Canned Bacon ends and pieces

I've been wanting to can some bacon.  I heard from a friend that our local Wal-mart carries 4# packages of bacon ends and pieces for just $6.88.  So, yesterday, I bought two packages.  Here is one of them.

These were sitting right next to the wonderful Wright brand bacon slices, which of course cost at least twice as much.  Here is what the meat looks like, opened.

If you would like to fry it as usual, you just have to separate the pieces.  There are some tiny ones, once in a while a Really Thick piece, but most of it is just odd shapes.  I couldn't resists.  I had to eat some, so before anything else, that's what I did. ( I cooked it first. ;)

My initial intention was to can it, so here it all is, except a bit I saved to use for bean soup, and the pieces we ate.  I crammed it into little canning jars.  Some of them are 1/2 pint (8 oz.) jars, and some of them are pint jars.  There are 4 pints and 5 half pint jars, so if I had used all of the bacon, I would have had 7 pints, altogether.  Here is the raw bacon in the jars.

A close-up of one of the jars:

If you do this, leave 1 inch head space and be sure to carefully clean the rims of the jars.  I used a terry washcloth wrung out in hot water to do that.

Here are the jars in the canner.

I had processed them for 75 minutes. (If you are going to do this, buy a good, reliable canning guide and follow it carefully.)

Here are the jars, just out of the canner.

And here they are, after completely cooling.

What, you may ask, am I going to do with canned bacon?  Here are some ideas...  make bean with bacon soup.  Fry in a skillet and pour off the bacon grease to save for cooking and eat the bacon, or make gravy.  Fry till crispy, drain and add to a salad.  I can use it just like any fresh bacon I would cook.

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday #135
and the Country Homemaker Hop #55