Safety questions about canning meat/venison

[bbassi]

It's been years since I had canned meat, and I've never done it myself, but with the economy the way it is and the abundance of meat I find myself stuck with this year, I want to try this for the first time. Now for background, I used to work for the USDA right out of college and I understand the whole time/temp kill cycle for botulism spores, but the literature I've read is confusing on the process times for different recipies. I thought meat was meat as long as the sizes of the pieces were uniform.

I bought a pressure canner and the Ball book, but I have some real questions about the process, recipes, and food safety.

First, the Ball book says to add hot water in the jar with the meat before starting the processing, but all the discussions I've read here do not mention covering the meat with hot water. I also don't remember there being excessive amounts of water in the jars I've had in the past, but admittedly, it's been almost 2 decades since I've had canned venison.

second, most of the recipes say to sear or brown the meat first, but I see no mention of this in any of the discussions here. What's the real story?

I have more questions, but this is a good start.   :D

[BigRonHuntAlot]

The hot water in the jar just speeds up the canning time and starts cooking the meat sooner, No Harm There. IMHO

  Same with Searing or Browning the meat It just helps to have it cooked so there is no worries as to whether it is done or not.  Ball is a very good canning book in my opinion!