01/26/2023 / By Zoey Sky
When you’re building a stockpile of emergency food and supplies, meat is one item that should be part of your list. Learn how to preserve meat through salting and curing if you want to save money on groceries.
Dry salting or using a salt brine are meat preservation methods that you can use even without electricity, so it’s worth learning how to cure meat if you are worried about long-term power outages in your area. (h/t to ModernSurvivalBlog.com)
Salt is used to cure and preserve meat because it inhibits the growth of microorganisms, including those found in meat. Salt preserves meat by drawing out water from the microbial cell by osmosis due to the high concentration of salt outside the cell.
The cell loses water until it reaches a state where it cannot grow and is unable to survive.
When stored properly, salt will also last a long time in your stockpile. To save time on moving salt to bigger containers, you can buy salt sold in 10-pound pails.
You can also buy special salt specifically used to cure meat. While you can use almost any kind of food-grade salt for curing meat, some people recommend kosher salt (a coarse grind).
Here are some tips and recipes that you can use to salt and cure meat.
Salt beef
Salt beef is also called corned beef and the use of the term “corned” stems from the fact that the Middle English word corn could refer to grains of salt and cereal grains.
You can salt meat by adding dry salt or using brine.
Try the recipe below to make salt beef at home.
Ingredients for 8-10 servings:
Preparation:
Dry salting
Dry salting or corning is a food preservation method that uses coarse “corns” or pellets of salt to dry-cure meat.
Irish corned beef is made from beef brisket, but any cut of meat can be corned.
Salt brine curing
Salt brine curing uses brine made with salt to preserve meat. In the past, people added salt to the brine until they can float an egg in the liquid.
However, it is more accurate to use a hydrometer. You can also keep things simple by following a reliable recipe.
Once the brine is mixed and placed into your preferred container, submerge the meat you want to preserve in the salt brine.
Note that brine curing usually produces an end product that is less salty compared to food preserved with dry curing. You can also inject brine into the meat to speed up the curing process.
The salting meat process for preservation is rather straightforward.
First, you must rinse the fresh meat in cool water. Pour a thin layer of salt, such as kosher salt, all over the meat and rub it in.
Hang or set the meat out in a cool environment that is under 50 F but not below freezing for several weeks to dry it out. Before cooking the meat, rinse off the salt with water. (Related: 12 Food preservation and food storage techniques you can use when SHTF.)
If you’re only using salt with no other preservative method, it’s best to use a 20 percent salt concentration on the surface of the meat to effectively kill off most types of microbes and fungi that can spoil the food.
Learn how to preserve meat using salt before SHTF so you can stock up on meat for your emergency food supply.
Watch the video below to learn how to make beef jerky at home.
This video is from the SHTFPrepping101 channel on Brighteon.com.
Food preservation techniques used by different cultures around the world.
Freeze-drying vs dehydration: Which is the best food preservation method?
Food supply tips: 5 Food preservation methods to learn before SHTF.
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