This Is Why I Can Food

I understand that many people have no desire to can anything. I understand that if you want to start canning . . as in never canned before . . it can be expensive to get started. There are now some decent electric canners. I have two and I will use those when I have a small amount of canning – three or four jars of leftover roast beef or leftover chili . . things like that. For the most part, I still use my stovetop canners more than I use the electric canners. I now use and love the All American canners but for probably 25 years, I canned using a Presto pressure canner.

Last week Aldi had turkeys on sale for .79 per pound. This week, they’re .70 per pound. The turkey we picked up was about 14 pounds and the cost was about $11 plus tax. We stuck it in a cooler with ice and let it defrost in there and I seasoned it, stuffed it with onions, apples, and garlic, then roasted it in the Nesco roaster at about 340 for about 4 hours, til the temp was about 170.

Vince and I had a yummy turkey dinner, then I pulled the meat off the bones, and divided it into white meat and dark meat. I stuck that in the fridge. In a separate bag, I put enough white meat to make each of us two turkey sandwiches.

I put the bones and skin back in the roaster, with the drippings from cooking the turkey. I added onions, celery, carrots, bay leaves, and a bit of salt, along with about one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. I let that cook on about 250 for about 36 hours. Then I strained the broth, packed the white meat into 1-1/2 pint jars, packed the dark meat into one pint jar, poured broth over all those, then filled quart jars with the remaining broth and pressure canned it all.

Look at that gorgeous broth! I ended up with five 1-1/2 pint jars of white meat. Each jar is enough for us each to have a dinner of turkey and gravy and at least one turkey sandwich (also with gravy). I ended up with 1 pint of dark meat for dog food, 10 quarts of super rich turkey bone broth and one little half pint jars of broth.

Aldi now has chicken or beef bone broth and it was $2.99 for a quart. I got the 10 quarts and one half pint of broth, which would cost about $30 if I were buying it. This is what I plan on the meals I will make from this.

• 1 original turkey dinner (for each of us)
• 2 sandwiches from the original turkey dinner (not really counting as a meal)
• 5 meals (a meal for each of us from each of the 1-1/2 pints (not counting using the leftovers for sandwiches)

If you figure the turkey and gravy is probably worth about $7 per meal (6 x $7), that’s $42 plus 10 quarts of broth at $3 each, that’s $30, so that one $11+ turkey will give us at least $72 worth of meals for not a whole lot of work.

Pretty good return on investment, right? Yes . . especially when turkey with gravy is one of my favorite meals.