Are you serious about prepping? If so, you probably have the obligatory stock of frozen and refrigerated meat to keep your belly full for at least a few weeks. But what happens if you suddenly lose power and it doesn’t come back in within a few hours? Sure, you can probably keep your freezer or refrigerator powered for a few days or even weeks with your generator, but you’ll eventually run out of fuel.
To avoid watching your stored meat go bad, there are some things you can do. Here are some of the top ways to preserve meat when you can no longer rely on appliances to keep it cold.
USE SALT
Salt is one of the oldest methods for preserving meat. Curing meat in salt is easy but takes time. Here’s how to do it:
- Cut the meat into slabs (between four and six inches thick).
- Mix ½ lb. pickling salt with 1/3 C. brown sugar (this should be sufficient for preserving up to 12 lbs. of meat).
- Cover the meat liberally with the salt and sugar mixture. Every surface and cranny of the meat should be covered.
- Pack the meat tightly into jars that have been thoroughly sterilized.
- Use cheesecloth to cover the meat.
- Keep the meat in an area of your home that is no hotter than 38⁰ This could be a basement or root cellar. You don’t want to store the meat in freezing temperatures, though.
- Leave the meat in the cool storage area for at least 30 days.
- Remove the meat from the jar once it’s cured and wrap it in moisture-proof paper or plastic. Then return it to cold storage.
You now have meat on-hand that you can safely eat while the power is out. You can also use hang-drying methods to cure your meat, but this must be done in a room that always stays cool and has excellent circulation.
MAKE PEMMICAN
Have you heard of pemmican? It was originally used by Native American tribes to preserve meat in combination with lard (or tallow) and dried berries. Pemmican can keep for years without spoiling as long as it is not exposed to extreme temperatures. Here’s how to make it.
- Cut the fat off your choice of meat (beef, venison, moose and elk are all good options). Save the fat.
- Slice the meat (which now has no fat on it) into thin strips and dry (using your oven if you can or under direct sunlight). The dried meat strips should crack when bent.
- Grind the meat strips up using a hand grinder or mortar and pestle. You can also grind the meat between two rocks if you don’t have any other tools you can use. The ground meat should look like fine dust when you’re finished.
- Melt and boil the fat from the meat over low heat, then pour it through a mesh strainer.
- Mix the dry ingredients together (this includes your meat powder and any other dry ingredients you want, such as dry fruit).
- Add the melted fat to your dry ingredients and mix to form a soft mixture. You may want to put the mixture into bread pans or other small pans to give the finished pemmican shape.
- Once the pemmican mixture has dried, you can cut it into smaller pieces and wrap it in airtight containers or vacuum-sealed plastic bags for storage.
What do you think of these meat preservation methods? Have you tried them?