Canning Meat Safely (Beef, Chicken, Pork)

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Canning meat at home is safe only in a pressure canner, using a tested process. For strips, cubes or chunks of beef, pork, lamb, veal or venison, the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) process is 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts, with 1 inch of headspace. At 0 to 1,000 feet, that's 10 psi in a weighted-gauge canner; a dial-gauge canner runs at 11 psi up to 2,000 feet.

Chicken, ground meat and stock have their own processes, and we cover each one below. Every time, pressure and headspace on this page comes from the NCHFP's meat and poultry pages, which are adapted from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning (Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539).

Don't change the times, pressures, jar sizes or headspace, and don't swap in a recipe from a blog or a family notebook. Meat is low-acid, so a mistake here carries a botulism risk.

Why Meat Needs a Pressure Canner

Meat is a low-acid food. The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning says low-acid foods must reach 240 to 250°F (116 to 121°C) to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores, and only a pressure canner gets there. Boiling water stops at 212°F (100°C) no matter how long you boil it.

The NCHFP's tested processes also assume a real pressure canner, one that holds at least four quart jars standing upright. The heat during come-up and the slow natural cool-down count toward the process. That's why the NCHFP does not recommend its canning processes in electric multi-cookers such as the Instant Pot, and why the USDA says small pressure saucepans aren't recommended for canning. If you're shopping, our best pressure canner guide compares the stovetop options.

Meat Canning Times at a Glance (NCHFP)

The NCHFP gives no times for half-gallon jars of any of these. Use pints or quarts only.

Pressure by Elevation

The processing time never changes with altitude. Only the pressure does. These bands apply to every product in the table above, per the NCHFP.

Dial-gauge pressure canner

Weighted-gauge pressure canner

The dial-gauge table stops at 8,000 feet. If you live higher, contact your county extension office before canning. Our pressure canning altitude chart explains the bands, and the calculator below gives your setting.

What You'll Need

• A pressure canner that holds at least 4 quart jars upright, with a tested dial gauge or a weighted gauge
• Pint or quart canning jars, new lids and bands
• A jar lifter, a wide-mouth funnel and a plastic bubble remover
• A skillet or roasting pan for the hot pack
• Canning salt (optional; it's for flavor, not safety)

How to Can Beef, Pork, Lamb or Venison (Strips, Cubes, Chunks)

This is the NCHFP's core red-meat recipe. Use it for stew beef, pork shoulder cubes, lamb, veal and venison.

Prepare the meat

1. Choose high-quality chilled meat and trim away excess fat.
2. For strong-flavored wild game, the NCHFP says to soak the meat for 1 hour in a brine of 1 tablespoon of salt per quart of water, then rinse.
3. Remove large bones and cut the meat into strips, cubes or chunks that fit your jars.

Option A: Hot pack (preferred by the NCHFP)

The NCHFP prefers the hot pack because it gives better liquid cover and quality during storage. Today's leaner cuts usually don't release enough fat and juice to cover the meat in a raw pack.

4. Precook the meat until rare by roasting, stewing or browning it in a small amount of fat.
5. Add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart (½ teaspoon per pint) if you like.
6. Fill the jars with the meat and cover with boiling broth, meat drippings, water or tomato juice. The NCHFP notes tomato juice is especially good with wild game.
7. Leave 1 inch of headspace.

Option B: Raw pack

4. Add salt if desired, as above.
5. Fill the jars with raw meat pieces, leaving 1 inch of headspace.
6. Add no liquid. Raw-packed meat and poultry are the exceptions here. The NCHFP warns that packing vegetables without their covering liquid ("dry canning") is unsafe.

Process

8. Remove air bubbles in hot-packed jars, recheck headspace, wipe the rims with a clean, damp paper towel, and put on the lids and bands.
9. Load the jars on the rack in a canner holding 2 to 3 inches of hot water (or the amount your manual specifies).
10. Lock the lid and vent steam for 10 minutes before putting on the weight or closing the petcock, as the NCHFP directs.
11. Bring the canner to the pressure for your elevation and gauge. Start timing at pressure: 75 minutes for pints, 90 for quarts. If pressure drops below the target, bring it back up and restart the full time.
12. Turn off the heat and let the canner depressurize on its own. Remove the weight, wait 10 minutes and open the lid away from you.
13. Cool the jars upright, undisturbed, for 12 to 24 hours. Then test the seals, remove the bands, label and store.

New to the canner itself? Our beginner's guide to using a pressure canner walks through each of these steps in more detail.

Canning Chicken and Other Poultry

Chicken and rabbit follow a separate NCHFP recipe with 1¼ inches of headspace, not 1 inch. Boneless meat takes 75 minutes for pints and 90 for quarts. Bone-in meat takes 65 minutes for pints and 75 for quarts. The NCHFP also says to chill dressed birds for 6 to 12 hours before canning. Our full recipe for canning chicken covers both packs and chicken stock.

Canning Ground Beef, Sausage and Ground Venison

Ground or chopped meat uses the same 75- and 90-minute times as cubed meat, but the NCHFP lists only a hot pack. You brown the meat, drain the fat, pack it and cover it with boiling broth, tomato juice or water. For ground venison, the NCHFP says to mix in one part high-quality pork fat to three or four parts venison before grinding. Our step-by-step guide to canning ground beef has the details, plus the tested chili con carne recipe.

Meat Stock

Stock is a much shorter process because it's all liquid: 20 minutes for pints and 25 for quarts, with 1 inch of headspace. The NCHFP's beef stock method simmers cracked bones for 3 to 4 hours. Its chicken or turkey stock simmers carcass bones for 30 to 45 minutes. In both, you cool the broth, skim off the fat, bring it back to a boil and fill the jars hot.

Don't confuse stock with soup. Once solid meat or vegetables go in, it's a soup, and the NCHFP soup times are much longer. Our guide to canning beef stew explains what the USDA has and hasn't tested for stews and soups.

Pressure Canning Meat: Common Mistakes

• Using a water bath canner or "long boil." There is no safe boiling-water process for meat. The temperature never gets high enough, however long you boil.
• Using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot. See above. The tested times don't transfer to small or electric cookers.
• Skipping the 10-minute vent. Trapped air lowers the temperature inside the canner even when the gauge reads correctly.
• Using an untested dial gauge. The NCHFP says to check dial gauges for accuracy every year. A gauge that reads high can lead to under-processing.
• Skipping the trim. Every NCHFP meat recipe starts with removing excess fat. Wipe the jar rims with a clean, damp paper towel before the lids go on.
• Thickening the liquid. The NCHFP says not to thicken its chili or soups before canning, and no tested meat recipe calls for flour or cornstarch. Thicken when you heat the jar to serve.
• Inventing a "mixed" recipe. Meat with potatoes, carrots or beans isn't covered by the plain-meat times. Use only a tested recipe for that exact mixture.
• Forcing the cool-down. The NCHFP says forced cooling can cause liquid loss, seal failure and warped lids, and the cool-down is part of the tested process.

Storing and Using Canned Meat

After 12 to 24 hours, test each lid. The NCHFP gives three checks: press the center (it shouldn't flex), tap it with a spoon (a sealed lid rings), and look at it at eye level (it should curve down slightly). If a lid didn't seal, you can reprocess within 24 hours with a new lid and the full original time, or refrigerate the jar and use it within a few days.

Store sealed jars without bands in a cool, dark, dry place. The USDA says to keep them below 95°F (35°C) and that 50 to 70°F (10 to 21°C) best preserves quality. The NCHFP says properly canned food keeps its best quality for at least a year.

Before opening a jar, look for warning signs: a bulging or unsealed lid, rising bubbles, spurting liquid, an off smell or mold. The USDA says not to taste food from a suspect jar, and to treat suspect low-acid foods as if they contain botulinum toxin. The USDA Complete Guide describes how to detoxify and dispose of them.

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