Have any of you tried curing or smoking meat? I saw a recipe in my cookbook for corned beef, which I am interested in trying because I love corned beef. It involves putting the beef in brine for three weeks. This brine includes salt peter, which turns the meat red (like you see in store bought corned beef) and keeps botulism from growing in it. I'm thinking about trying it. I'm also thinking about making a meat smoker. I love the taste of smoked meat, and it is another way of preserving it. I've also heard that, once you cure the meat, if you place it in wood ash it keeps for a long time. This is because there is a lot of lye in wood ash. You would have to wash the meat thoroughly later, since lye is poisonous. Anyway, it seems like meat could keep for a long time if prepared properly. Cycle it through your food storage and you could have some actual meat in your diet.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I have dehydrated meat (made my own jerky) and my dad has smoked salmon before that we caught. As for the Salt Peter, do you really know what Salt Peter is? Smoking and dehydrating meats is a great way to preserve them without refrigeration though. Plus jerky is so good. One of my coworkers made some elk jerky and my wife and I were in heaven. Good stuff!
Salt Peter is Potassium Nitrate. It is frequently found as white crystals on the edges of manure piles.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I don't know if they use salt peter for jerky. Perhaps they do. But you can make jerky with just a good dehydrator. Of course, it helps if you use spices when making jerky.
And I don't know that manure piles are the only source of salt peter. It's a naturally occuring substance.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
We've got a food dehydrator my brother and sister-in-law gave us for Christmas a few years back. Never have gotten around to using it. Maybe I could give it whirl this season with time off from work. So, what kind of meat do you look for to make jerky from? What are the characteristics needed? There are plenty of sporting goods stores (like Bass and Pro Shop) where I can get some spices for making it...
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
Isn't potassium nitrate the oxidizer in gunpowder?
As for the name, it probably means salt of stone: latin sal = salt and petrae = stone (same root as the name Peter = stone = "upon this rock I will build my church")
See, that minor in linguistics wasn't a complete waste of 18 credits.
eta: when I went through basic training, there was a rumor that they put saltpeter in our food to decrease libido. Along those lines, I suppose one can imagine the discussion about the origin of the term saltpeter.
-- Edited by Roper at 16:19, 2006-12-04
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BTW, I just started curing some corned beef. And yes, I put the poo crystals in there I think I did the brine right that I'm soaking the meat in. And now I get to place it in the fridge for three weeks, turning it over over 5 days. Anyway, if, in a little over three weeks, I suddenly stop posting, you'll know why
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
BTW, the brine for making corned beef involves lots of salt, sugar, and garlic, which are all known for being able to kill bacteria. I think it's a sure thing that nothing is going to survive in that water. Whether that quality gets passed on to the meat, that's another question.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
arbilad wrote: BTW, I just started curing some corned beef. And yes, I put the poo crystals in there I think I did the brine right that I'm soaking the meat in. And now I get to place it in the fridge for three weeks, turning it over over 5 days. Anyway, if, in a little over three weeks, I suddenly stop posting, you'll know why
Arbi, you neglected to return and report on your meat curing experiment. How did it turn out?
It doesn't taste like corned beef as I had hoped, but it doesn't taste bad. Now I'm wondering where to store it where the cats and dog won't get at it.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Nah, it most likely because he didn't use any other spices to help in the flavoring (or if he did, not that same mixture). Of course, the stuff you buy canned at the store or from the deli is going to be processed further with spices and stuff to aid in the flavoring. My guess is that the poo crystals probably only did the preserving part and maybe some nominal flavoring.
But, then maybe the poo crystals didn't carry the same flavor as what he is used to tasting from store bought corned beef since the source poo of the crystals wasn't from the same sort of feed given to the animals that made the poo that then created the crystals at the edge of the pile...
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
Smoking and dehydrating meats is a great way to preserve them without refrigeration though. Plus jerky is so good. One of my coworkers made some elk jerky and my wife and I were in heaven. Good stuff!
The others being charcoal and sulfer in much smaller quantities than the saltpeter.
Now everytime I pick up a piece of jerky or have a nice corned beef sandwich, I'm gonna be thinkin' of manure... 
