# Suggestions for canning turkey?



## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

Since it's the holiday season, turkey is on sale at the local grocery for .98 per lb until Thanksgiving. My thoughts are that I'll buy at least 4 birds and can them in one form or another.

I'm hoping that there's some folks out there with recipes/ideas for a real meal other than just raw packing the turkey and processing like chicken... WHICH, I plan to do anyway, with at least one of them, possibly even two!!! Variety is good!  But I am hoping for turkey soup, or even better yet would be "turkey meal in a jar" type recipes! 

Anyway, any great canned turkey recipes? if you raw pack your turkey meat, any thoughts on salt (amount?) or bullion cubes? I have only been raw packing chicken so far and I have been using chicken bullion cubes instead of salt.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Sorry ... no recipe.

I raw pack, no salt ... no bullion cubes (or spice of any kind).

I add what I want to the recipe "after" canning & ready to fix a meal.

But that is just me ...


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

After you bone out the turkey to can the meat then you boil the bones and make your soup stock and can that. At least that is what I would do with it as I have not canned turkey yet.


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

cnsper said:


> After you bone out the turkey to can the meat then you boil the bones and make your soup stock and can that. At least that is what I would do with it as I have not canned turkey yet.


do you have an estimate on time required to do the boning out process? as a newbie to canning and prepping meat, I found my money/time was way better spent on boneless chicken breasts but I'm thinking with turkey it will still be very economical and the larger pieces of meat means less time spent working around the bones.

I wish I had the professional knife and butchering set of tools to process not only birds but big game as well. I think I might stop by wally world and get a cheapo fillet knife for the turkeys I want to can, but I'll have to start thinking about professional grade tools for meat processing.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Each Thanksgiving and Christmas, I pick all the leftover meat off the bones, mix it with any leftover turkey gravy, pack it in jars and can that. It is good poured over mashed potatoes or rice. 

Its not a complete meal in a jar but it is a good filling meal when eaten with a starch.

I boil the bones for stock and can that separately.


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## AuroraHawk (Sep 12, 2012)

Dakine, other than canning leftovers, as Davarm does, you will probably be better off canning your turkey with simple seasonings or no seasonings rather than trying to have a meal in a jar. 

You could make a tasty gravy from the stock and add onions, celery, garlic, corn, peas, carrots, homemade noodles/dumplings, BUT the peas, carrots and noodles/dumplings would be extremely soft after being processed in the pressure canner. I would rather dry the vegetables and add them after the jar of turkey has been opened to be used for a meal. Using the dried vegetables with the turkey and turkey stock will give you a much more flavorful meal that has a pleasing texture.


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## AuroraHawk (Sep 12, 2012)

Dakine said:


> I wish I had the professional knife and butchering set of tools to process not only birds but big game as well. I think I might stop by wally world and get a cheapo fillet knife for the turkeys I want to can, but I'll have to start thinking about professional grade tools for meat processing.


Dakine, the professional knife sets are nice BUT all you really need are a good meat slicing knife and a heavy cleaver to cut through joints. I can bone out a turkey with the French chef's knife and slicing knife from my $39.00 set of KitchenAid knives. Davis has a knife sharpener which he uses to keep all of our knives sharp so I never have to work with a dull knife.

I can use those same two knives to process a deer, moose, or caribou. The biggest help is a good grasp of the anatomy of what you are trying to butcher. Disjointing as much as possible will save wear and tear on your blades.


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

Dakine said:


> do you have an estimate on time required to do the boning out process? as a newbie to canning and prepping meat, I found my money/time was way better spent on boneless chicken breasts but I'm thinking with turkey it will still be very economical and the larger pieces of meat means less time spent working around the bones.
> 
> I wish I had the professional knife and butchering set of tools to process not only birds but big game as well. I think I might stop by wally world and get a cheapo fillet knife for the turkeys I want to can, but I'll have to start thinking about professional grade tools for meat processing.


It does not take long but I have never timed it myself. Remember you are going to cook the carcass for soup stock so you don't need to have the bones picked clean because that meat will end up in the stock. Would just can the breast, drum sticks and thighs and cook off the rest into the stock.


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