I’ve been busy canning now that my garden is in full swing. I didn’t realize how much I missed canning, but going a year without a garden made me appreciate how great it is to have a pantry full of home-canned goodies. I’ve been busy with green beans (93 pints so far and counting), dill pickles, sweet pickle relish, dilly dog relish, and I have a crock with sauerkraut and 2 crocks with sweet pickles just waiting to finish and put on the shelves.

Since I had a little time on my hands today, I decided to try two meals-in-jars recipes that I’ve been wanting to try for some time. The first one is Pot Roast in Jars. I found the post on canningandcookingathome.com, and this recipe is from the All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. It’s super easy to prep, and best of all, I now have 7 quarts of ready-to-eat beef on my shelves. What’s not to like?

I’ve listed the ingredients below per quart jar. Feel free to divide into pints if you like, and you can double/triple the amounts to can the number of meals you want. I ended up with 7 quarts, which will definitely come in handy those nights when I don’t feel like cooking and don’t want take-out.

Pot Roast in a Jar

1 pound boneless beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks

1/2 cup potatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 cup onions, diced

1/2 cup celery, diced

1/2 cup carrots, sliced

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 bay leaf

1 garlic clove, sliced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 cup dry red wine (if you prefer, replace using room-temperature beef broth)

About 2 cups hot beef broth (liquid to top off jars)

Layer all ingredients except for the hot beef broth into jar. Pack meat, veggies, and spices tightly.

Add the red wine. Pour enough hot beef broth into jars to reach 1-inch headspace. Remove any bubbles. Add lids and rings, adjusting until finger tight.

Process in a pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure for 1 hour 30 minutes for quarts (1 hour 15 minutes for pints).

You can see from the picture I have plenty of room in my jars for the liquids. This will probably end up more like a soup/stew, but if that’s the case, it’s fine with me. Beef stew is one of my favorite comfort foods.

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