Storing Smoked Meats

[deejaydebi]

I was raised on a small farm here in New England . Every fall my Dad would butcher two cows, and two pigs. We had a small stone building about the size of a small one car garage the whole neighborhood used to smoke their meat. We kids weern't allowed in there so I have no idea what went on in there. When the meat was done after a few weeks, my Dad hung his meat in the unheated front mud room (a small entry porch in the front of the house) from about December until March. Granted I think the winters were much colder here then but as I remember it was like a refrigerator in there. In fact I now use my mud room to store my home brewed beer kegs in the winter.

This may seem like an obvious question to some of you but my references are from childhood memories and I'm sure todays sanitiation standards are a bit more refined - so I thought I'd ask.

After you smoke up all those briskets, ribs, hams and chickens how do you store them? Are they frozen? If so how long will the meat keep by these methods?

Debi

 

[up in smoke]

Smoked meat doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t keep too well unless itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s cured, then itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s good for several months. Some things longer than others. It depends. :roll:

 

[cajunsmoker]

I can't speak for anyone other than myself, but when I cook a brisket it is usually gone in a day or 2. Same with a butt or loin. I smoke what will likely be consumed in a day or so. If you want to last any longer than a couple of days you would have to cure it or freeze it. If you have a large amount of fresh meat today, a deep freeze is the ticket.

 

[gunslinger]

I smoke everything we are going to consume for 2 weeks in one day. If we are not going to eat it in a day or 2, I will vacuum pack and freeze. Never had a problem and most everything tastes fresh.

 

[buzzard]

yeppers that what i do to. smoke a bunch of food and vacuum seal it up and freeze it. then it will last a long time. and i usually protion it in meal size (two slices of pork loin for example), then when i want to eat i heat it in the microwave for two min. it does loose a little flavor but not muchl. some times i will throw it on the grill after it has thawed to give the flavor a little kick.

the two best accessories i have purchased for my smoker is a meat slicer and vacuum sealer. the third would be my dehydrator, smoke some jerkey for an hour then finish it off in there.

since this thread, i am now going to have to learn to cure meat.

 

[cheech]

If it is going to be a bit before I use it I will vacuum seal it, if it is something like salami that I plan on using with in the next few months I use butcher paper, (it costs less money than always buying those plastic bags) how ever if the meat is cured it can last longer but really with the amount of freezer space I have I prefer to smoke it as I need it and keep it in the freezer

 

[cajun_1]

yeppers...vacuum seal & freeze.

 

[lawnman]

Thanks for the advice , got a nice smoke going this am will vacum pack the left overs and freeze. Thanks Frank