# Meat Preservation



## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Maybe I am getting too far ahead of this Corona thing, but I want to be prepared if/when the SHTF.

Specifically, how would you preserve meat in an environment where there is no longer any electricity, LP/natural gas/propane or kerosene/Coleman fuel/gasoline? 

In the past, we have canned much venison on our gas range. We have also made tons of jerky in our convection oven. But, what if a range/oven is no longer working? 

I suppose one could use their canner on campfire and/or wood stove. That is an option.

But, I was wondering about smoking/dehydrating meat. We do not have a smoke house. Even if we did, does smoking meat - like venison - preserve it without refrigeration?

I assume dehydrating meat will preserve it as long as it is stored in a low humidity environment. IS this assumption correct? In other words, dried meat will have a long shelf life?

I find myself laying awake at night coming up with a last minute, easy DIY meat dehydrator. Right now, I am considering the use of a 55-gallon drum with shelves every 6" made of chicken wire, placed over a slow, smoldering wood fire. Eventually, the thin sliced meat would dry out without bugs and such affecting the quality of the meat.

Am I missing anything? Do you think a 55-gallon drum meat dehydrator would work?


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

If water freezes and stays frozen outside so will everything else.
It cuts down on canning and drying.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

dad had a smokehouse so we had smoked meat but we also had a lot of salted stuff,corned beef,salt cod,and turbot. had that in tubs in the pantry we had our berries in a barrell with water outside. that would be winter time (but our winters were harsher then and lasted a long time) when mom wanted to make a pie i would chop out a chunk of berries. dried caplin was another delicacy.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

12-15% salt: 1 year at room temperature 
20%+ salt: indefinitely at room temperature


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## oldasrocks (Oct 27, 2006)

Cabin Fever said:


> Maybe I am getting too far ahead of this Corona thing, but I want to be prepared if/when the SHTF.
> 
> Specifically, how would you preserve meat in an environment where there is no longer any electricity, LP/natural gas/propane or kerosene/Coleman fuel/gasoline?
> 
> ...



To make a homemade dryer I used the Back To Basics --Readers Digest book and expanded on it. I used untreated plywood and built a 2 ft wide, 4 ft tall and 3 ft deep box. 3/4 inch holes and bottom sides and top. Built in slide guides for 10 trays. Trays ,2 ft X 3 ft built out of 3/4 stock with nylon screens (never use metal screens as it will poison you. Heat from 2 100 W trouble light bulbs on the bottom. You have to use trouble light bulbs so they won't explode if liquid hits them. I could do 10 trays of jerky at a time. I did this in the basement where the humidty was low from AC. Use jerky recipes for the meat. Also had a smoke house but that is another book.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

my son makes jerky. i can't get a taste for it myself. i gave him a smoker for christmas runs on propane. growing up we never had any dried meat. just the salted stuff i guess i was about 10 when we got the freezers. it would have been when they first came to the village because dad was always among the first to get anything new ~Georgia


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

I would think meat could be freeze dried as well.
Dries cloths should dry meat.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

we have made jerky with the dehydrator that was then stored in a zip-lock bag and put in the truck in Nov it was still good the following November when I found the bag again and finished eating it.

I would think dehydrating would best be done by making a stand to hold the dehydrator trays over the wood stove while running it for heat


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## StL.Ed (Mar 6, 2011)

If you smoke the meat at 160 degrees or higher until it is dried you will end up with jerky, much as if you had dried it in an oven or dehydrator. You could also make potted meat or a traditional confit (the grease seals the meat from spoilage, and the top layer of grease is often discarded), but I've never used either of those for longer term storage.


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## gilberte (Sep 25, 2004)

I knew you couldn't stay off the meat


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## anniew (Dec 12, 2002)

of course, CF, you could can it using a wood fire.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

SRSLADE said:


> If water freezes and stays frozen outside so will everything else.
> It cuts down on canning and drying.


That's aa no-brainer. But, what if it's needed during the warm months?


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

newfieannie said:


> dad had a smokehouse so we had smoked meat but we also had a lot of salted stuff,corned beef,salt cod,and turbot. had that in tubs in the pantry we had our berries in a barrell with water outside. that would be winter time (but our winters were harsher then and lasted a long time) when mom wanted to make a pie i would chop out a chunk of berries. dried caplin was another delicacy.


So, what kind of salt did he use? Could a person use water softener salt?


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

HDRider said:


> 12-15% salt: 1 year at room temperature
> 20%+ salt: indefinitely at room temperature


What are these concentrations for? A brine solution to use before drying? Or, the amount of salt to use if you're going to pack raw meat with salt in a barrel? Could a person use water softener salt (rock salt form)?


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

oldasrocks said:


> To make a homemade dryer I used the Back To Basics --Readers Digest book and expanded on it. I used untreated plywood and built a 2 ft wide, 4 ft tall and 3 ft deep box. 3/4 inch holes and bottom sides and top. Built in slide guides for 10 trays. Trays ,2 ft X 3 ft built out of 3/4 stock with nylon screens (never use metal screens as it will poison you. Heat from 2 100 W trouble light bulbs on the bottom. You have to use trouble light bulbs so they won't explode if liquid hits them. I could do 10 trays of jerky at a time. I did this in the basement where the humidty was low from AC. Use jerky recipes for the meat. Also had a smoke house but that is another book.


But what if you do not have electricity for the light bulbs?

Once dried, how did you store the meat?

Good point on the metal trays. Thanks


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

i think that's why we had a lot of our meat salted. we could always get fresh fish though so we wouldn't have had too much salt.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

anniew said:


> of course, CF, you could can it using a wood fire.


yes, I know. Put it might be tricky keeping a more or less constant temperature/pressure. And, with only two canners, it seems like it would take forever to can an entire deer during the summer.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

Cabin Fever said:


> What are these concentrations for? A brine solution to use before drying? Or, the amount of salt to use if you're going to pack raw meat with salt in a barrel? Could a person use water softener salt (rock salt form)?


CF - I just got that off Google. Salting meat is a skill I have never practiced. My brother does it with ham, but it is so salty I can't eat it. Mom says you have to soak it repeatedly in fresh water to make it edible. 

There is a ton of material out there. My brother used something from the university of Virginia.

In olden days they used salt from salt licks, but I'd be afraid of salt for a softener because they do not mine or process that with human consumption in mind.

Plus, most recipes call for curing salt, and regular salt. I love cured meats, but salted ham is tooooo salty for me. Air dried, done right is delicious.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

what you have to do is soak the salt meat overnight and throw off that water. then you could make a jiggs dinner with dumplings or whatever. i'm hungry already!. i must take a piece out of the tub for tomorrow.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

This is how my Inuit friends who live on the west shore of Hudson's Bay preserve caribou meat. They simply dry it out on racks. Not sure if it is brined first. Maybe a soak in Hudson's Bay (which is salt water)? This process must be done sometime after snow melt and before fly season. They have no wood to smoke with there on the tundra.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

that's how we dried our fish up on what they call the flakes. you had to watch it though so it didn't get sunburn. boy would he get mad if we let the fish get sunburn. bringing back such good memories


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

Cabin Fever said:


> This is how my Inuit friends who live on the west shore of Hudson's Bay preserve caribou meat. They simply dry it out on racks. Not sure if it is brined first. Maybe a soak in Hudson's Bay (which is salt water)? This process must be done sometime after snow melt and before fly season. They have no wood to smoke with there on the tundra.


If I ever become an Inuit that will be useful knowledge.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

Cabin Fever said:


> So, what kind of salt did he use? Could a person use water softener salt?


coarse salt. wouldn't there be some chemicals in that water softener salt. i dont know i've never used it.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

SRSLADE said:


> If I ever become an Inuit that will be useful knowledge.


Thanks for all of you're help. I am wondering why you're a member here?


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

Cabin Fever said:


> Thanks for all of you're help. I am wondering why you're a member here?


I have given some useful hints at preservation if you don't like it take it up with those in charge.


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

pickling fish and meat is a good method as well.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

SRSLADE said:


> pickling fish and meat is a good method as well.


Can you pickle raw meat?


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

SRSLADE said:


> I have given some useful hints at preservation if you don't like it take it up with those in charge.


Your suggestion below, had nothing to do with my question. So, I wouldn't consider it useful. Better luck next time.


SRSLADE said:


> If water freezes and stays frozen outside so will everything else.
> It cuts down on canning and drying.


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

Cabin Fever said:


> Your suggestion below, had nothing to do with my question. So, I wouldn't consider it useful. Better luck next time.


You're not helping your own post.
I like salt cod. Do you like salt cod?


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

HDRider said:


> Can you pickle raw meat?


With salt. Yes


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

SRSLADE said:


> With salt. Yes


I thought "pickled" meant using vinegar


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

Both.
Home pickled eggs a great also.


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## claytonpiano (Feb 3, 2005)

We live off-grid. How we preserve meat...
1. canning as you mentioned. To do it on an open fire would be awful. You need a rack over the fire and a way to slide the canner closer and farther away from the fire. It is doable, but you can never leave the canner and must constantly observe the pressure gauge or check the rocking.
2. dehydrated. In our climate it only keeps a few months.
3. Salting. We built a large salt box and it sits in our barn. It has a cover and will hold several hams, bacon, middlings, etc. If you visit Southern States, they have 50 pound bags of salt for livestock and for salting meat (we live in the south...so...not sure if this is everywhere. Think country ham.) The salt must be on every square inch of the meat and we rub it in and let it drain some then place in the salt box. You do not want your meat touching and if you stack it, then you must have sufficient salt in between each piece of meat. After six weeks or so, take out of the salt, rub the meat with black pepper to prevent bugs and we use cayenne on the bones. Place in a large pillow case, tie shut and hang for a long time. True country ham hangs for 12 to 18 months. If any of the fat remains, it might turn yellow. Cut all the yellow off. Yes, you will lose part of the meat. Slice and cook as you need.
4. Smoking. This can be combined with the salting. Every Thanksgiving when turkeys are on sale we smoke 70 or so turkeys to last us for the year. We can them all. Fresh poultry comes from our chicken flock. Will smoking alone preserve meat? Not in the summer or at least that has not been our experience. Again, we live in the south.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

SRSLADE said:


> Both.
> Home pickled eggs a great also.


Do you put beet juice in yours?


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

HDRider said:


> Do you put beet juice in yours?


No. I put black pepper.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Pressure cookers 'will' work on coals... one just has to monitor the 'pressure cock' a lot more. On a stove, one can set it, adjust it, and basically forget about it. Over a fire/coals, more attention needed. If I were drying meat on a grand scale, I'd dry it and then put it in the same glass jars (to keep humidity down). Planning ahead? Dried meat in plastic buckets w/lids down tight to keep the varmints at bay. Long term? O2 dessicant and mylar bags.

In a 'right now' no time to get ready shtf, salting it and drying. I keep a few bottles of Sodium Nitrite for 'curing' meat on hand. Only a 1.25/bottle, doesn't go bad, and could save a lot of meat. Just don't need very much of it, at all.

Remember, wild game disappears within a week. Killing a cow is going to be a community project, as it's a bugger for one person w/o a front end loader. Doable, but 10x the work.

In a bad scenario, one will go back to meat in a hurry, when that's all there is.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Cabin Fever said:


> This is how my Inuit friends who live on the west shore of Hudson's Bay preserve caribou meat. They simply dry it out on racks. Not sure if it is brined first. Maybe a soak in Hudson's Bay (which is salt water)? This process must be done sometime after snow melt and before fly season. They have no wood to smoke with there on the tundra.


One of my regrets in this life, is wussing out the summer I spent outside of Nome (Bering Land Bridge NPP) and the native elders visited Serpentine Hot Springs for a week. They brought an entire seal and a moose hindquarter to eat on that week. Nailed them to the cabin wall. And had a very sharp ulu knife handy to peel off a piece when one wanted a snack. They were already ripe when they got there. And full of 'whistlers' by day 3.

In a land devoid of spices, fermentation (rotting) was a nice diversion from boring...

Wouldn't have killed me, and I could say I did it.

Also passed on whale fat, as the cheapest chunk at the community grocer was ~20$/lb...


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

it's good to see you back Texican ~Georgia


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

My inuit friends do eat a lot of things I currently would pass on, like raw caribou bone marrow


















Blubber



















More caribou drying in the open. This photo was taken June 1.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

I have eaten raw caribou


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

i haven't eaten it raw. but i've had many meals of roasted caribou


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

HDRider said:


> Can you pickle raw meat?


Yes, but it would have to be cooked before eating.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

Bearfootfarm said:


> Yes, but it would have to be cooked before eating.


Now that is an important little tidbit of info right there


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

During times of shortage, where in the world could a person get enough vinegar to pickle an entire deer?


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

HDRider said:


> Now that is an important little tidbit of info right there


"Corned" is another name for "pickling".
It's just preserving with brine and sometimes spices or vinegar.

There's a Youtube channel called "Townsends" where the guy does things they way they did it in the 1700's. He cooks over fires and in brick ovens, and shows how they preserved foods too:

https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson


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## StL.Ed (Mar 6, 2011)

Just remembered this older thread about "gravel burger" or "hamburger rocks":

https://www.homesteadingtoday.com/threads/results-of-a-field-test-gravel-burger.528625/


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

I've eaten raw meat many times. Raw fish. oysters. clams. Both fresh and salt water.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Cabin Fever said:


> During times of shortage, where in the world could a person get enough vinegar to pickle an entire deer?


We keep ten gallons or so around, all the time... Why? Why not!  Love me some unfiltered raw apple vinegar... and it's useful as a cleaner, or so I'm told...


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

texican said:


> We keep ten gallons or so around, all the time... Why? Why not!  Love me some unfiltered raw apple vinegar... and it's useful as a cleaner, or so I'm told...


My wife's homemade kombucha has plenty of vinegar....but, probably not at a high enough concentration.


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## lmrose (Sep 24, 2009)

We don't eat meat anymore but when we had goats I tried canning meat but we didn't care for it. If you have small animals like chickens or rabbits you can keep your meat alive until you want to eat it. Or if you butcher a goat in cold weather it could be hung in a cold building built for that purpose. Also trading part of a butchered animal for something you need is an option and just keep what you can keep cool and eat up in a month. Hens we used to keep until they stopped laying then would butcher them. Our present half dozen lay faithfully right through the winter. Four it was their second winter and two their first. I guess the word it out among the hens," If you want to live; keep those eggs coming every day!" Gee; I would hate to be a chicken !


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

Andrew use to make his own corned beef. i still have some salt petersp? that he used. dad didn't use that for his. 

no trouble to buy corned beef in tubs around here same way with pork riblets which is what i use to make my pea soup. just made a few blocks over. very expensive though and the prices have shot up since the pandemic.

i have a few tubs of both i bought just before the price increase. the corned beef was 45.00. riblets was about 20. probably 3 times that now. ~Georgia


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Cabin Fever said:


> So, what kind of salt did he use? Could a person use water softener salt?


Water softener salt has a bunch of added stuff that you wouldn't want to eat. I've heard kosher salt is the best for brining and salting meat. I can't stand the taste so I don't preserve by salting.


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## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

texican said:


> Pressure cookers 'will' work on coals... one just has to monitor the 'pressure cock' a lot more. On a stove, one can set it, adjust it, and basically forget about it. Over a fire/coals, more attention needed.


As Texican said, canning over coals is very doable. It is not a lot different from dutch oven cooking except you don't put coals on top like you do to bake in a dutch over. If you are thinking to try this method, I'd recommend doing some dutch oven/camp cooking using coals before you tackle it with precious meat. Make sure you have a good stable shelf above the coals for your pressure cooker. Also make sure you can easily add coals or remove coals easily under the shelf. Moving a full hot canner is a dangerous task, so plan on leaving the canner in place until it is cooled. Once you have reached the end of the pressure time, use your shovel to remove all the coals from under the canner. 

Build your coal fire about 5 feet and downwind of your canning site. That way the heat and the smoke travels the other way.
Don't plan on canning on a windy day. It'll work against you.

Another practice item is to fill jars with filtered water and pressure cook those jars over the coals. Why water? Its easily replaceable if you mess up, if you don't, you have good sterile water to keep on the shelf for medical uses.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

no shortage on vinegar around here. no one seems to be buying it. i usually have 20 gallons on hand . i don't think people know how to use it or that it's good for cleaning etc. i have plenty of the ACV also with the mother which i drink every day. my parents swore by vinegar. dad use to have it in the shed in 5 gallon buckets. ~Georgia


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## DaisyDuke (Nov 21, 2017)

Bearfootfarm said:


> "Corned" is another name for "pickling".
> It's just preserving with brine and sometimes spices or vinegar.
> 
> There's a Youtube channel called "Townsends" where the guy does things they way they did it in the 1700's. He cooks over fires and in brick ovens, and shows how they preserved foods too:
> ...


I thought that corned was specifically for salt pickled or preserved foods, not vinegar pickled.


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## DaisyDuke (Nov 21, 2017)

And I thought I was prepping by making curry venison jerky. I need to get my freezer emptied and shelf stable.


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

Cabin Fever said:


> This is how my Inuit friends who live on the west shore of Hudson's Bay preserve caribou meat. They simply dry it out on racks. Not sure if it is brined first. Maybe a soak in Hudson's Bay (which is salt water)? This process must be done sometime after snow melt and before fly season. They have no wood to smoke with there on the tundra.


This is the fastest and easiest to do. It isn't intended to be eaten like we would eat jerky. You boil it and use it in soups and stews. I have used this method on a ranch down in Mexico. Hang the critter and cut the head off, right after killing. Let the blood run out over night. Next day cut the meat into thin strips and hang up, a barb wire fence works real well. I rub it down in black pepper before hanging it up. It seasons it, and you can't see the fly specks afterwards.

Let it hang in the sun for three or four days, then store in a burlap sack hung in a open space in the shade. If you can keep it dry, and the mice away, it will last for a long time. I have used dried meat that was almost two years old.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

muleskinner2 said:


> This is the fastest and easiest to do. It isn't intended to be eaten like we would eat jerky. You boil it and use it in soups and stews. I have used this method on a ranch down in Mexico. Hang the critter and cut the head off, right after killing. Let the blood run out over night. Next day cut the meat into thin strips and hang up, a barb wire fence works real well. I rub it down in black pepper before hanging it up. It seasons it, and you can't see the fly specks afterwards.
> 
> Let it hang in the sun for three or four days, then store in a burlap sack hung in a open space in the shade. If you can keep it dry, and the mice away, it will last for a long time. I have used dried meat that was almost two years old.


I was thinking that placing some smokey wood and coals below those drying racks would help keep the flies away. The Inuits do this during the time of year when the temps are cool enough that the flies are not out yet.


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

Cabin Fever said:


> I was thinking that placing some smokey wood and coals below those drying racks would help keep the flies away. The Inuits do this during the time of year when the temps are cool enough that the flies are not out yet.


Building a fire would of been pretty hard to do on my friends ranch in Mexico. We had meat hung on about three hundred feet of fence.


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## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

How did local critters not steal it(two and four foot)?


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

Ziptie said:


> How did local critters not steal it(two and four foot)?


You only leave it hang for thee nights or days. So you tie a dog at each end and they bark all night for three nights and keep the coyotes away. During the daytime you always loose some to ravens and magpies.


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## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

Ugh, it must be horribly hot a dry there to dry that fast!


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