Exploding Weinies!

Get your mind out of the gutter.... we don't talk about that kind of stuff on here.

Since I've been pressure canning, I love finding a good deal on meats and canning them up so we have them for later. It's a good feeling to pull something I canned off the shelf 1 year, 2 years, 6 years later and it's just as good as the day I canned it. We can talk shelf life another day.

It was shortly after I got my first pressure canner, the local Mennonite store had the big hot dogs on sale. They were so big, I had to cut an inch off the end of them to fit them in the jars. I was able to fit 7 of them per quart jar. I also like to boil hot dogs in beer for extra flavor when I cook them. My beginner infinite wisdom told me to add beer to the jars too.... yeah, that would be a good idea.

It was NOT a good idea. Shortly into the processing time I smelled a whole bunch of beer and hot dogs.... Being patient, I went ahead with the full 90 minute processing time. As it turns out, beer expands when it is cooked and SO DO HOT DOGS. While I had started the canner with only 3 quarts of water in it; I opened it to find it was more than half full of beer, hot dog juice and water. The jars came out covered in greasy goo. The entire kitchen smelled like a baseball stadium.

I waited patiently (hovered) to see if they would seal. Every single jar sealed, even with all that siphoning. It was a valuable lesson. I opened and tried a jar the next day, they are good and don't taste "canned". Yes I still have some.

When you need a conversation piece; make the canned hot dogs. They all split and exploded inside the jars. My friend saw them and called them "exploding vag weinies". Side splitting comedy there....