How to Can Sausage: A Step by Step Guide
Canning sausage provides quick, easy, and delicious meals within a few minutes. Home-canned sausage can be made into quick meals like biscuits & gravy or thrown into a casserole.

If you are looking for a complete guide on how to can sausage, here it is, These step by step instructions work for pork sausage, italian sausage, ground breakfast sausage, or any homemade sausage.
What to do Before Canning Sausage
The first thing you need to do is get your sausage. Are you going to can ground sausage, sausage patties, or sausage links?
- Sausage Links – make sure links are cut into sizes that will fit in canning jar, about 4 inches.
- Sausage Patties – shape ground pork into small patties that will fit into canning jars, about 4 inches
- Ground Sausage- no special prep

Wash canning jars, lids, and rings in hot soapy water. Wide-mouth jars work best for links and patties.
Pro tip: Always start with a clean kitchen before starting any canning project. It is a great way to relieve any extra stress that can come with home food preservation projects.
Supplies Needed
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- Pressure Canner – the All American canner is what I use
- Canning Jars – pints or quarts
- Lids & Rings
- Canning Funnel
- Jar Lifter
- Bubble Remover
- Ball Canning Book – optional but has official canning recommendations
How To Can Sausage
Prepare the pressure canner by placing on the stove, adding in a canning rack, and adding about 2 inches of water. Turn the stove on to start warming up the water in the pressure canner.
Warm up jars by either placing in canner and letting the water warm them up or placing the jars in a warm oven.
Brown raw sausage lightly in pan. Do not fully cook as the pressure canner will finish the cooking process. Cook sausage until it is about 2/3 cooked. Strain off any excess fat from browning.

Fill the Jars
Add sausage meat into clean, hot canning jars to 1-inch headspace. After adding sausage, you can add any flavorings or dried herbs if you choose to season pork. This is an optional step.

Remove air bubbles from jars and wipe rims with a clean cloth.

Place lids on top and screw bands on finger tight. Place filled jars into prepared pressure canner to begin the canning process.

Canning Sausage
Add the lid to the pressure canner. Follow your specific instruction manual if you are unsure exactly how to run your pressure canner.

Eventually a steady stream of steam will start coming out of the vent pipe. When that happens, set a timer for 10 minutes.
After the 10 minutes, place your weight on top of vent pipe. Depending on your specific elevation will determine how many pounds pressure will be used in the canning process. High altitudes require higher pressure.
How Many Pounds of Pressure To Can Sausage?
For Weighted Gauge Pressure Canners (All American, etc):
- For 0 to 1,000 feet in elevation, use 10 pounds of pressure
- Above 1,000 feet in elevation, use 15 pounds of pressure
For Dial Gauge Pressure Canners (Presto, etc):
- For 0 to 2,000 feet in elevation, use 11 pounds of pressure
- For 2,001 to 4,000 feet in elevation, use 12 pounds of pressure
- For 4,001 to 6,000 feet in elevation, use 13 pounds of pressure
- For 6,001 to 8,000 feet in elevation, use 14 pounds of pressure
- Above 8,000 feet in elevation, use 15 pounds of pressure

After placing the weight on, the pressure will start building up inside the pressure canner. The weight will start jiggling when it is pressurized. You are looking for about 4 jiggles per minute. When the pressure is right, you can start the processing time.
How Long To Can Sausage?
Process Pints – 1 hour 15 minutes
Process Quarts – 1 hour 30 minutes
After processing time is done, turn the heat off and leave the pressure canner alone. Let the pressure come down naturally.

After a few hours, you will be able to remove the weight. After removing the weight, wait a few more minutes to let any extra pressure release.
Remove lid by opening away from face.
Using a jar lifter, remove jars from pressure canner and place on a towel on the counter. Do not place jars directly on counter as that can cause temperature shock and break the jars. Leave jars undisturbed for 12 hours.

After 12 hours, remove rings and check seals on all jars. If there are any jars that didn’t seal, place in the refrigerator and use within a few days. Wash all the jars and label each individual jar with contents and date. Place on pantry shelf to use for later!
FAQs
How long does home canned sausage last?
The official answer is that home canned sausage lasts one year. However, that is based off of the nutritional value. After a year, it will still be useable. Just keep jars in a dark, cool place and the shelf life of home canned sausage will be a long time!
Can you can sausage in a pressure cooker?
No. Never can sausage in a pressure cooker. A pressure cooker is a different thing than a pressure canner. If you are looking for a great pressure canner, the All American canner is one that has lasted me many years and has no end in sight.
How do you use home canned sausage?
Once sausage is canned, you can just open it up and start eating it straight from the jar. Warm it up and use as a breakfast side, make some sausage gravy, or throw sausage in with soups or casseroles. Any way that you would use sausage in your favorite sausage recipes, you can use canned sausage.
Do you have to cook sausage before canning it?
No, you don’t HAVE to cook sausage before canning it. However, it provides a much better product. If you just throw the sausage in the jar and raw pack it, the sausage will clump together and it doesn’t taste near as good.
Do you need to remove sausage casings before canning?
No. Sausage casings can stay on in the canning process. Removing them is personal preference.
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Hi I’m wondering if you can bottle dry salami with oil
I have never done it, but I bet you could!
I have cooked sausage given to me and it’s frozen can you tell me how to pressure can it? Ty
Yeah, you can just thaw it out and throw it in some jars and put lids and bands on then start the pressure canning process as stated above starting at the part that says “canning sausage patties.” You’re basically doing the same thing as this post just not cooking it. Also, you wont have to warm up the jars or the water in the pressure canner before starting either.