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The Ready Brief #242
Practical preparedness for uncertain times
FROM THE DESK
A full freezer stays at a safe temperature for about 48 hours without power. A half-full one lasts about 24 hours, and a refrigerator about 4 hours, according to FoodSafety.gov. After that, the meat is a loss unless it is cooked, dried or cured. Smoking, drying and curing are the old answers to that problem, and the safe versions depend on a few specific numbers: 160 degrees for jerky, 225 to 300 degrees in a smoker, and a measured amount of curing salt. Today's issue covers where each number comes from.
THE BRIEF
Smoking and Curing Meat
Before refrigeration, people kept meat by drying it, salting it and smoking it. The methods still work, but home versions go wrong in specific ways. This issue sticks to numbers from the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
Smoking is slowly cooking food indirectly over a fire, and FSIS says to hold the smoker between 225 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit throughout. Cook to the same internal temperatures as any other method: 145 degrees for steaks, chops and roasts, 160 for ground meat and 165 for poultry, measured with a food thermometer. Smoked meat is perishable. Refrigerate it within 2 hours of taking it off the smoker and use it within 4 days, or freeze it.
Hot smoking cooks the meat in the smoker, which is the approach described above and the right place for a beginner to start. Cold smoking, done well below cooking temperatures, flavors meat without cooking it. That leaves the meat in the 40 to 140 degree range where bacteria multiply, so it is used for cured products made from tested recipes.
Curing uses salt to draw moisture out of meat, sometimes with sugar and spices for flavor. Dry curing rubs the salt mixture directly onto the meat. Wet curing, or brining, submerges the meat in salt water.
Curing salt, sold as Prague powder or pink salt, contains sodium nitrite, which protects against botulism in meat that is cured or smoked at low temperatures. It is dyed pink so nobody mistakes it for table salt, and it is used in small measured amounts. Follow a tested recipe by weight, because the ratio of curing salt to meat is a safety limit, not a flavor choice.
Jerky is the simplest place to start. FSIS recommends heating beef to 160 degrees (poultry to 165) on a food thermometer before dehydrating, then drying at a steady 130 to 140 degrees. Marinate in the refrigerator, not on the counter. Jerky is shelf stable because most of the moisture is gone, but FSIS lists home-dried jerky as good for 1 to 2 months, against 12 months for commercially packaged jerky.
The preparedness use is narrow. If an outage runs past the FoodSafety.gov limits, meat that is still at or below 40 degrees can be cooked, smoked or dried right away. Meat that has been above 40 degrees for more than 2 hours should be thrown out. Smoking and drying also work without a refrigerator, though the finished food keeps the storage limits above.
Equipment ranges from a charcoal kettle grill set up for indirect heat to a dedicated smoker. Pellet smokers need electricity, so they stop working in the outage you are preparing for.
ONE THING THIS WEEK
Make a batch of oven jerky.
Slice a pound of lean beef about 1/4 inch thick, against the grain. Marinate it in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours with salt, pepper and garlic powder, and do not reuse the marinade. Lay the strips on a wire rack over a baking sheet and heat them in the oven until a food thermometer reads 160 degrees. Then lower the oven to its lowest setting and dry them until they bend and crack but do not snap. Drying time varies with thickness, so check a strip every 30 minutes once they look dry. Store the jerky airtight and eat it within 1 to 2 months.
ON THE RADAR
Egypt's Parliament Authorizes Military Support for Saudi Arabia
Egypt's parliament voted on Oct. 26 to authorize President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to support Saudi Arabia against attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Parliament released no breakdown of the closed-door vote, though Anadolu reports a two-thirds majority, and an 11-member opposition bloc abstained, citing unclear objectives and costs. An unnamed regional official told the AP that Egypt will send air defense systems and aircraft, not ground troops. First reading. Next: any announced deployment, or a strike on Gulf energy sites. Gulf disruptions feed fuel prices, and the AAA national average was $4.1694 on Nov. 2, up from $3.0361 a year ago.
Sources: Associated Press, Anadolu, AAA
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LESSON FROM: MICHAEL RUHLMAN
Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn wrote Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (W. W. Norton, revised and updated edition, 2013, 320 pages). The publisher's description presents charcuterie as the old craft of food preservation, "once a critical factor in human survival," and the book as a guide to curing meats and making sausage, pâtés and confits. About $24 in hardcover.
Our takeaway, not a claim from the book: learn the process in a kitchen, with a scale and a thermometer, while the stakes are low. They are the same skills you would need to save a freezer full of meat in a long outage.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Arizona Declares Statewide Emergency After Weekend Floods; Two Men Dead in Flagstaff
Gov. Katie Hobbs declared a statewide state of emergency on Monday, Nov. 2, making $200,000 in emergency funds available after storms flooded parts of Arizona. Evacuation orders covered areas of Yavapai, Coconino, Gila and Pinal counties, including Sedona zones along Oak Creek, which rose above its 14-foot flood stage on Sunday. Flagstaff police found two men dead: a 73-year-old man from New York swept away by floodwater Sunday evening, and a second man found in a stormwater drainage area Monday morning. Police say weather was a factor in the second death and the cause is under investigation. Crews made at least six water rescues in Flagstaff on Sunday. Know your county's evacuation levels before you need them, and never drive or walk into floodwater of unknown depth.
WHAT WE'RE RECOMMENDING
About $419 on Amazon. It is a charcoal smoker with two 18.5-inch cooking grates, a water pan, a built-in thermometer and vents on the bowl and lid for temperature control. Because it runs on charcoal, it works when the grid is down, which a pellet smoker does not.
Budget alternative: a charcoal kettle grill set up for indirect heat. Temperature control is less precise, so add a probe thermometer.
OVERRATED / UNDERRATED
Overrated: Pellet smokers as the “easy” option. They produce good results but require electricity to run, which defeats the preparedness purpose. A charcoal or wood smoker works regardless of grid status.
Underrated: A food thermometer. Every number in this issue is an internal temperature: 160 degrees for jerky, 145 to 165 for smoked meat. Color and cooking time do not tell you whether you have reached one.
THE LINK DUMP
AmazingRibs.com: Smoking and barbecue techniques, recipes and equipment reviews.
USDA FSIS: Smoking Meat and Poultry: Smoker temperatures, safe internal temperatures and chilling rules.
USDA FSIS: Jerky and Food Safety: The 160 degree step and drying temperatures for homemade jerky.
FoodSafety.gov: Food Safety During Power Outage: How long refrigerators and freezers hold a safe temperature, and when to discard food.
National Center for Home Food Preservation: Tested guidance on home food preservation, hosted by the University of Georgia.
COMING UP
Emergency dental care: what to keep on hand for a cracked tooth, a lost filling or an infection when the dentist is closed.
How was today's issue? Tap one below. If you pick "Could be better," tell us what to fix.
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PS: Put a thermometer in your freezer this week. The 48 hour figure from FoodSafety.gov only holds if the freezer is full and the door stays closed.
THE READY BRIEF is published for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing here is professional legal, medical, financial, or tactical advice. Preparedness looks different for every household. Use your own judgment, consult qualified professionals when the stakes are high, and adapt what you read here to your actual situation.