Canned Italian Sausage in Broth

Ingredients

Instructions

1. 1Understand before you begin that sausage is a low-acid food and must be processed in a pressure canner; a boiling-water bath is never safe for canning sausage of any kind.
2. 2Wash 7 pint jars in hot soapy water or a dishwasher and keep them hot; wash new lids and prepare them exactly as the manufacturer instructs.
3. 3Pierce the sausage casings in several places with a fork so they do not burst during cooking or processing, then brown the links in a skillet or bake them until they are cooked through but not blackened, about 20 to 25 minutes.
4. 4This is a hot pack: the sausage must be fully cooked before jarring, unlike some other raw-pack meats, because sausage casings and dense meat mixtures do not process safely from a raw state.
5. 5Slice the cooked sausage into jar-length pieces or leave links whole if they fit with proper headspace, then pack them loosely into the hot jars, without pressing them down tightly.
6. 6Leave 1 inch of headspace at the top of each jar.
7. 7Ladle boiling chicken or beef broth over the sausage until covered, keeping 1 inch of headspace, and add salt only if desired for flavor.
8. 8Run a bubble tool around the inside of the jar to release trapped air pockets, especially around whole links, then recheck and adjust headspace to 1 inch if needed.
9. 9Wipe the jar rims completely clean of any grease or broth, since sausage tends to release significant fat, center a lid on each jar, and screw the band down fingertip tight.
10. 10Load the jars into the pressure canner, add water as directed by the manufacturer, lock the lid, and vent steam steadily for 10 minutes before pressurizing.
11. 11Process pint jars for 75 minutes and quart jars for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in a weighted-gauge canner up to 1,000 feet (15 pounds above 1,000 feet), or 11 pounds in a dial-gauge canner up to 2,000 feet (12 pounds from 2,001 to 4,000 feet, 13 pounds from 4,001 to 6,000 feet, 14 pounds from 6,001 to 8,000 feet).
12. 12Turn off the heat once processing finishes and let the canner depressurize naturally on its own; never quick-release a canner of sausage.
13. 13Wait until the gauge reads zero, then wait 2 more minutes, slowly vent any remaining pressure, wait 10 more minutes, then unlock and open the canner.
14. 14Move the jars to a towel-lined surface and let them cool completely undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours.
15. 15Check that each lid has sealed, wipe the jars clean, label with contents and date, and store in a cool, dark place for up to about 1 year.
16. 16Before eating, boil the sausage and broth hard for 10 minutes to destroy any possible botulinum toxin, and discard without tasting any jar with an off odor, spurting liquid, or a lid that never sealed or is bulging.