Everything You Need To Know About Dried Meat
The seemingly weird practice of substituting a bit of dried meat for a given meal can be traced to several centuries back. For instance, nomadic cultures would engage in meat drying when preparing for long journeys and then eat that for days if fresh food wasn’t available. As ancient as this practice might sound or appear, a good number of people still love this high fat and protein source. The act of drying meat is a technology that hasn’t been defined clearly until today. Meat drying might be done for the sole reason of dehydrating fresh meat as an extension of the storage. On the other hand, it could also be among the numerous processing steps in the manufacture of particular meat products.
What are the health benefits of dried meat?
Meat drying at a temperature of 104º or below helps in keeping the meat essentially raw even if it appears differently to the eyes. Its enzymes are normally left intact and the healthy bacteria population is also left alive. Although the human body produces enzymes for facilitating digestion, raw food is known to provide a lot of its own enzymes that usually takes unburden the digestive system. Healthy bacteria also come in handy as far as digestion of food is concerned. It is important to note that the digestive system is a basically a thriving ecology that we depend on for continued good health. In this regard, raw foods such as dried meat play an essential role of supplying good bacteria that our bodies really need.
Can any type of meat be dried?
You can actually dry many different types of meat and this includes pork, deer, goat, beef and even specific types of seafood such as mussels. The act of drying meat tends to considerably increase the meat’s protein content for every gram and sometimes even doubling it. It also goes a long way in preserving the meat for many days. Since bacteria require an aqueous environment for them to grow, try adding salt to prevent further growth of unhealthy bacterial growth. Preparation and consumption of dried meat was very common among the plain Indians such as Comanche, Cheyenne and Lakota tribes. Dried meat was also a valuable item of trade for them. Often, they would ground dried meat into powder, and then mix fat and berries to obtain pemmican. A good number of other hunter-gatherers cultures across the world have actually incorporated dried meat into their regular diets. This is one-stop link resource for dried food lovers. Read inspiring driedfood articles now!
Ways of drying meat
There are different ways of meat drying. Depending on where you are located and the resources within your reach, meat drying can be achieved sing traditional methods or the methods. As far as traditional meat drying is concerned, you can make use of air circulation or sunshine. When it comes to sunshine use, you may opt between sun drying and solar sun drying. Sun drying is a common practise in the rural setting while solar meat drying is an advanced technology. In the modern world, people dry meat using their ovens. For effective results, conduct a personal research on how to dry meat using an oven.
