It’s a surprise to many people that not all salt is created equal. The table salt most people use to fill their salt shakers at home is not pure salt. Most salt has iodine added to it, as a solution to a shortage of the element in most people’s diet. This is the ubiquitous Iodized Salt. In addition to iodine, table salt and some other fine pour-able salts have sodium ferrocyanide added to prevent caking. These additives have benefits but for some recipes they have drawbacks. In canning these ingredients will make the liquids cloudy. They can also contribute an off flavor for brine’s and dry cures. When you want absolute control of the appearance and flavor of your creation take salts with these ingredients off the list.

In addition to the purity issue, there are differences in the coarseness of available salts. Popcorn salt for example is very fine. Table salt is normally fairly fine. Canning and pickling salts and kosher salts are fairly coarse. Rock salt is left as crystals that are not ground. These salts can be mined or extracted from sea water through evaporation. They are normally made without additives and are largely the same in terms of content but they will react different in recipes and have different purposes because of how quickly they dissolve. Kosher Salt for example gets its name because it is used to help make meats kosher by extracting the last of the blood from meats. It’s coarseness prevents the salt from being absorbed fully before the blood is picked up by the salt.

In addition to these differences, there are salts available that have flavors added to them. They can have fruit flavors added for use in tropical drinks, smoke flavors used for dry curing, and even pickle flavored salt used for… well I was surprised at how popular pickle flavored salt was for making chips, burgers or your favorite side dish have that pickle taste. (Not to be confused with pickling salt which has no flavor added to it.)

Smoked flavored salts are very useful in dry cures. This is especially true if you are cooking the meat in an oven where smoke can’t be introduced. They are normally pure so the only thing they add is that smoky salt flavor to your recipe.

Knowing what is available and how it can be used can be very helpful when preparing to dive into that special recipe. The coarseness of the salt will also effect its volume when measuring it for a recipe. So until you get a handle on how it will change your recipe, use a little less salt. Then add to flavor. It won’t take long to get the right amount.

I have a variety of salts in the IGT Store so you can see some of the available offerings.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope the added complication added to your life is worthwhile.

It is a bit of a reach but, what the heck. You’ve been warned.

I have a book that describes the process in detail written by Arlington C. “Buckskin Slim” Schaefer. What is surprising about this book published in 1973 is that it lead to a renewed interest in this process that continues to this day in tanning hides and that it was published in the county where I live. Douglas County, Oregon

The title of the book is “The Indian Art of Tanning Buckskins” and has quite a following even today amongst those wishing to make their own leather. Another name for the process is brain tanning.

You see the substance used to cure a hide in the Indian style is the brain of the animal. For a deer the brain is combined with about a quart of warm water and simmered for about an hour or so. There is a lot of preparation that is done to the skin before and after the skin is place in the brain-dope, as he calls it. It involves scraping, soaking and wringing the hide. It can then be cured two ways.

The first option is to lay out with the (former) hair side up and the brain-dope is rubbed in by hand. The edges are folded in and the hide is rolled up for about fifteen minutes.

The second option is to take the wrung-out hide right into the bucket or pot that has the dope in it. Kneed the hide to work the emulsion into all the nooks and crannies . It is left in the emulsion overnight and then laid out to dry all day in the sun or indoors depending on weather. After the hide is somewhat dried out, it is then put on a rack to complete the drying process. I haven’t done this but it’s certainly a lot of work. This will take us to the last step, smoking.

The hide is sewn together staring at the neck and leaving a hole at the tail end (about 16-20 inches) to go over the coals. A hole (pit) is dug about 18-24 inches deep and about 16 to 18 inches around. A small air hole is cut into the pit from about 18 to 24 inches from the pit at about a 45 degree angle and reaching to the bottom of the pit. The hide can be hung from a tripod made of long sticks. The edges of the hide are staked down or held down with rocks. In the pit a bed of coals are made. On the bed of coals damp rotten wood is placed to create the smoke. The air hole is used to regulate the coals as a flare up can ruin the project. The flow of air is slowed with moss or rags when needed. The hide is smoked for and hour or so and then turned inside out and repeated. Between the brain-dope and the smoke the hide is cured and ready for use.

The book goes into much more detail but this gives you an idea. It is a fascinating process making an incredibly useful leather.

Is the leather edible? Surprisingly, yes it is. It’s pretty tough though. Commercial leather has all kinds of poisons in it, so it’s not a good idea to let your toddler chew on it. Brain tanned leather is not poisonous, however, there are organisms carried in brain matter that can be dangerous. Problems are unlikely, but I thought I would throw that caution in there.

So here we go.

First of all, I am most familiar with using a brine to cure and flavor the meat. In a bit of research about what is out there I see quite a few recipes from people that are not worried about using a cure, in addition to salt, for low heat cooking. I think this is a bit risky, especially on poultry and fish, unless you are using a fairly high salt content by today’s standards. In ideal circumstances there would be no problem, but if the meat has a higher bacteria count than normal (maybe Earl at the plant got a bit careless when moving Porkchop to the breakdown area and dropped her on the floor, giving her an unintentional marinade in unmentionables or perhaps you were distracted as you were getting the ham out to put it down in the brine and the game you gave up on became a higher priority than that special project that got a bit warmer than intended before brining) you may wish you Had upped your protection. Point is that a cure is a great insurance policy against the unknown without having to make your brine too salty. The low heat cooking process is a more favorable environment for bacteria than a normal cooking process. The meat will spend twice as long in the ideal range for bacterial growth. So I recommend incorporating a cure in any Low Heat Cooking.

The original cure used in this process is salt. However we have other preservatives we can use, so the level of salt needed is lower and more a factor of taste than necessity. These other preservatives are the dreaded Nitrites, Nitrates, and Phosphates we spent a decade or more fearing. When the big studies were conducted to put the nails in the coffin of preservatives like these, the scientists were red faced to report that there were no links between these preservatives and health problems. In fact they found that there may be some health benefits from them. So when putting together a recipe, I recommend including a cure with your other ingredients or substitute a mix like Morton’s Tender Quick. It includes salt, sugar, nitrites, and nitrates. You use a 1:4 ratio of Tender Quick to water by volume. The directions say 2 cups of Tender Quick to 8 cups of water.

Hot Smoking Similar to Barbecuing but generally done at slightly lower temperatures. Smoke can be used for adding flavor.

Kippering Devised in particular for fish, this process relies on both the curing and cooking of meat. Smoke here is also used as a flavor enhancer.

Cold Smoking The process involved the use of smoke to preserve meat. Today, cures are used to help kill bacteria and parasites. Some people will also use a period of time (3 or more days) in the freezer to eliminate parasites, especially from fish. The cure alone only slows the growth of bacteria.

If I tried to include all of the different sources that contributed to all the ways of smoking meat, we’d have a book or two not a recipe.

That having been said, how about a recipe for something.

First, a good recipe for brine.

• 1 gallon water (Hot)
• 1 cup salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup whole cloves (ground cloves are fine)
• 1/4 cup ground nutmeg
• 6 cinnamon sticks ( ground is fine, but I don’t have an amount for you, My guess 1/4 cup)
• 1-2 oz of liquid smoke (2-4 Tbs)

The original recipe calls for boiling the mixture. I combined the ingredients I used very hot water out of the tap and mixed it until the ingredients are dissolved as much as possible. If the ingredients aren’t dissolving as much as you would like, boil the brine for 20 minutes or so. Either way make sure the brine is cool or even cold before putting the meat down into it.
I adapted this from About.com And is by Derrick Riches.

I used this recipe because it is the most similar I have found to the recipe we used in the Smokehouse ( Yes, I added and subtracted a bit). The ingredients we used were only available commercially. This recipe does not include any cure, so here are some options. Add 1-2 oz of Tender Quick to the recipe or find a cure with no salt and follow the directions or substitute Tender Quick for the salt and the sugar.

Anytime you are making a brine or marinade you should be able to sample it and get an idea if the ratios are right. It will always be too strong to call tasty but it will give you an idea.

As far as time in the brine, that will vary a lot depending on the type of meat. Something small (A cut of chicken or a fillet of Salmon) can be cured in 8-12 hours. Something large (A Ham) may take 7-10 days. Also anything thicker than 2 inches should have brine pumped into it. We use, shockingly enough, a brine pump for this. It is a giant syringe like device, but with a needle about the size of a large nail, only longer. No you won’t want any flu shots with this. You pump it up like a beach ball and put it down in the brine. This is handy and recommended on hams, shoulders, and even loins.

After the meat is cured, you need to rinse it. For the large cuts, 1 1/2 - 2 hours under running water. It doesn’t need to be running at full tilt, just a light flow around it. In the meat business we use a sink that over flows into another sink, so the meat is immerse. You can use a container that can overflow into you kitchen sink or (raised eyebrow time) a container set in the bath tub overflowing into the tub. (There go the brownie points with the wife) You get the idea, use your imagination and have some good excuses ready.

And finally, you cook it up. An oven will work fine. Set it at about 225 and figure on 6 hours although it could take 8. A meat thermometer is critical here. Small or thin cuts will cook much faster, probably in 3 -4 hours. When it gets to 165, its ready. Remember in lost cases it will be heated up again, so don’t expect this to look like dinner. Smaller cuts may be ready to throw on a plate but the larger cuts normally are going to be cooked again. If you find the outside is getting too well done before the temperature gets to your target, then cut the temperature back to 210 or so. Adjustment is the name of the game.

Smoked meat is a lot of work, but it is very rewarding. I highly recommend that you write down exactly what you do to make your product. It will make adjusting your recipe much easier and since there are so many steps it can be hard to remember what you did a week ago when you made that brine.

You weren’t supposed to bring a list, it was a rhetorical question.

Whether it makes your top list of worst disappointments or not, it’s certainly not what we bargain for when we pick up a cut from the meat case.

I thought it would be a little helpful to write about what causes spoilage so that you would have an idea of what to look for and how to prevent the early demise of hard earned dinner ingredients.

The first culprit is the one most likely to take food off your dinner menu. Bacteria. These microorganisms are everywhere looking for a free meal.  It should also be mentioned that we are chocked full of beneficial bacteria.  Some types of bacteria are harmful and sometimes high levels of, otherwise harmless, bacteria can cause problems for us.  So how do we keep the harmful bacteria away from our food. The main thing to remember about bacteria is that they like what you like.

• moisture
• temperate or warm climate
• lots of light

Sounds like we could find them at the beach in California or Florida.

In all seriousness though, at room temperature (or a little above) bacteria are very happy, when they get happy they multiply quickly, and when they multiply, they ruin the neighborhood. That neighborhood was dinner. Some bacteria themselves can be dangerous when ingested. In high enough concentration these bacteria can overwhelm our bodies defenses and cause damage.  Normally, however,  it is the by-products of their existence that are the problem. The by-products cause bad smell, bad taste, or sliminess.  These are the signs of bacteria running rampant in our food. In addition to the effects we can see, there are also effects that are hard to see.   Poisons.  They can be harmful to us in many ways but the main thing to remember is that the poisons can be fatal and they are not always detectable.

Do spoilage bacteria make people sick?
Most people would not choose to eat spoiled food. However, if they did, they probably would not get sick.

Pathogenic bacteria cause illness. They grow rapidly in the “Danger Zone” – the temperatures between 40 and 140 °F – and do not generally affect the taste, smell, or appearance of food. Food that is left too long at unsafe temperatures could be dangerous to eat, but smell and look just fine. E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, and Salmonella are examples of pathogenic bacteria.

From the USDA Website

Whether bacteria ruins the flavor or is producing poisons it is something you want to avoid.  Cooking food properly will kill the bacteria, but if they have been in high enough concentration, the by-products, (poison) are left behind to do their damage.  So proper food handling is important to prevent spoilage or illness from bacteria.  Keep the food cool, this slows the growth of the little buggers.  Freezing brings their growth to a near halt.

Another culprit in the food spoilage campaign we are engaged in is Mold.  These organisms are larger than bacteria (bacteria is a single cell organism and molds are multi-cellular) but thrive in the similar conditions.  Some molds are poisonous wile others are benign.  We are in the fungus family. (Yes, mold is related to mushrooms) In general, mold in soft or moist foods should send the food to the trash.  Mold in hard foods like cheese or dry salami can be trimmed.  Also, if you are dealing with small pieces, like jerky, even though it is hard and can be fairly dry, it should still be tossed, out of caution.  The higher the moisture content, the sooner mold will steal your snack.  Sealing these foods away from air helps stop molds but in a airless environment you can get growth that looks like mold but can be a persistent bacteria.  Either way sealing meat away from air is not a solution by itself.  A thorough sterilization process would have to be applied to avoid molds and bacterial growth, even in an airless environment.  Cool temps are a good way to thwart the pesky mold and those nasty preservatives that so many people are afraid of are also helpful in keeping mold at bay.

So, keeping food in the fridge or freezer should do it right!  Wrong!  There is another culprit that lurks in the shadows.  It’ slower than the others I have written about but it’s all around us.  It’s Air!  Or more specifically Oxygen.  It’s the old we can’t live without it and we can’t live with it gag.  Oxygen is always burning everything it touches.  It is the source of rust and other oxidation around us.  Given enough time, oxygen spoils food too.  You know its fingerprints well.  They manifest themselves in several ways.  Rancid meat or butter is caused as a result of oxygen.  If you have a piece of meat for example that has little bacteria on it and you keep it in the fridge for a while somehow keeping the bacteria and mold away but exposed to the air, you will see in a few weeks the flavor turn rancid. Especially the fat portions.

An example more people are familiar with today is out of the freezer.  You put a cut of meat in a freezer bag and toss it into the freezer for a year long voyage.  On it’s arrival on the menu in your house, you find it is a little worse for wear.  Like it really went on a voyage around the world and put its time in as a fill in for the spare tire.  It is a frosty white color but you go forward with plans for dinner defrosting the well traveled steak or roast not wanting to waste a good meal over its having shown up in inappropriate attire.  After the careful thaw you notice an unpleasant odor coming from the long anticipated dinner guest.  Not wanting to be rude you insert the guest into its place of honor in you recipe only to discover the odor getting worse.  Kind of an old shoe leather odor but without the nostalgic memories.  You take a sample of the dinner, only to discover your recipe has been ruined by the apparent world traveler.  It’s not your guest’s fault.  It’s simply a case of a gate crasher beating you to the punch.  Freezer Burn ate dinner before you thawed it out, leaving spoiled meat in its path.  Freezer burn is oxidation that occurs in those low temperature conditions in the freezer.  It isn’t that it is dangerous, it’s just  distasteful and will give you an upset stomach.  Where you see it, trim away the burned portions and the rest will be alright.  The flavor from the unburned portioned may be a bit lackluster but it won’t be harmful or make anyone sick.  You just have to be sure to get it all trimmed off.

The way to protect your future dinner guests is to vacuum pack the meat if you plan to keep it in the freezer more than 2 months.  Vacuum packing pulls all the air out and seals the meat away.  This combined with freezing will preserve the meat for months or even years if done correctly.

Pressure Canning is another process that stands the test of time, with regard to these villains of good taste.  If the product is canned properly and the jars of goodies are kept in a cool spot (like a pantry or fruit cellar) the scale can be measured in years.

If a person is going to use a cut in 6 months to a year butcher wrap will work fine.

I guess the best advice I could give is invest the time to store it right and it will be ready when you need it.  Also, if it smells or looks wrong, be wary.  Don’t just throw it into a recipe for dinner to be served to your 90 year old Granny.  (Yeah, I know, you knew that already)  Test it on an annoying neighbor first.  Yes that was a joke, but don’t tell your neighbor.

Have a great day and a great meal.

Neck roast.

This recipe applies for any of the odd (cheaper or tougher) cuts from the Chuck (that is the front quarter on Beef or Venison). For my Neck Roast I used a Venison neck.

A 4-6 lb roast

(you can go bigger but the time will be longer and temp lower.)

2 Cups Brown Sugar

3 Tbs of Cajun Spice (Oregon Flavor Rack)

(OK, you can use your favorite Cajun spicy mix. I’m such a softy)

2-3 Tbs of Garlic Lovers Garlic (Oregon Flavor Rack)

(You can use 1 clove of fresh garlic minced or your favorite 3-4 Tbs of garlic powder)

I combine these dry ingredients in a bowl and then I adjust the flavor for my taste. How? I taste it and add as I see fit. It smells great by the way. I cover or rub the roast with the dry ingredients and then put the roast in a gallon sized Ziploc the night before I plan to cook it. (Yes, planning ahead is optional)

The roast goes in a roaster or roasting pan with some broth or water. I used 3 quarts in a huge roaster, you may want less. This amount of water gave me half an inch in the roaster, for a normal pan 2-3 cups should be plenty. I use the broth for a base for stew in another meal.

I put the roast in for about 3 -4 hours at 350. (These roasts require two things. Time and Water. If it doesn’t dry out it will be very forgiving about extending the cooking time.)
At the half-way point I do three things.

1. Turn the roast over
2. Sprinkle garlic and Cajun Spice on the roast. (just a little)
3. I put potatoes in with the roast. You can use carrots, celery or any hardy veggies you like.

At this point you can also add some salt to taste. I add the salt to the broth and baste the meat, keeping in mind I have plans for the broth. This keeps the meal reasonable on salt content, in case someone is watching their salt intake. Spices from Oregon Flavor Rack are salt free, in case you are wondering. The broth will make great base for gravy, stew, or as au jus.

These roasts aren’t pretty but the flavor is outstanding. The extended cooking time and moisture are needed to help break down the toughness of these cuts, which they do very well.

Make your pain a pleasure, cook it the right way and you’ll be a hero.

That’s because no one will go out on a limb in case there is a problem.

First, the quality of the canning job and the canning materials will determine your outcome.  If you did a good job prepping and preparing the product it will last a long time.  In my case I have, with the appropriate disclaimers for this is an example not true in every case, eaten four year old canned elk.  It was excellent.

You have to pay attention to your canned products to tell if there is a problem.  If the lid is not concave and does not make the sucking noise when you open it, the food is spoiled.  Unless you find this problem right out of the canner, that food is garbage, no exceptions.  If the food has the smell of rotten meat, in the case of canned meat, it is garbage.  If there is mold growing on the food, it is garbage. 

I do have to say canned meat will turn dark, and the fat separates and will collect on the top of the meat.  This is normal.  The process of cooking kills the germs in the jar.  It drives out the air in the jar through the boiling process.  As the jar cools it seals and there is now a vacuum in the jar.  No air.  For most contaminants, this process eliminates the possibility of spoilage as long as the seal holds.  It is important that the jar be stored in a cool dry place for this to remain true, however. 

The process of canning is designed to eliminate the causes of spoilage, and allow the canned food to last a long time.  If a step in the process is done wrong, the results can be more than inconvenient.  Some bacteria can’t be smelled or tasted.  They don’t off gas so they don’t cause the vacuum to disappear.  These bacteria are anaerobic or non air dependent.  They are killed by the cooking process.  So it is critical that the process be done right.  If you are in doubt about the food, don’t take a chance.  If you are brave, try a small sample.  It will take hours to be sure of the foods safety.  Don’t serve food you are unsure about to a crowd and especially not to the very young or elderly.  The effects of a small amount of food poisoning can be fatal in small quantites to the weak.

If you are diligent and thorough you can be confident that the food is good as long as the good indicators I mentioned are present.  You should also be aware of rusty lids as these can be a source of bacteria infiltrating the jar and ruining a good thing.

As always look around at other sources and don’t take any chances.

Brutus

I started changing how I cooked these because of this problem.  If you have a similar problem with the game bird your harvesting you might give it a try.  The first thing I did was bone out all the meat.  Here in lies most of the problem with both the smell and the taste.  Game birds are no different than any other meat, a lot of flavor comes from the bone, in this case the putrid and fowl odor and taste.  We have to wait until we get home because of regulations here about keeping identifiable parts attached to the bird, but before they go to the freezer, they get de-boned.  What a difference this alone makes in the atmosphere at dinner time.

The second thing I did, was I canned the bird meat.  At first since step one and two were on the same batch of birds I thought it was the canning that did the trick.  No, but the results of canning did make using the birds in a dish of our choice later easier than just freezing them.  One advantage is that game birds are not like chicken from the store, they have led a hard life and have the toughness to prove it.  By canning the birds they were tender and ready for gulosh or dumplings right out of the jar.  Secondly since these can be a bit smaller than a chicken and quail are even smaller, you can wait for a full batch without fear of freezer burn. 

Now I don’t hear the whining and complaining about birds for dinner.   I even cooked a batch for dinner with our daughter and her friends (yeah teenage) without a single turned up nose.  They had seconds too.  Okay, I guess that would be a downside, sometimes a little strategic stink can be useful.  Hope this is useful to you.

Happy hunting,

Brutus

As with any process, desirable or undesirable, there is more than one way to do it.  This is meant to be a starting point.  When I go to cook a dish, I will  do it different from one time to another.

First I take a jar of canned meat and drain the juice in a bowl.  I keep it for another dish.  The juice is a great base for gravies or soups. 

I put the meat in a frying pan with oil or butter. 

I start by cooking on medium heat and I use a fork to break up the meat and turn it so that it gets hot on all sides.

As the meat gets coated in the oil and gets warm I sprinkle some flour across the meat.  Continuing to turn and coat the meat with flour I continue heating until the flour turns brown and the meat takes on an almost crunchy character.

Its ready to serve at this point and can be used in a gravy on noodles or in a sandwich.  The meat prepared this way is very versatile.  Typically canned meat will have plenty of salt already in it but you may find pepper, garlic, or other spices you like useful in this dish.

Though this is a simple preparation the flavor is outstanding.  Mostly because of the wonderful flavor of the meat.  Game meat, if it is properly cared for, has much more flavor than the domestic cuts we are familiar with.  I hope you get the chance to try some of this great food.

Brutus

Canning is, first of all, a great way to preserve game meat.  It lasts for a long time in a cool place. I can the meat many people use for ground meat.  The canning process makes even the most cantankerous piece of 50 year old buck meat (yeah, a little exaggeration) into a tender morsel that doesn’t take three breaks to finally finish chewing.

Canning is a great option to consider for the trim meat on your game animal.  You have to make sure you are thorough about processing the meat when canning.  If you use canning jars, new lids, make sure everything is good an clean, cook the meat thoroughly, and make sure the lids sealed properly after cooking.  You should use a recipe for canning meat and follow the directions that come with your canner.

Canning meat takes about as  long to process as any food you would want to can.

Standard procedures should be followed for cleaning and otherwise preparing the jars and the lids.  I can’t stress  enough the importance of being diligent in this process. 

It can be done with cooked or raw meat.  Raw meat will not need any water or other liquid added to the jar. This is a matter of your experience. If the meat is quite lean a little water added over the meat may be in order. Hot pack or precooked meat does need some liquid added over the meat.

The meat should be cut into chunks no larger than 3/4 of an inch in size.  It is recommended that a pint jar have 1/2 a teaspoon of salt added and that a quart have 1 teaspoon of salt added.

The meat should be packed in the jars with about an inch of headspace.

Pints should be cooked at pressure for 75 minutes and Quarts for 90 minutes.  For raw pack meat I go a little longer than this, mostly for my own piece of mind.  The pressure is suggested to be 11 pounds at 1000 feet of elevation or less on dial gauge canner.  If you have a weighted gauge canner, 15 pounds will do fine.  According to the Presto website that will be good up to 8000 feet at the above times.  The extra pressure doesn’t hurt anything but you do want to make sure you don’t overpressurize the canner, as they can be damaged.  You don’t want to go too much over the times listed as the fluid made by the cooking meat in the jars will be boiled out if you go too long.

The directions and procedures in the directions of your canner or on the website of the manufacturer are worth following.  With these directions you can have the best meals and all the confidence that your food is as safe as it can be.

I like canned meat better than anything else I get out of the animal, except tenderloins.  Backstrap is a close second.  Backwards, I know.

Here’s to the pursuit,

Enjoy yours

Brutus