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Canning (bottling) Chicken

One important and often difficult to achieve aspect of a good food storage plan is meat.  My strategy had always been to purchase canned meat at the grocery store or through group buys, but that gets pretty expensive!  We recently learned about and tried bottling chicken.  I had heard about it but it sounded like it was probably a huge job.  Then Mom told me a couple weeks ago that it was really easy – she was right (of course)!

Here’s the simple description for bottling chicken: cut it up into 1 inch square chunks, put 1/2 tsp salt in bottom of bottles, put chicken in bottles, pressure cook it for 90 minutes.  That’s it, super easy!

But, that’s too short of a blog post so here is the photo essay of how to can or bottle chicken.  Incidentally, I’ve been told that you follow the same procedure to bottle beef, venison, elk, any meat.

To start with, we bought 80 pounds of raw skinless boneless chicken breasts from a great sale at Macey’s – at $1.19/pound.  Fortunately for me, I have lots of kids who can help out, makes a big job happen quickly.

Here we are cleaning fat off the chicken and cutting up the breasts:

The meat needs to be cut into about 1 inch square chunks:

Here is what 80 pounds of chicken looks like all ready to be bottled (notice the quart jar for perspective):

The next step is to put 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the bottom of the jar (you can add whatever seasoning you like) then fill the jar with chicken to about 1 inch below the top and load them into the pressure cooker:

Heat up the cookers on high until they start rocking, then back off the heat until you get 3 rocks a minute, in the mountain region cook at 15 pounds of pressure.  Maintain 3 rocks/minute for 90 minutes (time starts after first rock).

After 90 minutes of cooking, turn off the heat and let the cookers sit for 30 minutes – DO NOT open them before hand, they’ll blow up!  After 30 minutes, remove the rocker, if it hisses you still have pressure – WAIT until it doesn’t hiss!

We averaged 2 pounds of chicken per bottle giving us 40 bottles:

Notice in the picture that there is liquid in the jars – that’s broth baby!  You don’t put any water in them at all, the cooking process fills the bottle up with juice.

After all our hard work we feasted on a bottle – it was delicious!  The fully cooked chicken comes out of the bottles and falls apart and tastes wonderful.

So, let’s calculate.  For about $2.50 on sale, you can buy a small tuna size can of chicken that weighs 10 ounces.  We’ve got about 32 ounces in each jar, giving us a little more than 3 cans in each jar.  That puts an equivalent value of $7.50 on each jar and we got 40 jars worth.  That gives us $300.00 equivalent value of chicken – and it costs us $110.00 – $80 for the chicken and $30 for the jars.  So we saved about $190.00 and ended up with a lot of chicken for storage!

Next up for us is to do this with hamburger.  I have about 80 boxes of hamburger helper in storage – my goal is to have a bottle of already cooked hamburger to go with each box.

– Phil801

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GeeksNGuns Event Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 9 there is a GeeksNGuns event, some fun stuff.  If you’ve been interested in getting to know some local shooters, or try out any equipment before making a purchase, this is a good one to attend.

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List Universer – Top 10 Tips To Prepare For A Depression

Thanks to List Universe for this Top 10 list to survive the coming Depression. They all appear to be good advice to this prepper. View the original using the link.

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There is a chance that the world could be heading in to a depression, so it seems appropriate to make a list that will come in handy should that eventuate. We all hope that it won’t be the case, but there is no reason at all to not be prepared just in case. Hopefully at least one or two of these tips will be useful to you all.

10
Get To Know Your Neighbors

It is a very good idea to get to know your neighbors well – even in times of a normal economy. Your neighbors can keep an eye on your home while you are away, they can feed the pets, and they can lend you a cup of sugar if you need one! In the event of a depression they can be even more useful – you can create a small community where you can share necessities that one may have and others lack, you can set up patrols (if the situation were so dire as to need it), and you can even have shared meals which can help to keep waste and costs down.

9
Buy Metal

If you have a considerably large amount of money, you will probably want to consider investing some of it in metals – such as gold and silver (though these are already seeing massive price increases). Of course, if you have a fortune you probably already know this, but it doesn’t hurt to remind people. In the event of a collapse of your nation’s currency, you will need a backup – and precious metals have been shown in the past to be an excellent one.

8
Stockpile Drugs

If you regularly take medication, try to stockpile as much as you can. In a depression you may find that you can not afford drugs, or – in a worst case scenario, the drug companies may go under! Additionally, store up bottles of aspirin and other common over-the-counter drugs that we all tend to use from time to time throughout the year. As you use these drugs, be sure to use the ones that are the closest to their expiry date – to prolong the life of the others.

7
Save Money

Right now. Begin saving as much money as you can. Cut down on all of your expenses (except debt repayment) and save every penny. If we end up in a depression, you are going to need it. This is also a good time to start thinking about selling any items in your home that you may not need. If it becomes very likely that a depression is going to hit, sell everything non-essential – that means the TV, DVD player, stereos, etc. I would recommend that you keep your computer (preferably a laptop in case you lose your home and need to move around) as it will come in handy when the depression ends.

6
Get rid of debt

You should try to get rid of as much debt as you can right now. While you can pay your mortgage now, you may not be able to in a month – and as banks are feeling the pinch, they are not going to tolerate even one missed payment. This can obviously lead very easily to you losing your home. If you think the recession now is painful, try suffering it on the streets! This is a tip to help you cope before the depression hits. If you find yourself in an untenable situation and the depression has already arrived, forget this tip and read the bonus item carefully.

5
Move your stocks

If you own stock, it is now a good time to consider the types of companies that are likely to do well in a depression – these are the companies you should move your stocks in to. The companies most likely to survive and profit are dry food manufacturers, diaper and toilet paper manufacturers, and any company making products that are seen as essential to survive. “Comfort” and “sin” stocks like cigarettes, alcohol, etc. are also stocks that do extremely well during bad times as people rely on them to blot out their suffering.

4
Learn a useful trade

Some trades are more in demand during a depression than others. For example, a baker, a handyman, or an electrician should be able to find work during the worst economic downturn, but a change control facilitator may not. Invest in some good old fashioned skills now and not only will it help you survive a depression, it may well be a complete career change for you in the future.

3
Store up Food

Right now you should be hoarding dried and canned foods. Also tablets for purifying water and other nice-to-haves like toilet paper, candles, and batteries. I know this sounds like preparations for a nuclear holocaust, but the effects could be horrifyingly similar. Keep all of your goods in a dry clean area. I would also recommend a book on the basics of cooking, so you can convert your flour to bread and perform other culinary miracles that require nothing processed or pre-packaged. This is a skill that will be invaluable whether we have a depression or not.

2
Relocate or buy an RV

If you think you are in a job that is likely to not be needed during a depression, you should consider relocating to an area that has a lot of wildlife and land. If you lose your house, an investment in an RV now (not on credit!) could be your life-saver. You can drive it to a new town, find a private area where you won’t be disturbed, and park up while the depression rides out. Make sure you find an area where you can rely on plentiful fresh water and animals – which brings us to item one…

1
Buy a Gun

If things get so bad that people begin to steal off each other, this will come in very handy. You can use it to protect your family and belongings, as well as to kill animals for food. And if you really are in dire straits, you can use it to rob someone else! (Okay – I didn’t mean that – we should all try to help each other out – not kill each other). A gun will be most useful in hunting so be sure to buy one that is practical for shooting birds and larger animals. You will also want to buy a book on how to skin, clean, and prepare wild animals for human consumption.

Bonus
Blow your credit cards

Okay – this is going to appear very controversial – but this is about surviving a depression; this is a matter of living or dying. If you are about to go bankrupt, are out of work, and see no hope in the foreseeable future of correcting this situation, use your credit cards right to the limit to put yourself in a better position – whether it be buying food, or moving somewhere you might be able to find work. If we really do enter another great depression, you will have to be prepared to do things you would normally not do in order to ensure the survival of your family and yourself. Under any other circumstances, this would be a very very bad thing to do.

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November Crossroads Gunshow

Are any other Utah locals (or regional folks) planning on heading to the Crossroads gun show on the 22nd?  The last few shows have had variable results in terms of deals, and content.  But given the amount of choices we have around here, especially with current federal expectations I know I plan on going.  Any one else wanting to meet up/carpool/etc?

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Welcome to the new Draft

“The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.”

— http://change.gov/americaserves/

“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

— Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

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CD3WD

Via a recent SurvivalBlog entry, I found a link to the CD3WD.  This is a site that has taken various international resources on third world development and moved them to more open formats than they were originally.  All the content is an amazing amalgam of HOW-TO data that is organized well, and completely open.  They have topical zips of some of the content, or a friendly mirror of all of the 13gigs of content.  Go browse the mirror and see the quality of the data, then grab a copy for yourself.

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Liberty and Learning lecture series in Utah

Unfortunately the majority of Americans voting today are criminally ignorant when it comes to a reasonable understanding of the rights afforded them by the Constitution. Over the last couple of years I have been devouring as much information as I can find to study on my own. This study has included opinions from those believing the Constitution to be a static document and those who believe that it is a ‘living, breathing document’.

All the studying I have done has placed me firmly in the static camp. The founding fathers feared that clever words, exaggerated security fears and other ‘crises’ could cause the people to cede their rights to an ever more powerful government. To combat this, the power of government was severely limited with the power and therefore responsibility laid in the laps of the people themselves. If a change to the Constitution were actually necessary, the mechanism to amend it was created. However, this should be seen as a solemn, game changing event and as such is a long and very difficult process.

During the 219 years since the Constitution was created, only 27 amendments have been added, INCLUDING the original 10 of the Bill of Rights. This alone should demonstrate the intended nature of the Constitution. It is a sacred document unswayed by the temperamental winds of changing opinion. It is the duty of all citizens to learn what rights and responsibilities are placed upon us by our Constitution.

Now more than ever our rights are assailed by the government, special interests and those seeking to gain more power over your life and the very decisions you are allowed to make. Our state indoctrination centers (known as public schools to most) teach nothing of this, in fact this is where the idea that the Constitution should be interpreted anew by those in our power hungry government is most espoused. We must combat this by being informed and working to teach our children, family friends and neighbors.

I urge everyone to attend a lecture series like the ones presented here. Liberty and Learning

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Food storage confiscations?

The government had jailed people in the past for ‘hoarding’ food. While this may seem a thing of the past, the government’s current direction towards ‘redistribution’ makes this ever more likely. NY Times Archive

Is anybody else worried about this or am I just paranoid?

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Seeds in food storage?

Lately it seems I have been seeing a number of survival blogs recommending seeds as part of your preps. Not everyone has the time, space or talent to have a functioning garden. But should that stop you from adding seeds to your broader food storage?

One item to consider is that seeds have a limited (and varied) shelf life. Some good information can be found here

I feel my own gardening skills are severely lacking and the garden areas at my home have been neglected in the two years we’ve lived there. However, after I do some more research, I expect I’ll be adding a variety of seeds to our storage soon.