How To Build A Smokehouse To Preserve Meat

Smoking, like canning and brining, is one of the methods to preserve meat that people used before the refrigerator was invented. Smoking meat for preservation not only provided a way to extend the shelf life of meat, merely it as well gives it a dainty and distinct flavour.

Castilian ham or "Jamon" being sold. Known since Roman times, meat is cured with salt to draw out the wet and hung to dry to make Castilian ham. Original photo by Michal Osmenda

In a situation where you might find yourself with limited resources (power's out and/or the gas lines are down), available food products could spoil more easily and replenishing supplies will be difficult. Hence, learning at least one method of preserving food is important.

Here are the basic steps for how to smoke cure meat:

one. Set up Everything Yous Need

To smoke meat, you'll demand to have some wood fries, a smoker, and utensils to cut the meat into size. Depending on the recipe and how long you'll need to preserve the meat, y'all may also consider adding salt and spices into the list.

As the name implies, smoking is a method that slowly "cooks" food with smoke instead of intense heat. The method draws out the moisture out of the meat, preserve it, and keep information technology edible for a longer period of time.

2. Make a Smoker

While a pit and some forest volition suffice in some instances, at that place are other kinds of smokers to choose from:

• Water Smoker: allows you to smoke meat for longer periods, with the h2o allowing for lower just more even air temperature inside the smoker.
• Gas Smoker: They're easy to use and will usually cook meat faster without having to monitor the temperature constantly, but they provide less flavour compared to traditional smoking.
• Electric Smoker: Electrical smokers are the easiest way to smoke meat. Just put the meat inside, plow the smoker on, and get back to it when it'southward done. While user-friendly, electrical smokers tin can be expensive, and frequently don't provide the flavor that you'd normally associate with smoked meat. Another caveat to electric smokers is they crave electricity, so if the power's out and y'all take no way to generate power, they're useless.

Using Wood Fries

No matter which kind of smoker you choose, you'll be using forest chips to produce smoke. The type of wood will determine the "flavor", and some types pair meliorate with certain types of meat.

Alder, apple tree, cedar, cherry, hickory and mesquite are often used, only there are more that you can choose from and you can experiment with mixing together different types of forest.

Just stay away from conifers or whatever woods that's treated or painted- they contain toxic materials and tin can contaminate the food you're trying to preserve.

3. Gear up the Meat

While many types of animate being meat (beef, pork, poultry and fish) tin be smoked, some cuts provide better results than others- like drumsticks, ribs and briskets. You tin marinate or rub the meat with common salt and spices for more flavor, draw the wet out, and extend its shelf life by inhibiting the growth of pathogens.

Cut the meat into quarter-inch strips and trim the fat. Aside from cutting them to size, yous'll also take to strip off the skin, gristle and bone.

Rub some common salt on the surface of the meat then set it aside. If it's taken from the refrigerator, you'll have to set it out until information technology'due south at room temperature before preparing it.

Bated from pork and poultry, fish is another poly peptide source that can be smoked. Photograph by Vhorvat.

4. De-Hydrate

Skewer the strips of meat and put them a couple of anxiety higher up a hot bed of coals. Don't let them sit down for besides long.

Your objective during this step is not to cook them, but to accept out the moisture and some of the bacteria in it and help keep it from spoiling also soon.

An advantage to including curing in your smoking method is the extended shelf life for meat. In some cases, smoked meat that has been cured volition last for a year or more.

v. Smoke It

Depending on the smoker and recipe you're using, smoking times will vary. Still, it'southward important to notation that you shouldn't smoke the meat by placing information technology direct over your estrus source or else it will cook too quickly.

Once your smoker is running and it reaches the correct temperature, add the meat and fume until washed. You'll know information technology's set up and dry enough when the meat cracks (instead of being supple) when you bend information technology.

After the meat's done, yous'll notwithstanding have to shop information technology properly to make sure it doesn't go contaminated. While it volition last longer than non-smoked meat, it doesn't mean it will last forever, peculiarly if it'southward not cured.

Freeze Your Smoked Meat

Freeze your smoked meat, or at to the lowest degree put information technology in vacuum-sealed bags. Not-cured smoked meat should terminal for a couple of hours. Whereas, cured meat can last for upward to a year with the correct grooming, smoking method and storage.

After you accept learned how to preserve meat by smoking, you may discover you'll desire to practice this in more than than just survival situations.

Source: https://www.americanoutdoor.guide/prepping/smoke-em-6-steps-to-preserve-meat-through-smoking/

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