One of my favorite ways to save money on the grocery bill is to find things on sale now and preserve them for later. In my case today, I found high-quality ground steak for just $3.49/lb, so I bought as much as I could afford and turned a good portion of that into meatloaf…in jars. Canned meatloaf is shelf stable for at least one year and makes my life so much easier! Imagine if all you had to do on weeknights is open a couple of jars and heat what’s inside to serve your family a real home-cooked meal without any additives or preservatives! If you don’t mind spending one day a month in the kitchen, this is totally possible!
Here’s the general recipe, but feel free to do this with your favorite meatloaf recipe
Ingredients:
10 lbs ground beef (aka, Hamburg)
3 cloves garlic (do not be tempted to add more because raw garlic
when pressure-canned can be overwhelming)
1/2 onion
2-3 T light brown sugar
1&1/4 tomato ketchup
1 plastic package of saltine crackers (buy a box of saltines and use one of the plastic packages inside)
1 T parsley
1 t yellow mustard (powder)
1 t pepper
2 t salt
8 eggs
Ingredients:
10 lbs ground beef (aka, Hamburg)
3 cloves garlic (do not be tempted to add more because raw garlic
when pressure-canned can be overwhelming)
1/2 onion
2-3 T light brown sugar
1&1/4 tomato ketchup
1 plastic package of saltine crackers (buy a box of saltines and use one of the plastic packages inside)
1 T parsley
1 t yellow mustard (powder)
1 t pepper
2 t salt
8 eggs
Instructions:
Prepare your jars and lids and bands per instructions in the above link on canning principles. Keep lids submerged in hot water to soften the rubber seal.
Combine everything in a bowl.
Mix all ingredients well
Pack tightly in clean jars. I like adding a little at a time and stomping to pack tightly.
I used a french rolling pin inside a plastic bread bag (so the wood does not touch the meat)
Leave about 1&1/4 inch headspace. Try to eliminate air pockets as much as you can.