Meat Keeping Ideas and Suggestions Please

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I have been thinking about refridgeration for a few months. We are not going to be able to use electric, we are building alternative power and our sytem will not be big enough. I really and truely was hoping to at least keep my small chest freezer, but I can't. We can use propane but many of them use tremendous amounts of the stuff, current price $1.82/gal. I've read where the Serville (sp) fridges use the least 1/4 gal/24 hours. However, I've also read where they are dangerous to use compared to other makes. I've no idea if this is so. Opinions? Experience? I've used propane refridgeration before and have no problem with it at all except for the intitial expense and gallons or use. I am not aware of how much each brand uses. I wouldn't mind using an ice box if I had a freezer. But the costs are way out of the budget for now. We've been using ice and use about 3 blocks a week, it is winter as well. In the summer that is going to go up to double I imagine. How am I going to keep meat? I know I can jar it. I've done it before, but canned chicken or ground meat isn't the same. I have been keeping meat on ice from the store for about 4 days at a time now. Using up chicken and pork first and keeping the beef till the end. This is a real problem. I can't be driving 14 miles for meat every few days. I wonder if I just need to change my attitude about this all together. Can you please give me some ideas and opinions?

-- Sarrah (CA North In the Cascades) (olefashion@hotmail.com), January 10, 2002

Answers

Wow! Sounds like a pickle. A propane fridge may be the best answer. Pressure canning meat, drying it for jerky, curing as in hams, or the really old fashioned and dangerous way of storing in lard are the other options. Keeping it "on the hoof" so to speak might be yet another option until ready for slaughter, butchering and consumption. You could look at replacing your meat consumed with texturized vegetable protein which is shelf stable. Going vegetarian may not suit though. Just a thought.

-- Susan (smtroxel@socket.net), January 10, 2002.

Rabbits, just butcher a couple at a time when you need them. Or smoked meat, if you could find someone who smokes it, might do it for you. We have a big new smoker, but we haven't used it yet. They are about 50 dollars at Walmart. Ham comes in those vacume sealed bags and are just sitting out at the store, not refridgerated. I always wondered how they did that to keep like that.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 10, 2002.

I had to get my fridhe in my camper fixed this year,,someone used an ice pick on it one day,, find someone that services them,, and by an "used" one from them,, a full size,propane fridge would run me 700 bucks,,thats with a freezer,, am thinnking about getting one for the shed,, for emergencies. How about building an ice house now,, a bunch of straw bales stacked over a large pile of block ice now,,should last till middle of summer (depending where you are),,you could make the blocks all winter, stack them,, and cover with the straw as you build up,,saw dust in between the block will help them from sticking together. ot how about dry ice? if you can find a cheap source for that,, 2 pounds in my cooler can freeze things, should keep things cool for at least a week

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 10, 2002.

Another option is salting meat - not just ham, but beef as well. Even mutton or goat. A good corned leg of mutton is as good as corned beef, but not quite the same - variety. Make corned beef or whatever, then keep it in a very strong salt solution until ready to use, then soak a while in changes of fresh water to remove some of the excess salt, then boil. Once salted, some could be smoked or dry-cured. Of course, not the best option if you need to be on a salt-reduced diet.

And of course there's my non-patent dried meat. Take minced (ground) meat, divide into batches, mix one batch with water to a creamy consistency, boil in a saucepan for a few minutes, strain through a colander. Mix next batch with liquid from last batch, make up volume with water if necessary, repeat process until all batches are done. The individual grains of meat should be easily separated. Dry on a cooky sheet or roasting pan in a slow oven, then package - dehydrated fat-free cholesterol-reduced minced meat. Store in air-tight containers in a dark place. Boil in water to reconstitute. Add herbs and chopped onion. Add tomato paste for pasta suace. For meat patties or hamburger, bind with egg.

Leave the water you cooked it in in the first place to stand and cool for a while, then remove the (solidified) fat from the surface. Use the fat for soap or animal food. Use the liquid, possibly with a little of the meat, for soup or stew. Since boiling removes some of the taste, I generally add garlic when first cooking it. That's also why I use the same liquid for several batches - you don't lose as much flavour for the later batches.

I've also seen hot-smoked chickens. Opened up down the backbone; backbone, ribs and keel removed; flattened carcase smoked to cook then dry (only bones remaining are leg and wing). This is best for winter - store in a cold place and the (melted) fat doesn't go rancid.

Smoked or salted fish is possible too. In fact, any small animal will keep well this way - rabbit, I would assume squirrel, small cuts of larger animals (say slabs of spare-ribs).

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 10, 2002.


Old cook books (really old) are a good source of information for this type of question. Salting and drying are the favorite method of keeping meat and fish; then soaking, sometimes for several days, before cooking. 'Spring Houses' were often used around here (NY) for keeping food stuffs. A thick stone structure was built around the spring, which would be icy cold year round, with shelves inside-you had a mini fridge. The soaked meats I mentioned would be stored in crocks on the shelves. This was also a way to keep milk, butter etc. So if yo have a good strong cold spring on your property, you might have a fridge, after all!

-- Kathy (catfish201@hotmail.com), January 10, 2002.


Stories from my mother who lived her childhood before refrigeration: Meat usually wasn't eaten except for Sunday dinner. Most of their meat was farm raised chickens and rabbits. In winter they would butcher a couple of hogs and kept them in a smoke house (sugar cured hams, bacon, etc.). If they ever butchered a cow most of it was canned due to not being able to smoke cure it as you are able to a pig. Winter time they ate squirrels, wild rabbits, various birds, and occasionally a racoon. Summer time after harvest they would eat fish and can them if they could catch enough. They also ate crawdads and minnows out of the nearby creek.

I think that if most of us could get it in our minds that we don't have to have meat at every meal, we wouldn't have to worry so much about it. But I am very guilty, if I don't see meat on my dinner plate everytime I eat I get upset. Cranky!

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), January 10, 2002.


These are wonderful responses and I thank you all. As far as the ice house I'd love to be able to do that, but we don't get that kind of cold weather here for lakes ponds etc to freeze over. I think a combination of a few of these things might help. It is a modern day thing that we expect to go to a fridge and help yourself to something cold to drink and eat. We have been living for 4 months now with no refridgeration and other than mold on cheese I've managed with the ice. Years ago I smoked a lot of fish, I built the smokehouse then and I'm sure I could do one again. Smoked fish will spoil so I'd assume meat would as well. The biggest problem with the smoke house was keeping the midnight mauraders out of it. I agree, we have all come to expect meat on the plate each night. This may be a new beginning or a change in our eating pattern. Smoked and processed meat are allright once in awhile, but I think I would have a problem with a constant diet of it. That is a most interesting method of dehydrating hamburger, unique I'd say and doable. I am going to be saving up for my propane fridge, I just know I am.. and giving this all a big long think!

-- Sarrah (CA North In the Cascades) (olefashion@hotmail.com), January 11, 2002.

Do you live where the ground gets cold in the winter? I read somewhere that a broken chest freezer got set in the ground and used in the winter time. If there was a block of ice set in it it would help, as would a drain to let moisture on the bottom get out. If frozen meat would keep a few days that way, you could finish the week with fresh rabbits or chicken or fish or a cheese omlet. Also, my brother once kept his milk fresh on a windowsill in South Dakota, which makes me think that a cool, shady location could be chosen outside for milk IF your highs are only in the 40's where you live, providing the animals couldn't get to it! You could probably get a broken chest freezer at a repair place for hauling it off. I really don't know what you could do about the summer, though. Out here in the midwest they used to put off slaughtering until it got cold in the fall to prevent the meat from spoiling, and drinks were kept cool by whapping jugs with wet burlap.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), January 11, 2002.

Do you have an electric co-op in the area? Have you ever investigated fuel-cells? They are propane powered electric generators. Very efficient. Kind of on the bleeding edge, but some co-ops are starting to have programs and rebates for customers. You can surf to find more information, or ask your co-op. In 5-10 years, they will as common and air-conditioning in the rural areas if the prognosis is correct. Excellant alternative source.

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), January 11, 2002.

Could your proposed electrical system handle a dorm-size refrigerator. They are only about 2'x2'x2'. If not, do check out used camper refrigerators. If that would be our only propane need, you could run it off the exchangable bottles.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 12, 2002.


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