Hello my wife and I just finished harvesting 8 chickens from our flock. After processing 4 and freezing 4 whole for the holidays. We are taking the carcasses for stock/soup. We actively 5 gallons boiling on our stove that we were planning on canning, however being new to this we were unaware that you have to pressure can chicken and low acidic foods. Since we don’t currently have to funds to run out and buy a pressure canner and bother of my freezers are full of the rest of the chickens, my question is if we water bath canned the stock/ soup and put the jars in our extra fridge would that keep the jars from going bad? We are kinda on a time limit to preserve our soup/stock because of our work schedules. Any advice would be very much appreciated
by hawkclaw98
13 Comments
Hi u/hawkclaw98,
For accessibility, please reply to this comment with a transcription of the screenshot or alt text describing the image you’ve posted. We thank you for ensuring that the visually impaired can fully participate in our discussions!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Canning) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Three days in the fridge.
Check your library. I’ve heard some do carry canners to loan.
In the future, if you’re going to go to the trouble of raising chickens, butchering them and all that you’re doing, it’ll be truly worth it to get a pressure canner.
Maybe someone will let you borrow theirs.
You don’t need to run out and get a four hundred dollar All American. You can find some for less than fifty dollars and you’ll more than make that back in terms of high quality chicken stock.
No. What you propose is not different from putting chicken soup in a tupperware and putting it in the fridge, so go on that timeframe of 3-4 days for leftovers.
Cool the stock down and put into plastic tubs or sturdy freezer bags and store in the freezer. It will last longer than in the fridge even if “sealed” in glass jars with a water bath canner. If I have stock that I plan on using *within the next few days*, I will put them into repurposed commercial glass jars and store in the fridge (there is no need to go through the extra step of water bath canning).
Reduce it down to 1/4, cool it, then freeze it to save on space. If you have made good stock the reduction when cooled will be very gelatinous and easy to freeze in zip lock bags. Freeze it flat so it will stack nicely and thaw quickly when needed. Also works great if you freeze in ice cube trays
I always froze my stock before getting a pressure canner. I really like the plastic “freezer” jars they make with the twist tops. Realistically if you reduce it down enough to a really rich stock you won’t take up very much freezer space.
For long term use you’ll need to freeze it or pressure can it.
When freezer space is tight for me, I freeze soup and stock flat in gallon freezer bags. If you have an Aldi near you, their brand of freezer bags work great. Let it cool slightly, and then carefully spoon it into the bags that you have sitting on a baking sheet. Lay them semi-flat as you are the liquid into them and periodically check how full they are. Carefully seal them, while squeezing out any air if you can. Lay them flat and freeze them. Hope that helps because it really is a money savers to have that in the freezer and ready to go
Soup/ stock both need to be pressure Canned soup with meats in them needs to be pressure canned for a longer time stocks with all most of the meat parts and veggie bits. Strained out and be canned for 20 minutes. Pints 25 minutes quarts and a pressure canner.
Now if you don’t have time to properly pressure can at the moment you may freeze the stock/ starter and thaw bring up to temperature and then process in a pressure canner.
But no, you cannot water bath, soups or stocks
Try posting on neighborhood or fb to see if any of your neighbors can loan you a pressure canner. My first one came from good will and was probably 30 years old. You never know what your neighbors have in their closet.
You could also try concentrating it and than freezing into ice cube trays for later.
Pressure can that shiz
And get your pressure canner gauge tested every year.
Please DO NOT water bath can meat stock. You will end up poisoning people.
Cook the stock right down until it’s at that stage it may form a gel. Then when it is cool decant the thick liquid/gel into freezer bags, and store FLAT in the freezer, so it makes thin but square bags. Then you break off a piece when you need to use it. I throw the frozen pieces of stock into whatever I am cooking, and add a little water as it when it’s needed.
Takes up much less space than most other forms of saving stock 🙂