How many of you'll have saved thawed out meat when you have lost power for days? Or just done it anyways? I've been thinking how I would go about trying to save 2 freezers full of meat? Say if I would lose power from an ice storm or something else happens to the grid. My plan right now would be to use lots & lots of rock salt. I figure if I can get about 90% of the moisture out of the meat that it would be safe to keep for 10-12 months. I know that I would have to keep adding salt as this process takes time until done. I do have a generator that would could keep me going for 5-7 days before I would run out of fuel. But if the grid did go down for say a month or longer which could happen what would you do?

OK let's hear your thoughts about what you would do if your freezer lost power for days or weeks? I know that people can meat but it would take way too long doing that with so much meat at 1 time. Is there any other options in case something would ever happen to save as much meat as possible?

Meat has been stored for centuries with salt and smoke. My grandpa used to tell stories about barrels of salt pork at the orphanage during the depression. "Just scrape off the green and you're good."

I helped clean out a house once that had large crocks of salted fish in the basement. Under the top layer of scum, the fish looked like it was put there yesterday. No, I did NOT try any.

Unless it's the dead of summer, a fully packed chest freezer will keep meats cold for days until over a week. You said you also have a genny to last upwards of a week. That would give you plenty of time to get everything canned, IMO, which would be my first choice of preservation. It would also seem prudent to store a bit more gas for the genny than 5-7 days worth. Also... you don't need to run the freezers 24/7 to keep them cold. Running 2-3 hours a day in winter is ample, longer of course in summer.

Canning it has a few benefits, imo. 1) Lasts pretty much indefinitely. 2) Done properly, it removes any chance of bacterial contamination that could make you sick. 3) The resulting product is much more palatable than salted or smoked meats. 4) Ease of use... no soaking/cooking etc... just open a jar and eat it.

A small generator. 5 gallons of gas and a small generator goes a long ways

Ice storms typically happen in winter. It will last in the freezer WAY longer than you would think

Freezedried is a good option

We lost power for almost 3 weeks from a hurricane, if you leave the freezer closed it will stay frozen a long time, a small generator run a couple hours a day will keep it froze even longer...If the meat still has frost in it it can be re frozen when you get power back...if you're out for a month or longer you got a bigger problem...

If you don't want to can the meat beforehand, in an emergency, you can run the older pressure canners on a wood fire on a grill.

Keith

Buy a Generator. Mine has saved my butt 3 times now.

…. Had a wire get cut going to my shed where the big freezer was

… it was out for two weeks before I realized it … had about 4 deers worth of meat in it

… the packages were thawed on the outside but still froze in the middle

… repaired the wire and all was good…. We ate every bit of that meat

WTG Bubba! A friend told me he had the same deal, but washed all the meat with Baking Soda to knock down the "High" smell.

^^^ you ain’t bein sarcastic with me now are ya ?

… borderline condescending in my opinion

… you want some of this ?

…I asked you a question… and I expect an answer

We caught a hurricane a week after we slaughtered a hog. No power for a couple days.Had a pressure cooker and jars so we canned it as it was defrosting . Will never own a home without a gas stove

Who? ME?

Keith

My cousins freezer at camp failed and was out for a good while before they discovered it. It had a good amount of meat in it. They asked me if I wanted it and I said yes (they never asked when it wash fresh frozen LOL). It was sill cold (not frozen and me being unable to waste anything) Refroze it and ate it all. I really didnt notice any difference so ya, your good.