# Survival > Primitive Skills & Technology >  meat preserving

## endtimes

How do you preserve wild game in the wild? With no freezing available. How did the native Americans preserve and not waste meat? What about fish also? Want to learn how before going off grid.
Thanks
Ben

----------


## Rick

Welcome endtimes. Why don't you go off forum to our Introductions section and preserve a little information about yourself?

----------


## Pocomoonskyeyes3

Lots of it was dried or smoked. Some was cured. Depends on what you have and want to do with it.

----------


## crashdive123

> How do you preserve wild game in the wild? With no freezing available. How did the native Americans preserve and not waste meat? What about fish also? Want to learn how before going off grid.
> Thanks
> Ben


Off grid does not mean without refrigeration.

----------


## mountain1

drying, smoking, and curing. we do it all. with meat and vegtables. we also can alot of food.
we have 150lbs of meat curing right now.
there are several good books on the subject. my best suggestion would be to get a book or two and practice with small amounts of food until you figure it out. it's not hard or complicated at all to preserve food you just have to know how to do it, as with most things; practice makes perfect.

----------


## Brazito

> drying, smoking, and curing. we do it all. with meat and vegtables. we also can alot of food.
> we have 150lbs of meat curing right now.
> there are several good books on the subject. my best suggestion would be to get a book or two and practice with small amounts of food until you figure it out. it's not hard or complicated at all to preserve food you just have to know how to do it, as with most things; practice makes perfect.


Any recommendations on books of the several you mention?

----------


## Cornmonkey

There is a series of books called Foxfire and they show the life of my ancestor's and in these books you will find out how appalachian people lived without eletric and fridges. If they needed it they made it. Great learning tool.

----------


## themoondancer811

We built a highly simplified smoke box on the homestead out of an oil drum, 12 ft stove pipe sunk in the dirt with a fire pit at the bottom of the mound. It worked well enough in fall and early spring but I wouldn't use it in extremely cold weather. We tried one out of an old fridge but i hated using it since it burned too hot. I was forwarned of this, but of course needed to fail for myself to learn. *eye roll*
The old Mother Earth News magazines are full of ideas but for anyone who homesteads (off the grid I guess is the term now) I would pick up the book "Putting Food By" by Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice and Janet Greene. They fit a lot of great info in a small little book. It will get you started.

edit- I just googled the book and it's still in print but they have modernized it. Mine is the original from 1973 so I have no idea how the info in the revised editions are.

----------


## Winnie

Putting Food By is the Bees Knees!

----------


## mountain1

> Any recommendations on books of the several you mention?


i have these three as well as a couple foxfire books and dozens of magazine articles;
http://www.amazon.com/Canning-Freezi...808402&sr=1-10
http://www.amazon.com/Build-Smokehou...ref=pd_sim_b_1
http://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Smokeh...f=pd_rhf_p_t_1
there are many good books out there. the first one listed would be my recommondation to get started. that's just my opinion though.

----------


## charibelle18

My mother-in-law talked a lot about her mom & her canning everything, including meat.

----------


## mountain1

> My mother-in-law talked a lot about her mom & her canning everything, including meat.


the wife and i canned a whole bear and deer a couple of years ago. delicious!!!

----------


## themoondancer811

> the wife and i canned a whole bear and deer a couple of years ago. delicious!!!


ewwwwwwwww.....it is done of course but I find it to be gross! Like, I'd have to be starving. Much rather dehydrated or smoked.

----------


## mountain1

> ewwwwwwwww.....it is done of course but I find it to be gross! Like, I'd have to be starving. Much rather dehydrated or smoked.


have you ever had canned bear?
well i'll just say this; the wife and i cook everything we eat from scratch with organic foods. all meat is homegrown or wild game. point is; we eat well and know how to cook good food. no prossed poison in our kitchen.
this  is one of our favorite meals.
home canned bear with bear gravy, home canned green beans, and mashed taters...delicious...
try it you might like it :Smile:

----------


## themoondancer811

No, never bear. My father just loves when I can deer for him, you'd get along well at a meal with him!  :Smile:  I just HATE canned meat, gives me the willies. Pigs feet? The guys would slaughter the pigs and I'd watch Mom can them...blech.

edit- I have actually never even tried bear meat, what is the taste like? Texture? Just curious.

----------


## mountain1

taste alot like pork. we make sure to trim ALL fat off so it is not greesy. we rendered down all the fat for baking. makes the best biscuits/pie crust you've ever had. but i'm sure you know if your family has raised pigs. we still have some bear lard left. then we raised a pig this past summer/fall (420# on the hoof). we now have pounds of lard...and alot of good ol' craklings.. :Smile: 
the texture is just as any meat. alot like pork all around.

----------


## RCKCRWLER

> Off grid does not mean without refrigeration.


Amen to that!!  I love our 21 CUf  propane fridge!

----------


## Trabitha

We found a way to preserve bacon this past weekend that I really want to try.  They canned it!  I will need a pressure canner and need to get over my FEAR of them...but once that's done I'm gonna preserve me some bacon!  YUMMMMMMMMM!  
Basically it was put between two pieces of parchment paper, folded in half and then rolled tight.  Pressure canned for quite a bit of time and that was it.  I wonder if the same method can be used for other things!

----------


## crashdive123

Canned bacon = good!

http://www.mredepot.com/servlet/the-...d-Bacon/Detail

----------


## Prospector

Backwoods Home magazine (Jan/Feb 2011, pp 22-24) has an article by Enola Gay on pressure canning bacon in jars.

----------


## KhonHd

> have you ever had canned bear?
> well i'll just say this; the wife and i cook everything we eat from scratch with organic foods. all meat is homegrown or wild game. point is; we eat well and know how to cook good food. no prossed poison in our kitchen.
> this  is one of our favorite meals.
> home canned bear with bear gravy, home canned green beans, and mashed taters...delicious...
> try it you might like it


Canned bear with gravy, potatoes and veggies is one of my favourite meals...  Now I am getting hungry.

----------


## Trabitha

> Backwoods Home magazine (Jan/Feb 2011, pp 22-24) has an article by Enola Gay on pressure canning bacon in jars.


YEP!  That's the one we're going to use!  I hope it works...I'll make a point of letting ya'll know when we are ready to taste it.  If I get really really sick...I'll need someone to call 911. LOL!!

----------


## Alaska Grandma

I believe Native Americans in the lower 48 as well as my home state- Alaska would exclusively dry their meat and fish in the warm summer months sometimes smoking it before drying. Some of the peoples who lived up above the Arctic Circle would make stink fish (fermented fish) in barrels or in cave caches for preservation. Later, come fall, it isn't too hard to hang whole quarters of your game meat on the bone in a sheltered area that gets good air circulation. We don't have a refrigerator (only a root cellar)  nor freezer (until the whole outdoors becomes a freezer in early Oct), so hanging our late September moose- whole pieces in quarters- to crust up and age and it is the way we keep our meat in good condition until the deep freeze sets in.

I do have a pressure canner and can/jar up lots of veggies, pickles of all types of vegetables, and also summer meat and fish (bear, beaver, smoked salmon, and smoked grayling). Also, I can up the moose liver, heart, kidneys, tongue and much of the ribs as well as the thick, hearty head soup I make from tidbits off the head since there is just not way to keep that stuff for very long without freezing it. I really try not to waste anything of the what i grow and the critters I harvest from the land. Canning is a wonderful way to preserve your harvest and bounty and it's not that hard once you get the hang of it. Plenty of info on where to get canning supplies and recipes on the web.

Grandma Lori

----------


## Rick

Lori - When you hang something like a moose quarter how do you keep other animals away from it. NE Alaska isn't known for it's tall timber so tree hanging probably isn't the solution. Have you erected something to hang the meat from?

----------


## JPGreco

Can't you salt meat too to help dry it for preservation?

----------


## BH51

Salting meat is a touchy concept...not being readily available to most survival scenerio.
Salt draws moisture to and/or from...depending on the scenerio and the variables within.
History shows that salt is a tool of barter, therefore the presence of others would be
known...to answer, "yes" you can salt meat to aid the preservation of meat, but, is it
practical?...not likely given the incomplete scenerio post #1 as I interpreted it............
In a modern day Home preservation?....still not likely practical...As freezing, canning and
dehydrating are the prefered methods today....
.........I think Ben's original post was intended the concept of an individual survivalist..
Tho he did make mention of early Indians, numbers would certainly of been a factor in
determining the method...likely smoke/drying large amounts for a number of people for
an important length of time and rationed equally...and since Ben is from NY I would
assume that geographical region would be the area of interest...
.........I think it important to point out that survival in any respect relies on ones 
ability to live off the land without killing ones self by way of ingesting rancid meat..and
(if) faced with the fortune of securing meat in quantity requiring preservation I would
quickly smoke/dry fish and/or other in thin strip like jerky especially in the warmer 
seasons...and even then, roast and consume it quickly................................BH51

----------


## Alaska Grandma

> Lori - When you hang something like a moose quarter how do you keep other animals away from it. NE Alaska isn't known for it's tall timber so tree hanging probably isn't the solution. Have you erected something to hang the meat from?


NE Alaska still has plenty of White spruce riparian forests right along the river and creek edges, but your right Rick back from the river and on to the flats and high mountains all you is have is the black spruce and dwarf birch on the tundra.

We built a meat shed out of logs kinda cabin style,  but lots of open space between the rounds of logs, and an open front. It lets plenty of air to circulate right in the yard.  Rarely do I have to keep our moose out in the field more than a day or two before I can get it home.  We really have no problem with critters getting into the shed. Other than a curious weasel,  the big predators around these parts are not habituated to humans and for the most part keep a good distance from the cabin. In other words while they may cruise the river and the willow thicket out front, they don't come right into the yard. I have 7 sled dogs who keep me alerted for unwanted visitors hanging too! Sometimes the jay birds can get in there a peck on the meat a bit, but now i have a kitty!

I would not leave meat unattended for very long out in woods.  After a day or two something is gonna find it and eat your meat.  Even the ravens can take a big bite outta your meat in a short time. If I had to leave/keep meat out in the field for more than a day, I would make a couple tripods out of driftwood with a center pole in between then hang the meat from the center pole making sure the pieces do not touch.  Better to do this in the shade of the woods, or cover the works with the hide like a fly in a tent or perhaps cover with a tarp to keep the sun off.  Starting a little smudge fire under it helps to keep the bugs at bay until the meat gets a nice crust, then usually the bugs are not too much. You can dry a lot of meat in a similar way, if you slice it thin enough and the weather is dry it usually dried up fairly fast.

Grandma Lori
Couple of images from the net
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...1t:429,r:0,s:0

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...w=1264&bih=538

----------


## Wise Old Owl

Hmm you folks forgot pemmican.

----------


## BH51

> Hmm you folks forgot pemmican.


(I think) pemmican requires salt and a source of rendered fat to prepare
properly, tho the concept of pulverizing meat to a powder may prove
worthy given time in the field...However, one would have to have already
dryed the meat to a state of preservation...but again, the salt question
would be a factor....Where would it come from?........................BH51....

----------


## Winnie

Here's a thread all about Pemmican. I have it bookmarked!

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...light=pemmican

----------


## matt47

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

Smoked biltong is the sh*t...course I don't use coriander or the trad. biltong recipe..keep it simple vinegar/salt/pepper thats it.

----------


## BlackKnight7365

Wifey and I are gettin the mother in law to bring us up on the canning and smoking , have tried many canned meats , and bear is good if done right , moose and deer are great canned .

----------


## crashdive123

Where do you find cans big enough? :Innocent:

----------


## Rick

(snort, giggle). See? First you have this big ole bear. Then you have to find a can big enough for the bear to fit in. That Crash is a regular jokester deluxe. He slays me. He really does.

----------


## Wise Old Owl

> ewwwwwwwww.....it is done of course but I find it to be gross! Like, I'd have to be starving. Much rather dehydrated or smoked.



you weren't hungry enough.

----------


## shiftyer1

If it was nasty you did it wrong :Smile:

----------


## Rick

> If it was nasty you did it wrong


Are you still talkin' canned meat? Cause....never mind.

----------

