Prepper Recon

Canning Turkey for Long Term Storage

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful to God for all he has provided for us.  It is also an opportunity to be good stewards with what He has blessed us with. Typically, stores offer turkeys at very low costs during the week before Thanksgiving. They are often loss leaders which actually lose money for the store but they expect to make it up and then some by selling you cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. The two major stores in our area have turkeys for $.59 a pound. Every year, there is a debate in our home about who gets to cook the turkey this year. Mrs. Recon is from France and has some nice culinary flare that she adds to the holiday bird. I, on the other hand am from Kentucky and like to prepare a very traditional turkey. This year, the solution was to get two birds. I am cooking mine now, as I like to have a nice stock prepared well in advance of Thanksgiving Day. Mrs. Recon can prepare her bird on Thanksgiving for a beautiful presentation.

For my turkey, I season it well with salt and pepper, then add fresh rosemary and sage from our garden. I also add an onion  and some celery stumps and tops. I make some small slits in the turkeys skin where I can place  these seasonings under the skin. I take the remainder and place it inside the bird. I Turn the turkey on its breast so the juices will flow down into the breast meat. This won’t make a beautiful brown turkey, but it will be juicy.  I cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook it at 350 degrees . The foil produces a dutch oven effect and cooks the bird very fast. I cooked a 14lb turkey in 2:15 minutes. Less than 10 minutes a pound. Keep a close eye on the turkey with a meat thermometer and remove the turkey from the oven when it reaches 165 degrees. Allow it to sit for 1 hour. Remove all of the bones, skin, onion, slices and celery parts and place them in a large stock pot. Pour the broth that has cooked out into the pot with the bones. Fill it with water and simmer for 2 hours. Strain the solids from the pot and you have a delicious stock for stuffing and gravy. Here is the cooking time and temps for a nice brown turkey that makes a better table presentation.

To can the turkey, you must have a pressure canner. All meat as well as any low acid foods must be canned with a pressure canner to prevent botulism. The Presto 23 Quart Pressure Canner is available from Amazon for about $70 through the link on the right hand side bar. Sterilize your jars with hot water and add 1 tsp of salt to the bottom of the jars. Break up your turkey meat and distribute throughout several sterilized jars. Fill the jars with the hot stock to about 1″ from the rim. Clean the rim of the jar with vinegar to remove any grease which will prevent the lids from sealing. Place a clean rim from a pan of simmering water on each jar and place a ring over the lid snugly. Place the jars in your pressure canner and cook at 10lb for 75 minutes or by the specifications of your canner.

Now you have several jars of  great tasting turkey for long term storage. you can use it for turkey salad, turkey pot pie or just heat and eat with mashed potatoes. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and happy prepping!