It is important to know how to store meat properly if you want it preserved for later consumption. Most people have a refrigerator in their kitchen, but even technology sometimes fails, so there are other methods of storing meat.
So, Smile, dear! Because in this article, you will find the tips and tricks of storing the meat in the fridge or refrigerators and some more methods of storing meat at home without using technology.
Table of Contents
Methods of Storing Meat
Before going ahead, let’s see what type of meat we need to select? Keeping in mind the below points will make you purchase the fresh and best meat.
Beef and Pork
If you are not sure if your meat is safe to buy, check the color. If it has turned dark brown or smells bad, avoids buying it. Beef and pork should be a light brown color, not slimy or smelly.
Poultry
When buying poultry, lookout for any signs of deterioration. For example, avoid poultry that looks faded or feels tough and slimy because this usually indicates rotting meat, leading to food poisoning.
Fish
If you are planning to purchase some fresh fish for your seafood dish tonight, pay attention! You do not want any that seem faded or discolored. They might result from poor handling and storage conditions during transportation; avoid them at all costs.
Fish should smell clean unless there is something wrong with its quality .So, make sure no foul odor permeates from their flesh when you get home, too- whether on ice or refrigerated already.
Fresh Meat
When you are grocery shopping, be sure to avoid the meat in damaged or torn packages. This may have allowed harmful bacteria into it and could also result in your money being wasted on something unsafe for consumption.
Important Tips
For getting better results regarding storing the meat for later use, follow these points.
Hand Washing
When preparing raw meat, fish, and poultry, it’s important to wash your hands frequently. Wash with soap for at least 20 seconds before and after contact with uncooked meats to ensure safety during preparation! Bacteria can spread from the food you’re handling onto other surfaces in a short amount of time which poses health risks if you dont wash them away properly.
Surface
To reduce the risk of cross-contamination, separate your meat from other cooking equipment and ingredients. While it is not common for vegetables to cause illness in meats, keep them away if you aren’t planning on mixing both into one dish later!
Cleaning The Utensils
Using separate cutting boards, clean all cooking utensils after touching raw meat and use different serving utensils to serve food.
Use Clean Towel
Cleaning your sponge or dish towel will ensure that bacteria and other disease-causing pathogens don’t grow on it over time. Make sure to clean your sponges every two days, as they can become a breeding ground for harmful germs within seven days of being used. It would be best to replace them about once a week to prevent this from happening, so the same bath doesn’t get shared between multiple people without first being cleaned thoroughly.
How to Store Meat Without Refrigerator
Below are the methods of storing meat without refrigerators.
Smoking
The oldest, most traditional method of preserving meat is smoking it. For using this method, you can buy smoker as well. This was typically used in areas that were too humid for air drying or dehydrating the meat. Smoked meats can be purchased at stores or built yourself with some effort! Although there are carcinogens (toxins) in smoke, they’re not always dangerous if consumed moderately.
To summarize, if you’re in an emergency or have access to a backyard, then smoking your meat item might be the best choice for you. Remember that this method is not recommended by professionals and can pose risks like mold growth due to humidity changes within the containers. In containers, you store the meat since there’s no way of controlling temperature with these kinds of smokers.
Dehydration
If you don’t keep your meat in the fridge, then dehydrating it is an excellent way to store food without taking up space. It’s also a great alternative for people who like jerky but can’t eat gluten or other ingredients that may be present in some kinds of jerky (e.g., soy sauce). All you need is a dehydrator or biltong box and a good light bulb with a fan – make sure not to overdo it because this process will take hours/days!
If you want to use an electric dehydrator, you should purchase a larger one. A small dryer will take more time and energy when trying to preserve all of your food.
A solar dehydrator has the benefit of not requiring electricity but is weather-dependent. So, mold doesn’t form if left too moist after the drying process ends. To make sure your meat dries fully, either buy or find DIY plans online for these types of dryers with instructions on how long they need depending on size/type before being stored in airtight containers.
Brining
To preserve meat, you can use three simple ingredients: water, sugar, and salt. It would help if you had a crock with the right proportion of these ingredients; then place your meat inside the brine, completely submerged by it. It’s best to do this in an environment that will not get too cold since warmth speeds up decomposition (the opposite effect you’re trying to achieve). If necessary, make room for extra space because one thing people tend to forget about when preserving food like this is how heavy all those jars are!
Brining is a technique that results in a stronger flavor and softer texture, making it easier to eat. Brining works best with leaner cuts of meat because the process helps to tenderize them. You also want to keep your brined meats submerged in their liquid, so weighing down slightly will ensure they stay submerged while you brine them for an extended period – about 24 hours at most!
Salting
Curing meat is a traditional method for preserving favorites like bacon and pastrami, but it requires time and effort. It’s easy to master if you have the right materials; here are some tips! Cured meats were hung out of reach in cool areas because they needed room: sometimes, cured meats would be smoked since this adds flavor.
Pressure Canning
Pressure canning is the best option for hardy, acidic foods. If you use this method with meat, all you do is reheat it when ready to eat and leave jars portable. At the same time, other types of pressure canners are affordable options. They are best even for apartment homesteaders with smaller kitchens or limited water baths requiring constant monitoring during processing time. But if done incorrectly, they don’t always kill bacteria present in food items resulting in botulism poisoning instead making canned goods dangerous!
Lard Storage
Those butchering an animal with a lot of fat can use this technique for storage. It is simple and requires no equipment—cooks the meat in lard, then covers it up by layering raw or cooked pieces side-by-side inside a crockpot filled with melted lard to keep out bacteria while pressing down are not any air pockets left behind.
Additionally, lard is made from rendered pig fat. By layering the meat in lard, it prevents air exposure and spoilage.
Pickling
I wouldn’t say I like pickles in general, but I do understand why people would want to go through the process of getting their meat ready for long-term storage. The food isn’t bad; it just has a smell that doesn’t appeal to me personally.
I know this method works because there are limits, and you can still lose your meat if done incorrectly (like anything else). Bread is not one of those things, though, so trying to pickle bread will result in yuckiness from my perspective, at least! Why not experience preserving meat through pickling.
Freeze Drying
This method requires additional costs as you’ll need to purchase a freeze dryer, which can be costly. The process of this technique involves freezing the meat and then lowering pressure while removing ice from it.
Extensive preparation goes into this, but the extended shelf life is possible with reconstituting by placing in some water for a bit before using again. Freeze-dried food weighs less, so anything can be used, including leftovers keeping most nutritional content intact without compromising weight during backpacking or emergency travels.
Confit
This cooking technique comes from France and involves submerging the meat in its fat. You then let it cool, store it in that same fat, and preserve both flavor and texture for a nice soft result. Spices can add variety to cut depending on your preference:
Some people prefer this method of preserving because they believe it retains “moisture” better than other preservation methods such as salting or pickling, which take away moisture through osmosis.
Potted Meat
Potted meat is another old preservation method involving cooking the meat and covering it in hot fat. The resulting seal of this fatty paste will keep your food fresh for ages to come. This preserved pate can be spread on toast, but I never tried it because most people use it as an ingredient rather than a condiment (perhaps due to its unappealing texture).
Natural Refrigeration
Instead of storing your meat in a freezer, you could keep it outside during the winter months. But make sure to check on the thermometer! Some people store their meats in jars and leave them inside wells for short-term storage.
Moreover, Now, this is impractical as you can’t control the temperature: it’ll change on a dime. This means that there’s also an added risk of attracting predators like wolves or bears to your homestead with the scent of raw meat. If they can score an easy meal, then they’ll go for it, and you could lose a lot of meat this way, depending on what predators are in your area and how many they are.
So, the only real way to store meat is by using a smokehouse. This allows you to control how much airflow gets into your storage space so that it maintains its freshness for longer periods without allowing any animals or bugs to access inside. It also prevents other predators from being attracted because they cannot smell the raw meat through all those strong aromas created when smoking meats, in this case!
How to Store Meat Using Refrigerators and Freezers
To keep meat safe, you must refrigerate it within two days of buying. For longer storage times, enough for a few months at least, freezing the raw meat is your best bet. To keep your meat fresh for longer, freeze it. Freeze raw beef in an airtight container or freezer bag – this can last up to three months! Once properly sealed in an airtight package and frozen completely solid, uncooked meats can remain fresh in the freezer indefinitely.
Additionally, to retain nutrients and prolong the shelf life of foods, freeze your food as close to 0°F (-17.8°C) as possible while keeping refrigerators at around 34°F (1.1 °C).
Storing Various Types of Meat in Freezers and refrigerators
Hot Dogs
When storing hot dogs and lunch meat in the refrigerator, open packages can be kept for up to 1 week, while closed packs should last two weeks. Freezers will take you only a maximum of 1–2 months to finish your stock if stored properly.
Cooked Poultry, Meat or Fish
Cooked poultry, meat, or fish can be stored in the refrigerator for up to four days. At the same time, it is possible to store them in a freezer for two to two-to-six months.
Uncooked Fish
We can store uncooked fish in the freezer for six months and refrigerators for almost 1-3 days.
Uncooked Steaks or Chops
One can store uncooked steaks or chops for 3-4 days in the refrigerator and six months in freezers.
Uncooked Ground Meat
We can store uncooked ground meat in the refrigerators for 2-3 days and in freezers for 3-4 months.
Uncooked Poultry
We have the option to store uncooked poultry for almost 1-2 days in the refrigerator and 9-11 months in freezers.
Editor’s note
The methods of storing meat without freezers and refrigerators are great, and I wondered when I tried them one by one before discussing them in this article. You can benefit from storing meat in freezers and refrigerators if you are professionally working at some level. Otherwise for domestic use, according to our experts don’t store long. On the other hand, if you intend to store, we recommend you to take advantage of modern technology. Because some methods of storing meat without freezers and refrigerators are full of hassle.
Moreover, practice all methods following the important tips and let us know about your experience.
Additionally, don’t forget to share our informative guidelines with your loved ones.
Stay Blessed and Enjoy Storing the Meat!
