Canning meat sauce / chili tips

[mum5]

Hi all, if you have any knowledge on pressure canning meat, I would appreciate your advice.

I posted in Frugality, but TAO gets higher traffic :)

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1373613/canning-meat-sauce-chili-tips

Thanks :)

[pokeyAC]

Hi mum5, I moved your post to nutrition and good eating because it is more of a food preparation question.  TAO is only for topics that don't fit in any of the other forums.

Thank you,

Pokey

[heatherdeg]

I don't have any tips because I don't can meat, and I've had some trouble with chili.  Someone told me not to fill the jars all the way if I'm canning chili--leaving like 1/4 of the jar unfilled... which just seems weird, but I had a lot of leakage and they told me that's how they always did it.

Otherwise, I know that I've had wicked problems because I was cooking my soups before canning them; and then the heat of pressure canning them made them taste horrible (overcooked).  I would check out a good canning book for meat on this point.  I like "Stocking Up" and "Putting Food By".  Your library should have one of them.