other than weekends, to do stuff. And of course that's taken up with "life." Grocery store, Home Depot, etc.

if this is something like an hour or 2 a month, great. If it's more of a few hours weekly, the heck with it.

I am looking into this option even though the chest Freezer is where the majority of my meaty and fishy comestibles are stored. Having a Pressure Canner and Mason Jars etc on hand to can during a long term power outage would save the freezer contents from spoilage assuming the solar and generator backups are not available.

First, you don't need to pre-cook the chicken, you can raw pack it and process it, and the process time in the canner is the same, so the overall process time is greatly reduced.

Assuming half a chicken per quart (unboned), or 1/4 chicken per pint (unboned), 3 chickens would do a short load in a canner. My canners will each do 6 quarts at a time, roughly two hours in the canner (15 minutes to get it up to pressure, 90 minutes at pressure, 15 minutes to let it come back down to ambient pressure). Figure half an hour prep (cutting up the chickens, stuffing the jars, putting on the lids, etc). So you could do 6 quarts in an evening easily.

But it's really a matter of priorities, and it sounds like your schedule is too full to mess around with it, so probably better for you to just buy what you need at the store and forego the trouble. If all you have is an hour or two a month, that's not going to work. It won't be as healthy for you or your family, but that isn't always the most important thing.

If you wait until the power is out to do your canning, you will be too late. You might have the ability to can without electricity, but probably not the time for it then.

I have a freezer and it is full of food, mostly staged for when I have a block of time to process. This next weekend looks like a good opportunity. I should end up processing at least 60 pints of meat in the canners if all goes as planned. I also plan on making at least 30 lbs of sausage. That may or may not happen. But if not, I can probably do it during the week next week.

Not everything goes in the grinder or gets canned. Steaks, frying chicken, fresh sausage, and roasts stay raw in the freezer until time to cook. A few salmon fillets stay in the freezer, and a couple roasting turkeys, ducks, and goose have to stay in as well. That's still a lot of food to leave at risk if the power goes out. But hey, even I like a little fresh meat once in a while. I are a Texican, after all.