Preserving meats without refridgeration

[Whitechapel]

I've been especially curious about this particular subject, but I can't find much more than three methods that doesn't deal with canning or cold storage.
A salt/sugar mix does well to dry out meat and is (in my experience) much safer than leaving meat out in the sun to dry.
I hear that putting a coating of tallow on meat prevents the meat from oxidizing and inhibits bacterial growth, but I haven't gotten around to testing it.
Smoking is always a common go-to method of preservation.

But I was hoping to learn some more, or maybe some more refined ways of going about the above (perhaps even some confirmation on the tallow) in a situation where electricity is not an option.

[SlowRide13]

Learn to make pemmican. Youtube is an excellent resource.

[Whitechapel]

Already know how to make pemmican. I'm not looking for a recipe, I'm looking for ways to preserve meats for storage that'll last a while.

[SlowRide13]

Silly me....

[Rick]

Dehydration by mechanical means. You can make solar dehydrators. Sugar curing, pickling and of course freezing if the outside temperature is right. By the way, pemmican IS a way of making meat last through drying and the use of melted fat or tallow.

"I hear that putting a coating of tallow on meat prevents the meat from oxidizing and inhibits bacterial growth"

So, yeah, you hear right.

[LowKey]

I'd add that storing meat also depends on your location and the season you plan on storing through.
Drying/smoking/salting meat is far more likely to get you through the winter in the northern climes than down south.
Long term storage of meats before refrigeration usually involved copious amounts of salt, or liquid brine and a cool dry place for storage, usually a root cellar with a stable environment, but in many cases, brined meats need to be kept cooler (under 40°)

The book "Putting Foods By" has two brief sections on salt drying meat and fish. The methods they give are simple, no nonsense and worked for generations. Both methods require a lot of salt, a different method for lean meat and one for fish, and a lot of soaking to make edible again.
Not going to write it out here. Check a library or buy the book. There may be better sources out there.

Another method was making true mincemeat. It was used for preserving meat boiled off bones, and ground, mixed with alcohol, fruit and spices and stored in the root cellar in a crock for the cold months. I don't have a non-canning recipe for that.

And a further method of preservation is to make dry sausage, like salamis, pepperonis, et al. No idea how to go about those other than it's a fermentation type process, but I imagine there is info out there.

Don't take short cuts. Bad raw-cured meat will kill you.

Tallow, left out, goes rancid. I wouldn't depend on it not spoiling. It certainly isn't a barrier to microbial growth. Not sure about its use in pemmican but it sure isn't used to coat raw or smoked meat to preserve them.

Just doing a quick internet check on meat preservation I'd be really leery of some of the blog posts out there on the www. I saw several on "curing" bacon that cook rather than preserve it. Any smoking for long term storage is done over a cold smoke, not in a commercial "smoker."

[Chris]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potted_meat

Play on the preserving by fat method. The original source of confit meats.

[Whitechapel]

Thank you very much, LowKey. You've brought to my attention more things than my own searching could find!
I will certainly look further into each of those, and learn as much as I can from them.

Also, tallow in pemmican is essentially a binding agent, and apparently a preservative. Its a 50/50 mix of tallow and ground/powdered dried meat, with crushed dried berries, or other similar things to add into the vitamin and nutrition content.

[your_comforting_company]

drying and then putting in an airtight jar works for me. We just jerked another batch. Our last batch stored for over a year and was just fine when we finished it.

[your_comforting_company]

tallow that can come into contact with moisture WILL spoil. My candles can attest to that with the thick green and black mold on top.
They got tossed out.