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mckenner1122
Photo One: Three Ball quart jars, as seen from the side, fresh from the pressure canner, steaming and bubbling. The jars appear to be filled with a rich red meaty mix. They are perched on a black gridded wire rack, and the rings are still on.
Photo Two: Three more Ball quart jars are now on the black wire rack. This mix appears a little darker, with more seasonings, and perhaps a mite bit thinner than the first mix.
Photo Three: A large stainless-steel pot shows a “work in progress” photo of raw pork chunks about to come up to simmer in a rich burgundy BBQ sauce.
Photo Four: Another ‘work-in-progress” shot. This time, we have a foil-covered roasting pan full of 1.5” chunks of pork that have been roasted in their own juices.
Photo Five: A screen shot of the Kindle version of the Ball BBQ Pulled Pork recipe.
Photo Six: A screen shot of the Kindle version of the Ball Roast Pork in Spicy Broth recipe.
Photos Seven and Eight: Cleaned jars, rings off, and labeled, ready for the pantry, as seen from the side, showing how they have settled. I wanted to really illustrate how headspace looks a LOT different once things “cook down” with fat cap and all. Canned meat looks ugly. It tastes great.
Photo Nine: A top-down view of six jars lined up nice and clean on a white polyurethane cutting board. The three on the left have hand doodled labels that say, “BBQ Pulled Pork.” The three on the right have hand doodled labels that say, “Roasted Pork in Spicy Broth.”
mckenner1122
Okay so! Someone had posted a few days ago that they had found pork on sale at Costco. *(If it was you, let me know! I’ll tag you with my thanks!)* I missed getting to Costco, but I was able to get my hands on bone-in pork at a VERY good price from a local shop, asked my ever-patient husband to join me on an adventure and then we were off to the races!
The goal? To side-by-side compare the two very popular Ball Pork pressure canning recipes: BBQ Pulled Pork and Roasted Pork in Spicy Broth. We did both recipes as written, with just enough extra meat / sauce / broth to do 3 quarts and one “deliberately unsafe” pint with too much headspace (not shown) so we could open immediately that day and taste test.
**BBQ Pulled Pork:** Unquestionably, this is a much MUCH faster make. You can honestly get this one into the canner in 15 minutes or less. Heat the “sauce” and add the large pork chunks. Bring to temp, toss it in the jars and GO. Personally? I found the flavor a little too sweet for my taste. Mr. McK loved it and was blown away by how easy it was. I look very forward to doing a sugar-free version, maybe with a spicy ketchup!
**Spicy Roast Pork in Broth:** The roasting process does take a bit longer, that adds both time and cleanup. If you’ve ever made “Your Choice” soup, this recipe has WAY more in common with that than anything else (50% hot solids, fill with hot broth, and go). I thought it was neat that at time of serving the pork ALSO shreds, like the BBQ pork does. We took our bonus pint, drained it and the meat made excellent “faux carnitas.” Flavor wise, we found it to be a little simple and one-note (“Hi! It’s red pepper! How are you today?!”) BUT knowing we can swap any dry spice for any dry spice (by volume) Mr. McK and I will be jumping on that challenge next!
**Comparison:** They’re different enough that we love them both and we see that both have a place in our pantry. With the sale price we got on the pork, CPJ was around $5-$6 per quart, and that should be a main for four people with good side dishes, or two hungry people with smaller side dishes, haha.
**McK Notes:** If you look at the recipes, it’s pretty clear they were written by two different people. I may have made a few “margin notes.” Mr. McK made the joke that one looks like it was, “written by committee.” We used bone-in pork and deboned it ourselves, but obviously, you know you can do what you like. We left a lot of fat on the BBQ Pulled Pork, but we pulled a lot of fat off the Roasted Pork in Broth, as we didn’t want the mess in the oven. You can see the results in photos 7 & 8 as the BBQ has the larger fat cap on the jar. I was ***stunned*** at how tender the pork became in both recipes. Really amazing how the 90 minute pressure cook makes it fall apart. You can flake it with a fork in the jar!
If you’re ready to can meat, either recipe is a good one to try!
missbwith2boys
Nice comparison! I will have to try the pulled pork.
I canned some of the roasted pork in spicy broth late last week, and opened up a jar to make some soup for lunch. I put it all in a sauce pan, added some chopped carrots and chopped potatoes and some pastina.
Omg. So.spicy. Next time I’ll drain the broth, reserving some, and make my way up to burning hot instead of starting there. Yummy though!
JanewayColey
Could I safely substitute the pork for beef in these recipes?
5 Comments
Hi u/mckenner1122,
For accessibility, please reply to this comment with transcriptions of the screenshots or alt text describing the images you’ve posted. We thank you for ensuring that the visually impaired can fully participate in our discussions!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Canning) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Photo One: Three Ball quart jars, as seen from the side, fresh from the pressure canner, steaming and bubbling. The jars appear to be filled with a rich red meaty mix. They are perched on a black gridded wire rack, and the rings are still on.
Photo Two: Three more Ball quart jars are now on the black wire rack. This mix appears a little darker, with more seasonings, and perhaps a mite bit thinner than the first mix.
Photo Three: A large stainless-steel pot shows a “work in progress” photo of raw pork chunks about to come up to simmer in a rich burgundy BBQ sauce.
Photo Four: Another ‘work-in-progress” shot. This time, we have a foil-covered roasting pan full of 1.5” chunks of pork that have been roasted in their own juices.
Photo Five: A screen shot of the Kindle version of the Ball BBQ Pulled Pork recipe.
Photo Six: A screen shot of the Kindle version of the Ball Roast Pork in Spicy Broth recipe.
Photos Seven and Eight: Cleaned jars, rings off, and labeled, ready for the pantry, as seen from the side, showing how they have settled. I wanted to really illustrate how headspace looks a LOT different once things “cook down” with fat cap and all. Canned meat looks ugly. It tastes great.
Photo Nine: A top-down view of six jars lined up nice and clean on a white polyurethane cutting board. The three on the left have hand doodled labels that say, “BBQ Pulled Pork.” The three on the right have hand doodled labels that say, “Roasted Pork in Spicy Broth.”
Okay so! Someone had posted a few days ago that they had found pork on sale at Costco. *(If it was you, let me know! I’ll tag you with my thanks!)* I missed getting to Costco, but I was able to get my hands on bone-in pork at a VERY good price from a local shop, asked my ever-patient husband to join me on an adventure and then we were off to the races!
The goal? To side-by-side compare the two very popular Ball Pork pressure canning recipes: BBQ Pulled Pork and Roasted Pork in Spicy Broth. We did both recipes as written, with just enough extra meat / sauce / broth to do 3 quarts and one “deliberately unsafe” pint with too much headspace (not shown) so we could open immediately that day and taste test.
**BBQ Pulled Pork:** Unquestionably, this is a much MUCH faster make. You can honestly get this one into the canner in 15 minutes or less. Heat the “sauce” and add the large pork chunks. Bring to temp, toss it in the jars and GO. Personally? I found the flavor a little too sweet for my taste. Mr. McK loved it and was blown away by how easy it was. I look very forward to doing a sugar-free version, maybe with a spicy ketchup!
**Spicy Roast Pork in Broth:** The roasting process does take a bit longer, that adds both time and cleanup. If you’ve ever made “Your Choice” soup, this recipe has WAY more in common with that than anything else (50% hot solids, fill with hot broth, and go). I thought it was neat that at time of serving the pork ALSO shreds, like the BBQ pork does. We took our bonus pint, drained it and the meat made excellent “faux carnitas.” Flavor wise, we found it to be a little simple and one-note (“Hi! It’s red pepper! How are you today?!”) BUT knowing we can swap any dry spice for any dry spice (by volume) Mr. McK and I will be jumping on that challenge next!
**Comparison:** They’re different enough that we love them both and we see that both have a place in our pantry. With the sale price we got on the pork, CPJ was around $5-$6 per quart, and that should be a main for four people with good side dishes, or two hungry people with smaller side dishes, haha.
**McK Notes:** If you look at the recipes, it’s pretty clear they were written by two different people. I may have made a few “margin notes.” Mr. McK made the joke that one looks like it was, “written by committee.” We used bone-in pork and deboned it ourselves, but obviously, you know you can do what you like. We left a lot of fat on the BBQ Pulled Pork, but we pulled a lot of fat off the Roasted Pork in Broth, as we didn’t want the mess in the oven. You can see the results in photos 7 & 8 as the BBQ has the larger fat cap on the jar. I was ***stunned*** at how tender the pork became in both recipes. Really amazing how the 90 minute pressure cook makes it fall apart. You can flake it with a fork in the jar!
If you’re ready to can meat, either recipe is a good one to try!
Nice comparison! I will have to try the pulled pork.
I canned some of the roasted pork in spicy broth late last week, and opened up a jar to make some soup for lunch. I put it all in a sauce pan, added some chopped carrots and chopped potatoes and some pastina.
Omg. So.spicy. Next time I’ll drain the broth, reserving some, and make my way up to burning hot instead of starting there. Yummy though!
Could I safely substitute the pork for beef in these recipes?