Quote:
Originally Posted by Rune3435
In 1972 I was invited to dinner by an old (I thought!) cowboy in Nazco,
Quesnel, British Columbia. Moose steak, 1 1/2 year old stored in a tipi with double walls about 30 feet high and air circulation between the walls. No other means of keeping the meat fresh. The meat had 1 1/2 inch thick dried layer but under that it was absolutely fresh and very tender !
I have not seen similar storage method elsewhere.
Any comments.
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I think he just didn't tell you the whole story about how the meat was processed and preserved. It's a rather lengthy process but effective. In British Columbia and Yukon it was and still is a common practise for First Nations people to do tipi dehydration and smoking in a double-walled tipi built exactly as you have described. The purpose of the double walled tipi is for insulation to maintain an even temperature, rather like a root cellar. The food is usually consumed within a year but will keep for up to 2 years, that's including meats and fish. Some foods, like cheeses or vegetables and fruits will keep longer than 2 years if processed efficiently. The process is as follows:
The meat and fish is first heat dehydrated on racks inside the tipi. Usually it's sliced thin to facilitate dehydration completely through all of the meat. However, although it isn't common, very thick slabs and roasts may be dehydrated to a thickness of one and a half to two inches on the exterior to form a hard, dry crust on the outside but leaving the meat on the inside still fresh and moist. (Later the crust on those kinds of thick roasts will get cut off before cooking.)
After dehydration all the meat gets oiled on the outside and then smoked for several hours to days. The smoking is not for further preservation so much as it's intended to create an air-tight sealer of the oil, to dry and harden the oil on the crust into a coating like an inpenetrable laquer that prevents air, moulds or dampness from getting through the crust. It's very important to protect foods from the damp air on the west coast as moulds and fungi can grow rapidly. This hard laquered oil on the crust also deters insects from getting through the crust and laying eggs in the fresh meat.
After all the food is processed in the tipi this way it's gathered into many bundles that are wrapped tightly together with twine made from a variety of plant materials (usually cedar bark strips) and the wrapped bundles are stored compacted together on racks or hanging from hooks inside another double or even triple-walled tipi constructed specifically for long term storage.
Thin meat, fish, fruits and vegetables that have been dehydrated all the way through are rehydrated whole before or during cooking, and the thick meats and fish that are only dehydrated on the outside will have the hard dried, laquered crust cut off and discarded before the fresh interior meat is cooked.
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