Basically, use your head. Many of these tips are simple common sense, and you can greatly increase the safety of drying your meat just by observing standard food handling safety practices.
This is the important part: if you don’t dry your meat at the proper temperature for the right amount of time, it’s not going to be properly preserved. As already discussed, you run the risk of foodborne pathogens, but it may also simply mold if you don’t dry it long enough, or become tasteless and brittle if you dry it for too long. Here are some tips:
• Use a dehydrator with a temperature setting, and dry your meat at 140 degrees F for the recommended time.
• To visually test for doneness, bend the meat. If you can see moisture glistening inside it, it isn’t done.
• Dry the meat to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. To test a batch, create one piece of “test” meat that’s a little thicker than the rest. Once that piece reaches that temperature, then the others will have as well.
Dried-Meat Recipes
Beef Jerky
Although called “beef” jerky, it’s great with any type of lean red meat that you’d like to use. Venison is a great substitute because it’s lean and extremely nutritious.
• 16 ounces soy sauce
• 16 ounces Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• 4 pounds lean beef, thinly sliced with the grain
1. Mix the sauces and spices together in a large bowl, and add the meat, mixing so that each piece is coated.
2. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours, stirring every couple of hours.
3. Dry for 10 to 12 hours or according to your dehydrator’s instructions. The meat is dry when it bends with no visible moisture.
Yields about 1 pound of jerky.
Chicken Jerky
Be extremely careful working with raw chicken, because poultry is notoriously dangerous when it comes to pathogens. You can use turkey breast for this if you prefer.
• 16 ounces soy sauce
• 3 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
• 2 teaspoons powdered garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, trimmed and sliced with the grain ¼-inch thick
1. Mix all the ingredients except the chicken in a large bowl, and add the meat, mixing so that each piece is coated.
2. Marinate the chicken for 12 to 24 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. Dry in a single layer per tray at 145 degrees F for 6 to 8 hours, depending upon your dehydrator and how thick your strips are.
Yields about 1 pound of jerky.
Packaging and Storing Dehydrated Meat
The best way to preserve your meat for long-term storage is to dry-can it or vacuum-pack it. Otherwise, it’s good for only a couple of weeks after dehydration. Before you do either though, there’s a moisture test that you need to conduct to make sure that the meat is dry enough. Place a few strips in a jar or in a sealed bag, and let them sit for a few hours, up to 24 hours. If there is condensation in the bag, the meat isn’t dry enough and you need to put it back in the dehydrator.
If you’re going to eat the meat within a couple of weeks, you can store it at room temperature in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks as long as it’s properly dried. If you’d like to make it part of your emergency food supply, however, you need to either dry-can it or vacuum-pack it to keep it for longer than a couple of weeks. The next chapter has more on dry canning and vacuuming packing.
13
STORING YOUR DRIED AND CANNED FOODS
You’ve worked hard to can or dry your food, and it would be a shame to waste all of that effort by not storing your foods in a manner conducive to extending their shelf life. Three factors play a huge role in how well your foods will stand the test of time: temperature, temperature fluctuation, and humidity. If you’ve dried or preserved your foods properly, humidity shouldn’t be much of an issue, but that still leaves temperature.
There’s a reason why cellars are often underground or built into the side of a hilclass="underline" those places maintain a constant, cool temperature that’s conducive to extending the shelf life of practically all foods. As a matter of fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that when storing seeds, each 10 degrees of temperature drop doubles the shelf life of seeds. This applies to food, too, at least to a certain degree.
Temperature fluctuation has a huge effect, too. Foods that are warmed and cooled several times will change color and even flavor and texture. Nutritional value is lost, too, and if it becomes warm enough to affect the seals on canned goods, you may lose your food to spoilage. Since light alters temperature, it’s best to make sure that your storage place is dark.
To put it in a nutshell, store your foods in a cool, dark place that doesn’t have temperature fluctuations if you want to get the longest shelf life possible. It’s still important to rotate your emergency food supply, too.
There are a couple of additional things that you can do to preserve your hard work. Dehydrated foods are great, but as mentioned previously, they still have a limited shelf life. To preserve them for much longer periods, you can opt to dry-can them or vacuum-pack them.
Dry-Canning
Dry-canning is super simple and requires only an oven. It’s a great way to preserve dry goods for even longer than what the original shelf life is. As a matter of fact, when dry-canned properly, goods can last for as long as 20 years. This is a great way to save a lot of money when building your emergency food supply, because you can buy in bulk and can your goods in portions that won’t go bad. It also makes sharing and bartering easier in survivalist situations. Just a few foods that can be dry-canned include:
• Jerky
• Dried fruits and veggies
• Flour
• Rice
• Potato flakes
• Cake mixes
• Cornmeal
• Any other dry food with a low moisture content
Dry-canning kills any bugs or eggs that may be in the flour and seals the product so that it’s impervious to any kind of infestation or even damage caused by exposure to moisture or humid conditions. All that you need are your jars, seals, bands, and an oven.
High-fat foods such as nuts can’t be dry-canned, because the fat goes rancid. If you’re dry-canning dehydrated foods, make sure they’re properly dried to eliminate as much moisture as possible from the product.
This is an extremely simple process. Follow your jar-prepping procedures by making sure that your jars are sterile, but make sure that for this process they’re also dry. Moisture in the jar can be absorbed by the dry product and cause spoilage. Follow these easy steps to ensure success.