18th Century Meat Storage Methods For Off Grid Prepping (2024)

FAQs

How was meat stored in the 1800s? ›

Meat products could be preserved through salting or smoking. A salt cure involved rubbing salt into the meat, which was then completely covered in salt and placed in a cool area for at least twenty-eight days. During this time, more salt was constantly added.

Drying is the easiest and most common way to preserve meat. Pieces of meat are cut from the carcass and hung in the sun to dry. The entire animal can be preserved in this way, although certain cultures seem to prefer specific cuts for drying.

They placed the meat on a layer of salt and covered it with more salt, sometimes mixed with pepper and brown sugar. Salt draws moisture out of meat and thus stops the process of rotting. Some people later stored the meat buried in shelled corn, because the corn was a good insulator.

Meat & Dairy

Another process used to preserve meet was known as salting. The meat was rubbed with salt, placed it in wooden barrels and topped off with water, making a brine. The brine kept the meat moister and more palatable than drying, and it prohibited the growth of harmful organisms.

Meat curing and smoking are two of the oldest methods of meat preservation. They not only improve the safety and shelf life of meat products but also enhance the colour and flavour. Smoking of meat decreases the available moisture on the surface of meat products, preventing microbial growth and spoilage.

One of the few positive aspects of winter on the frontier was that meat could be hung outside and frozen, or, as Catharine Beecher noted, "packed carefully with snow in a barrel." Settlers with access to wood also cured their meats in smokehouses, a process that involved feeding a smoky fire under the meat for days -- ...

Without refrigeration, meat that the cowboys ate had to be preserved in some way. Cowboys were always on the move, so old-fashioned methods of refrigeration wouldn't work. That's where salting comes in. Salting meat to dry and preserve it has been around for centuries.

1 – Drying

Drying (or dehydrating) meat is a practice that's been used for thousands of years, and is still one of the most common ways of keeping meat edible. The meat is dried using heat; you can use various heat sources for this method, such as a fire, charcoal/gas grill, dehydrators, or an oven.

Many times, food was put in caves or root cellars which held consistently cool temperatures even in the New England summers. To help keep temperatures down, ice blocks were wrapped in hay to keep root cellars cool - an early 'refrigeration' technique.

It referred to a method in which they meticulously defatted, cut, pounded and dried fresh pieces of meat from large game and fish. The meat was either sun dried or smoked over a fire, preserving it from mold and moisture.

How did cowboys keep bacon from spoiling? ›

Usually, thick slabs of smoked bacon would keep as long as it was protected form the hot temperatures. One way to preserve bacon was to pack it inside a barrel of bran. Also, eggs could be protected by packing them in barrels of corn meal – as the eggs were used up, the meal was used to make bread.

The Pilgrims tried to extend the life of their foods through preservation. Salting, the most common method of preservation, worked well for pork (meat from pigs) and fish. This method was sometimes combined with smoking for meats. Drying was also common.

To survive, our early ancestors had to find a way to make that food last through the cold months. In frozen climates, they froze meat on the ice; in tropical climates, they dried foods in the sun. These early methods of food preservation enabled ancient man to put down roots and form communities.

Salting was the most common way to preserve virtually any type of meat or fish, as it drew out the moisture and killed the bacteria. Vegetables might be preserved with dry salt, as well, though pickling was more common. Salt was also used in conjunction with other methods of preservation, such as drying and smoking.

Food would be smoked, dried, salted, fermented or pickled. It would also be kept in root cellars or pits underground. Wealthy people who lived in cold climates were more likely to have an ice pit or later an ice house where they would keep ice for use in warm months.

Salting pork drew out moisture so small meat cuts could be rubbed down with salt and then stored in even more salt, which was relatively cheap in the 1700s and keeps the nasty bacteria at bay.

Before refrigeration, people stored food in a lot of different ways. Food would be smoked, dried, salted, fermented or pickled. It would also be kept in root cellars or pits underground.

Ice houses were very common by the 1800s. This is also when ice delivery became commonplace. Businesses specialized in delivering blocks of ice to fill ice pits during the summer months. At the end of the 19th century, many people kept their food fresh in iceboxes made of wood.

They hung the salted meat in the smokehouse near a low-burning hardwood fire. The smoke from the fire continued to dry, cure, and flavor the meat. This preserved pork, beef, mutton and fish was then rationed to slaves, hired workers, and Jefferson's household.