Stringy beef

[Jakk]

Any beef I have canned comes out stringy and overly well done. I have tried to raw pack it and it still doesn't come out right. I have canned it in broth, as beef soup and also just in water. I bought five 3.5lb Bottom Round roasts, im making two of them for dinner and the rest I want to can. What is the best way to prepare them without them coming out stringy?

[CrabGrassAcres]

Slice across the grain. Thin slices work best.

[Violet]

It is the cut of meat you are using. The round will be more stringy. I stick with chuck roasts or steaks. They come out the best, in my opinion.

[Crazy4Canning]

Jakk,

 

Stringy as in tough or stringy as in 'cooked meat'?

 

I'm asking because beef itself naturally lends itself to falling apart into strings - it's the muscle fiber.

 

For the tougher cuts (farther away from the ribs, and rump/ chuck the tougher it gets), cook it in the crock pot. I always add some meat tenderizer & garlic. If it's still stringy after this, then make it dog food. Seriously. They don't care. Mix it with some cheaper dog chow and a little rice and garlic powder, you'll have a friend for life.

 

Better yet, CAN it. The BBB (Ball Blue Book) calls for you to chunk it, sear it, then pack it into jars and can it. Pints 75 min at 11 lbs or quarts 90 min at 11 lbs up to 1000 ft sea level.

 

I debated on searing (I mean, WHY? It takes so MUCH time and you're cooking it anyway!) and I found I like it better - it fixes the juices in the meat and makes it ever so tasty.

 

DH has poor teeth (genetics AND poverty as a child), so early on in our marriage, I was stymied that he would actually PAY for better cuts. So, I got them.

 

Now, I usually get 1/2 a side of beef a year and ALL of the tough cuts get canned. You really can't tell the difference when it's canned. Really. I've canned chuck, round, tenderized...it all comes out lovely.

[KatMom]

I am curious about something regarding commercially canned beef(as in "hereford Brand " or the "Kirkland brand " which is Costco's brand. Each can of whatever brand of beef I have opened, packed in juices or gravy, the beef is "hard" even after heating. It's almost like it's dry or something. I had bought a lot of it for storage and I disliked it so much I gave it to my son-in-law for his labradors.

Does home canned beef turn out that way? I was really dissapointed as the Kirkland brand especially is usually quite good. Katmom

[CrabGrassAcres]

I've not had my meat get hard with canning. Makes you wonder what they do to it.

[Canned Nerd]

Commercially prepared products are not done the same way as home canning and they have the advantage of in-house research and testing laboratories that they spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to get a superior product.

 

[Crazy4Canning]

I don't eat commercially canned meats, so I've no idea.

[KatMom]

This was not what I would call a superior product in any way. Katmom

[Canned Nerd]

Taste is an individual thing. Companies would not make a product unless people buy them, and they change products as consumer tastes and demands change.

 

[KatMom]

I guess didn't make myself clear. Sorry. The Flavor is fine. It is the texture that is the problem. I mean't that the beef is kind of hard and almost dry even though it is packed in juices or a gravy. It is the "mouth feel" that is undesirable to me. Thanks for your response. Katmom

[Violet]

Katmom,

Check the can label to see if they add any preservatives, etc. It may well be that it is something they added that causes the meat to be like that.

 

[Violet]

Katmom,

Check the can label to see if they add any preservatives, etc. It may well be that it is something they added that causes the meat to be like that.

 

[Crazy4Canning]

Oh...KatMom...I know what you mean. I canned some hamburger (patties) and now I just can't stand them. DH likes them and thinks they're tasty, but it's a texture thing for me. Something about canning the ground meat changed the texture.

[Robert Z]

any meat I have canned turns out like pot roast.