[TheHuskyHiker420]

Hello everyone, I have another question for anyone willing to answer. I was watching an old episode of Man vs. Wild today, and saw Bear kill both a snake and a very nice gator (about 7 feet). With the snake, he took one bite (literally), and threw the rest away. Granted he had no way of cooking it at the time, it was just kind of a shame. They showed him eating one meal off the gator, but I'm hoping he ate more.
Anyways, long story short, if there wasn't a helicopter waiting for you, and you had to keep the meat you caught as fresh as possible, for as long as possible, how would you do it? Let's assume you killed a deer in a northern central forest,mid-june, 75 degrees during the day, 50 at night, you have access to water, and you only have what you normally carry in your backpack.

PLEASE READ THIS AND UNDERSTAND THIS BEFORE YOU POST:
I do NOT want this thread turning into any sort of bear grylls thread. I just mentioned that because I wanted to. Nobody on here wants to read about how you feel about him.
Also, please don't be rude to people that are giving their ideas. This is a thread that is meant to give people ideas that they can take and make work for them. Not every million dollar idea starts out as a million dollar idea, so please just respect the fact that their even helping.

I just want to get some friendly brainstorming and conversation going.
Please and thank you,
TheHuskyHiker420

 

[wanderer714]

Well you can smoke the meat or you can dry it like jerky. This is how you dry it

This is how you smoke it http://www.grandpappy.info/indexwil.htm.

 

[Catfish11]

smoke it!!!

 

[desert wanderer]

Husky, The best way to preserve meat in the wild in warm weather would be to jerk as much as you could. As quickly as you could. Flies will blow eggs in it very fast, and the eggs will turn into meat-destroying maggots.
Warm weather is always a problem, because there's only so much you can eat at one time.
If you have dry ice, and a lot of it, you could effectively freeze SOME meat.

But still you'd have to dry as much as you could, as quickly as you could.
Keeping game bags with you when you're out back of beyond is a good bet, because they would prevent most flies from getting to your meat. And, you would have more time to eat some of the meat, and to jerk it as well.
So in summary, game bags and jerking it, would definitely be the best way to go in warm weather.
Good question, by the way, Husky!

 

[desert wanderer]

Well you can smoke the meat or you can dry it like jerky. This is how you dry it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUK3kTHPblc
This is how you smoke it http://www.grandpappy.info/indexwil.htm.

Wanderer, excellent video!:thumb: I've seen it once before.

 

[klickitat]

If I had nothing with me out in the bush and had to preserve meat, it is without question, that it would be smoked and dried.

Trim ALL bloodshot meat off. Blood left in the meat will cause it to rot. Then you need to cut your meat in very thin strips. Thin is needed so that it dries faster and has less of a chance of spoiling before you have it cured. Build a rack above the fire. You want the meat to get smoke, but you do not want the meat to cook so it needs to be high enough so as not to get direct heat. Good air flow also helps in the dehydration of the meat. The smoke itself will keep bacteria from growing on the meat and cures it.

The more moisture that is removed and the harder the meat is the longer it will last.


If you have salt, use it. Salt pushes the moisture out of the meat and acts as an antibacterial. Salt, Smoke and dehydration will take care of your meat. If you have potassium nitrate, it's even that much better.

 

[wanderer714]

That isn't me, im too scared of trying to do it myself in the backcountry and getting sick . I prefer my dehydrator :, have a good night.

 

[Meat Guy]

For pork, make sure it is cooked well done.

 

[twyggy]

Hey, Husky.

I don't know if you've ever heard of Ray Mears or not, but he teaches a lot of primitive living skills that would be right up your alley. There's even a gentlemen on youtube nice enough to upload his videos. He lives in Japan, and was apparently very affected by their earthquake, so his videos have stopped coming, but there are hours and hours of ray mears on his website!

Check him out if you don't know about him! :thumb:

http://www.youtube.com/user/RitchiePowell

 

[TheHuskyHiker420]

Hey, Husky.

I don't know if you've ever heard of Ray Mears or not, but he teaches a lot of primitive living skills that would be right up your alley. There's even a gentlemen on youtube nice enough to upload his videos. He lives in Japan, and was apparently very affected by their earthquake, so his videos have stopped coming, but there are hours and hours of ray mears on his website!

Check him out if you don't know about him! :thumb:

http://www.youtube.com/user/RitchiePowell

I'll definitely go check him out. Thanks a bunch!!

 

[TheHuskyHiker420]

And thanks everyone for the responses. As I was looking around the internet, I forgot what I had once learned on a field trip to an 1850's reenactment farm. They used the river. If you have a dry bag, or anything water proof, place your meat in it. Find a fast flowing stream, and build a wall of rocks in the form of a "C", with the opening facing upstream. You can then place the bag of meat in the c, so it doesn't get swept away.
From what the comments were saying, backpackers were using it, and they kept uncooked meat fresh for days. I can only imagine if it were cooked it would do even better, especially if the stream was pretty chilly.
I would also tie off the bag to a tree too, with any kinda string you have laying around, just in case.

 

[Combat_Vet]

I remember seeing in an army survival manual a smoking method using a pancho as a teepee to cover the meat on racks above a fire. I agree with these other guys, I would go with smoking all the way.

 

[Mabu Khan]

It all depends if the stream is fast running enough and cold enough.

Here that's kinda rare in the Summer months unless you luck onto a spring fed one.

I'd maybe use it until I could set up a proper fire to smoke dry it.

 

[helliott123]

Bear Grylls is a horrible "survivalist" who will get people killed in the woods. Dual survival is another crap show and Les Stroud is the only real one of the bunch. I mentioned Bear Grylls because I felt like it.


.

 

[SoCalSurvivor]

Bear Grylls is a horrible "survivalist" who will get people killed in the woods. Dual survival is another crap show and Les Stroud is the only real one of the bunch. I mentioned Bear Grylls because I felt like it.


.

Get outta here I knew some one could resist.

 

[12G Slug]

Bear Grylls is a horrible "survivalist" who will get people killed in the woods. Dual survival is another crap show and Les Stroud is the only real one of the bunch. I mentioned Bear Grylls because I felt like it.


.

do you feel better now? or would you like to state the obvious again?

 

[EagleRiverDee]

I know that meat submerged in very cold water (such as we have in Alaska) will keep for a surprisingly long time. But for moving, yes I would attempt to dry it near a smoky fire to keep the flies off.

 

[AncientBrit]

Smoke it:thumb:

 

[Buffy]

Make biltong.

http://www.3men.com/biltong.htm

 

[urban]

I see a lot of people saying smoke it like thats some kind of holy grail of food preservation. Smoking alone will cause you to lose alot of meat. Even if done right it only preserves the for a small period of time. Smoking is only one step is a series of steps to properly preserve meat. It may buy you a couple days but wouldnt really help if you had a lot of meat such as a deer or a seven foot alligator. I've tried to preserve two large roast with limited success smoking but you are much better off using a salt brine for 2 days, then drying in a sack/pillow case/ head net etc, THEN smoke it for 3-5 days. The resulting cure will ast you a couple months. You can further process it by using a sugar brine.