# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Cooking, Food Storage, & Preserving >  Vacuum Sealing Fully Cooked Meat

## Charlene & Roy

My observation has been that if big business can do it - regarding preserving food - we should be able to do it ourselves.  This leads to my question.  Has anyone here ever vacuum sealed fully cooked meat (such as ground beef) for long-term, non-refrigerated storage?  If so, how did it work out for you?  What recommendations do you have?

Thanks so much for your help.

Charlene  :Innocent:

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## LowKey

Not a good idea. Botulinum bacteria thrive in an airless environment. You would have to be able to heat that sealed meat under pressure for a fairly long period of time to kill it safely. The best way to store non-acid foods is to pressure can them. You can use standard mason jars to do this. 

Get yourself a fairly recent copy of the book titled "Putting Food By". All kinds of good info in there on preserving foodstuffs. I think they are on their 5th or 6th edition. Also get a copy of the book called "The Encyclopedia of Country Living". Both are indispensable for off grid living.

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## Rick

I certainly wouldn't do it. Big business does something we can't do. They irradiate foods to make them shelf stable. You can dehydrate and keep it for a few months as long as it's in a non-permeable container. I still freeze my dehydrated foods for long term storage. 

If you vacuum seal food then you are placing the food inside a plastic bag designed to prevent freezer burn not make it shelf stable in the home environment.  

If you are interested in preserving food there are many ways to do it. Canning, smoking, fermenting and dehydrating are a few. There are others as well. Try this site. They have a lot of information on preserving foods long term. 

http://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html

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## 1stimestar

Yea, it's fairly easy to can meat and much safer.

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## Rick

I canned some chickens yesterday along with some chicken broth. It is easy to do. It takes a little time but it's not hard. The biggest problem I have is getting the temperature set so I get 1-4 "jiggles" per minute. 

"Was that a jiggle or was that kind of a mini jiggle? Okay, now that's a jiggle. Oh crap what time did I start timing? Oh, yeah, ten after. Now was that one jiggle or two? Dang it, I lost count."

I have fun whatever I do.

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## thefemalesurvivalist

I asked the chef how much time vacuum sealing buys us for all the various cooked foods we do, like soup, pasta salad, chili, smoked salmon, saur brauten, etc, and he said, it buys us about two weeks, if refrigerated.

We use the highest setting possible to remove as much air from the product. It varies because, too much and the heavy bag will explode, too little pressure and there's not enough air extracted.

Frozen, of course, buys you a lot of time, and it takes up less space.

Canning correctly (pressure cooker for vegetables and meats, water canner for fruits) is definitely the long term solution, I feel.

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## Charlene & Roy

Thanks to everyone for their replies.  I can meats but was hoping to find a way to preserve without taking up all the room that jars do.  My freezer is full and I am thinking in terms of what happens when the lights go out.... so, canning it is... :Wacko:

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## Rick

It really depends on how long the lights are out. The food in the freezer should be good for about 8 hours if you don't open the freezer or don't fan the door. And it will depend on some extent what kind of a freezer. An upright will spill cold air if you open the door while a chest won't loose as much. 

The answer, of course, is a generator backup. I run two fridges, a freezer, all the lights in the house and a couple of other items on mine. It's not big enough to run my heat plant or water heater along with everything else but that's a secondary concern for me. I have the food covered and lights, which is all I wanted from it.

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## LowKey

If you are going off grid, you could look into propane powered freezers and refrigerators. 
You can get them that work on kerosene too.
They don't go out when the power goes out.
Brand name is Dometic.

Rick, even the 3000kw genny I was using in the ice storm ran the furnace and the sump pump. That was about it though. And if you change over your hot water heater to run off the boiler instead of by electricity, all you have to do is be able to run your furnace. Or if you have LP or NG available, those in-line, on-demand water heaters work great. They use those things all over the UK at the B&Bs I stay at. Wish we had gas hookup here at home.

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## birdman6660

for all your freezer and fridge needs or when the lights go out go solar cos if eveything goes out permanently someday (and it will)  your solar can bebl used for your cooling needs only .. I already live as if TEOTWAWKI has happened with very few exceptions ... if it happens tomorrow it will not change my life much ..my freezer is full but my canning jars are fuller  ...

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## LowKey

Solar freezers still need batteries. Those don't last forever either.
And the units don't cool as efficiently as AC types. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just don't try to fill it with stuff and expect it to freeze solid in a sufficiently short amount of time. It is possible for food products to go bad if they don't freeze quickly, even in a regular AC freezer.

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## Rick

> Rick, even the 3000kw genny I was using in the ice storm ran the furnace and the sump pump. That was about it though. And if you change over your hot water heater to run off the boiler instead of by electricity, all you have to do is be able to run your furnace. Or if you have LP or NG available, those in-line, on-demand water heaters work great. They use those things all over the UK at the B&Bs I stay at. Wish we had gas hookup here at home.




We're all electric as well. My gen is 6000 with a 7500 surge. I calculated out what I wanted to run and the furnace, hot water heater and electric stove were not include by choice since I have multiple ways to heat the house, water and cook. We do have a separate heat/air conditioning unit in the sunroom and it does run on the gen. However, the compressor for the air conditioner really does not like to run on it so I don't bother with it. The heater portion runs fine though.

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