PREP SERIES #36: SMOKING MEAT

Who out there has a smokehouse? Who out there knows how to build and use a smokehouse?

Are there plans or instructions you can share with the rest of us?

How do you smoke meat in one and how is the meat prepared? What type of wood is used? How long does it take to smoke meat?

How do you keep the meat after it is smoked? I have seen hams wrapped in burlap or flour sacks....is this enough?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Interesting that you'd ask. I was just wondering the same thing myself this morning. Years ago I had a neighbor who smoked all kinds of meat. Wish I'd been his apprentice.

Here's a website that's a self-proclaimed encyclopedia on meat-smoking, and it offers a free 5-day e-course, too! http://www.smoking-meat.com/

A quick glance at it says to buy a smoker, for about $50. But I'd love to hear from experienced meat-smokers here what they recommend and whether we can build a smoker ourselves.

My dad's smokehouse was a metal wall locker. He had a stovepipe from the fire to a hole in the side of the wall locker. The meat and fish were on stainless welding rods.

page 90 Wilderness Cookery by Bradford Angier
Meat is the one complete food. Plump fresh meat is the single food known to mankind that contains every nutritional ingredient necessary for good health. It is entirely possible for man to live on meat alone. No particular parts need be eaten. Fat juicy sirloins, if you prefer, will supply you with all the food necessary for top robustness even if you eat nothing else for a week, a month or a decade.

Every animal in the far and near reaches of this continent, every fish that swims in our lakes and rivers and streams is good to eat. Nearly every part of North American animals is edible, even the somewhat bland antlers that are not bad roasted when in velvet, to the bitterish gall that has an occasional use as
seasoning. The single exception is the liver of the polar bear, and of the ringed and bearded seal, which at certain times become so rich in Vitamin A that it is well avoided. Juicy fricasseess, succulent stews and sizzling roasts are fine fare.

If anything, most of us would be happy eating more of this ideal grub which contains all the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients necessary for full vigor. One way to acomplish this? By not passing up the birds and small game which are freely available to many of us thoughout the entire year and which if not eaten will only be wasted.

from Wilderness Cookery by Bradford Angier

Drying is the simplest way to preserve meat. Cut with the grain. Cut lean deer, moose, elk, caribou, beef and similar red meat in long strips 1/2 inch thick. Hang strips not touching on bushes, etc. Lay on sunwarmed rocks. Turn every hour os so. Smoke from a small fire of non-resinous wood keeps flies away. Season to taste with salt, pepper, thyme. oregano etc.

Dry meat until hard, blackish., leathery. Jerky keeps indefinitely if kept dry and away from insects. Trim visible fat for long storage. Jerky alone lacks sufficient necessary fat for the long-term. Supplement it with fats.

from Arctic Manual by Vilhjalmuir Steffansson

On a diet of straight meat (and fish), cut fat and lean into inch cubes. Eat one fat, one lean. When fat no longer tastes good, eat just lean until you are full. If fat makes you nauseous you are eating too much of it.

The Eskimos he saw were a strong, helathy race and they subsisted on a diet which consisted largely of meat and animal and marine fat. The fat included large quantities of whale blubber. Yet the Eskimo did not suffer from obesity.
"If meat needs carbohydrate and other vegetable additions to make it whole- some then the poor Eskimo were not eating healthfully . They should have been in a wretched state. On the contrary, they seems to me the healthiest people I had lived with."

Farming for Self-Sufficiency John & Sally Seymour page 117

Biltong is salted and dried strips of buck meat or beef and it is almost worshipped by South Afrikans. Living in the back-veld of South West Afrika, as I used to do, biltong formed an important part of my diet. If I shot a gemsbok or a kudu I would turn a very large part of it into biltong. I have made it in Wales since then, in fact I made some last year, out of beef, and it has been perfectly successful. The only drawback is you need prime cuts really; biltong made from odd bits of scrag end is not really much good.

But this is the way you do it. Cut lean meat up in strips, say an inch square but the longer the better, along the grain or fibre, of the meat. This is most important: do not cut it across the grain. Lay it in dry salt for six hours. Wash the salt off it and hang it -- if in southern Afrika in the dry season -- in the shade but in the breeze -- if in the British Isles in the chimney. I leave mine in the chimney, in light smoke, for say three days, take it down, hang it up in the kitchen, and it is perfect biltong. It is as hard as hickory. To eat it you just pare or shred little shavings off the end of it across the grain with your Joseph Roger 'Lambsfoot' knife (old back-velders
will know what I mean), put it on bread and butter, and it is delicious.

.
Dried Meat, Food to Last http://www.mongoliatoday.com/issue/5/borts.html

Mongolian food is rather simple and nourishing. Encounters with different cultures in the course of centuries long wandering across Europe and Asia did not affect the basic diet of nomads, comprising mainly of various combinations of meat and flour. Life in a saddle, frequent moves in search of better pastures tending their herds prevented Mongols from developing a sophisticated cuisine.

But while Mongols failed to come up with a wide variety of dishes, they mastered what was available to perfection, especially when it comes to meat. There are dozens ways of cooking it: boiling, frying, drying, steaming or smoking.

Here we give a description of how borts (bour- tsi), or dried meat is made-- an ancient way of preserving meat through long harsh winters or marches across continents

As soon as the first cold winter days settle in early December, most Mongolian families set out to store meat reserve.

As a rule, one cow and up to seven to eight sheep are sufficient for a family of five to last through long and harsh winter, until diary products become more available during spring livestock breeding season.

Beef is the meat of choice, but each region has its own specifics. Herders in the Gobi Desert store mostly camel meat, while mountain tribes prefer to slaughter a yak or goats.

First, fresh meat is cut into long, 2- 3 cm thick and 5-7 cm wide strips, then hanged on a rope inside a gher, just under the ceiling where air circulates freely.

Within a month, the meat dries up. Once all the moisture evaporates, meat strips turn into hard, wood-like sticks of a slightly brownish color. The stripped and dried meat of one cow shrinks enough to be easily fit into the animal's stomach.

When the borts is ready, it is taken down and either broken into small pieces, 5-7cm long or minced. The borts is put into a bag made of canvas that allows airflow in and out. Borts can be kept in such bags for months and even years without losing the qualities of meat.

Dried meat is an ideal food for travelers. On long marches, Mongols simply take out a stick of dried meat, powder it and add to boiling water to make a cup of fresh and nourishing bouillon. Even nowadays, many Mongols take a small bag of borts when traveling to faraway places for study or to live.

"I survived the wet and cold winter only by making a cup of borts soup once in a while," says a Mongolian journalist, after spending six months on the Atlantic shore of England.

Well, LilRose, this thread isn't as popular as the rationing one. Maybe you should ask how people would smoke meat if smokers were outlawed? Or, maybe people don't know about them.

I don't have one, don't know much about them, but am very interested. I've seen such unusual ones, and will have to dig through my files and see if I can latch on to them.

One was an old, discarded refrigerator. The rubber, plastic, and combustable innards were removed, and the bottom was the part that held the wook. Seems like a hole was cut through the bottom for the smoke to rise, and a little piece of chimney pipe came out the top.

Smoking meat will preserve it for a long time and would be an extremely good thing to have if you had no refrigeration and were out of canning jars, lids, or the resources to store it another way. Way back when, in history, food was hung in the smokehouse and people just went out and sliced off a hunk of meat.

Interesting topic. Will have to search my files.

Forgot to mention, there is a tiny little travel trailer I drive past occasionally, and years ago, you could smell smoked meat when you went past. It has a smoke stack coming out the side, and it sure wouldn't be safe to have a woodburner in it, so I've often wished I could see how that is set up. Interesting concept, doncha' think?

I am interested what will be posted on this thread. The current place where we live has a big brick smoker built in the back yard and I have never used it. I don't know how and haven't had the time to find out how.

i prefer smoking tobacco.

Here is a link to the sausage making thread in Homesteading. There is a lot of information there already ready to rock and roll.

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=132496

Notred, you are so luckeeeee. Oh, my, what a wonderful thing to have in your back yard. Hopefully someone will post something here to help you learn how to use it.

Charlie, thank you so much for the link. There are some wonderful recipes on that great thread, and can't you just imagine how they'd taste smoked. Mmmm.

I found a couple different refrigerator smoker instructions. Should have known one of the would be from http://www.endtimesreport.com/smokehouse.html That man must be one handy guy. Unfortunately, there are no diagrams.

For those of you who want to make dried or smoke cured meats using an easier method than described in Part 2 of Survival Meat Preserving, you must prepare a smokehouse. You can build a smokehouse of cinder block or use an old refrigerator, then construct a separate, underground (or lower) fire pit. The finished smoke house is quite versatile and will enable you to smoke hams and bacon as well as drying meats. They require far less wood than outdoor drying racks, and thus take less of your time and energy to use. While a small refrigerator would seem too small to dry much meat at one time, it can be operated 24 hours a day (No carrying in the racks at night!) and thus can dry meat in about 1/3 rd the time required for outdoor drying.

While the use of a smokehouse inhibits sun drying, only slightly warmed, dry air from a very slow hardwood (fruit wood is best) fire will effectively dry the meat properly. And a smokehouse can be used in the winter when outdoor drying racks are not feasible. It is easy to build up too much heat and ruin jerky. But it is possible to generate enough heat to cook hams and bear meat, should that be desired during the traditional fall and winter season for that activity.

The inside arrangements of a smokehouse can be as varied as you wish them to be. Back before electricity - and therefore freezers - smokehouses were large, with hooks in the ceiling to suspend hams and slabs of bacon, two feet or so lower would be strong, removable, thin metal rods to pierce strips of jerky so it could hang vertically and dry, and below that racks on which to dry things that did not hang well.

These days, many people in the country use an old discarded refrigerator or freezer to make into a small smokehouse. To prepare an old refrigerator for drying, all of the rubber gaskets, plastic molding inside, and the motor and compressor must be removed. Do not advertise your removal of the compressor, or a pony tailed, sandal wearing EPA inspector will be your constant companion for years. Older models had steel walls, but the modern types have a lot of plastic to remove. Older 10 to 12 cubic foot models are about the right size, and should be available in abundance after the revolution. If the inside walls must be removed (and the inside of the door), then sheet metal must replace it. The bottom and side near the top of the refer must be cut to accept the intake and exhaust pipes, respectively. Three or four inch copper or masonry pipe can be used for the exhaust, but the entrance should be a brick or masonry pipe of 4 to 6 inch diameter. Furnace cement can be used to seal the intake and exhaust pipes. As the door will not seal properly with the rubber gasket removed, the restricted exhaust will build up a positive interior pressure, and force smoke and heat out the door edges.

Once the refer is ready, it should be anchored in place with the door facing south, if at all possible. A space can be left at the top for hanging hams or jerky. The racks should be spaced on the inside by using bricks for support, and the bricks can be easily moved to regulate the spacing of the racks. The bricks then retain heat at night, and you could let the fire die out and get some needed sleep. A meat thermometer should be inserted through a hole drilled in the door and anchored in place with furnace cement, to give you a clue as to the internal operating temperature, usually 100 to 130 F (low for jerky, higher for thicker hams and slabs of bacon).

The firebox should be constructed of firebrick or concrete, with a small (2") intake vent and the masonry pipe to the refer carefully sealed in place. The firebox should be constructed in a trench several feet underground, if possible, and at least three feet away from the smokehouse/refer, with the connecting pipe angled upward slightly for natural convection. The exhaust pipe from the firebox to the smokehouse can be installed near the top of the back side of the fire box, so it can be cleaned with a brush from time to time via access through the door to the firebox. And the firebox can be small, only a foot and a half square, as you only need a small fire.

If a small hill is not available for this configuration, the firebox can be constructed at ground level and the refer elevated several feet. It is best to build the firebox to the side or back of the smokehouse or refer in order to allow unfettered access to the smokehouse door. When completed, the smokehouse and connecting pipe should be packed carefully with sand and dirt mixed with cement, leaving only a small entrance exposed for the door for adding more wood. The earth will then act as a heat sink, cooling the smoke and making your life much easier in controlling the coolness of the smoke. By using cement in the dirt mixture covering the firebox and exhaust pipe, and having the pipes exiting the side of the firebox and smokehouse, moisture infiltration from rain is kept to a minimum.

The intake vent for the firebox should have some method of draft control, however primitive. One easy solution is to use a section of two inch galvanized pipe threaded on the end, with a standard screw on cap to fit the threads. The pipe should have four quarter inch slots cut the depth of the threads with a hacksaw (cut in quarter sections), and the threads then cleaned up. Raising or lowering (twisting in or out) the cap regulates the amount of air passing through the slots, and thus controls the quantity of air reaching the firebox and the heat produced. This pipe intake vent need not be connected to the door: in fact, it is easier to cement it into the firebox separately. Then a door can be made of fairly heavy gauge steel and can be fitted to close tightly. If desired, the door can be opened during the day to allow the sun to reach the meat (hence the southern exposure), and closed at night to retain heat and exclude moisture, but care must be taken to prevent flies from touching the meat if the door is open.

A small fire is a must! A throttled down larger fire puts out too much creosote, so use a small fire (occasionally) a little hotter to control that problem, and the heat sink effect will provide residual heat when the fire dies out. If used for smoking meats (and thus cooking them), the door to the refer/smokehouse is closed, the temperature held to around 130 F, and of course the hams or sections of meat should be deboned and packed with salt (or sugar) prior to smoke curing. Excess salt (or sugar) is removed prior to final storage, and the end result is properly salt or sugar cured hams, bacon, whatever, that can be stored for later use without the need for electricity.


The one below isn't the refrigerator one I was looking for, but this site has different types and includes detailed plans for one.

http://www.velvitoil.com/Smoker.htm

Electric cold smoker: find an old refrigerator. Remove the innards - all the innards. The fridge you use should have metal shelving rather than plastic. Poke a hole about 1.5 inches in diameter in the top. There should be a hole in the back, bottom about the same size where some of the wires/piping etc. came out. Using an old beer can or some sheet metal and self-tapping screws, mount a sliding flap over each hole so you can control the air flow. Buy a single burner electric hotplate, and a small cast-iron skillet. Go to Costco or Sam's or your neighborhood fishing supply store and buy a box of Little Chief Smoker smoking wood sawdust. Mount the hotplate in the bottom of the old fridge, put the skillet on top of the hotplate, run the cord out a hole in the side or back, plug it in, turn it on medium low, fill the skillet with the sawdust, pellets or wood chunks. Put your smokin' meat on the metal shelves, (that you've cleaned really good, first), close the door. Every 3-4 hours refill the skillet. Do this for 12, 18 or 24 hours, until the meat is smoked.

Cheap and easy. It works! Been working for me for about 30 years.

Bill Martin

Note: To cold smoke with a smokerator, you need to use an outside source of smoke. Cut a 4" diameter hole in the side near the bottom. Use an old woodstove or firebox and 4" metal stovepipe. The longer the pipe, the cooler the smoke.


Found this info in my files about wood types used for smoking:
Alder

The traditional wood for smoking salmon in the Pacific

Northwest, alder also works well with other fish. It has a

light delicate flavor.



Apple and Cherry

Both woods produce a slightly sweet, fruity smoke that's mild

enough for chicken or turkey, but capable of flavoring a ham.



Hickory

Hickory is the king of the woods in the Southern barbeque belt,

as basic to the region's cooking as cornbread. The strong,

hearty taste is perfect for pork shoulder and ribs, but it also

enhances any read meat or poultry.



Maple

Mildly smoky and sweet, maple mates well with poultry, ham, and

vegetables.



Mesquite

The mystique wood of the past decade, mesquite is also America's

most misunderstood wood. It's great for grilling because it

burns very hot, but below average for barbecuing for the same

reason. Also, the smoke taste turns from tangy to bitter over

an extended cooking time. Few serious pitmasters use mesquite,

despite a lot of stories about its prevalence in the Southwest.



Oak

If hickory is the king of barbecue woods, oak is the queen.

Assertive but always pleasant, it's the most versatile of

hardwoods, blending well with a wide range of flavors. What it

does to beef is probably against the law in some states.



Pecan

The choice of many professional chefs, pecan burns cool and

offers a subtle richness of character. Some people call it a

mellow version of hickory.

Does anyone know the difference between "cold" smoking and "hot" smoking? I've only seen it referred to in smoking fish.

Although our motivation for smoking meats, today, is for the flavor, meat was actually smoked to keep the bugs out of it. The hams that we smoke need to be cured first.

Therefore, we can't really address the subject of smoking until the subject of curing has been dealt with. Curing is done with salt. We salt "on the board" with only salt, or use a sugar cure and wrap, tie and hang to cure.

All the smoking in the world will not keep an inadequately cured ham from spoiling. Curing and smoking are a perfect way to preserve meat. They can actually be kept for two years and longer. They continue to dry as they age and can need soaked before cooking.

They can also be cured, smoked and stored in wood ashes. Easy to learn this homesteading skill. A smoke house can be anything that works for you. I've know folks who smoke in old refrigerators, old truck cabs, and old out houses.

Our smoke house was the first building we built when we got married. There has been a mountain of meat through that building. We feature our country cured, smoked ham in our Bed & Breakfast business. Most people have never tasted this.

Again, it is not rocket science and there is plenty to read on the internet about it.

homestead2

homestead2 said:

Although our motivation for smoking meats, today, is for the flavor, meat was actually smoked to keep the bugs out of it. The hams that we smoke need to be cured first.

Therefore, we can't really address the subject of smoking until the subject of curing has been dealt with. Curing is done with salt. We salt "on the board" with only salt, or use a sugar cure and wrap, tie and hang to cure.

All the smoking in the world will not keep an inadequately cured ham from spoiling. Curing and smoking are a perfect way to preserve meat. They can actually be kept for two years and longer. They continue to dry as they age and can need soaked before cooking.

They can also be cured, smoked and stored in wood ashes. Easy to learn this homesteading skill. A smoke house can be anything that works for you. I've know folks who smoke in old refrigerators, old truck cabs, and old out houses.

Our smoke house was the first building we built when we got married. There has been a mountain of meat through that building. We feature our country cured, smoked ham in our Bed & Breakfast business. Most people have never tasted this.

Again, it is not rocket science and there is plenty to read on the internet about it.

homestead2

Click to expand...

I have to chime in on all this. One thing for sure.....there are zillions of ways to preserve food via smoking. I am 50 years old and have been doing this stuff since I was about 10. I STILL learn new methods and techniques every year and will until I die of old age. LOL Anyhow, stick to the basics and it will work. The heavy smoking techniques of the old days did work, but produced a product similar to saddle leather ala smoke flavor. It WAS edible, but for crying out loud tasted like CRAP. People today are more used to "smoke baked" stuff that tastes really good but does not last near as long (almost forever) of the stuff the pioneers used to make. You need to find a happy middle and that is the challenge. Me, I prefer to shoot stuff, or catch fish and smoke it with the intent to eat it within a few days, weeks or maybe a few months at the most. Beyond that, I will eat the wallpaper off my walls rather than eat super smoked to death jerky.

Filing Cabinet Hot/Cold smoker

Hot smoking will produce cooked produce ready to eatlike ribs or BBQ pork or beef, cold smoking flavours and preserves produce, which then may well be eaten raw like smoked Salmon or may require cooking like bacon.

Cold smoking is a centuries-old method of preserving meat using salt and low heat. The ancient Greeks and Romans discovered ways of cooking meats at temperatures below 200 degrees, curing it so that it could be safely stored and eaten later. Similar principles are employed in modern electric cold-smokers. Hardwood chips are placed in a chip pan and placed over low heat within the smoker. Meat or fish is then placed into the cooking chamber, the unit is turned on, and the foods are smoked at temperatures around 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Filing Cabinet Hot/Cold smoker
http://www.downsizer.net/Projects/Curing_and_Smoking/Filing_Cabinet_HotCold_smoker/

Lgsracer, thanks for answering about the hot and cold smoking, and also for that excellent link. Have been trying to talk Splicer into building us a smokehouse, but after reading these posts, hmmm. Maybe I could take an old file cabinet, make some nail holes on the side around the top, build me a little smoky fire, or put some wet chips on an electric hot plate. hmmmm.

Homestead2 and Charlie, it looks like you guys are real pros at this. Thanks for sharing your info. Am going to have to keep it handy.

Perfect timing

My husband just bought a smoker last weekend and he is so excited to try it out tomorrow. We will be smokin all day. Thanks for the links.

homestead2 said:

Although our motivation for smoking meats, today, is for the flavor, meat was actually smoked to keep the bugs out of it. The hams that we smoke need to be cured first.

Therefore, we can't really address the subject of smoking until the subject of curing has been dealt with. Curing is done with salt. We salt "on the board" with only salt, or use a sugar cure and wrap, tie and hang to cure.

All the smoking in the world will not keep an inadequately cured ham from spoiling. Curing and smoking are a perfect way to preserve meat. They can actually be kept for two years and longer. They continue to dry as they age and can need soaked before cooking.

They can also be cured, smoked and stored in wood ashes. Easy to learn this homesteading skill. A smoke house can be anything that works for you. I've know folks who smoke in old refrigerators, old truck cabs, and old out houses.

Our smoke house was the first building we built when we got married. There has been a mountain of meat through that building. We feature our country cured, smoked ham in our Bed & Breakfast business. Most people have never tasted this.

Again, it is not rocket science and there is plenty to read on the internet about it.

homestead2

Click to expand...

This is important info! Do you have any links or real recipes to cure meat before smoking? And after curing and smoking, how do you store the meat?

I think a smokehouse is a must have after reading this ... no reason not to as a matter of fact.

Preserving meat without refridgeration is going to be so important one day. But even more importantly, it is an art that needs to be continued and cultivated even today.

Russ

build a smokehouse

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=build+a+smokehouse&btnG=Search

Thanks for the link Vlad, but I went down the page and they were all places to order things for learning or building. We're real frugal here, and free is what we're after.

LilRose, I found this info on brine and thought is was interesting. Was glad to run across it, because though I have Morton Tender Quick, I don't keep a lot of it, and have been meaning to get some Prague poweder and keep forgetting. Will have to get on that. If anyone else uses the Prague powder, hope you'll chime in and let us know if you like it.

Salt Curing Meat in Brine
contents of web page © Al Durtschi

Curing meat by using a salt brine was a widely used method of preserving meat before the days of refrigeration. This is the way we cured pork in Southern Alberta, however it would work for beef as well:

Recipe by Verla Cress (born 1940)

OK - Brine barrel filled half way up with 1 cup salt per 2 gallons of hot water (that's 32 parts water - 1 part salt), and a bit of vinegar -

OR

BETTER - Brine Barrel filled 1/2 way with 5/8 cup salt & 3/8 cup curing salt per 2 gallons hot water, and a bit of vinegar.

Cut your animal up into ham sized pieces (about 10 - 15 lbs each).

Put the pieces in the brine barrel and let it soak for 6 days. Now that your meat is salted, remove the meat from the brine, dry it off and put it in flour or gunny sacks to keep the flies away. Then hang it up in a cool dry place to dry. It will keep like this for perhaps six weeks if stored in a cool place during the Summer. Of course, it will keep much longer in the Winter. If it goes bad, you'll know it!

OR... FURTHER PROCESS IT BY:

Putting it in a brine barrel, filled half way up with 4 cups brown sugar to 3 gallons water - and a bit of vinegar (note: no salt): Inject some of the sugar brine mixture into the already salted meat with a syringe, then put the meat in the sugar brine for 3 days.

Remove the meat from the brine and smoke it for 3 days. Now put your smoked meat into flour or gunny sacks to keep the flies away and hang it up in a cool dry place to store. Smoked meat preserved like this should keep in the Summer for at least 4 months if stored in a cool dry place. It will keep much longer in the Winter, or if refrigerated.

Extract from
Leslie Basel's
rec.food.preserving

Salt, Sugar, Sodium
Nitrite and Sodium Nitrate.
Salt and sugar both cure meat by osmosis. In addition to drawing the water from the food, they dehydrate and kill the bacteria that make food spoil. In general, though, use of the word "cure" refers to processing the meat with either sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate.

Sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate are the basis for two commercially used products: Prague powders #1 and #2. Prague powder #1 is a mixture of 1 part sodium nitrite and 16 parts salt. The chemicals are combined and crystallized to assure even distribution. Even though diluted, only 4 ounces of Prague powder #1 is required to cure 100 lbs of meat. A more typical measurement for home use is 1 tsp per 5 lbs of meat. Prague powder #2 is a mixture of 1 part sodium nitrite, .64 parts sodium nitrate and 16 parts salt. It is primarily used in dry-curing.

One other commonly available curing product is Morton's Tender Quick. It is a mixture of salt, sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate and sugar. Ask your butcher or grocer to stock it for you.

[Where can these compounds be obtained?]

If you are chummy with a local butcher who does curing, maybe (s)he will sell you a small quantity. Otherwise, the Sausage Maker offers all items mentioned here. The Sausage Maker Inc./ 26 Military Road/ Buffalo NY 14207. (716)-876-5521.

© 1996, Leslie Basel

Also, check out Eldon’s Jerky and Sausage Supply

There is some concern that sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite might be carcinogenic. Also a great sausage page.
More Detailed Instructions:

This recipe was taken from a tiny home-made recipe book, "Remember Mama's Recipes." It was put together by the women of the Stirling, Alberta, LDS congregation back in 1973.

Brine Cured Pork

* 100 lbs pork
* 8 lbs salt (Note: 1 part salt to 48 parts water)
* 2 oz. salt peter
* 2 lbs brown sugar
* 5 gallons water

Method:
Mix salt, brown sugar and salt peter, add this to the water and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir to dissolve sugar. Skim off any scum that may form while boiling after everything is dissolved. Remove from heat and chill until quite cold.
Pack the pieces of meat into clean barrels or earthenware crocks, placing them as close together as possible. Now pour the cold brine over the meat making absolute certain the meat is completely covered. Put a board over the meat that just fits inside the container and place weights on it to make sure that the meat is emerged in the brine. When curing larger and smaller pieces of meat at the same time, place the larger pieces on the bottom and the smaller ones on top. This is so the smaller ones can be lifted out without disturbing the larger pieces. The small pieces do not take as long to cure as the bigger ones.
The meat should be cured in a temperature that is just above freezing. If the meat is cured at a warmer temperature the brine may show signs of souring. If this should happen, remove the meat and soak it in lukewarm water for an hour or so. Wash the meat in fresh cold water and be sure to throw out the soured brine. Clean out the container, repack the meat and make a fresh brine in original proportions.

* Bacon sides and loins require 2 days per pound in this brine.
* Shoulders will take 3 days per pound.
* Hams will take 4 days per pound.

After the meat is cured the pieces should be soaked in warm water and then washed in cold water or even scrubbed with a brush to remove any scum that may have accumulated during the curing process.
Hang the meat by very heavy cords in the smoke house and allow to drain 24 hours before starting the smoking.
Hard wood is the best to use for smoking and the temperature in the smoke house should be 100-120 degrees F. The ventilators should be left open at first to allow any moisture to escape. Smoke until desired flavor and color is arrived at.
The Way We Did It...

As told by Glenn Adamson (born 1915)

We never had electricity or an ice house on the farm. Since we had no way of keeping meat refrigerated, we only killed animals as fast as we ate them. ...Pork was our main staple. It seemed there was always a pig just the right size to butcher. We ate more meat out on our farm than the typical family eats now. In the summer, what pork we didn't eat immediately was preserved. When we butchered a pig, Dad filled a wooden 45 gallon barrel with salt brine. We cut up the pig into maybe eight pieces and put it in the brine barrel. The pork soaked in the barrel for several days, then the meat was taken out, and the water was thrown away. We sacked a shoulder, a side of bacon, or the ham, which was the rear leg, in a gunny sack or flour sack to keep the flies off. It was then hung up in the coal house to dry. Quite often we had a ham drying, hanging on the shady side of the house. In the hot summer days after they had dried, they were put in the root cellar to keep them cool. The meat was good for eating two or three months this way. We didn't have a smoke house like some people had. But what we had worked just fine. In the winter time when we killed something we didn't have to cure it. We'd hang it outside the house or somewhere else where it was cold and it kept just fine. (We're talking Canada, here, where it gets really cold.)

My Uncle George Ovard told me the following story when I was just a kid: He had put a pig in the brine barrel and when he went to take it out several days later he only found half of his meat. This puzzled him somewhat, but he never said anything about it. A couple of days later, one of his neighbors happened to stop by and mentioned, "I hear someone took some of your pork out of your brine barrel."

Uncle George said, "Yes, but I didn't tell anyone about it." The guy had trapped himself right there.
http://waltonfeed.com/old/brine.html

Home made smoke house

This may give you some ideas about recycled materials use in building a smoke house:

http://www.smoking-meat.com/smokehouse-plans.html

http://www.sticksite.com/smoking.htm

http://www.i4at.org/lib2/smokehs.htm

Hi, lgsracer, what a collection of unusual smokers on the sticksite. They make it look so simple and like anything can be used. I'm not going to have to wait for Splicer to build it, I'm gonna do it myself.

LilRose,

A couple comments about recipes and storing meat: Charlie's points are well taken about curing and smoking until meat is like shoe leather and tastes bad.

However, when you realize that a mild cure and a light smoke - which yields a superb texture and flavor - will not keep, - you understand that our forefathers were curing and smoking for dead serious. If they err'd, they err'd to the safe side. Even an excellently cured ham could be lost if the bugs got in to it.

You can take a pretty hard, dry smoked ham and soak it for 24 hours in vinegar water and bring it back to palatable - even delicious. You can also take the two ends (which can be VERY salty) and cook them slowly in water on the stove top and pour the water off two to three times and start with fresh water each time and simmer that salt out of them. Then, on the last cooking, put them in soup beans or green beans. I have salvaged some WAY TOO SALTY ends and turned them into an excellent dish this way.

You can also put a ham under running cool water and scrub them with a stiff brush for several minutes all over and it will cut a little bit of a severe smoke.

There are a lot of years of trial and error to see what will keep without refrigeration. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we're curing and smoking for flavor and they were doing it for life and death. If you lost your meat, your family suffered.

You can cure for six weeks, to two and a half months. Ourselves, we do six weeks. (Assuming it didn't turn super cold right on the go - in which case, we go a little longer - because the salt wouldn't have started in like we would want.)

But, our hams would not keep over the summer, hanging in the smoke house. The old timers around here hung the hams up in the peak of the smoke house after they were cured and smoked. We bring ours in after six weeks and wash them off and take them back and hang them for as long as two months -- if it is, and stays cold. Then, (or if we get a warm spell) we slice them and freeze them.

I'm happy to share our recipes, if you want to PM me. Might be a bit long for the forum, when not everyone wants to know the details. I have great photos of all steps, but don't know how to post them on the forum, but can email them.

Our goal this season is to sacrifice one ham to the "project" and see if we can cure and smoke it to keep a full year.

homestead2

homestead2, I can't speak for Lil Rose or anyone else, but I for one would really like to see the WHOLE thing posted right here on the forum for everyone to see. Maybe if you e-mail or pm the pics to someone who knows how to post them we can all see them. I am really looking forward to your info.

LC

LC said:

homestead2, I can't speak for Lil Rose or anyone else, but I for one would really like to see the WHOLE thing posted right here on the forum for everyone to see. Maybe if you e-mail or pm the pics to someone who knows how to post them we can all see them. I am really looking forward to your info.

LC

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Sounds good to me Homestead........I am starting from scratch when it comes to smoking and curing. I am so glad someone with expertice and experience can help us all. I knew someone on this board would have the required info!

OK Splicerswife.......what the HECK is Mortons quick and prague powder???

How should I know what it is LilRose? I just saw it, it was a new word, and I wanted to use it.


Morton Salt has developed a family of curing salts especially designed for curing meat in the home.

Morton Tender Quick mix is a fast cure product that has been developed as a cure for meat, poultry, game, salmon, shad, and sablefish. It is a combination of high grade salt and other quality curing ingredients that can be used for both dry and sweet pickle curing. Morton Tender Quick mix contains salt, the main preserving agent; sugar, both sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, curing agents that also contribute to development of color and flavor; and propylene glycol to keep the mixture uniform. http://www.butcher-packer.com/pg_curing_tender.htm

Prague Powder #1: Also called Insta-Cure and Modern Cure.

This cure is sodium nitrite (6.25 %) mixed with salt (93.75 % ) As the meat temperate rises during processing, the sodium nitrite changes to nitric oxide and starts to 'gas out' at about 130 ° F. After the smoking /cooking process is complete only about 10-20 % of the original nitrite remains. As the product is stored and later reheated for consumption, the decline of nitrite continues. Use 1 oz. for 25 lb. of meat or 1 level teaspoon of cure for 5lb. of meat. Mix cure with cold water.

Prague Powder #2:

Used with dry-cured products. Has 1 oz. of sodium nitrite with .64 oz. of sodium nitrate to each lb. of salt. Use with products that do not require cooking, smoking, or refrigeration. This cure, which is sodium nitrate, acts like a time release, slowing breaking down into sodium nitrite, then into nitric oxide. This allows you to dry cure products that take much longer to cure. (A cure with sodium nitrite would dissipate too quickly.)

Use 1 oz. of cure for 25 lbs. of meat or 1 level teaspoon of cure for 5 lbs. of meat. Mix cure with cold water.http://www.alliedkenco.com/data/data_sheets/data_additive.html

homestead2 said:

I'm happy to share our recipes, if you want to PM me. Might be a bit long for the forum, when not everyone wants to know the details. I have great photos of all steps, but don't know how to post them on the forum, but can email them.

homestead2

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I'll third the request to see the recipes and steps you take.

OK, happy to do so. All I need is an email address to send the pictures to.(I already sorted out the ones I want to use.) I'm assuming that person knows how to put them on the forum. Or, I would be happy to just send the pictures and recipes to individuals.

I will include our recipes and the steps with the series of pictures.

Any takers? I just need a regular email address, because I know how to attach a picture to an email.

homestead2

Please, please, someone who knows how to post pics send homestead2 their e addy so we can see how he does his meat. I would but I'm doing good to just type in a post.

LC

I know I have a tendency to kill threads but PLEASE!!!!!

LC, you've made such a generous offer, and I hate to admit that I haven't the first idea of how to post a pic here. I just learned to put them into the computer and email them. LilRose will come rescue this situation. I hope.

I would do it but I have an atrocious work schedule this week and don't think I will be online much.....ANYONE ELSE? I think Dennis should be able to help. VLAD? CHARLIE?????

It seems like the information would be good to have, even without pictures. Maybe just post the info?

I can do that.

First, the sugar cure method:

1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper

mix well

slit two brown paper bags on one side (grocery store size). With the slit sides up, and the open ends facing each other, slide one inside the other. (yeh, the pictures would take the mystery out of those directions.)

Put a heavy layer of the salt mixture in the bags and lay the ham in the bags. Cover the ham with the rest of the salt mixture and have one person lift the ham slightly while the second person finishes sliding the bags together.

Using heavy string, (We use baling twine.) start at one end and wrap and tie the twine around the ham, keeping each wrap about an inch from the last one. (Pictures really help there, too.) The idea here is to keep the salt against the ham. If you didn't do this, the salt mix would all end up at the bottom of the bag when you hang the ham to cure.

Hang the ham with the shank down. (That would be the end where to lower leg was cut off.) We use an old pillow case. Any cloth sack will work. If you are curing in a garage or some place where a mess will matter, put a pan under it, because it will drip for a few weeks.

We cure for six weeks, if it doesn't get too cold too soon. If it gets super cold, we will leave the hams hang longer, because they wouldn't have taken in as much salt as we would have wanted in the cold.

After six weeks, we wash off the hams and leave them hang for as long as a couple more months before slicing and freezing, if it stays cold. In an extended warm spell, we would get the hams in and slice them, because they were cured for taste, not long term preservation that would tolerate extended warm temperatures.

Second method:

Salting on the board

Use only salt. Put down a generous pile of salt and lay the ham in it and cover the ham completely with salt. In the following days and weeks, as the ham takes in salt, add more salt to any place that the ham starts to show through. Again, six weeks to two months. (Easy to get waaayyy too salty with this method.) Wash the hams off when curing time is over and hang back in the smoke house as the weather permits.

What would we change if we were curing for serious for long term preservation?
With both the sugar cure method and the salting on the board: majorly extend the curing time. Both methods will produce a fully cured ham that will keep. Deal with the super saltness as we need to. It can be soaked out and cooked out, and, you can get good at making it taste excellent.

Edited to ad the smoking instr.

We use a metal tub sitting on concrete blocks in our smoke house. We hang the hams up high in the smoke house and make a fire in the tub with apple, sassafras and hickory. We smother (but, not completely) the fire with wet shavings (we have them soaking in a bucket). Eventually, the fire will simmer through and we will add more wood and shavings.

We like to smoke on a rainy day or when it is just damp and the air is heavy and no wind. We smoke for two or three days and stop in at the smoke house when we think of it to put more wood on the fire and then more shavings later. The fire usually goes out in the night, but we just light it again in the morning.

As the season goes on and we are smoking stuffed sausage, we leave the hams in the smoke house, - hung off to the side, and let them continue to take on more smoke during the sausage smoking.

homestead2

Gee Homestead2, it would have been nice if there'd been some pics. Seriously, it was quite easy to understand and they are wonderful directions to save. I'm getting hungry just reading about it. Thanks for posting it.

Don't let her get to you Homestead.....Splicerswife is a cut up!

homesteadf2, thank you, thank you. The directions are excellent. I second what splicers wife said. But could you somewhat define what you mean by cool, too cold, too warm.....that would help a lot. Thanks again.

LC

Thank you LilRose for your entire prepping series... I've been following it since inception and really enjoy the thought that has gone into each article. Since I noticed that folks were having problems posting pics I guess I ought to make at least a small contribution to the prep list as I made the life style change pre-y2k and have been blessed by the decision ever since. Here's a few shots of my $50 smoker made from a 275 gal oil tank cleaned and torched to remove any nasties. The rail on the top is a piece of Unistrut that I purchased at the local electrical supply house (Home Depot has 'em too) and I made up hooks on rollers from sliding door parts to allow me to hook cuts of meat on them and move them easily to the back so other cuts can be placed in the smoker. I just finished smoking hams, picnics and bacon from 3 pigs for a total of 238 pounds of smoked cuts. Each load will do an entire pig though, so it took three loads at twelve hours of maple smoke each. I cure the meat in a brine for 24 hours and then soak it in clean water for 24 hours to remove excess brine and allow for salt "equalization" throughout the meat. Then I hang it to dry for 24 - 48 hours and into the smoker it goes. Twelve hours later it will be either sliced or just plain packaged and frozen. If need be (TSHTF) you can do a much longer cure and smoke cycle to allow the meet to last darn near indefinitely without refrigeration.







Thanks again for the whole series!

Readers may wish to visit these links for assistance in other homesteading skills:
http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library.html

http://homesteadingtoday.com/vb/

http://members.1stconnect.com/anozira/

http://www.motherearthnews.com/mothers_library/

WOW! Alpha! That is awesome! So the smokebox ( firebox) is the white one down in front? And this has a pipe that leads up to the smoker right? Is that a washing machine?

Nice set up! Thanks for sharing.

LilRose said:

WOW! Alpha! That is awesome! So the smokebox ( firebox) is the white one down in front? And this has a pipe that leads up to the smoker right? Is that a washing machine?

Nice set up! Thanks for sharing.

Click to expand...

You're welcome, actually the firebox is made of reinforced cement blocks (wired together with rebar and filled with concrete) and there's a steel plate cover that just lays over it to control air flow. For the time being (until I find a 10' piece of 5" or 6" iron pipe) the pipe leading from the firebox to the smoker is a few pieces of 5" stovepipe. The flanges welded on the inlet and exhaust for pipe fittings are iron floor drain flanges from Home Depot... the stove pipe fits nicely into them!

Alpha, thanks for sharing that awesome smoker. I'm totally impressed!

Brutus PM'd me the instructions to post a picture. I will put one picture per post.
First one will be the salt on the ham in the paper bags.
Second, the way we wrap and tie.
Third, shows three in the cloth bags curing and three already cured and smoked hanging in the background.

Then some close ups of how they look cured, both from the lean and fat side.

Tied & tying