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Originally Posted by headquarters
I havent seen you around for a long time ,Grae - good to hear from you again ! ( It might just be that I havent been paying attention- nevertheless -good.)
I wanted to ask - smoking meats etc -will it not add to shelf life quite a lot ? I was under the impression that it would dry out the meat / fish considerably thus increasing shelf live by a lot -compared to fresh product of course.
Please advise - on mutton,pork,beef, dog (! well it is a post apoc game after all )
As for potatoes - in days past ,most houses here had a dark cellar were the temperature was cooler than the rest of the house with a big wooden container that could hold a couple of hundred pounds of potatoes or ther abouts .Apparently these dark and relatively cool conditions ( probably around +8 degrees Celsius )would keep the majority of the spuds edible for many months .
Some people state that potatoes can easily be grown if you leave a small batch in a cardboard container on your window sill ( inside ) and then replant after app 14 days of light ,in outside containers like flowerbeds,pails,tubs,drums or even discarded car tires filled with soil.
I would like an opinion on the feasability of such a garden -and any major tips on what to do and what to not - if thats alright .
As for T2K cuisine on a more specialized note : can anyone give me a ballpark figure for how long you have to wait to eat meat from animals that have been exposed to fallout ? I know there are a myriad variables,so to start off I would say that dosage is below lethal dose for the animal ( dog or sheep/cow/venison etc ) and that exposure has ended .
In other words -if you come across a deer /cow after the kaboom,you know it comes recently from the next county over were dangerous fallout has been registered -what would the recommended wait ? I am of course talking a situation were you have to eat or perish sooner rather than later .
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Smoking meat inhances drying which will significantly extend shelf life of meat. While vegetation is not generally smoked (no comments needed) drying does the same for them. Key to success is thin slicing. Salt, if available, is used to speed the drawing of moisture out of the flesh. The quicker you can get it dried the better, especially if it's fly season (when it's not too cool/cold for them). Mutton should be able to be dried, though pork is iffy. Pork probably can be if sliced thin and fat cut off. Fat should be trimmed from any meat your drying as it will go rancid, it does not dry. Exception is pemmican the Indians (PC.. Native Americans) made. It was dried and pounded flesh, usually buffalo or venison, mixed with dried and pounded berries (sand cherries and juneberries come to mind). This dried mix was blended with hot melted tallow, but not so hot as to cook the meat. The dried meat is RAW.
Pork especially should ALWAYS be cooked well before eating because of the diseases they carry.. tricinosis (sp)[worms that get into the muscles.. nasty and painful from what I understand and if they get in the heart muscle.. well...] especially, but others as well are passable to humans.
As for radiation contaminated critters.. skin carefully only animals that do not appear sick. If in doubt, do without.. Bury the hides, unless your desperate and VERY careful. Lots of variable there, discretion is needed. All animals organs, esp livers and lungs, should be inspected for lesions. IF they are suspect I do NOT advise eating the critter.. this is tame and wild guys...
I do not recommend eating brain or spinal column from animals either. Mad cow disease is said to be where that comes from more than the flesh. So word of caution.
Most fish I think are good to dry. My only experience is with trout/salmon. Again salt helps the process. Oily fish are not as good as the flakier ones. Fish have been dried for millenia, as has land flesh or their sea partners (whale, seal, etc) As I recall saying, lutefisk anyone
(know I have forgotten already some of what I wrote before so this may ramble some)
Potatoes store well in 'root cellars'. cool basements, or even heaps covered with dirt and straw. Where ever they stay cool and out of light without freezing. Store only the best and eat the rest as soon as possible to prevent spoilage from bruised/scarred tubers.. This holds true for other roots as well, such as turnips, carrots, etc. We stored in burlap sacks of ca. 50 pounds in a room in our cellar. Not a true root cellar, but it worked quite well. If there is a sign of spolage, isolate the spoilage and get rid of it, and use the 'good' items from that batch as soon as possible. And it does not take long for a batch to go bad, so check often. Properly stored they can be had from harvest to the harvest of new potatoes, depending on you seasons.
Spuds can be grown well in the stacked tires or pails... tire stacks are better IMO. Place the first tire down, fill with soil and plant you spud. Peeling with enough flesh to get the plant going will work.. make sure there is at least one eye in each piece you plant. As the plant grows, add another tire, filling with dirt as the plant keeps coming up. Don't bury too deep, just keep is filling as the plant grows out of the soil.
Morer specifics, feel free to ask.
grae