posted 2 years ago
I've had an interesting journey in the kitchen this year!
In looking for strategies to lower my electric bill, I got an induction cooktop (love it) and unplugged my electric stove. Then I found out you can get an induction-compatible pressure canner, so I invested in one and leaped into learning to use it, intending to can garden produce to extend my "no storebought produce" challenge as long as possible.
Well, that lead to discovering MEAT CANNING.. I was so excited. My fridge/freezer is super small, part of my electricity reduction. Finding out that I can store meat without electricity? Yippee. I've been availing myself of the good bulk meat prices when things are on sale again!
Now on to liver pate. We could all (well, us meat eaters) use more organ meat in our diet, right? I see someone posted a canning recipe from the 1940s for this, but when USDA updated canning guidelines they "can't recommend" pressure canning this, and any think pastes really, and my understanding is that this just wasn't part of updated studying experiments to confirm safe temperature/timeline guidelines. Not that it's necessarily going to be dangerous.
I'm thinking about making some up, canning a small batch in SMALL jars (half pint?). And then taking a temperature reading from the inside of one of them as soon as they come out of the canner, just to see what I get. I know it will have come down and depressurized by then, so it won't reflect highest point of processing temps, but it's what I have available to be able to do. If it is, indeed, a low or borderline temperature I can always eat/freeze it. But if it's still higher than safe temps (240F) I'll feel pretty confident in shelving the results.
Thoughts?
"The world is changed by your example, not your opinion." ~ Paulo Coelho