Yesterday was canning day. Or, at least, it was supposed to be. Didn't turn out that way. I had two packs of 5 breasts each. They had been defrosting in the fridge for almost 24 hours when Friday morning rolled around. I wanted it about half way between frozen and thawed but both packs were still hard as bricks. I checked them again at bedtime last night and there was no real progress. But, by this morning, finally, they had softened just a little around the edges. Turnsout they were just right.
I have 10 pint jars in the canner now. Each jar contains about a pound of meat. That's way more than I can eat pretty much anyway you look at it. In general, I will get at least 3 meals out of a pint, more if I use the meat in a casserole. So, steaming away is the protein part of 30-40 meals. I paid less than $15 for the two packs of meat. So, if I only get 3 meals per jar, that's about $.50 per meal for chicken breast. Not too bad, considering the price these days. Even when I bought them, the regular price for the two packs would have been around $20. So, I know I'm way ahead.
And, now, they are shelf stable. Additionally, the meat will be fully cooked so if I needed to, I could just open a jar and have some without additional cooking or baking. And, if I choose to put it in a casserole, I only need to bake long enough to heat the ingredients through, not longer because the meat needs to be cooked. The other neat thing is that each jar will contain some of the best broth around. Makes a lovely addition when cooking rice or in other applications. I also don't have to worry about losing that meat if the freezer has a problem (it's 44 years old, you know). And I don't have to worry about freezer burn. So, I guess you could say I'm pretty pleased that I'll be able to add those 10 jars to my collection tomorrow.
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