Canning Quebec Pork Meatballs

I’ve been meaning to try this recipe since last summer and finally got around to it a few weeks ago. My canning shelves are looking pretty bare right now and I’m eager to start filling them up again.

Good thing because there was in incident yesterday where someone, who shall remain nameless, chose to consume the leftovers I had saved from the night before intending to use them for dinner last evening. When I discovered that my dinner plans had been foiled, I was thankful I could head down to the pantry and grab a jar of these meatballs that made a quick and easy meal along with garden salad and roasted potatoes.

To serve I heated a bit of butter in a saucepan, added some flour, and browned it. Then I added the liquid from the jar of meatballs, cooked and stirred until it thickened and the lumps were removed. Added the meatballs to heat and voila dinner was served.

I found this recipe on the Bernardin website.

Yield: 6 pints or 3 quarts. I used pints as they made a nice size for a meal for the two of us.

Ingredients

• 2 kg (4.4 lb) lean ground pork
• 2 onions finely chopped
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 2 Tbsp. dried parsley
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 2 tsp. dry mustard
• 1 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground mace
• Vegetable oil
• 3 cups liquid – I used my canned vegetable broth. The recipe says you can use a combination of broth and water and also suggests a mixture of 1 cup red wine and 2 cups broth/water.

Instructions

Combine ground pork, onions, garlic, salt , pepper, parsley, and spice mixture and mix well.

Form into 1 inch meatballs using about 1 tablespoon for each one.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat and, working in batches, brown meatballs on all surfaces. Remove browned meatballs to another container when browning remainder.

When all meatballs are browned slowly add the liquid to the skillet scraping up brown bits from the pan. Bring to a boil. Using a slotted spoon or strainer, remove any burned or large pieces.

Pack meatballs into hot jars filling to within 1 1/4 inch of the top rim.

Equally divide hot liquid among jars. Add boiling water to fill each jar leaving 1 inch headspace.

Wipe rims, remove air space, and adjust two piece caps.

Process 10 pounds pressure–pints 75 minutes, quarts 90 minutes. For my altitude here in Kamloops I need to process at 11 pounds pressure. Check the altitude for your location and adjust accordingly.