The importance of meat preservation in the wild cannot be fully understood until you’re shaky, clumsy, and disoriented due to starvation. Here, let me help you understand.
Four poles hold the survival tent functional in the wilderness. Should any of these poles go missing, there will be a problem with this tent’s stance. These four poles are water, shelter, fire, and water. If any of these is absent, there are bound to be consequences.
Why Is Meat Preservation In The Wild Important?
Science says that the maximum you can survive without fire or shelter in a cold environment is three hours. Now, you know the very first thing to set up when you’re stranded in the wild. The maximum you can go without water is three days, which should be more than enough for you to find water if you’re familiar with the various ways to find water in the wild. Lastly, you are expected to go two weeks without food before dying.
Now, two weeks is quite a long time, which means starvation is the least likely cause of death in the wild. But there’s what may be eluding you. Your body cannot function without any food for these two weeks. You may remain alive, but it’d hardly be worth it. The body would have fed on the energy reserves before the 3rd day, and it’s a downward spiral after that. Your vitals start failing, you start losing your mind, and you can’t even perform the simplest tasks like building a fire. So, in a sense, you’re dead even before you die.
Two weeks may look sufficient to always find food, but this is not always true. There are records of deaths caused by starvation. So, you have to realize that food may become just as scarce as oxygen in Asgard. This underlines the importance of storing every food item as religiously as possible. And even if you may not know at present, meat is a rich source of energy in the wilderness. Some people eat meat solely for survival.
So, you see every ounce matters.
Methods of Meat Preservation In The Wild
Preservation is a problem of feeding in the wild. There are very few ways of preserving foods when there is no electricity. Yet, we have to keep our foods preserved, else we’ll have contaminated, unhealthy meals. To preserve meat in the wilderness, you’d have to look back at the days of your forefathers.
These people preserved their kills to last for as long as three months despite the absence of modern preservation techniques. So, you see, preserving meat in the wild is quite possible. The three ways of doing so are discussed below.
Freezing or Chilling
Contrary to what you may have always thought, you can freeze meat in the absence of electricity, although the process can be more complicated than you’re used to. In winter, all you may have to do is bury your meat under the snow, but then predators will easily sniff out what you store. Some people, therefore, drop rocks on spots where they bury their meat. This will make it difficult for animals to get to it.
Alternatively, if the air is freezing, you can keep the meat in a bag, tie cordage to it, hang on a tree, or spot is at least 10 feet high. If there is a river or stream nearby, you can just keep the meat in a waterproof bag, tie the bag to cordage and add a stone that’ll help it to sink in the river.
There’s another method called the veer pot. This technique requires two pots and some sand to work. To use: pour some sand in the larger of the two pots, put the smaller pot in the larger one and fill the space with sand. Pour water from a stream into the sand and then put the meat in the smaller pot, after which you cover with a damp cloth. That should preserve meat for five days.
Curing & Drying
Moisture is the typical antagonist to meat preservation. If you’re able to dehydrate the meat, it will surely last longer. When without fire, this is best done through curing or drying.
To salt meat, you need a lot of curing salt, which you’ll hardly find in the wilderness. So, to most people, curing is not a practical preservation method. However, if you have sufficient salt, cover every inch of your meat with the salt and leave in a cool, dry place. After some days, the moisture will be dried up.
But as said before, curing is not realistic to most people, so drying may be your better option. However, before you can dry meat, the sun has to be hot enough. Cut the meat onto pieces, probably 1/4” in thickness. Then, find a rocky surface and Barr to the sun.
Drying takes many days before ridding meat of every moisture. So, you’ll be packing the meat in when it’s nighttime and spread the following morning.
Smoking
Smoking is the best method to preserve meat in the wild. It does not only kill bacteria and molds, but it also leaves a smoky flavor to the meat. Needless to say, smoking removes moisture as well.
To smoke meat, cut into pieces that are about 1/4” thick. Cut evenly and score both sides of the pieces. If there is fat on any, cut it out and apply any spice on both sides of the meats.
After this, make a tripod standing on three legs, which should be 4, 5, 6 inches long, depending on the quantity of meat to be smoked. Set fire to the tripod and leave until it burns down to coal because coal is more predictable and controllable than flame.
Your fire should not be too severe, nor should the meat be brought to close to it. You’re drying the meat, not cooking.
Concluding Thoughts on Meat Preservation In The Wild
Meat preservation in the wild aims to ensure that your supplies last you long enough. A shortage can arise any time in the wild, and it is best to be ready beforehand. Meat can pass for food as long as there’s water to take alongside.