Preparedness

[KTC]

And if i did have to take game, i think i would resort to a sling shot.

Wowsers, a sling shot.. you been practising? My husband has hunted with bow and its pretty tough getting the 'kill shot'. But I'm with you.. guns I think will end up in the wrong hands. Bottom line me thinks survival is gonna kind of suck.

 

[Mikey]

This is my recipe for stew beef in preservation glass jars:

700g beef from the front of the cow, cut in small chunks (it's tough and cheapest but very tasty and it becomes very tender after 2 hours of boiling, a time which we need for sterilization anyway)
200g chopped onions
300g coarsly chopped carrots
200g coarsly chopped celery
200g ghee and/or lard
400ml water

4 heaped teaspoons of salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons of buckwheat flour

For taste (and maybe even antimicrobal properties):

1 finely chopped garlic clove
juice of 1 lemon
a few ground cloves
a pinch of cinnamon

1) Fry the onions for 5 minutes in part of the fat, remove them from the pot and set aside
2) Fry the beef for 5 minutes in the rest of the fat, make sure there is enough heat so that the pores are closing. Depending on the size of the pot you might want to do it in two batches. Don't steam the beef!
3) Turn off the heat, add the onions, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon juice, ground cloves and cinnamon
4) Add the water and thicken the sauce with buckwheat flour

At that point you can fill the cooled down stew beef into glass jars, seal them, and cook them in water or steam for 2 hours @ 100°C. The beef will be very tender. Not only temperature, but also pH value and salt concentration minimizes bacteria survival, so I added lemon juice and made it rather salty. When you open the jar to eat the portion, you can still dilute the sauce with water, since it's rather thick.

The German term for the beef I used is: Beinfleisch and costs 5 Euros per kilo.

Happy cooking!

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

Thank you for this Data! I'll be trying it asap.

 

[Skyfarmr]

I've read a bit about the shelf life of dehydrated meat on the net, and it seems difficult to make it last much longer than about 6 months. If that's the case, it is not long enough for our purpose (lasting a few years until the economy recovers). Does anyone who chooses the dehydrating option have a comment on this?

I've heard that 6 months is how long dehydrated food lasts. But if you freeze it, the life extends to 2 years. The things you have to worry about are the fat that may go rancid, the moisture that may spoil it, and perhaps any bacteria that gets on it. The freezing will slow or prevent these things. I too was looking more towards dehydrating, but perhaps canning is better. If the electricity goes out, you can still can food.

There was some concern about not being able to store meat long term. Here's a recipe for "Hamburger Rocks" I copied off the internet a few years back. This is a relatively easy recipe, and doesn't require a lot of special equipment if you prepare this from store bought lean ground beef. Here's a link from a forum http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=388045 that discusses some of the safety issues, but I'm having trouble finding the site I copied it from since it was at least a year ago. The key to making this safely is rendering as much fat as possible and dehydrating it gently to remove all moisture.

Hamburger Rocks" are small chunks of cooked, dehydrated, fresh beef. They will store effectively for two or more years. Once re-hydrated by soaking one cup of rocks in two cups of boiled water, the pre-cooked meat can be used in any recipe. It is delicious for tacos, spaghetti sauce, hamburger helper, tamale pie, lasagna, or your favorite recipe. It is very difficult to distinguish from fresh hamburger in a meal!
Regular ground hamburger turns into small "rocks," some "gravel," and a little "sand" when dried. We grind rump roast and pot roast in a #2 Universal meat chopper using the 3-bladed cutter (on right in illustration below), and now we get almost all "rocks," very little gravel, and virtually no "sand." And the yield is higher too, as there is not as much fat to melt away. Still, be prepared to cry when you make the first batch, as 6 pounds of perfectly good roast will dehydrate into only one (1) quart of hamburger rocks!

RECIPE FOR HAMBURGER ROCKS
1. Using a large skillet (cast iron is great), brown and fry 5 pounds of ground beef. When thoroughly cooked, transfer the meat to a colander. Rinse under hot running water to remove the fat. Then clean the skillet with paper towels to remove excess fat from the first cooking.
2. Place the washed meat back into the wiped skillet and fry it again over medium/low heat, stirring often until you see no more steam. Keep the heat/flame low once the rocks are browning up nicely.
3. Place the "twice cooked" rocks into an oven roasting pan. Turn the oven to 200 degrees F, stirring and turning occasionally as the meat continues to dry. One to two hours should finish the job. Remove from the oven and check for dryness. When cool, pack into zip lock bags or mason jars. Pack tightly, expelling as much air as possible. Store in pantry drawers or shelves.
4. To "can" the hamburger rocks for long term storage, preheat canning jars in the oven at 250 F, simmer the lids as usual, put the "rocks" into the jars while still hot, then seal the jars. After 15 minutes or so the jars will cool and you will hear the jar lids "pop" as they seal in place.
Tip: Don't forget to buy and use mouse traps in your larder. Mice will make mince meat out of packaged foods before the uninvited house pests are even noticed by the family cat! Glass jars are the safest method of mouse-proof storage. Storing zip lock bags in heavy food grade 5 gallon buckets is the next safest alternative.

Note: do not pour greasy rinse water down sink, it'll clog; catch it in a large enough bowl or pan,cool then skim off fat or pour fat into a container containing baking soda. Baking soda is a great absorbent for grease and fat.

 

[3DStudent]

I've been looking for a pressure canner and I can't find a stainless steel one. It seems they are all aluminum. But I guess it wouldn't matter because you have the food in the jars and not in contact with the metal. But you wouldn't want to cook with one though.

I was thinking about canning some ground beef, just something simple. It seems you have to take the fat out, as this can mess up the seal. I guess you have to find another way to preserve the fat.

 

[theos]

I've been looking for a pressure canner and I can't find a stainless steel one. It seems they are all aluminum. But I guess it wouldn't matter because you have the food in the jars and not in contact with the metal. But you wouldn't want to cook with one though.

I've been using my pressure cooker to cook meat. I don't have a slow cooker so I put my meat in a smaller stainless steel pot with a lid into the pressure cooker and fix it that way. It works out pretty well.

 

[3DStudent]

I've been using my pressure cooker to cook meat. I don't have a slow cooker so I put my meat in a smaller stainless steel pot with a lid into the pressure cooker and fix it that way. It works out pretty well.

Oh cool, I didn't think of that, thanks. I'm thinking of getting something over 15 quarts for canning.

 

[Mikey]

I was thinking about canning some ground beef, just something simple. It seems you have to take the fat out, as this can mess up the seal. I guess you have to find another way to preserve the fat.

I think taking the fat out is impossible. But it's true, fat seems to mess up the seals. During sterilization some of my rubber seals expanded irreversively after they had contact with the stew beef . I filled too much into the jars and it boiled over. However, I know that the rubber seals stay perfeclty intact when the food doesn't reach it. Water vapour is okay, since water is a natural part of rubber. The solution: Just leave one inch space between rubber and food.

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

It seems you have to take the fat out, as this can mess up the seal.

The solution: Just leave one inch space between rubber and food.

Maybe also what can help is to have that kind of accessory to make sure the fat/food does not touch the seal:

http://www.econologie.info/share/partager/1253179648ZFKgsx.jpg

 

[Ollie]

Thank you Skyfarmr for the Hamburger Rocks recipe, I’ve just used it to make ’quick pemmican’ – I didn’t have time to make ‘proper’ pemmican with dehydrated meat. So, I took approximately 1 kilo of lamb mince (ground lamb) – all that the butcher had – and followed the recipe method. After drying it in the oven I combined it with an equal weight (dried lamb rocks) of beef dripping, and added a teaspoon each of mint, garlic granules, celery granules onion granules and salt, poured it into a mould and cooled it in the fridge before cutting it up. It made six bars.

I’ll be using the bars for an upcoming walking trip, one per day for lunch.

 

[paralleloscope]

It seems Mountain House which was the big supplier of organic freeze dried foods, had their meat stock cleaned out by FEMA, atleast James McCanney theorizes so (he was also selling their products). Mountain house say they only had an inquiry from government, but the overall demand and lead times for shipping were getting too big so they decided to stop orders on meat.

As I haven't seen it mentioned, my question; does anyone have experience with freeze dried foods (especially meat) or have any critique on it?

Edit: the link (disclaimer on front page) _http://www.mountainhouse.com/

 

[3DStudent]

I looked on that page parallel and a lot of the stuff has wheat and corn and other bad stuff in it. I would expect that too, because they are freeze dried ready-to-eat meals.

 

[paralleloscope]

I apologize for not being clearer. The "meat series" or #10 cans, which now seems to be out of stock, are just ground meat and maybe salt, and when James McCanney was selling them he claimed they were organic. I am waiting for an answer from the european freeze dried food company (producing for mountainhouse) wether organic meet is available anywhere. The lady I spoke to said no european produced freeze dried meet was organic, but she would double check and see for places of availability.

an example of "10 can : _http://www.earthwaveliving.com/products/Ground_Beef-78-12.html

 

[3DStudent]

Hmm that's interesting parallel. I didn't think there was anything you could buy precooked that wouldn't have anything evil in it. It did mention beef flavoring though, and that could be MSG.

 

[paralleloscope]

Hi 3d Student, I missed the flavoring bit. Must admit that this freeze dry interest of mine is about lazyness. Back in febuary I saw McCanney selling it and was overwhelmed with all the preparations/info/skills needed for preservation, displayed in this thread (and I wanted to put my energy toward getting a job and own place). So what easier way than just ordering supplies when I would get some money in the future- wishful thinking.

What I can gather is talking for freeze dried goods is extensive shelf life. Then there are the outnumbering cons; It's very expensive. It's out of stock and one is in the hands of the industry for preserving (unless one has lab access). Fat is heavily reduced for the processs to work. And then there are probably also dangerous additives.

I will go get a pressure cooker and re-read this thread.