“Why can bacon, you ask? Well, this is just one of those old-fashioned recipes that people used to use when they didn’t have refrigeration or a way to salt the meat. These days, its an interesting skill to learn with your children and a good way to preserve bacon. I found it perfect for preserving the bacon that I wet cured.

I think the main reason you might want to can bacon would be if you anticipate not having a lot of fuel or place to cook at some point. For example if you had to do all of your cooking on a gas outdoor grill, it would take a lot of fuel to cook bacon.  So if the bacon was already mostly cooked and you just needed to crisp it up, canned bacon would be a helpful thing to have. 

Something to remember when using this recipe: keep the grease off everything! You will have trouble getting the lids to seal if you allow the grease to splatter on the jar rims or on the lids and rings.

Dip your cleaning cloth in vinegar to clean the rims of the jars. The vinegar will help remove the grease.

Do everything slowly and carefully to keep everything clean. One more thing….this is not a USDA approved method, can bacon at your own risk.

You will need:

  • 1 Pound of bacon for each quart jar
  • Parchment paper
  • Roasting pan or other pan for the oven
  • Boil jars, lids and rings for 10 minutes, keep simmering.
  • Get water in Pressure Cooker boiling
  • Trim long sheets of parchment paper so that they will fit, rolled up in a quart jar. The paper should not be any wider than the jars are tall from their bottom to their necks.
  • Lay strips of bacon on a baking pan or roasting pan and pre-cook in a 350* F oven until they are about 2/3 their original length, but do not cook them until they are crisp. If they are crisp when they are placed in the jars, they will crumble.
  • After pre-cooking, place the strips of bacon, still limp, on a sheet of trimmed parchment parchment paper. Roll the paper and bacon up and insert this roll into a hot, sterilized quart jar.
  • Pour the grease from the bacon into the jar, do not fill more than 2/3 full of grease.
  • Process at 10 pounds pressure for 1 1/2 hours. Higher elevations should use 11 pounds pressure.
  • To cook: Open sealed jar, unroll paper and remove bacon. Cook bacon in a skillet until crisp. It only takes a few minutes.

© 2006 Sylvia Britton