Ever heard of vinegar meat??

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
As a lad I herded sheep for my dad in the summertime when our regular herder would go on layoff for a couple or three weeks to spend his money that he had saved up, which generally all went to the local bars. The reason those old boys were sheepherders was because they couldn't work any place where liquor would be available easily or they wouldn't show up for work. Of course the only meat you could keep in a sheep camp wagon was ham or bacon as you had no refrigeration. Sometimes it would start to get slimy on the outside and all you had to do was take and wash it off with vinegar and that would kill whatever was doing it and it would be good for another week or 10 days. Of course all the bacon and ham that I remember in those days, in the 50s, was cured very heavily with salt and smoke and would keep where this stuff today would not do that at all. We didn't have electricity at home until I was probably 12 years old, and so the practice was pretty common then too that you could make ham or bacon edible by washing it with vinegar. We never kept it in anything that was sealed tight, generally it was kept in a tightly woven cloth sack that flies and stuff couldn't get in.
The fact that you are still alive and telling us about this says a lot about old time practices of preserving food.
 
Yes hams and bacon hanging overhead in the general store, no refrigeration, no running water, no TV etc. ect., split wood to hammer handle size for the Home Comfort cook stove. I was 11 when we moved to a town that had electricity, in a semi-furnished house that even had an electric stove. Mamma had to learn to cook all over again. Biscuits were never the same.
A lot of the meat, beef, goat, deer, got put into Mason jars, pork got lots of salt, potassium nitrate, sugar and smoked for about a week.
 
I came across this in November 2024 muzzle lasts.

"Take a slab of meat and inch or so thick, submerge it in a pan of half vinegar and half water, bring to a boiling boil. Keep it submerged while boiling for 1 hour, pat dry"
The author says it's been lab tested to stay bacteria free for up to 20 days with no refrigeration. I searched for a while but found almost no safety info or even mention of doing this online. I know vinegar is going to make the meat pretty gross if eaten on its own, but I usually make a stew when backpacking with bullion, herbs, dried vegs, and jerky. The jerky takes a long while to rehydrate and tenderize, this vinegar meat could be a game changer for me if I can verify it's safe for up to 5 days without refrigeration.
My grandmother used to soak meat in vinegar which was a little old.
 
That’s not funny!
Oh Come on. The Barbecue in North Carolina primarily uses a Vinegar based barbecue sauce while the barbecue in Memphis and Kansas City is a tomato based. As you move between the two areas you get a mixture of both, leaning towards whichever one is closer. But arriving in the Raleigh area, it is definitely vinegar based. And it is DELICIOUS! My brother got married there and their slow-cooked barbecue at the reception was to die for!
 
I came across this in November 2024 muzzle lasts.

"Take a slab of meat and inch or so thick, submerge it in a pan of half vinegar and half water, bring to a boiling boil. Keep it submerged while boiling for 1 hour, pat dry"
The author says it's been lab tested to stay bacteria free for up to 20 days with no refrigeration. I searched for a while but found almost no safety info or even mention of doing this online. I know vinegar is going to make the meat pretty gross if eaten on its own, but I usually make a stew when backpacking with bullion, herbs, dried vegs, and jerky. The jerky takes a long while to rehydrate and tenderize, this vinegar meat could be a game changer for me if I can verify it's safe for up to 5 days without refrigeration.

You mean Sauerbraten?

Yes I know that today, Sauerbraten is not nearly so high in vinegar, but this is the nuclear age and we have refrigerators. Original recipes had much more vinegar and salt.

Very low pH of the cooked meat due to the vinegar acid inhibits bacterial growth.

IF you dry the meat, the lack of moisture impedes bacterial growth, hence the reason jerky doesn't spoil even though it's raw

If you dry meat in warm temps, you add salt to inhibit bacterial growth until the meat has lost enough moisture. You could jerk meat with a vinegar marinade instead of salt and get the same result.

Smoke, if you smoke the meat, has chemical properties that will also inhibit bacterial growth.

LD
 


Write your reply...

Latest posts

Back
Top