Does this sort of smoking actually preserve the meat and fish, if so how long could it last and could it be taken safely to eat on say a weeks camping trip?
to give you some idea,i dry cured some bacon and smoked it for 2 hous,this was the first week of december,its been hanging in my kitchen,not refridgerated,since then! ive nearly finished it now,but it has in fact improved in flavour. i have a trout that ime testing at the moment to see how long it will keep,it to was dry brined and smoked.
in days of yore these methods were all we had.incidently i have kept pork joints unrefridgerated in a vat of brine for 5 weeks before,they obviously became hams but were fine.i intend at some point to make an air dried ham,this actually takes 1 year to make,and will easilly keep for 2.
also worthy of note with regard to 'shelf life' of smoked products are the 'red herrings' of old,these were in affect kippers that were smoked for ages,taking on the red look from the smoke.these were fed to the captured natives of africa en route to the plantations as slaves.these herrings kept years.
