Introduction To Drying And Smoking Meats

Have you thought about what you're going to do if/when the grid goes down and there's no power to run a fridge or freezer to store meat in? Alternative options like backup generators or planning to use an RV fridge are great ideas, but they won't last forever. We'll talk about clay pot refrigerators in a future post, but it's not really something that's good for holding big amounts of anything inside and fresh meat doesn't last too long when just refrigerated anyway. Everyone should practice and familiarize themselves with drying meat. In this post I'm going to cover two ways for drying meat that have been practiced for centuries, by using nothing more than air and the sun or smoke. Neither process requires any electricity and each way will safely prepare meat for storage without refrigeration for quite some time.

The microorganisms that spoil meats need a certain level of moisture in order to grow. Drying meat drops the moisture below the level needed, making the growth of the microorganisms discontinue. Just about any lean meat can be dried. Beef, buffalo, deer, goat, and fish are probably the most common and best choices, pork should be avoided because of its high fat content that can make it go rancid much quicker. The nutritional properties of meats after they're dried remain the same for the most part, and the process itself is fairly simple. Dried meats can last for months without refrigeration, I read that in some cases it may be stored for years when packaged right... when attempting to save meats that long, they'll need to be thoroughly inspected for foul smells, discoloration, or other signs of spoilage before being consumed.

Since drying meat is just a matter of exposing the meat to the sun and air, or air and smoke, to make it lose tissue moisture, the fresher and thinner the meat is sliced, the safer the process will be. Meat needs to be de-boned, trimmed, and then sliced into thin uniform strips or thin steak-like cuts for each batch that is dried. If the meat has been frozen at any time, you'll need to make sure that it is completely thawed or the drying process will be uneven resulting in quickly spoiled meats. Additionally, salting meats before either drying process helps in a couple ways. It'll not only add some flavor and help pull moisture out of the meat, it also makes the surface of meats unattractive to insects that feed on the moisture excreted from the muscle tissue. Only salts without additives (like iodine) should be used. Then the meat is suspended with hooks, loops, or clips from racks or ceilings, or it can be set flat on drying racks. No piece of meat should touch another to ensure the proper air circulation needed to dry it out.

Centuries ago, people hung meats out to dry in the sun, without any protection from the elements. This is still an option today if you have the right climate, but I'm not sure I would attempt this procedure and then just cross my fingers that dogs or dirt wouldn't get to it. Solar dehydrators and smoke houses are probably the best options. Remember that we aren't covering the electric food dehydrator method because we may not always have electricity. I looked around trying to find the best written step by step directions for building your own solar dehydrator and smoke house, just to be slapped with seemingly endless results. After sifting through them all, I believe I have found the best step by steps to share. I'll share links to the articles and videos below. If you don't have time to thoroughly look them over now or if you'd like to refer back to them later, bookmarking the links would be a good idea.


*To make your own solar dehydrator, click below. The article, although not my own, is very thorough and includes not only the materials needed, but also step-by-step instructions for constructing your own solar dehydrator.

How To Make A Simple Solar Food Dehydrator

Be sure and click on to page 2 after you looked this over, it goes over the steps to making the shelving that you lay the meat on to dry.Watch the Simple DIY Solar Food Dehydrator video to go along with the article, and you can always check out more about To Do It Yourself World by clicking the name.

*For instructions on building a smoke house, click the link below. This content isn't mine either, but the content is probably some of the best instructions I found for making a smoke house.

DIY Smoker- How To Build A Smokehouse From Pallets for Less than $100

After you've looked over the article, watch the video that goes along with it. DIY Smoker: How To Build A Smokehouse From Pallets For Less Than $100. You can check out more about DIY Ready - Projects & How To by clicking the name.




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Have you ever dried or hard smoked any meat? I'd love to hear your stories, or just your comments if you have any. I'm interested in checking out other blogs, sites, and YouTube channels that I may not have stumbled across yet, so please share yours (or your favorites). Please take a second to subscribe if you haven't and don't forget to share this with others who may find this useful.

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