Preserving meat in fat

Fat has an astounding ability to preserve. The traditional confit method involves salt-curing the meat usually duck goose turkey or pork then poaching it in its own fat until its tender and storing it covered in that fat.

Fill jars with pieces and add boiling broth meat drippings water or tomato juice leaving 1-inch headspace.

Preserving meat in fat. The meat is salted and seasoned with herbs and slowly cooked submerged in its own rendered fat in which it is then preserved by allowing it to cool and storing it in the fat. Turkey and pork may be treated similarly. Meat confits are a specialty of the southwest of France Toulouse Dordogne etc and are used in dishes such as cassoulet.

If youre searching for a natural way to preserve food in animal fat look no further than lard. Naturally salt-cured meat like bacon contains salt a greatpreserving agent. Thanks to the salt in bacon bacteria cant multiply in the meat.

The traditional confit method involves salt-curing the meat usually duck goose turkey or pork then poaching it in its own fat until its tender and storing it covered in that fat. Back then they didnt refrigerate it at all. They just trusted the meat fat to preserve it.

The traditional confit method involves salt-curing the meat usually duck goose turkey or pork then poaching it in its own fat until its tender and storing it covered in that fat. Back then they didnt refrigerate it at all. They just trusted the meat fat to preserve it.

Fat has an astounding ability to preserve. This is especially true when it rises to the top and seals in food. When fat cools and seals food in it also keeps oxygen out.

Without that precious oxygen it takes much longer for the food to spoil. With venison add one part high-quality pork fat to three or four parts venison before grinding The University of Alaska Extension calls for oil to be added to some canned fish. For halibut add up to 4 tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil per pint jar if you wish.

One of the most important ingredients to include when preserving meats by curing is sodium nitrate. Sodium nitrate can be found in all kinds of leafy green vegetables and can be added to your salt mixture in the form of celery juice ground spinach or pink salt curing salt 1 which is 7 percent sodium nitrate. To make a confit the meat was salted and cooked for a very long time in its own fat then allowed to cool in its own fat.

It was then sealed up in its own fat of course and stored in a cool place where it could last for months. Rillettes for Preserving Meat If you can kind of imagine pulled pork cooked in rendered fat it has some similarities to confit. You are also cooking it down until all the cells are broken down just like pulled pork.

And then it is stored in a sterilized jar with fat. Storing food in fat is virtually unheard of these days but this method of food preservation is actually the origin of the of the word larder. We tend to think of a larder in the same context as a pantry but historically they are in fact two distinctly different food storage spaces.

The larder was a cool room or cellar where meat was stored. The safest method for preserving meat is pressure canning. Basically your jars of meat are placed inside a special cooker which heats it to a minimum of 240-degrees Fahrenheit.

Temperatures of this magnitude can only be reached by using the pressure canning method. When learning how to preserve meat this is one of the best methods to use. Trim meat of gristle bruised spots and fat before canning.

Too much fat left on meat can lead to sealing failures The second is that fat can go rancid in storage and excess fat just increases that possibility. One final common preservation and storing technique was to pot meat. This involved packing cooked meat tightly into a jar and capping it with a generous amount of butter lard or tallow rendered beef fat.

An unappetizing as this may sound it kept meat safe to eat for weeks or months in the right environment. Precook meat until rare by roasting stewing or browning in a small amount of fat. Add 1 teaspoons of salt per quart to the jar if desired.

Fill jars with pieces and add boiling broth meat drippings water or tomato juice leaving 1-inch headspace. Process for 75-90 minutes depending on altitude. Traditional methods include rillettes in which you cook meat or fish with additional fat and then roughly blend them together and confit which has you submerge cuts of meat in a fat or oil bath and slowly poach them until totally tender.

If these products are then sealed in fat they can last for several months. Preserving Meat When were preserving our meat in either a pressure canner dehydrator or freezer dryer its usually with lean cuts of meat. The reason for this is that fat goes rancid much faster than the actual meat.

Fat can also inhibit sealing when pressure canning so its usually removed from things like homemade and home-canned broth.