Plastic Bag and Freezer Free Meat Preservation: Drying (includes effects of storage on meat preserves)

This cannot be done on the west or east coast or any other place with high ambient humidity. Nor can this be attempted during rainy spells. Generous spacing is critical. I don't chain (shown in the picture) much anymore, but I aim for long, strong strips. I also use a smaller dry rack. Know when to remove the strip to make room for fresh meat; set aside the almost dry slice in a breezy place. When dry, put in a container and store in the fridge or other dry, dark place until final storage. Disclaimer: The suggestions and procedure given in the following article are adopted at your own risk. The small intestine is fine to eat if you know what the animal has eaten. Parasites, like worms, are common in game animals, and infection can occur from eating raw intestines or surfaces that the stomach fluid touches. Bears often have trichinosis, which can be transferred from eating the meat raw; I'm not sure if drying destroys the larvae. Some things, you have to dive into unless there are obvious signs to not eat it raw, like an intestine full of worms, which can be emptied, flushed down the toilet to avoid infecting scavenging animals, and cooked. Don't try to dry meat if you live in a dusty, urban location with many chemicals and plastics that can float into your bathroom and onto your meat, because they will. Clear out all nonessentials like rugs. Also, plug your hot air inflow vent in the bathroom well; this is another source of unwanted dust. The following article includes how I dry meat and my reasons for maintaining the practice, along with other enlightening food preservation tips. Doing so is the best way, to my standards, of preserving a harvest for the bush and your home if the goals are nutrient preservation, quick meal prep, and transportability and to avoid the use of plastic bags or plastic-lined wraps (though you can find environmentally concerned alternatives for this). Drying the meat and tanning the skin of a whole, large animal is a task that will take a few days. Keep your tools clean when slicing meat, and keep the meat away from the tools and surfaces that may have touched the stomach content. The choke knife (or ulu) makes jerky slicing and most other butchering and hide processing tasks inconceivably more efficient than while using the conventional knife design. Today, it is common to butcher and freeze a harvested animal; not only does this come with a substantial monetary cost for the plastic bags, but environmentally, plastic bag use is unacceptable. The plastic freezer bags introduce a lot of chemicals to the landfills and the environment in general and perpetuate their manufacturing. The plastic will get onto the food and act as an endocrine disruptor, encouraging the development of cancers, among other negative physiological and psychological effects. The worst part is that these effects are not confined to the species that use them and that carelessness is our responsibility. You may try to convince yourself and think, “BuT tHeRe is nO othEr wAy!” :,(... There are, and there is a price for not using them. Drying the harvest potentially saves on electricity for running a freezer and the burn and nutrient deterioration of prolonged storage. Here are more facts. The water molecule is very small—H₂O. When the molecule reaches 0°C (and 100°C), it acts in predictable ways; when it freezes, it forms rigid, jagged, and sharp structures. Vitamin and protein molecules are comparatively enormous, and as a result, when in the presence of water molecules that reach a freezing temperature, they get destroyed; these vital compounds in the meat and lipids (fat) create both flavor and nutritional value. In my view, it is a violation to the animal, as a once-frozen piece of steak can have half of these nutrients immediately destroyed, a deterioration that seems to increase with storage time. If it's winter and you are outdoors, or you must freeze the food, or, of course, you are going to save some whole fresh steaks, flash freezing is the way; this simply means separating the meat and blowing air on it in as cold an environment as possible. Using this method, you can avoid, as much as possible, the formation of ice crystals between the food cells, and the water “vitrifies” instead—so it's said. Once the pieces are solid, they must be splashed or spritzed with water to form a barrier of ice from air. I still AVOID freezing. Keep this in mind if you think it's "easier" and smart to stuff a chest freezer with fresh wrapped meat; the closer packed the meat, the longer the freezing process, and the worse the damage to the meat before it all fully freezes. Hanging whole meat will rot unless it is eaten quickly, is cool (like 1-0.5°C preferably), is breezy, is stored in a chemical-dust-free environment, and is smoked. If outdoors, flies and their larvae soon appear. A high temperature will also exponentially encourage bacterial proliferation and enzymatic breakdown. I have experimented with hanging meat in the fridge, and eventually this results in mold- and yeast-covered meat (think eight days). This surface mold may be cut away, but the spores will spread easily if agitated. The meat inside also undergoes an enzymatic breakdown, which is undesirable. Additionally, a pink-producing bacteria proliferates; this bacteria and color on and in meat and fat that stays too long in cool temps is not blood, it is a bad bacteria. You won't die from it, but it will affect you psychologically. I think it also targets testosterone levels. Meat should be white (fat), clear (sinew), or deep red and stiff or firm for the most part and not slimy—at best. I avoid hanging pink meat to dry or eating it raw; however, I will cook it and eat it, as I don't want to waste the protein, and the cooking kills the bacteria (but not their already produced toxic byproducts). I have also experimented with Weck jars and Mason jar heat canning; the process cooked the meat, destroying heat-sensitive vitamins, required glass jars and other special equipment, took a lot of heat energy, and you can lose jars full of meat from a bad seal, and the heat of the food and sterilization process caused the plastic from the disposable lids to get into the food. I do jar some meat—the tough sinew areas, like inside the neck and lower legs—but these get a not fully sterilized jar seal and are stored in the fridge. Know that drying large amounts of meat is a process that requires your care for days, an enormous amount of learned trial, error, and process development/refinement, attention to doing a thorough job, and meticulously hanging the pieces, and the meat will never again be a ripe steak you can throw on a skillet or roast. Additionally, drying does expose the inner meat to light, oxygen, and dust and spreads bacteria, particularly if you are not careful with tools. However, what drying meat also does is make it easier to store, transport, and use in the field. To be clear, I have, over the years, eased up and given some more credit to frozen meat or fat. Some is ok. Who doesn't want a nice piece of intact meat or fat they can just thaw and eat raw? Or store all those extra soup bones—marrow removed. Of course, if you have a large animal on hand, some can go to the freezer, but I'll leave the information to you. The best way to eat dried meat is by pounding or grinding it to a powder; this really makes the nutrients easy to assimilate. Oftentimes, I find that most meat that is chewed dry simply does not break down in my system. I use a massive mortar and pestle; the Plains Indians used a communal mortar and pestle, and in the bush, a couple of rocks will do. Do not use dehydrator machines; though the tray over time will look intact, it's made of plastic and will break down. When it does, the particles won't end up down the drain when the tray is washed but will be blown onto your food. Machines are also not necessary. As can be seen in the top image, drying does not need a drying machine, but air circulation, generous spacing, and a means through which the moisture can quickly and easily escape are key. Avoid stomach content, bad blood, and other dirt reaching the meat and spreading through contaminated tools, as this will encourage yeasts and bacteria to proliferate during the drying process. It's better the hanging environment is cool than warm. A high temperature will expedite bacterial deterioration and surface yeast growth, like if you hang the meat too fast in a poorly ventilated room. High heat also increases enzyme activity; these all are undesirable. Rainy periods outside the room will increase ambient moisture and halt the immediate drying process of the meat surface. If the forecast says rain for the next three days, it does not matter how fast the fan is blowing; the meat will not dry on the surface, and it will develop surface mold. Cooler temperatures do not seem to slow evaporation, but they do slow down the issues associated with high-temperature drying. A big key to ensure that a white and green yeast does not develop and that the meat surface dries as quickly as possible is to keep the strips WELL SPACED. I have found also that circulation of air is far more important than having well-open escapes for the air—not to say that that is not critical. It may be the case, indoors, that you can’t get moisture off well-spaced meat and move it out of the room fast enough to keep up with your cutting speed, and thus the yeast develops on the final product—hang the meat at a slower rate. Allow the strips to dry more before you add more to the room. In a spare fridge, you should be hanging the whole meat (with lower shelves removed). It can stay there safely for at least five days. Slow drying will also allow you to remove dry or dryish ones from the rack before adding new slices. Save rack space and keep the spacing by chaining the pieces and making strips as long as possible. In the bathroom, keep the floor underneath clean. The pieces will sometimes fall, so prevent this by allowing them to harden a little before adding another. When the piece is quite dry and there is more meat to hang, you can remove the piece and throw it on the top rack to finish drying fully. In the past, the aim would be to make a “saddle” of meat. The dried pieces would be as large as possible; outdoors this should be your aim. It prevents the many small scavengers from making off with all your meat. It also saves time and space. Making these saddles requires practice. I think you must make them extra thick and then go back later once dry and open them further. I use an awl to break apart pieces of old wood arrow shafts to make toothpick-like splinters. Insert the wood splinter from the side of the meat slice as opposed to through the flat face; this will substantially increase the clinging strength of the wood while chaining. When dry, the wood is difficult, if not impossible, to remove and may be reused as a toothpick. .

Taking your time while cutting to make longer, thickish strips is best, and you will find it saves time down the road. Knowing how to make long strips of jerky, fast, for hanging is a skill that takes time to develop.

I think the most dangerous bacterial organisms occur when meat is put in plastic containers or is already cooked; then the item becomes contaminated. Bacteria in food can have many effects, and various bacteria/yeasts/molds have psychological effects too—alcohol is a well-known example. You don't want to eat rotting meat that's green or souring—most people know this, but some "high meat" eaters disregard this truth. For roadkill, cut away road grit, green meat, and souring, almost peach-colored meat with a funky smell, which is a sign that the meat sat at too high of a temperature for too long—it's almost a yeasty smell; flush these—don't feed them to the animals.

On cooked meat: you can dry a cooked tongue, but you must remove the rind first. Fatty tongues should be vacuum sealed after drying.

When cleaning game, avoid bad blood; this can be blood that may have mixed with the stomach content or bacteria in the windpipe or mouth, particularly if you are going to slice it and let it hang at room temperature. If you cook it fast enough, meat that was contaminated is a nonissue. You want to avoid the stomach or intestinal bacteria getting on meat; this is not to say you can't eat the raw stomach lining or the content when it’s fresh. 

*Unless it will be soon cooked, very quickly dried, or frozen, NEVER, EVER wash meat or bones with water; this simply spreads what may once have been a small, isolated amount of bacteria and mold spores all over everything.*

Try to use your knife's leading edge and pull the meat away as you slice to avoid spreading with the large surface area of the blade.

I have glass jars, which I fill with tangles of sinew, a few bits of fat for rendering, parts that don't lend themselves to drying or eating raw, silver skins, bones, and "questionable" bits for roasting in a slow cooker later. I have also been experimenting with sausage for these bits as well by using the casing derived from the same animal's intestines—emptied and cleaned with water.

Meat that undergoes the drying process can develop a white yeast if the surface does not dry fast enough and stay dry; the cause is often poor spacing, not enough air circulation, knife contamination, a dirty cutting surface, rain (outdoors), or a combination of these. The yeast makes you moody and stressed out if eaten, possibly anxious, and possibly developing a preoccupation (which is not an awareness and is not a bad thing) with spiritual, intangible subjects and beliefs (demons, god).

Outdoors, yeasts may dry and leave a slight green; you don't want it, but it won't kill you; it often appears if weather is not on your side.

Whether drying outdoors or in, it is even more difficult to avoid yeast development if the drying process is undertaken soon after or during times of high precipitation.

Eating chewed spruce needles and/or other antibacterial plants may be effective at keeping unwanted intestinal bacteria down.

If you eat the dried stomach lining or small intestine, the former is great for calming the body and mind and your digestion; it's best to do it away from the other meat.

Dry only the small intestine, which is full of liquid green and tan stuff; this is where most vitamins are absorbed. You can and should keep the colon, which is the last few inches; don't eat what's inside, as you would be eating shit. Generally, when the content turns from a liquid to a drier solid, it is transitioning from nutrition to waste. Only bother with the intestine if the animal comes from a clean forest, not a grain field foraging location.

Know what the animal has been eating and the condition of its health. If it has accidentally been eating plastics (like forestry tree markers) or toxins, don't eat the stomach—check it first. Animals sourced from logically chemical-free environments should be safe. If the intestine has much fat, you can pick off the fat and render it. In an outdoor setting you can unravel the small intestine and hang it to dry. Eating intestine is an “acquired” taste. 

In the bush you can't always keep all things clean and free of gut effluence, so in this case, if you eat things that may have come in contact with the intestine, it is best to have a deworming protocol if you suspect yourself to be a susceptible or an infected host.

Meat must be defatted while butchering, as fat deteriorates quickly while exposed to air; this task is critical for a bear unless a fatty piece of jerky is what you are aiming for, which can be fine in small quantities when eaten after being stored in a ventilated area. If left on, therefore, fatty jerky must be vacuum sealed ASAP.

I won't cook everything to sterilize it; doing this would do more damage to my immune system and overall health in the long run. The nutrients in raw meat are important for robust health. I've eaten many raw bits of parasitized animals and have yet to notice a worm infection. Dealing with trichinosis from bears is different, but I'll leave the choice and research on the subject to you.

Returning to the dehydration process, I have used a tiled bathroom, as there is dripping, which is easy to clean, and I can close the door to prevent dust and many small plastic fibers from getting into my food. When drying outdoors, everything is clean, and there is a cleanup crew. 

Indoors, I use old racks to hang.

If a yeast appears, it looks like accumulated surface salts when dry; these pieces can be sorted out later. I rinse the yeast from the dry surface just before consumption, which seems to work; a brief rinse will also wash plastic dust away that will have landed on your meat surface when dried indoors.

The yeast/molds are ones our species has become quite adapted to in our evolutionary history of eating dried meat—it will happen if the surface of meat stays damp for too long; however, as jerky is not a cultured product, avoid providing an environment for them as best you can. 

The effects of strip spacing can be illustrated in the following example: think of two buckets of water holding the same volume of water, both sitting on a concrete driveway. One bucket is splashed across the concrete; the other is left in the bucket. Which sample, of the two, will evaporate fully first?

You need as many fans as possible moving air as strongly as possible over the lot of meat. I suggest in a large bathroom, there should be at least 3 regular or 1 large (12”) room fan on to achieve proper circulation.

Select fans that may be taken apart and the main surfaces wiped or cleaned; doing so would be prudent to perform prior to every drying session or at least when they seem dirty, as they may be covered with blood, mold, and dust. Be careful with your fans and avoid damage due to handling and dismantling. The bathroom ceiling fan is surprisingly helpful, verging on necessary when left on during drying for the first couple of days.

If you live in the city, I would avoid this process of storage, but if not... you may have to cover the window fully or slightly with a cotton filter (I use a shemagh). Dust can easily travel through the screen and onto your strips while drying; this can be an issue as dust may include harmful man-made chemicals that are undesirable even when accumulated over the short period that the meat is hanging, like plastic dust, which is an endocrine disruptor. A further step to take later may be to rinse well each piece before consumption.

I hang up a quarter and slice meat from there when you can. A common cutting surface like a cutting board can transfer bacteria. Pull the meat away as it is cut and try to touch it as little as possible.

Slicing strips is easy, but when cutting a saddle, cut into the meat the width of a jerky strip; as you cut sideways, fold the saddle over flat so it’s lying on the meat ahead of it; the meat to be cut then will be twice as thick as you would make a jerky strip. When finished, you should have a big, broad piece of meat as thick as a strip of jerky should be; doing it this way makes a relatively uniform, thick piece of saddle as broad and big as needed.

Meat should be at 0 degrees, the blade at 45 degrees, and the meat cut at 90-120 degrees. If the blade is too close to the meat, it will catch and move it, making it more difficult to slice, and it will also transfer and spread more bacteria.

Make sure all your tools and surfaces are as clean as possible before beginning the process described above.

If hanging the meat is not possible, use a wood board to slice the meat; I have a bottle of lye water (lye crystals dissolved in water) that I use for many applications, which I squirt on the surface, let sit, and rinse to help sanitize the board. Glass boards are easy to clean but dull and may break. You can get it fully clean. Just don't chop or cut on a glass cutting surface; for that, use a wood block.

NEVER, ever use a plastic cutting board. 2x8 or 10 or 12 hardware store, untreated lumber, 20 inches is a great cutting board.

Defat meat with much fat. Bear meat must be fully de-fatted before being hung. There are a few reasons for this: fat inhibits dehydration, and the meat under it will often rot; fat will go rancid while drying, and this is harmful to your health; and rendered fat is easier to carry and store long-term. 

Most fat, especially from bear (porcupine having a similar fat), MUST be rendered. Liquid, unsaturated fat will oxidize rapidly (compared to tallowy, saturated, hard fat) when exposed to air and acquire a bulk bin peanut taste (the taste of rancid fat) rapidly when hung in the air. 

You must wait until the mead is dry before storage stages. Moisture not only can encourage mold but also will increase the pace of oxidation of vitamins and other nutrients. Wait until it is fully dry and no more before some sort of storage attempt.

When the meat is fully dry, particularly if it has fat (this will deteriorate quickly due to light and oxygen), it must be vacuum sealed. Rancid fat will acquire the smell of bulk bin nuts and turn yellow. If you have limited vacuum jar space, fat should be meticulously cut off during butchering and rendered. I often chose to dry specific slices of the outer body fat and render the cavity. Outdoors most fat must be rendered or smoked (the fat will still oxidize with time), but I don't know much about smoking.

The meat that is fully dry should be vacuum sealed in a glass jar. Dried and stored in a vacuum-sealed jar with push-down snap lids, they will last a long time in the fridge. If vacuum sealed in a jar, outside the fridge in a cold, light-free location is a second-best option. Old jars without suction, stored in a cool dark place, are OK too, but not as good. Another option is to use large 18 L pails with air seal lids and to store them in a cool, dark location; however, every time the pail lid is opened, the whole bucket will be exposed to new air. 

Vac jars are best, as bags can puncture and lose the seal. Jars are heavy, however, and can shatter. 

If you have few vac jars, vac the dried fat pieces before the meat. 

I used to render a lot of the fat; now I dry much more and make sure it is vac-sealed after drying and stored in a cool place. It was said the plains natives would dry the back fat of buffalo and eat it like bread; it will still oxidize rapidly if exposed to air.

You can chop, chew, pulverize (with stones or wood), or mince (remove tin coating from hand machine, as tin that flakes off may be toxic; avoid aluminum—I'll leave the research and choice to your discretion) removed tallow when ready to heat render; but when first butchering, store submerged in water, in a jar, or bowl if you will render it soon, in the fridge until it is ready. Avoid storing it fresh in a jar longer than four days, or spoilage organisms will take in.

When ready for rendering, the fat chunks must be submerged in the hot water, beneath the floating oil, to render the fastest; you will therefore find rendering in a titanium kettle on the stove to yield the highest quality product, as the oil may be skimmed quickly. Fat hides in the rendered oil floating at the top; this floating oil can absorb more heat than the water beneath, so stir while rendering, keeping unrendered chunks under in the hot water.

I roughly skim the floating oil into a jar and store this render in the fridge until all the stored tallow or fat (bear) oil has been roughly rendered and jarred; then I go back and remelt all the jarred oils to really clean out the proteins and liquid that will cause molds and other forms of spoilage in long-term stored jarred tallow. The finished, jarred product can be transported without cooling and will last a very long time; this will be a very good source of energy when needed.

Bear fat doesn't lend itself to chewing, so chop or mince it to prepare it for rendering. Also, with bear when butchering, consider hanging the fat in the fridge over storing it in a render jar until ready to render. Hanging fat will oxidize but will dry on the surface as opposed to harboring an environment for bacteria and molds to proliferate. A third option is to also submerge the fat chunks and pieces to be chopped and rendered in cold water and store them in a cold place. The past people may have submerged chunks in cold running water until they could render it? This will keep it from oxidation and a great deal of bacterial deterioration. The fat should be free, for the most part, of bad blood or rot. Never freeze anything, especially fat. 

The rendered fat will, if not stored in an airtight container, go rancid in a month to a noticeable degree, so pemmican is not in any way a "last-forever" food, as many sources claim. Rendered tallow, and particularly marrow or other "oily" tallows, develop rancidity when stored in containers with the smallest air entrances—immediately, becoming a concern when the product is pushed over a month and a half.

You can hang dry fat, however, by slicing and hanging it with the meat. Knowing when it's finished is tricky. After two days, it should be dry for storage and must immediately be sealed in a jar, or it will go rancid; this is the healthiest way to store fat—render and vacuum seal for long-term storage. Stored in a fridge, it will last quite a few months; outside in a cool, dark place (in the vacuum-sealed jar), probably no more than two. Drying and vacuum sealing in this method preserves the nutrients in the oils, enzymes, and vitamins better than freezing. You don't want the fat to be out in your drying room longer than is necessary, as air oxidation begins immediately. 

Drying meat from small game will leave much sinew in the product, as the sinew is far too small to be fully removed; these must be dried and then chewed thoroughly to moisten and remove meat, liquefy and swallow oils, and the moist sinew left thrown in a stew or cooked later. 

The fat that is rendered must be done with care—don't burn those oils by letting them sit longer than necessary in the heat.

Freezing the wet fat has had a hugely undesirable effect on the nutritional potential and quality of the raw fat, just like freezing the protein pieces.

When the meat pieces are dry, you can snap them, as this leaves the sinew strands intact. The sinew can then be pulled from the meat, piled, and cooked for soup.

If you don’t like the texture of dried meat, load a jar with strips of dried meat, rinse, and wash by filling the jar with water and draining. Put a lid on the damp strips of meat and put the jar in your fridge. In a day, the meat will be soft and chewy.

It is very important to beat and crush your dried meat to a powder with some stones or a large mortar and pestle (use ear protection, or the sharp, loud sounds will make you develop hearing loss later); this makes the meat tastier, far more digestible and nutritionally accessible, and all around enjoyable. 

Another method of preservation is to cook the meat with heavy tendon (so the liquid jells well when cool) and place it in a very clean glass jar while hot. Cover with a very clean lid and only a fraction open; when cool enough to hold for a while, tighten the lid and put the jar in a fridge. Meat stored like this will last about three weeks or more, depending on how well you jarred it. It is gone if the surface is liquid and the body solid. You may try washing the top to save what is underneath. Use your nose.

Store-bought mason jars work well for storing food, as a machine will vacuum seal the lids. Any jar, though, can work well for cooking and storing the cooked meat in the fridge. Soak the paper labels of the jar in warm water and scrape what you can away. Rub a "sticky" surface with a slicking oil of any kind and use a scour to easily mix the two, then wash away the residue.

Note: When I write "vacuum seal jar," I mean using a special adaptor that suctions the disposable lids of standard mason jars closed—I do not mean heat preserving.

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Beyond this adapter by FoodSaver, there are other methods to suction seal a mason jar, such as special canisters and large vacuum sealing machines. On that note, the hose that attaches the machine to the suction lid above broke at the plastic connection. The break was convieneant as after having cut off the broken end I found I could simply put the plastic hose over the hole in the tool shown above and I seems to suction the 250ml jars even better than with the original end.

We cant explain all the good and bad things that happen, innitally, or the experience of living our lives purely through adollecent reasone. Destruction does not have an affront face but chooses to cowardly linger in chaotic pocessions and faceless physical and mental tricks. Be fearless, vigilant, determined, and never stop fighting.