Grease/Fat

[YYY]

Hi Everybody,

 

I keep reading that grease/fat is the enemy in preserving food. I have 2 questions / problems:

 

1. I have been dehydrating hamburger “rocks” for some time with no problems. (Here are the instructions: http://www.endtimesreport.com/hamburger_rocks.html - about ½ way down the page) I tried doing this with breakfast sausage (the kind you make patties with not the hot dog looking ones). They come out so greasy that I’m afraid to store them, so I use them immediately. I rinse the sausage after the first time I fry it like the instructions say. I've even rinsed more than once – but still greasy. Any suggestions ???

 

2. Yesterday, I followed the recipe in the Blue Ball Book for canning Seasoned Ground Beef. I followed the instructions exactly (including the one that said “Skim off excess fat, if necessary…”)

 

This morning, looking at the jars, I’m seeing about ¼ to ½ inch of grease/fat at the top of the jars. Should I have rinsed this hamburger like I do when I dehydrate hamburger – even though it doesn’t say that in the Ball Blue Book ??? If not, how do I make sure there’s no grease/fat ???

 

Thanks y’all,

 

YYY

[Belle]

I would either rinse the meat before canning or cook it, cover it with water, then refrigerate overnight. Lift the fat off in the morning, then drain and continue with directions.

 

BTW, did you know, when you make the hamburger rocks, the grease can be cleaned then stored in the freezer to use like lard?

[YYY]

Belle,

 

Thanks for your reply. I didn't think about covering with water, refrigerating and skimming the fat the next day. I will do that next.

 

Thanks for reminding me about using the grease as lard. We did that with most left over grease when I was a little girl. I completely forgot.

 

Thanks again,

 

YYY

[mommato3boys]

Quote:

I would either rinse the meat before canning or cook it, cover it with water, then refrigerate overnight. Lift the fat off in the morning, then drain and continue with directions.

BTW, did you know, when you make the hamburger rocks, the grease can be cleaned then stored in the freezer to use like lard?

Adopt me please so I can come learn from you!!!! You are a fountain of knowledge.

I have a canner on order and I have been trying to figure out how to can ground beef and sausage. Chicken I have covered. Never would have thought to cover it in water.

[Darlene]

Here's a post I wrote in answer to a question on another forum...I've been meaning to post it here and this just reminded me...

 

Dehydrating hamburger is done by many people. However, I have yet to find one person who can state with any proven factual certainty the precise manner with which to safely store dehydrated hamburger for long term scenario situations outside of refrigeration (I can tell right here I'm going to abandon LMW's approach rofl).

 

One of the concerns I have about long term storage of dehydrated hamburger is that although the meat is cooked and rinsed in an attempt to remove as much grease off the meat before dehydrating, the fact remains that there still is some semblance of fat remaining. The hamburger goes through the dehydrating process and moisture is removed, leaving what refer to as "hard rocks". The small amounts of fat that remain are vulnerable to going rancid, no matter how it is stored, unless that storage includes some type of refrigeration/freezing. For me, I would not consider dehydrating hamburger for long term storage without refrigeration because of that. With no concrete reference points as to what is needed to produce a safe product, I tend to shy away from counting on it for my preps. I put too much work into preserving my foods to take any chances.

 

Milk, eggs, fish and poultry are not recommended for home dehydrating either. Salmonella and Staphylococcus bacteria thrives on these types foods at the low temperatures they are dehydrated at, and grows very rapidly because all the nutrient needs of these pathogenic or disease producing bacteria are supplied by poultry, eggs and dairy products. There have been food poisoning outbreaks reported of Salmonella and Staphylococcus from home dried foods.

 

Jerkys however, are an acceptable method of dehydrating meats, mainly due to the preservative qualities in the marinades, such as salt and vinegar.

 

Standardly, the recommended shelf life of home dehydrated fruits and vegetables is as follows:

 

Foods stored at temperatures below 60 degrees will keep approximately 1 year. Food stored at 80-90 degrees will begin to deteriorate within several months. For every 18 degrees drop in temperature, fruits will increase their shelf life 3 to 4 times.

 

A few points to keep in mind:

 

Dehydrated foods that have exposure to humidity, light or air will decrease its shelf life. Things like vacuum sealing will help prohibit the humidity and air from reaching the food.

 

It is common to experience a loss of Vitamins A and C when dehydrating fruits.

[mentalutopia]

I know if fat goes rancid it tastes gross, but is it bad for you? I mean, I wouldn't want to store a bunch of nasty stuff no one's going to eat, but is it a safety issue? (I truely don't know the answer, so if someone does, enlighten me)

[Belle]

Mentalutopia, that is a good question. I did a search and this is what I found~

 

Quote:

Eating rancid food won’t make you sick, but it may be unhealthy in the long run. Rancid fat contains chemicals called peroxides and aldehydes that can damage cells and may even encourage cholesterol to clog arteries.

 

It is important to note that rancidity and the presence of botulinal toxins are not necessarily related. Toxin may be present without any hint of an off-odor. Likewise, an off-odor does not necessarily indicate the presence of botulism toxin. It does, however, indicate the product may have been left for long periods at room temperature, which would promote the growth of C. botulinum. Therefore, it’s best to discard any oil-based mixtures that have become rancid so they’re out of reach of humans or animals.

 

Bold print was added by me.

 

Personally, if I were hungry, and the only meat I had was rancid, I would probably wash it well, add some spices, cook it thoroughly (at least 15 minutes), and eat it.

 

Darlene , the possibility of rancidity is why my friend suggested adding salt to the hamburger after boiling, but before dehydrating it. Not only will it help remove more moisture, it is a natural preservative.

[Darlene]

Sorry Belle, I didn't see your salt comment...I'm tired today but my post wasn't so much in reference to this post as it was in general...I've been meaning to do it...lol

 

I agree that rancid doesn't necessarily mean dangerious and in extreme circumstances would do the same.

[Belle]

No problem, Darlene.

 

I've known about hamburger rocks for several years, but only recently got up the nerve to try it, mostly because the stores here were having a hamburger war (under a dollar a pound) and I was completely out of space in my freezers. I didn't want to miss out on those sales!

 

I did a couple of test batches, talked to my friend about the safety of it, rehydrated some to see if it was good (None of us could tell it from fresh), and was so pleased with the results, I have put up nearly 150 pounds of hamburger as rocks and they're all on ONE SHELF!

[Darlene]

How long have you been storing it?

[Mother]

You might remember that any left over fat, rancid or not, can be used to make soap. No sense letting it go to waste, especially in SHTF situation.

 

 

[Phatkat1956]

While grease in dehydrated meats is not good, old timers used it to "pot" meats for winter storage and it kept fine. Sausage would be cooked and layered into a crock with hot lard to cover it. When sausage was needed, it was dug out and the lard spread back over the area to keep the meat from coming into contact with air thus preserving the meat. This was only done in late fall thru the winter and was kept in a very cold place...almost like being refrigerated.

 

When we can sausage, we basically do the same thing. Layering the sausage, pork or beef in the jars and covering with the juices and grease from the pan. Then processed in the pressure cooker. As long as the seal is good, so is the meat. The grease then can be saved for soap making.

[quiltys41]

Quote:

You might remember that any left over fat, rancid or not, can be used to make soap. No sense letting it go to waste, especially in SHTF situation.



Q

[Belle]

Quote:

How long have you been storing it?

The oldest hamburger I have stored is from June of 2006. I used some last week and it was still like fresh.

I'll be perfectly honest with you... I was NOT expecting these results. In fact, I originally did it to prove that it was dangerous or, at the very least, tasted disgusting.

I was wrong.

[Leah]

[Vic303]

I imagine that if you dried the burger, then vacuum sealed it with an O2 absorber packet, any remaining fat would not go rancid for a long time if stored under halfway normal conditions (ie: in home on shelf)

[BiscuitMaker]

good idea Vic

[Jewlzm]

Thanks for bumping this Leah!

 

Thanks for the information Vic. Have you done this? How did it turn out?

[Leah]

I'm going to try this and have heard others say recently they have found cheap hamburger, so I thought it might be good to bump it.

[Leah]

Well, I tried it. I have about 8 pounds of hamburger gravel. I think it will work very well in recipes that want crumbled beef, like lasagna and spaghetti sauce.

[Violet]

I would cook it and drain it very well in a colander and then on paper towels or rinsing will help, too. I like rinsing my hamburger.

Actually, dehdrating the ground meat or any meat other than safely prepared jerky is not considered safe. It sits in the "unsafe" temperature zone too long while it is drying. Just like fresh foods, anything that sits in those temps. for more than 2 hours can have bacteria high enough to make you ill.

I contacted Elizabeth Andress, the lady who wrote the USDA guides and that was her answer to me.

 

[mommato3boys]

 

Bumping up for Grace&Violets

[mommato3boys]

for Robert Z

[Crazy4Canning]

My husband asked me this same question after reading about 'hamburger rocks' on the very same website and another survival website he frequents.

 

Some people are willing to take this risk, some are not. I am one who is not....I just can't find a way to do this safely.

 

P.S. I've forbidden my DH from trying this with my dehydrator....

[MommaDogs]

Rancidity of fats really is just a problem for antioxidants. It acts as a free radical in your body. It's not going to (in the very small amounts present in hamburger rocks) hurt you even if you eat it frequently. Something else may go wrong, like mold, for example, if not dried well enough. But rancid fats, I'm not worried about that. Just use it as a short term storage food. It doesn't last long around here - it's very easy to tell the kids to throw a handful into some sauce on a night when I am working late. I wouldn't store it unless in the freezer for longer than 3-6 months, personally. I don't have any facts to back that up, it's just always been my feeling about it.