Under Pressure

The hunting and gathering method of living may seem like it is a bit out of date...And it may very well be for many of you out there.  I would have to say though that it is one of the best parts of living on 225 acres.  As you may have seen from previous posts, we did have a very successful hunt this season so you may ask yourself, what does one do with all that venison?  We decided to try for another old, possibly out dated method of preparing venison.  We canned it!!  Canning is certainly a process.  It is one that by its very nature seems to bring a person back in time.  I can imagine my grandma standing in her kitchen canning fruits, and who knows what else right along side me as I load up the very same pressure cooker that she used to use.  

Now, that brings me to another point entirely.  Let's talk about the safety of this operation for a moment.  When Annette and Adam made the drive, one of the items they delivered was grandma's 'ol pressure cooker.  This one certainly would not pass any sort of safety standards today.  It was, however, made right here in Manitowoc, WI so it was a sort of homecoming in a way.  This apparatus, no matter how unsafe it might be, needed to be put to use.  There is no safety valve that will release on this one, in fact the lid is screwed down with the aid of seven secure wing nuts all along the rim of the cooker.  Basically, when one puts some water inside and introduces it to heat, the cooker can build up enough steam for a nice indoor, do-it-yourself bomb!  Really, that is part of the adventure of canning.  I don't know, I have heard these stories, of Grandma Nellie, blowing the cooker through the roof but I really believe that that those sorts of incidents can be blamed entirely on Grandma Nellie and all the other users that encountered such debacles.  If one attends to the cooker with a watchful eye, the pressure is fairly easy to maintain in a safe range.  Of course, I could be wrong about all of that and because of my ignorance, I could wind up with bits all over the place sometime.  

I am pleased to report that over a two night period, we were able to safely, and securely can 14 quarts of the delicious meat.  There is something about the anticipation that builds right along with the inside pressure and temperature.  There is no way of knowing how things are going until the pressure is released and the lid lifts an hour and a half later.  It is then time to sit and anxiously await the distinct noise of the lid sealing with a pop!  It really is a fun process and it makes for fun stories and more importantly it draws a wonderful parallel to our past. You should try it out some time, but don't feel "pressured".