Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

I tied canning a meat dish for the first time this past weekend. I'm not an experienced canner; I just started last year with vegetables, salsas, fruit jams and preserves. Most things I've done have used boiling water bath method, and I've used my All-American 931 canner a couple of times.

I followed the Beef in Wine Sauce instructions from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. I made some minor changes in seasonings and added a couple of chopped serrano peppers, but otherwise followed the directions. I used thick round steak cut into 1 inch cubes, as the recipe states.

One of my jars didn't seal in my canner so I put it in the fridge and ate it a couple of days later. The flavor of the sauce was good, and the meat was fork tender, yet oddly dry and chewy. That sounds contradictory, that it could be tender and yet dry/chewy at the same time, but that is the only way I can describe it.

The instructions say to brown the meat in oil (no flour), then add the other ingredients and simmer for an hour. I did that. I wasn't ready to can after an hour, so I turned off the fire and let the food sit covered. It was in a Le Creuset 5 quart braiser that holds heat well, so it didn't cool off completely. An hour and a half later I reheated it to boiling just before canning it.

The summary is that the sauce was delicious, the meat was sub-par. What did I do wrong, and how can I improve it next time I try this recipe?

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

It's possible that you didn't use a fatty enough cut of meat. And there is really no reason to do more than sear the outside of the meat before putting it in the jars-- it will cook very completely even if put into the jars raw.

Of course if you are making wine sauce, you probably have to boil off the alcohol before the sauce goes into the can.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

buff01, thank you for your comments, but I'm not asking a general question. I am asking specifically about the Beef in Wine Sauce recipe that is in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. I've got a 2006 edition of this book that was first published in 1909. The recipes are supposed to be tried and tested and true, and of course updated to reflect safety and modern equipment every so often. This book is hailed by many as one of the best from which to learn the craft of canning.

This recipe has probably been canned hundreds of thousands of times, or more, so I'm hoping someone on this forum has some experience with it, particularly. While there are recipes that call for only brief searing of the meat, this is not one of them. It calls for browning and then simmering with the other ingredients for one hour.

All of the meat canning recipes I can find specifically recommend lean, low fat cuts of meat. Excessive fat is apparently to be avoided due to a tendency to turn rancid, and possibly for other reasons.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

Sounds like you cooked it for 250% of the cooking time. I inexperienced but I would guess that to be the culprit. Sounds like the correct symptoms based on my past experience of overcooking in a crockpot.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

I just asked a similar question in my post about canning pork loin, a cut of meat that when overcooked can be dry and chewy. I asked it because I remember my mothers swiss steak from when I was a kid. It was the cut of meat, round steak, that when simmered for hours in gravy, was ungodly dry and chewey! Sorry mom. :adore:

You could probably even use beef shanks or beef short ribs in the recipe and they would be as tender as could be. Cuts of meat like that turn out excellent when pressure cooked and seasoned properly!

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

Round steak doesn't always come out like that though. I make a round steak and tomato gravy dish that is simmered on the stove (not pressure cooked) for a couple of hours, and the meat comes out very tender and tasty.

But in this case the theory that the meat was simply cooked way too long sounds reasonable. I will try it next time with top round steak and less overall cooking side by side with another batch made with sirloin. I bet the sirloin wins.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

Maybe your cut of meat was poor quality to begin with? Not all beef is created equal.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

That was my take on it, :smokin:

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

That's a possibility, but I don't know how I could really tell if so, since this is first time I've ever canned a meat dish. I have nothing to compare it to. If I'd cooked it the way I normally do, then I'd have the yardstick of my past experience by which to judge.

This was top round, graded choice, from Costco. It sure looked good, anyway. I don't believe I've ever gotten any bad meat from Costco.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

It isn't at all clear in your original post, you didn't can this via Water Bath?

:puke:

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

You mention buying meat at Costco. Do they have the same weird "enhanced" meats that Walmart does. I remember the first time I grilled a steak like that ...I almost puked from the odd texture! I suppose some people like it and do not wish to put your tastes down. I wonder how that stuff would be to can?

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

I followed the directions in the Ball Blue Book for this recipe. It calls for one hour and 30 minutes for quart jars at 10 pounds of pressure. I used my All American 931 canner.

This is a low acid recipe, so you can't use water bath.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

I don't think so. How would I find out? Nothing like that appears on the label on the meat from Costco.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

OK, good--I was worried. And I agree that you appear to have overcooked it. Pressure canning also cooks the meat like a pressure cooker.

Call or email the folks at Ball. They want you to get it right, not only because they want you to use their products, but because using it wrong might kill you.

Re: Beef in Wine Sauce from Ball Blue Book
 

That is a great idea. Not sure why it didn't occur to me. Thank you for that suggestion.

I will report back when I get a response.