(The entire Salt Preserving Test
from beginning to end lasting over 4½ months)
I've always
been interested in how the Pioneers lived and survived depending only on
themselves. No grocery stores along the way to buy food and no refrigeration. Truly
self-reliant, survivalist type people. I’ve read many times that they would
salt cure and preserve the meat they needed and always wondered just how that
was done?
Today, I
am going to Brine (salt) Preserve some red meat to test a proven recipe and see
for myself how the process is done and what the meat tastes like months after
preserving with the Brining method. This method I’ve been researching for
years, searching the web, reading books and even contacting Morton Salt for
instructions but always left me with doubt that is was truly safe. No one
seemed to want to commit to a recipe.
The
Survivalist and remote homestead lifestyle at times does not include the luxury
or convenience of refrigeration. To keep up strength and health meat is
important in your diet. The problem with meat is preserving the harvested meat
from your hunting or live stock butchering so you can eat it for many months
until your next harvest.
Here are
several known ways to preserve red meat. They are, Pressure Canning, Brining and
Dry Salt preserving. There’s also Cold Smoking and Hot Smoking methods which I
will review those another time.
Pressure
Canning:
Is the
most popular, easiest, safest and provides great natural tasting meat. There is
an investment up front for the canning equipment and jars but the food quality
makes it well worth the price. Once the equipment and jars have been purchased,
you will only need to purchase just the lids for future canning. Today there
are reusable lids that may save on that cost.
Brining:
Red meat
preserved with the brining method is reported to last several years, although I
know of no one who actually brined meat that long. Dan and Sheila at www.survivingsurvivalism.com have
successfully brined game meat for three months and detailed how they did it in
their book noted below. The process is easy and very quick to do. However,
Brining or Canning Salt must be stocked in sufficient quantity for this method
and salt may be hard to come by during SHTF events. The down side to brining is
the meat will be very salty and is limited in its use. Normally the brine
stored meat is best used in soups and stews. Taking a steak out of the brine
and grilling it up is not a very good option.
Dry Salt
Curing:
Similar
to Brining the difference is the meat is packed in dry salt. My opinion is
brining is better than the dry salting method because the liquid brine gets
into all crevices of the meat where dry salting has to be rubbed and packed
into every crevice of the meat. Sometimes this is difficult to do and spoilage
of the meat can result. Although, this method has been successfully practice
for hundreds of years.
Why use
Salt?
Salt
contains sodium chloride which is the main ingredient in preserving food when
used in large quantities. Salt, sodium chloride, helps to restrict the growth
of microorganisms in food through the process of osmosis. A concentration of
about 20% salt is required to kill bacteria. If food is well salted, it
prevents the growth of harmful microbes and thus can be preserved for a long
time. Use only a non-iodized salt for brining or dry salting such as canning
and pickling salt.
The Brine
Recipe to Make 1 Gallon of 20% Brine:
A safe
brine solution is 20% by weight salt to water solution.
2 2/3
cups of Canning Salt (2.66 cups of salt per gallon of water)
1 Gallon
of Water
Need more
brine? Just multiply the recipe by the gallons you need.
Directions:
Boil the
gallon of water.
Add and
completely dissolve the salt in the boiling water.
Option:
You can
add sugar and other spices to the Brine at this time to enhance the meats
flavor, I did not for this batch. I want to see just what the meat tastes like
just brined.
Remove
from heat and cool to room temperature before adding meat.
For this
Brine I will not use anything but salt and water. I want to see and actual
taste the meat using only the basic Brine preserving method.
(This
Brine recipe courtesy of Dan and Sheila at www.survivingsurvivalism.com from
their book “Surviving Survivalism…or…How to Avoid the Survival Culture Shock”.
A great Survival reference book for only $4.95 by people who live the Survival
Life. Visit their website above to purchase a copy)
Equipment
Used:
Use a
Stainless Steel stock pot or a porcelain water bath canner pot. Do not use
aluminum, plain steel or cast iron pot. The salt solution will etch them and
off flavors can develop. I would use a porcelain water bath canner pot if I had
one. I used my Stainless stock pot that’s used for water bath canning. I’m
using a one gallon RubberMaid plastic jar and lid for the brining container. If
I were to use this preserving process all the time I would use a Stoneware
Crock.
For this
brine preserving I used a Stainless Steel Stock Pot, One Gallon Plastic Jar and
Canning Salt.
Shown
here is an egg floating in the brine solution, actually with this much salt I
think you could float a Chevy in it. Egg floating, is a much talked about test
to verify that the brine salt concentration is strong enough for safe brine
meat storage. I don’t recommend it at all as there are too many variables with
an egg to be accurate. A ‘salinometer’ is the best way if you are going to
practice this type of raw meat storage.
The meat
purchased for this Brining Test, an inexpensive ‘Chuck Tender Steak’. The 4
pieces will work out great for the test. I plan to remove one piece from the
jar every 30 days, sniff test it, cook it and taste it. Yes I will sacrifice my
body for you readers!
The meat
trimmed of as much fat as possible. The pieces were already cut to about ½ inch
thick. All meat you brine should not be thicker than 1 inch! This thickness of
1 inch will allow full penetration of the brine.
A Solo
Cup with the bottom cut out of it:
This cup
will be what I’ll use to hold the meat submerged while in the brining jar. The
hole will assure the salt enters the inside of the cup and cover all the meat
with the brine solution. With the high salt content everything wants to float
and you need something to keep the meat covered in brine or spoilage will
result.
Here it
is, the meat in the brine with the Solo cup holding it submerged for the next
120 days. Right now I have it sitting on the shelf above my computer in my
computer room to keep an eye on it. I plan to stir and separate the meat pieces
everyday for the first 5 days, then after that once a week to be sure all the
meat surfaces are in contact with the brine. As time goes and if the brine gets
funky I will decide to dump the old brine and replace it with a fresh new batch
of brine. I did not have to do that.
Note: When placing the meat into your jar,
crock or whatever, do not pack the meat in the container. Leave it loosely placed
inside so the brine is free to contact all surfaces of the meat, all the time.
For this experiment/test I used .85 lbs. of meat but could have preserved 4 lbs
in this gallon jar.
Here’s
another photo of the brining jar just 5 hours later. You can see the brine has
already begun to draw off the meat colorant and internal liquids. Above the
meat, the reddish color, is the junk coming out of the meat while below is
still clear.
Some
friends say it looks like I have an alien life form in the jar :-)
The meat has taken in or absorbed the brine and expelled the blood. At this
stage it has now settled to the bottom of the jar. I will remove the solo cup
at this time and stir to separate the meat. This is all there is to salt/brine
meat preserving!
The Salt Preserving Test Results
1st Piece of Meat
Tested: Pan Frying
The first
way I cooked the preserved meat was frying without boiling the salt out. It was
terribly salty! You need to boil the salt out of the brined meat first.
2nd Piece of Meat
Tested: Boiling
I boil
cooked the second piece which is the best way to cook the meat. The salt is
barely noticeable.
3rd Piece of Meat
Tested: Soups and Stews
It was
boiled to remove the salt then boiled to cook it. Then diced and added to the
soup.
After 4½ months
and the last piece of meat in this salt preserving test has now ended.
Here’s
the brine at 4½ months old. As the salt draws the blood out of the meat it
turns brackish in color. You can almost see the last piece of meat in the
bottom. The brine still smells clean.
4th and Last Piece of
Meat Tested: Used in Pasta
Here’s the
last piece of meat just rinsed with fresh water and ready to boil the salt out
of it. Looks and smells good!
After
boiling the salt out I boiled the meat in fresh water to cook it and then diced
it. The meat still tastes great.
I added
the diced meat to my favorite Mac and Cheese made with long term stored Cheese
Powder and Rotini Pasta.
Salt Preserving Test Summary:
This is
the Pioneer or Mountain Man way to store fresh meat without refrigeration. The
method uses a considerable amount of salt especially if you’re preserving
hundreds of pounds of meat every year.
I’m glad
I tried this type of meat preservation. It is easy to do and certainly is an
optional way to store meat without refrigeration. However just to be clear I
prefer modern pressure canning to salt or brine preserving. As long as I have a
pressure canner, jars and lids pressure canning is the method I prefer.
Pressure canned meat is more tender, tasty and without a trace of salt in it.
Preparing
the meat to eat:
I have
learned that boiling the salt preserved meat before cooking to eat is absolutely
necessary to extract the salt absorbed into the meat, otherwise it is far to
salty to eat. Boil thin sliced pieces like mine, for 10 minutes, longer if
thicker and discard that salty water. Add fresh water and boil the meat until
cooked.
