Long-term storage of meats and fish? What options?

[Omega]

Perhaps this is a brain storming topic about storing meat
My prep scenario is to sustain my family for about 3 months in case someone nukes us. This should allow me adjust my plan to move to South America, my family have the right to live there unless they change the law
I am researching options to store meat and fish. And use the types of food that I use regularly. For example, I like snacking with peperami and dried fish when I drink ales and beers. USDA says that hard sausages can be stored indefinitely in a fridge https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/What-are ... sausage%20(such,opening%2C%20refrigerate%20for%203%20weeks.
So, I can keep peperami in a fridge until an emergency and, if there is no electricity, I still can keep peperami for about 5 weeks, then move to canned fish and other meat products that last longer - pemmican, jerky and biltong
Or should I treat jerky and biltong as dry sausages? Internet suggests that jerky and biltong are often dried to 50%, but can be dried to 70% for longer storage - I spoke to a seller on eBay who can dry it further and remove oxygen when packing to prolong the storage. Pemmican is dried to 80% and this gives it an edge for longer storage. There is also "carne de sol" ("sun meat", basically dried meat, usually under sun and usually beef), but it has 65% water, so jerky is a better option
Also wonder if I should make jerky or biltong myself as I hunt and I get a lot of meat if I shoot couple of roe deer. No sure about pemmican - removing all, even tiniest fat elements, looks very cumbersome to me though being able to store outside a fridge sounds a great idea
It looks like my emergency food scenario will be the following:
1. Sustain my family from my fridge and freezer first if I have access - first week
2. Sustain the family on dry sausages and fish (not talking about other types of food) - also in case I need to evacuate. Probably the next 4 weeks. Or I am playing too safe and hard sausages can last for 3 months?
3. Sustain on army rations and canned fish, maybe pemmican - 7-8 weeks
What do you think?

[GillyBee]

I do like the cured and dried meats as a fridge free meat option. My family are not impressed with the standard of canned meat available so bacons and chorizos are a better choice for us. Some of the supermarkets sell shelf stable sausage products but they are expensive.
As you have access to a meat supply, learning to DIY would make sense. I have found The River Cottage Curing and Smoking Handbook really helpful and can now make my own bacon with a fair degree of confidence.

[jansman]

An interesting topic. As a professional butcher I have dried and stored meat in various ways, both farmed meats and wild meat. No problems and there are loads of recipes and methods.
In our modern world though it’s an irony, as when the old style preservation was devised it was because of lack of refrigeration and better space to store food preserved.
Personally, our modern meat stores are frozen and in amounts not too heavy , simply so that in an electric problem not too much is wasted! There are only two of us, and my wife is semi vegetarian, and I have to drift that way because of my health now.
Emergency storage we do carry our ( generation) favourites like tinned bacon and luncheon meats, corned beef and the British Likes.
Before my illness also, I went shooting and fishing a LOT. Therefore storage was not an issue…
An interesting topic.

[SentinelDK]

Most dried meats, like biltong, jerky, sun-dried fish etc can be brought down to under 15% moisture as you noted and can then be stored. The issue is, summertime temps can play havoc on storing these items and maintaining longevity, especially in a humid climate like the UK.

One simple way to ensure a slightly cooler environment is by using a homemade evaporation fridge. This can be done using clay gardening pots layered one inside of another leaving a small gap between the two to add volcanic rocks (small) or some charcoal.

When keeping the coal and outside pot wet, it evaporates and cools the inside. Effectively allowing you to drop the temp of the contents slightly. Even in the sun.

Alternatively, for a bigger one, you can make an evaporation fridge/cooler out of a double layered wire/mesh frame, with a space of 5-10cm in-between filled with coal and small volcanic stones to fill the gaps between the coal to keep the light out. This can be built in five squares and stored till needed, then assembled/stacked and kept wet in times of need to keep meat or veg cooler.

As a baseline, this will keep the inner area - for both the coal/wire or ceramic pots - about 20-25% cooler then ambient air. With more wind, sometimes up to 40% cooler.

This could prove invaluable for keeping dried meats safer for longer in a grid down scenarios.

It's an old option used a lot in Southern Africa through the years before electricity. And in many places it's still used in very rural locations like bush lodges and farms to save money on generator fuel

[Omega]

It is summer now, I have lots of energy from solar panels and my fridge is still full of venison and pheasant
Wonder if I dry venison meat with some fats, and then store in the freezer, will it be still ok? I read that dry cured sausages can be stored indefinite in freezers according to some US agency
And will it be same to do the same with pheasant? Birds are a bit different meat
Also wonder if the meat be quite fine eating if I simply dry it in the food drier? I can cover it with salt before I start, this should not hurt as salt will draw some water too
Thanks

[GillyBee]

I was talking to a storeholder at a festival last year who was selling dried full meals with mince in them as well as dried sausages. No fridge anywhere. He told me that one key for dehydrating meat was to make sure your dehydrator is running at the right temperature - 70C or so so that it is not drying while in the high risk temperature zone.

Sausagemaking must be done with care. There is a reason botulism is named after the Roman word for sausages.....