The TL;DR of How to Preserve Meat
- You can preserve your meat in several ways, including curing meat, canning meat, smoked meat, pressure canning, corned beef, and many more.
- You can use common household ingredients for preserving meat, such as sugar, fat, oil, and salt.
- Make sure to store meat in a sterilized container when preserving.
Here are 13 ways you can preserve meat the right way.
Preserve Meat Through Canning
Canning is an easy way to preserve meat that will last you two to three years. The best way is to use a pressurized canner to kill any bacteria and remove oxygen from inside your can.
Using Curing or Salt to Preserve Meat
You can use curing, or salt, to preserve any type of meat, whether it’s cooked or raw. This method will preserve meat anywhere between two to three months, four to six months, or several months according to various sources. The salt draws out the water from the meat, so there’s less chance of bacteria spreading. Here’s how it’s done:
- Get rid of as much fat as possible from your meat.
- Rub salt and any other spices you want. Feel free to use sugar to mute the taste of salt.
- Completely cover the meat with salt.
- Leave it in your fridge for a week.
- Rinse the salt off of your meat with water.
- Wrap the meat in a cheesecloth and store it in a dry, cool place.
“And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.”
Exodus 16:15 of the Holy Bible (KJV)
Preserve Meat Through Drying
Drying, or dehydrating meat involves marinading meat with spices, then dehydrating it. You can use either a solar or an electric dehydrator. If you don’t have any of these gadgets you can use an oven or just hang the meat in the sunlight. This technique removes moisture from the meat to block microorganisms from growing. To effectively dry your meat it’s good to cut the meat into thin strips and get rid of as much fat from it as you can.
Freeze Drying Meat to Make it Last Longer
If you live in a frigid location like northern Canada, Scandinavia, or Russia, then freeze drying meat is free for you. Otherwise, it’s one of the most expensive methods because a freeze dryer is costly. However, it’s the best options for keeping meat fresh. Here’s how you do it:
- Cut your meat into thin slices and put them on your freeze dryer’s tray.
- Your freeze dryer will drop the temperature to minus fifty degrees to make a vacuum around the meat.
- The inside of your dryer will warm up and remove water from the meat by turning it into vapour.
- This makes frozen, dried meat.
Smoking Meat to Extend Its Expiration Date
Smoking meat preserves and flavours your meat. You can buy a smoker or you can use natural supplies to pull it off. The two smoking techniques are hot or cold smoking. Cold smoking is done at a temperature of around 80°F, typically used for fish and cheese. Hot smoking is done at at temperature of 160°F, typically used for pork, beef, venison, and other kinds of meat.
If you’re using a smoker here’s how you can preserve meat:
- Have enough backyard space outside to have your smoker run.
- Soak wood chips in water for a day.
- Put the chips in a smoke box. The more you add, the more flavour your smoked items will be.
- Change the temperature and put the meat on the racks within the smoke.
- Wait until the meat reaches the right cooking temperature.
- For beef and pork this is 145°F.
- Eggs and all ground meats must be cooked to 160°F.
- Poultry and bird meat to 165°F
- Fresh meat steaks, chops, and roasts to 145°F.
To smoke meat with nothing but what’s available to you in nature do this:
- Get a fire going. You can learn more about that by reading this article.
- Let your fire die down to get some embers.
- Add wet wood to those embers to get smoke and a low-temperature heat.
- Make a tripod that is about two to three feet off of your fire’s low-heat location.
- Make a grill using tree branches to form cross members.
- Hang or dangle your thin meat strips over your branches.
- Leave it for about 12 to 18 hours with the fire low-heat fire going. You can restart the fire if it ever stops.
- Wrap some canvas or covering outside of your tripod, such as an old canvas or a pile of evergreen branches.
- Your covering must have a vent at its top to allow smoke out of it.
What you want to see if lots of smoke coming out of the top and very little smoke lost at the bottom. High flames will burn your covering and cook your meat, instead of preserve it. Easy ways to get good smoke is adding wet, live wood to your low-heat fire. If you did things right you’ll see meat that’s stringy, dry, and not raw.
Using Brining to Preserve Meat
Brining is the best meat preservation method that keeps meat fresh and moist. It preserves meat by mixing water, curing salt, and brown sugar. Here’s how you can do it:
- Soak the meat in this mix for a few weeks.
- Make sure your mix completely covers the salt.
- After one month store the meat at room temperature. This lets salt enter the meat and stop the spread of bacteria, while water keeps the meat moist.
Pickling
Pickling is when you fully submerge meat in vinegar for about three days to pickle it. This manages oxygen, water, and acid.
Rillettes as a Way to Preserve Meat
Rillettes is when you cut your meat into pieces, salt them, and add herbs if you want. When properly made it can last a month. You cook it until the fat is shredded. Once the meat cools down you can shred or chop it further. Once you’re happy you can keep them in glass jars.
Preserve Meat Through Confit
Confit can be made using any sort of meat or vegetable that keeps it fresh for several months. To do it you must do this:
- Slowly cook the meat in oil or its own fat.
- Keep the meat in a dry place when cooked.
- Store it in a jar while the meat is still warm.
Preserve Meat with Fats and Oils
Fats and oils reject water and block the meat from microorganisms. It will make your meat last for several months. You can cook the meat in its own fat. Once it’s cooked, blend the meat and fat together.
Sugar Preservation
Everyone has sugar. You can use it to preserve your meat, including ham, bacon, pork, and even fruit. It’s great because of blocks the growth of bacteria. Here’s how you can do it:
- Chop your meat into small pieces.
- Put the meat in a clean jar.
- Fill the rest of your jar with sugar syrup.
- Tightly seal or close your jar.
Preserve Meat with Alcohol
Alcohol preserves meat the same way brines do. However, it’s not a cheap way to preserve it. This only works with food-grade ethanol, meaning you can’t drink it after you remove the meat. Expect the taste of the meat to be weird.
Preserving with Lard
Lard is a practical way to preserve meat, especially if you have a lot of fat. It stops the air from getting to the meat, stopping bacteria from growing. Fats of different animals taste different and change the flavour of your meat. It’s so easy and it doesn’t need any special equipment. Here’s how easy it is:
- Put the cooked and salted meat in a sterilized container and cover it with melted lard.
- Keep the meat covered in lard only in a cool and dry place.
Bro, Just Use a Fridge
Obviously fridges are the way to go to have meat last a long time. Outside of fridges, what other ways have you preserved meat? What curing ingredients did you use to preserve your meat? What did you use to marinade your meat?
Leave a comment with your response and be sure to share the content!
