Stock up on emergency supplies: how and which foods can be preserved for a long time by smoking?
Created: 11/24/2022, 6:30 p.m
By: Janine Napirca
Do you want to stock up on fish and meat in case of an emergency?
Smoking makes food last longer.
When a potential emergency occurs, many people want to be as prepared as possible.
For some, this includes physical fitness, while for others it is particularly important to have the right emergency numbers to hand quickly and enough cash safely stored at home.
The federal government also recommends storing enough food, especially water, for at least ten days at home as a precaution against crises.
So that your emergency supply of different foods does not spoil so quickly, you should make your food durable for as long as possible.
Smoking is a tried and tested method of benefiting from emergency supplies of meat and fish for as long as possible.
You can smoke meat and fish yourself at home with the help of a smoker and thus make the food last longer.
© Imagebroker/Imago
Stock up on emergency supplies: What are the different ways to make food last longer?
If you grow fruit and vegetables – you can also do this in winter – or if you buy seasonal produce locally, there are various ways to make the food last longer.
A well-known way of preserving food is, for example, fermentation.
Do you already know kimchi?
You can easily make the fermented vegetables from Korea yourself.
But the storage of the emergency supplies also plays an important role: Dry foods such as rice, pasta, rice and flour should be stored in a dry place.
You can also create an emergency supply of potatoes and onions without a basement or if there is only little space available.
Overview of methods for preserving food and their possible storage duration:
procedure | type of preservation | Food | storage duration |
|---|---|---|---|
fumigation | Addition of smoke and heat, dehydration, inhibition of microorganism growth by dehydration and partial killing of microorganisms by bactericidal smoke ingredients | Meat fish | weeks to months |
drying | Heat supply, dehydration, inhibition of microorganism growth and enzyme activity | Dried fruit, legumes, herbs, cereals | up to one year |
salting | Addition of curing salt, dehydration, inhibition of microorganism growth and partial destruction of microorganisms by nitrite | meat, meat products | some weeks |
acidify | Addition of vinegar or acetic acid, pH reduction, inhibition of microorganism growth, killing of microorganisms at high concentrations | Cucumbers, mixed pickles, fish, sweet and sour pickled fruit and vegetables | some months |
lactic acid fermentation | Formation of lactic acid by lactic acid bacteria, inhibition of the growth of other microorganisms, pH reduction | Sauerkraut, sour beans, pickles | some months |
pickling in alcohol | Addition of alcohol, inhibition of microorganism growth, microorganisms die at high concentrations | Rumtopf, fruits in alcohol | some months |
Soaking in preserving solutions | Prevention of air ingress (e.g. lime, water glass, oil), inhibition of microorganism growth | Eggs, herbs, feta cheese | weeks to months |
boil down | Exposure to heat between 75 °C and 100 °C, partial killing of microorganisms, inhibition of microorganism growth, reduction of enzyme activity, partial killing of spores | Fruit and vegetable juices, jams, marmalades, jellies, chutneys | up to one year |
Salt | Addition of table salt, inhibition of microorganism growth through dehydration and partial destruction of microorganisms through nitrite | Fish, meat, meat products | weeks to months |
Sugar | Added sugar, exposure to heat, dehydration, inhibition of microorganism growth | Jam, marmalade, jelly, fruit syrup, candied fruit | a few months to a year |
Cool | Heat withdrawal to +2 to +15 °C, inhibition of microorganism growth | butter, eggs, milk, fish, meat, fruit, vegetables | one day to several months |
Freeze | Heat removal down to -18°C or colder, disrupting microorganism growth and reducing enzyme activity | Vegetables, fish, meat, fruit, baked goods, home-made meals | a few months to a year |
Source: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
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Stock up on emergency supplies and preserve food: How can you smoke meat and fish yourself?
Smoking makes fish and meat last longer because water is removed from the food in the smokehouse.
In order to smoke fish and meat, you should first decide on the type of smoking and the temperature.
The smoking temperature is below 30 degrees Celsius for cold smokers, between 30 and 50 degrees Celsius for warm smokers and between 60 and 120 degrees Celsius for hot smokers.
The type of smoking also affects the shelf life of the food.
Cold-smoked food keeps for a few weeks or even months at cellar temperatures, warm-smoked food also stays in the cellar for several weeks and hot-smoked food only a few days in the fridge.
Longer shelf life: You need the following ingredients to smoke around ten kilos of fish or meat
1 kg fine, iodised sea salt
0.5 kg coarse, iodized sea salt
100 g smoked meat spice mixture
10 g ground cumin
10 g ground pepper
10 g ground coriander
2 tbsp sugar
3 heads of finely chopped garlic
You also need a knitting needle, kitchen twine, fuel for smoking such as beech, fruitwood, alder, oak, nut or chestnut, additional smoking flour and a smoker.
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Instructions: How to smoke fish and meat for the food supply yourself
Preparation: Wash the meat or fish well, dry it and cut it into pieces about 30 centimeters long.
Poke a hole in one end with a needle, thread kitchen twine through and tie a tight loop to hang the meat or fish to be smoked.
Suras: Mix the above ingredients into a salt and spice mixture and rub into the meat and/or fish.
Then place the food to be smoked in a container with a lid, which you can store in the cellar in the dark at around ten degrees Celsius for three weeks.
Rearrange: Halfway through the time, open the container, catch the brew in another bowl and rearrange the fish or meat pieces (the upper one goes down, the lower one up).
Then pour the collected brew over the smoked food and close the container again.
Water storage: After three weeks, take the smoked food out of the container and clean it thoroughly.
The meat or fish is also rinsed with cold water, then placed in the clean container, which in turn is filled with water.
All meat or fish should remain submerged for 24 hours.
Drying: Remove meat/fish from the water, drain well and hang to dry for a further 24 hours.
Smoking: Light the Sparbrand at one end and place in the smoker.
Close the oven to smoke.
The duration of the smoking process depends on your smoked food.
Normally, a smoking process takes no more than eight hours.
Then the smoking material is removed, the meat/fish is left alone for twelve hours before the next smoking cycle starts.
What foods should you not refreeze after defrosting?
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On the one hand, the duration of the smoking depends on the thickness of the smoked food, i.e. thick meat takes longer than a narrow sausage.
On the other hand, the duration of the smoking depends on the type of smoking.
While raw ham, loin and bacon are cold-smoked for around three days (warm for ten hours, hot for two and a half hours), fish and poultry require one to two days (one to two hours warm, 30-40 minutes hot).
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