Friday
Linda
Tuesday I got a call from Vicki asking if I wanted some freshly ground pork sausage. She and Ronald had a hog slaughtered for their winter store of pork and there was more than enough sausage to go around. They usually sell the excess to their friends for $2.00 a pound and it is already seasoned with spices. Of course I wanted in on that deal and headed right over to get some.
Vickie greeted me at the door with a metal spatula in her hand. The smell of frying sausage filled the small kitchen and she quickly bustled back over to the stove where sausage patties were frying in two large iron skillets. Rows of pint canning jars sat next to the stove, some already filled with cooked patties. I watched the master at work as she flipped the patties until they were perfectly browned and then placed them into the jars. She poured grease into the jars about a third of the way giving me instructions as she went along. Canning meat was new to me and I knew this was something I wanted to try.
Winter Sausage
She gave me a sample of a sausage patty to make sure it was to my liking. When I took a bite I could taste the freshness and the flavor was mild. This was definitely good and I knew Sonny would like it too. I left with eight pounds of sausage and of course a jar of elderberry jelly that she made this Spring and a jar of sausage patties. You rarely leave Vickie’s empty handed and its hard to give anything back because there isn’t a thing they need. But I will figure out something.
The rest of the day I canned sausage patties, but since I didn’t have a lot of fat I added a few cups of water to the drippings and boiled them. Then I poured it in the jars to about a third. Next you pressure cook them for 75 minutes at 10psi. I followed Vickie’s instructions, but I also followed some of the instructions I got from the internet. I made eight pints, but unfortunately two jars did not seal. I put them in the fridge and we will eat them this weekend. The lids were new and I followed the canning instructions so I think they may have been a couple of bad lids. Sometimes that happens. You just have to make sure to refrigerate those jars and use them within a week.
The root cellar is starting to look like a root cellar with all the pretty jars on the shelves. When my sister visited I asked her to bring me some more apples. Sonny likes the apple sauce we canned on her first visit, so we canned up some more.
Pre-Apple Sauce
This time I made it slightly chunky instead of smooth. We haven’t tried it yet so we’ll see which one he likes better.
Off-Grid in West Virginia 
Awesome. Where could I find the recipe online that you followed?
Cory,
http://www.backwoodshome.com/advice/ajo060425.html
This was her advice for someone who had frozen sausage. Mine was fresh. Also she recommended pressure cooking for 90 minutes for pints, but that would be for quarts. Other pages recommend 75 minutes for pints. If you google canning fresh sausage you will find what you need. You can actually can all types of meat.
The easiest way to can sausage is to thaw it, shape it into patties a little larger than the mouth of a wide mouthed pint canning jar. Then gently brown the patties, just until they’ve shrunk down and are beginning to brown nicely. Then stack them in your clean jars, to within an inch of the top of the jar. Add a cup or two of water to the fat and brownings in the frying pan and gently bring to a boil, stirring well. To each jar of patties, add about 4 Tbsp of this liquid. Seal the jars and process in a pressure canner at 10 pounds (unless you live at an altitude over 1,000 feet, then check your canning manual for directions for adjusting the pressure to your altitude, if necessary). Process pint jars for 90 minutes.