Which Home canned meat lasts the longest? (Answered)

As a food preserver, you may have seen some home canned meat that was stored in your kitchen for two or three years & you might ask is it safe to use them now?!

I have been in the same situation so I asked some experts and here is the answer.

 

As A general rule, home-canned Roast Beef can last up to five years as long as they were stored in a dark & dry place & it wasn’t opened since the preserving date.

 

In the below post I will share with you my experience in preserving home-canned meat and how long it lasts.

Venison Home-Canned.

 

 

Venison is one of the most delicious types of meat, whether it is cooked, preserved, or dried.

If you live in southern Idaho, you may have tried deer hunting and got used to its delicious taste.

Personally, I really like preserved venison, because it is easy to preserve and it tastes delicious

In order to answer how long you can use venison that you canned at home, I will share with you my personal experience.

Venison is soft meat, so the appropriate period for its use after preservation is from one to two years.

Some of my friends tried it after longer periods but the taste was not quite good

Home-Canned Lamb

 

 

Lamb meat is one of the most popular meats that people can preserve at home because it is easy to canning and also tastes beautiful.

The period that can be used for canned lamb is from two to three years.

This is the time when the taste is very good as well as healthy
If you have lamb meats that have been preserved for a longer period of time, you should check its smell and color before use.

Home-canned Roast Beef

Home-canned roast meat is considered somewhat rough meat, so it can be preserved for longer periods.

Although this depends on the method of canning itself, whether it is a hot pack or row pack.

Canning using pressure makes the taste of roast meat better with long periods, unlike canning in cooking.

Roast meat can be used for up to four or five years and it tastes good.

Always remember that the longer the preserving period, the more you should check the color and smell of the meat before use.

Home canned-Ground Beef

 

 

Personally, canned Ground beef plays a big role in my daily life.

It is very easy to prepare and saves me a lot of time when I have a busy day and I want to prepare fast, nutritious and inexpensive food as well.

Canned ground beef can last up to eighteen months and still taste delicious.

Some people use it after more canning periods as long as it has not been opened, but based on my personal experience after a year and a half, the taste is not very good.

Home Canned Steaks

Meat steaks are not very different from the roast when we talk about canning, but of course, there is a difference in the taste and texture after canning.

From my personal point of view, steaks taste much better, because when cutting meat into slices, they are easier and faster in canning as well.

The period during which you can eat steak canned at home is a year at most

Home Canned Pork Roast

 

 

Pork is one of the distinctive meats in taste, which is used by many as preserved food for pork thanks to the fact that it is preserved in the hot pack method because the taste is much better and richer than the cold pack method.

Home-canned pork can be used for more than two years

How You Can Know That Your Home Canned Meat Has Gone Bad.

The first rule of thumb to make sure your home-canned meat is safe is to make sure the jar lid is still clean and tightly closed.

Tip: if you are able to pick your jar up by the led then you are good to go

The second sign is to make sure that your jar led has not bulged

When you open the jar and find that there is mold or yeast, this is a sign that you should not eat from this jar.

If you see cloudiness when you open the jar, this is also a sign that you should not eat this food. (usually, you will see this sign if you added Iodine Salt during the canning as meat is a low acids food)

Another sign when you open the jar you will find gases coming out of the jar in a way that makes sounds and smells foul, then here also you should not eat from this food.

Fermentation smell: if you smell a fermentation smell out of the canning meat this means that something is not healthy growing up there and you should not eat this.

Note: There is a general rule when preserving food that foods that are less acidic are more likely to be toxic and vice versa in foods that are more acidic.

And I must mention here that meat is a low-acid food, and therefore you should be very careful when using home-canned meat for a long time and you should take into account all the signs mentioned earlier.

Best Place to Store your home-canned Meat

 

It’s is not very different in preserving meat at home from any vegetables or fruits that are preserved at home.

but it needs to take into account the general rules for food preservation, which is that the preservation should be in a dry place and an appropriate temperature that is not too cold or hot.

Also, the preservation should be in a dark place in order to preserve the benefits of food

Conclusion

To summarise things up here let’s have a look at the below small table that is showing all kinds of meat we talked about and it’s average lasting on the shelf after canning at home.

No	Meat	Average lasting Time On The Shelf
1	Venison	Up to 2 years
2	Lamb	Up to 3 years
3	Roast Beef	Up to 5 Years
4	Ground Beef	Up to 18 Months
5	Steaks	Up to 1 Year
6	Pork	Up to 2 years

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Resources:

National Center for home food preservation