ok I need to know— did you start with smaller stuff like chicken or just go straight for beef? how'd your first batch turn out?

Moose, beef or deer are great. You just jam your jars full of meat cubes and alternate-in a couple layers consisting of an onion slice and a wafer of salt pork fat or tallow to add some more fat to the mix. Fill the voids by pouring in boiling water. Use your poker to get all the air bubbles out from between the pieces. Lid and ring on lightly, finger-tight. 15psi for 90 minutes. If you buy a bunch of beef bones you can pressure can homemade beef broth this way too. And in the process, you can skim and further render down a half margarine dish sized batch of nice hard white tallow for cooking.