Sausage can be canned at home, but only as fresh ground or link meat, and only in a pressure canner. Sausage is a low-acid food. Boiling-water canning never reaches the temperature needed to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores, so a water-bath method is not a safe shortcut.
The tested process is the USDA ground-or-chopped-meat method: lightly brown the sausage, pack it hot with boiling liquid, and process pints for 75 minutes or quarts for 90 minutes at the pressure required for your canner and elevation. Smoked, cured, and cheese-stuffed sausages fall outside that method. Freezing is the safer choice for those products.
Why sausage has to be pressure canned
Meat sits well above pH 4.6, the line that separates foods safe for boiling-water processing from foods that are not. Clostridium botulinum spores survive ordinary boiling. In a sealed jar with little oxygen they can grow and produce botulinum toxin, which cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted in small amounts.
A pressure canner is the only home method shown to hold the jar contents at about 240°F (116°C) long enough to destroy those spores. Dial-gauge and weighted-gauge canners both work when used at the correct pressure for your elevation and when the canner is vented before processing begins. Multi-cookers and electric pressure cookers are not a substitute unless the manufacturer has validated that exact model for home canning of low-acid food. Most have not.
Salt, spices, and fat do not make the product safe. Salt is optional and is added only for flavor.
Which sausages can be canned, and which cannot
The USDA process covers fresh sausage made from bear, beef, lamb, pork, veal, or venison, packed as ground meat, patties, balls, or short links. “Fresh” means raw, refrigerated sausage without cure, smoke, or non-meat binders.
Safe choices:
- Fresh bulk breakfast or Italian-style sausage, browned before packing
- Fresh link sausage cut into 3- to 4-inch pieces so heat can reach the center
- Venison sausage with added pork fat (about one part high-quality pork fat to three or four parts venison) so the lean meat does not dry out
Do not home-can:
- Smoked sausage, kielbasa, summer sausage, pepperoni, or other cured products — density and formulation differ from the tested process
- Sausage with cheese, milk powder, egg, breadcrumbs, rice, flour, or starch binders — these change heat penetration
- Sausage gravy or anything thickened with flour
- Already commercially canned sausage that you want to re-can
Those products should be frozen. There is no tested home-canning time that covers them.
Sage is a special case even in fresh sausage. USDA and extension publications note that sage often turns bitter during canning and storage. Salt and cayenne are the seasonings the tested method specifically allows. Other dry herbs can be used sparingly; heavy garlic or onion pieces are better added when you reheat the jar.
Equipment and jar setup
You need a pressure canner with an accurate dial gauge (tested yearly is the usual extension recommendation) or a weighted gauge, a rack, standard mason jars (pints or quarts; wide-mouth jars make packing easier), new flat lids, and bands. Half-pint jars are sometimes used, but they must still be processed for the full pint time.
Also have a jar lifter, bubble remover, clean towels, and a large skillet. Liquid for covering the meat can be boiling meat broth, tomato juice, or water. Tomato juice is useful with game sausage because it softens a strong flavor.
Trim excess fat before you start. Fat left in the jar can prevent a seal and can turn rancid in storage. Do not can meat from sick animals, and chill fresh meat promptly.
How to can sausage
Brown and drain
Work with chilled, fresh meat. Shape ground sausage into patties or balls, or cut cased links into 3- to 4-inch pieces. Cook until lightly browned. Loose ground meat can be sautéed without shaping. Drain the fat thoroughly. Keep the meat hot while you fill jars.
Pack hot
Fill hot jars with the hot pieces. Add boiling broth, tomato juice, or water, leaving 1 inch of headspace. If you want salt, use about ½ teaspoon per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart. It is not required for safety.
Slide a bubble tool around the inside of the jar, adjust the headspace back to 1 inch, wipe the rim with a damp clean cloth, set a flat lid, and tighten the band fingertip-tight. Over-tightening can cause seal failure.
Process
Put 2 to 3 inches of hot water in the canner, or the amount your manual specifies. Load the jars, lock the lid, and heat with the vent open until steam flows steadily. Vent for 10 minutes, then place the weight or close the petcock and bring the canner to pressure.
Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes. Start the timer only when the canner reaches the correct pressure. If pressure drops below the target, bring it back up and start the time over.
When time ends, turn off the heat and let the canner return to zero pressure on its own. Do not force-cool it. Wait several minutes after the pressure hits zero, then open the lid away from your face. Rest jars upright, undisturbed, for 12 to 24 hours. Remove bands, check seals, label, and store in a cool, dark place. Best quality is generally within a year.
Processing pressure by elevation
Time does not change with elevation. Pressure does.
| Canner type | Elevation | Pressure |
|---|---|---|
| Dial gauge | 0–2,000 ft | 11 lb |
| Dial gauge | 2,001–4,000 ft | 12 lb |
| Dial gauge | 4,001–6,000 ft | 13 lb |
| Dial gauge | 6,001–8,000 ft | 14 lb |
| Weighted gauge | 0–1,000 ft | 10 lb |
| Weighted gauge | Above 1,000 ft | 15 lb |
Weighted-gauge canners jump from 10 to 15 pounds above 1,000 feet. There is no 12- or 13-pound setting on a standard three-piece weight.
What to expect from the finished jars
Canned sausage will not have the snap of a pan-fried link. Long processing softens the texture, and pieces shrink, so liquid may not cover every surface after storage. Exposed meat can darken; use those jars first. Quality is usually better if you drain the jar and crisp the sausage briefly in a skillet before serving. The packing liquid can be used as a broth.
Freezing keeps a closer-to-fresh texture and is the better choice if you have reliable freezer space. Canning earns its place when you need shelf-stable meat that does not depend on electricity.
Mistakes that make the jars unsafe or poor
- Using a boiling-water canner, oven, dishwasher, or unapproved electric cooker for meat
- Canning whole long links, smoked sausage, or cheese sausage under the ground-meat times
- Skipping the 10-minute vent, so trapped air keeps the canner cooler than the gauge suggests
- Starting the timer before full pressure, or failing to restart if pressure drops
- Ignoring altitude and processing at 10 pounds when you need 15
- Packing jars cold after a hot-pack recipe, or leaving more fat than the method allows
- Force-cooling the canner, which can under-process food and siphon liquid
- Tasting a jar with a bulging lid, broken seal, spurting liquid, mold, or an off odor
If a low-acid jar was not processed by a current tested method, do not try to salvage it. Extension guidance is to discard suspect home-canned meat where it cannot be eaten by people or animals.
Frequently asked questions
Can I raw-pack sausage in jars? The tested jar method for ground or chopped meat, including sausage, is hot pack. Raw pack of ground meat is described for metal cans, not glass jars, because the meat is hard to remove and heat penetration is less reliable.
Can I leave the casings on? Yes. Cut links into 3- to 4-inch pieces, brown them, and pack as directed. Do not pack full-length links.
Does the liquid have to cover the meat? Fill to 1 inch headspace at processing. Some meat may sit above the liquid after shrinkage. That is a quality issue, not automatically a safety failure, if the seal is sound and the process was correct. Use darkened jars sooner.
Can I add peppers or onions? Not as a large addition. Extra low-acid vegetables change density and are not part of the tested sausage pack. Add them when you cook the opened jar.
How do I know a jar is safe to eat? The lid is firmly sealed, nothing has leaked, liquid does not spurt on opening, and there is no mold or unnatural odor. Even then, the jar is only as safe as the process: correct canner, correct time, correct pressure for your elevation, and a product that matches the tested fresh-sausage method.