Pressure Cooker for the Modern Hunter Gatherer

[coote]

No pigs in my traps this morning, but an unfortunate possum happened to get snared. I despatched it with a very effective blow from the BK9.

I sometimes eat possums, but this one is mostly going to the dog. I don't like to give the dog bones because she sometimes buries them in the garden, and this can cause significant damage to my vegetable plants. So I cook possums and pull the meat from the bones.

I recently got a pressure cooker, and I reckon it is fantastic. It cuts the cooking time dramatically. I don't need to use as much water as compared to cooking in a conventional pot, so the flavours can be more concentrated. It is great for making bone broth too.... some of the smaller bones can become crumbly-soft after a comparatively short time.

Anyway.... I cooked this morning's possum in the pressure cooker.

 

[bearfacedkiller]

I have an 8qt pressure cooker and it is hard to put into words how much I love it. It makes the best beans and the best bone broths and all the flavors meld so well and the texture of the food is always so good. It can make any piece of meat mouth watering tender. I use it to cook really lean meats like elk and venison roasts. I just cooked my St Pattys day corned beef in mine and it was out of this world. My best so far. You don't have to sing the praises of a pressure cooker to me. I have never had possum but I have always wanted to try it.

 

[Bladite]

pressure cooker be awesome. just made a great stewp tonite with one.

now, i'm doing a 12 hour cook of beef short ribs, that's going to be some good shit.

the bone will go into the freezer for the next soup fest (bone broth), the rib meat will be succulent and go into me tummy

 

[Xr6x]

Right on guys 👍I got to say I just became a fan of the pressure cooker myself.

 

[Brad "the butcher"]

I can a lot of salmon, kokanee and rainbow trout with mine.....way better then than commercially canned fish of very questionable quality

Sometimes a pot roast or beans as well

 

[coote]

So Brad... do you use metal cans or glass jars for your canning? I always thought that the term canning was used for tin cans only, but it seems some folks use the same name when preserving in glass.

I wouldn't mind trying this myself, but I'm nervous about ensuring that what I make is safe to store for 12 months or so.

 

[NixKustoms]

Love my pressure cooker!! They cut the cooking time down to a quarter of what a slow cooker does. Good stuff coote!

 

[granitestateofmind]

So Brad... do you use metal cans or glass jars for your canning? I always thought that the term canning was used for tin cans only, but it seems some folks use the same name when preserving in glass.

I wouldn't mind trying this myself, but I'm nervous about ensuring that what I make is safe to store for 12 months or so.

"Canning", AFAIK, is a general term for preserving food in an airtight container - most commonly, glass jars. Done right, food should last at least a year (most of the time WAY longer). Friends of ours from Alaska sent us a gift of homemade canned salmon years ago, which sat in the cupboard for...some years more. I finally unscrewed the top and gave it the sniff test (it passed, BTW) and, being the type to not waste things, ate some. Didn't get sick so, since no one else was interested, finished off the rest over the course of the week (put it in the fridge after opening). I'm still typing. I've seen canned peaches, green beans, pears, tomatoes, salmon, corned beef, pickles (of all kinds - including mango, which was a rare treat), Kimchi - in basements, cupboards and root cellars, covered with dust....still ready to eat. Before everyone had freezers, vacuum sealers and cryo paks, this was how people kept the abundance of the summer harvest stored thru the winter - especially here in New England. Peaches are my absolute favorite on a cold February night...."summer in a jar" - ain't nothin' tastes better. Plus, no freezer needed, just shelf space in a dark corner. Don't even need a pressure cooker (tho it makes things quite a bit more efficient), and Ball jars aren't expensive - even some spaghetti sauce jars work (tho you need to buy caps and rings). We used to do this when I was a kid, so all the abundance of the garden wouldn't go to waste. Plus, fresh tomatoes time travelling from summer to winter (or the next winter, or....) for dinner. Now I want canned peaches. There are "fresh" ones at the gross-me store....but they are tasteless compared to ripe ones picked and preserved right away.
Last year we had NO local peaches because of some freakish spring weather....but now I know I'll be canning them if we get a decent harvest.
Yeah, I'd look into it if I were you, Stephen. Wikipedia canning page.

 

[Bladite]

mmm, spring peaches

canning plus gamma radiation === lifetime shelf value. barring quality and flavors...

goo times...