Salted and smoked meats were common before refrigeration.
Salt, sugar and smoke were used to cure meats. Salt, sugar and smoke are poisonous if in a high enough concentration to bacteria.
Syrup, candy, jam and jelly are ways to preserve fruit, we always called it “canning sugar”; because, we went through many 25 lb. bags of sugar putting up jam. If maple sugar is not concentrated enough it will grow bacteria and mold. Things high in sugar (more than 66%) are called a BIX. Honey and molasses is preserved by the fact that it is about 66% sugar or more. Too much sugar and it crystallizes or sugars out.
How To Preserve a Whole Pig Without Refrigeration
Meat was cured by soaking it in lots of salt (brine) for several weeks in the cold weather of fall. We then smoked it for three days and three nights. The smoking evaporated the water in the meat and concentrated the salt even more. The meat would keep for about six months with no refrigeration. The outside of the ham and bacon were covered in a waxy fat which sealed the outside of the meat and the smoke kept mold from forming (it is poisonous to many pathogens). The meat had to be de-salted before it could be used. Often it was used to flavor and salt a large pot of beans without de-salting (like fat back, or sow belly).
Preserving Meat Long-Term, The Old-Fashioned Way - Off The Grid News
We canned sausage by seasoning it and salting it, we then cooked it until the water was boiled out and the lard went clear (no water). We drained the fat off and packed the cooked loose sausage into jars and poured hot fat on the top to keep the air from getting to the meat, a cloth was tied over the jar to keep out the mice and bugs. We used the canned sausage to make sausage gravy for biscuits in the morning and we made things like Shepard's pie for suppers with the canned loose sausage.
We put things in salt brine like cucumbers and green beans to make pickles. They made their own vinegar in the salt. It made “pickle stock” which was too salty to eat. We de-salted the pickles and made pickle brine and soaked the de-salted pickle stock for several days in a brine of our choice made with lots of spices and good vinegar. We could have sweet pickles, dill pickles or many different pickles from the same salted stock. You had to eat them within a few weeks and keep them in the refrigerator (like refrigerator pickles) to keep them from spoiling. Pickle stock did not need to be refrigerated only kept in the root cellar.
Living among a bunch of hillbillies when I was young gave me the opportunity to see these old ways of doing things which are not common now.
