This Thanksgiving, my pressure canner gave me so much freedom in regards to dealing with turkey leftovers. Normally, I’m putting together casseroles and soups for the freezer using turkey, making my family eat turkey days, and cooking turkey stock for hours upon hours. Not this year. Dealing with leftovers is a snap with my pressure cooker/canner.
Let’s first talk about stock. The pressure cooker makes stock in 30 minutes, and it’s the richest stock I’ve ever made. Here’s how I make mine. It’s so easy. No, cooking down the stock for a concentrated flavor. The pressure cooker does that for you. Regarding the turkey meat itself, I’ve tried to freeze cooked turkey (non-deli) alone, and it ends up tasting gamey. It has to actually be in something, like a pot pie, soup or casserole. After cooking a big Thanksgiving meal, I end up spending a couple days making pot pies, casseroles, and soups. I did make turkey soup this year, but I didn’t pre-cook it — I let the canner do all the work, and here’s how. It took some assembling, but again, it was easy.
What this post is about, however, is putting up stand-alone turkey. Instead of assembling casseroles and taking up freezer space, I simply canned the turkey in stock. Just put the turkey in a clean canning jar, and fill with stock, leaving 1 inch head space.
After securing rims and lids, pressure can for 75 minutes for pints, and 90 minutes for quarts.
Canned turkey is actually better than roasted turkey. It is tender, moist, and full of slow-cooked flavor. If you need a quick protein choice for dinner, just open a can of turkey, serve with mashed potatoes and a can of vegetables. If you want to make a soup or pot pie, just pop open a can of turkey. It’s such a healthy, economical convenience food, and now you can enjoy turkey any day of the year.
So I am a little confused. You said you canned leftover turkey but in one of the comments you stated raw turkey is better than cooked. Hoping for a quick response since I have my turkey out but confused as to if I should cook it or can it raw.
Hi Colleen! Canning raw or par cooked always makes a better product in my opinion, but I certainly can things with cooked meat too all the time. Canning the turkey in a gravy like this insulates the turkey a bit from getting overcooked. Does that answer your question? I would love to see a picture of your jars when you are done. If you are on Facebook post pics of your jars on https://www.facebook.com/Preserved-Home-103670691294632
Laura, is there any reason why I couldn’t use a quart jar, put in raw turkey, broth, some raw potatoes, raw sweet potatoes, a few mushrooms and celery, and some cranberries and have an entire Thanksgiving dinner right there in the jar?
That is, pressure canning for 90 minutes.
Hi Jan! Actually, the raw turkey would be better than cooked. You can absolutely put all those ingredients together and can in quarts for 90 minutes.
What is the pressure at for the 75 and 90 minutes? Thanks!
Hi Heather, it depends on your altitude. If you are 1,000 feet or below, it’s 10 pounds of pressure. Above that it’s 15 pounds.