Expanded Food Storage--Canning Bacon

Disclaimer: The FDA does not recommend canning bacon.  Why this is, I have never been able to find.  If you find a source or know why, please let us know in the comment box below.  That said, preppers have been canning bacon for years.  Do your own research and decide what is best for your family.

Potatoes grew extremely well for me our first year in Missouri, and so I did what any normal gardener would do the next year--I planted a whole lot more.  And we grew a whole lot more.  I canned a lot of them, but we still had bushels for eating throughout the fall and winter.  Potatoes were on the dinner menu every night.  And while I did include soups and casserole dishes, we also had a lot of baked potatoes.  Usually you can't go wrong with baked potatoes.  Most everybody enjoys them.  We always had salt, pepper, butter, grated cheddar cheese, and sour cream to dress them to our liking.  (Oh, and ketchup.  Some of the kids had to have ketchup.)

It was one of those years when we were trying to eat as much as possible only what we produced, not from economics but from the preparedness standpoint of wanting to see if we could grow what we needed and eat it.

And the children were getting tired of spud this and spud that.  So I opened a jar of canned bacon and briefly fried it to crisp it up and add to the table for topping baked potatoes. I was really surprised at what a difference it made to everyone.  And I realized we needed a lot more bacon in our preps.  For us, it has become one of those essential foods that can really make a difference and lift our spirits.

Like I mentioned above, I've been canning bacon for years.  Learn from my experience and can what you need or want for your family without waste.

Bacon Ends and Pieces

Let's begin with canning bacon ends and pieces.  It's fast and easy.

First off, you must have a pressure canner (no, you cannot substitute a pressure cooker).  You will process your canned bacon according to the instructions provided with your canner.

Second, you will need jars.  For my family of seven, I can bacon ends and pieces in four-ounce and eight-ounce jars.

Third, you will need the bacon.  Bacon ends and pieces are sold in 2.5- to 3-pound packages at Walmart and discount grocery stores and most larger chain grocery stores.  Most of the pieces are pure fat or pure meat with very little that actually looks like bacon strips.

When I started canning bacon ends and strips, I threw away a lot of fat.  Huge waste.  I got to thinking about it and realized that the fatty pieces should just be canned separately so that they could be rendered into bacon grease later.  So that's what I do now.  When canning bacon ends and pieces, I fill four-ounce and eight-ounce jars with mostly meaty pieces, eight-ounce jars with just fat, and eight-ounce jars with pieces that look more like bacon strips.  Nothing is wasted.

When it's time to make dinner, the meaty bacon will be crisped up in a frying pan.  Of course, the bacon has already been fully cooked in the pressure canner.  But you know how fabulous the smell of bacon frying is, and most people like their bacon toppings for potatoes, soup, and salad to be crisped up a little.

The canned bacon fat gets rendered into bacon grease as needed.  I use the grease for frying potatoes and hamburgers as well as making tortillas (subject of a future post).

The pieces that look more like bacon strips (and there never is that much of this kind in the packages I buy) get eaten like bacon.

Bacon Strips

Canning bacon strips take a little (or a lot) more time.  Most bacon-canning aficionados recommend using quart jars.  If you really need your bacon in full-length strips, then this is the way to go.  But if you don't, that's a heckuva lot of bacon, or a lot of wasted space if you don't fill the jar completely.  I can fit almost a pound of bacon in a pint jar, and that is plenty for my family of seven for most any meal.  Plan accordingly for your family.

Just as for canning bacon ends, you need a pressure canner.  You will also need the right jars, wide mouth pints or quarts.  Bacon may be safely canned in regular mouth jars, but it's a lot harder to get it in and out. A wide mouth pint jar will hold just under one pound of bacon strips.

You also need parchment paper.  Wax paper will not substitute and will not hold up to pressure canning.

For best results, partially brown bacon strips on low heat.  (Higher temperatures cause more curling of the bacon, making it harder to roll up the bacon and wasting space in the jar.)  Lay bacon strips side by side in the middle of the parchment paper.  Fold the ends of the parchment paper over the ends of the bacon strips.  Tightly roll up the bacon and parchment paper, like you would roll up a sleeping bag or cinnamon rolls, really making the roll as tight as possible.  Put bacon roll in your jar.  If it doesn't fit, remove one strip of bacon at a time until it does fit.

Canning Bacon

Fill your jars with bacon, leaving the appropriate amount of head space for the size of your jars.  Wipe the rims and threads of each jar very carefully with fresh paper towels and vinegar.  Vinegar cuts grease, and even the slightest bit of bacon grease on the rim of the jar will prevent a seal from forming.  I actually recommend wiping each jar twice.  Bacon grease can be very hard to eliminate.

Put the lids and bands on and place in your canner.  Process your jars of bacon according to instructions for your canner and your canning guide for processing ham.  

After processing and cooling on the counter overnight, wash jars and bands very well in soapy water, then dry, label, and store.

When the time comes, you will be so very grateful to have these little jars of culinary joy.

UPDATE, 20 February 2019:

In researching for another post, I came across this quote from Dr. Brian Nummer, Utah State University, Extension Food Safety Specialist.  The original link is now dead; this link is to where the quote was posted.  https://www.healthycanning.com/home-canning-cured-meats-bacon-brined-corned-ham-etc/

QUESTION: I am not sure who to direct this question to, maybe you can forward it to the person who can give me the answer. A lot is going around right now about canning bacon by rolling raw or cooked bacon in parchment paper (I think that is what it is called) putting it in quart jars with no liquid and pressure canning it at 15 lbs for 90 min. Is this safe to do and store in a cold storage room for an extended period of time? Thank you for your time. Susan
ANSWER: This practice is NOT recommended . The possible reasoning behind this advice is that bacon has nitrites in it that prevent the growth of C. botulinum (the botulism microorganism). Therefore “canning it” would somehow preserve it and make it safe to eat. However, there are many holes in that reasoning.  
1. The advice is NOT research based. No one has actually studied the process to determine if indeed it is safe from food-borne illness.  
2.There is no mention of “bacon” with nitrites (cured bacon). If people think its safe, they may try other processed meats. None have been research tested and all may result in botulism.  
3. Canning something “dry” will NOT generate enough heat to make things safe. Heat is transferred by water. In a pressure canner steam heats the water inside a canned food transferring that heat to the food. A temperature of 240-250 F for 30-120 minutes is needed to make a pressure canned food safe (via a research-tested process). Without water the temperature the bacon reaches will not be enough to destroy the botulism organism!”

So now there is an answer from what I would call a reputable, reliable, knowledgeable source.  There has been no research conducted to determine if the process is safe.  

And so now I ponder whether to pull this post from the blog.  For now, I'm going to leave it up so that readers can learn from the new information.  But also, I have some thoughts.

All home-canned foods processed in a pressure canner are supposed to be heated to boiling before eating.   It's something we should all practice every single time we open a jar.  Heating the food to boiling will neutralize any botulism toxin that may have survived.  (Note that this is "neutralizing" the toxin, which is produced by the C. botulinum bacteria.  The bacteria have to be heated to 250 degrees to be killed.)  Once the toxin has been neutralized, there is no danger of developing botulism.  If the bacon is cooked after it is opened, it should theoretically be safe.  Also, the news media is pretty good about informing the public of cases of food poisoning.  These things make their rounds on the internet.  I've been paying attention to this topic for at least a decade online, and through other media since I first became interested in food storage at the age of 11.  In the mid- to late-1970s, there were all kinds of story lines in TV shows like Emergency and Medical Center where characters became sick due to botulism.  My mother was persuaded that home canning was dangerous and quit preserving her own jam, and said I was foolish to begin canning myself.  I have not been able to find anything online about anyone getting botulism from home-canned bacon.

Do your own due diligence.