Jerky question

[TylerDurden]

I am currently doing a jerky experiment with my dehydrator. I did not use Lex's handmade version as I am just not technically-minded enough, among other things. Anyway, according to rawpaleoforum instructions, I am heating at c.37.5 degrees Celsius for 3 days to get all the moisture out. I have been reading online that 5 pounds of raw meat turns into only 1 pound of jerky, a reduction of 4/5ths of weight. I had previously thought that the water-content of raw muscle-meat  was just 30%, but I guess I was wrong.Anyway, my question is this:- if I bring just jerky with me on my travels, will eating just one fifth of what I usually eat of raw meat a day be enough(plus lots of water to wash it down), presumably?

[ys]

I cut it into 1.5-2 inch thick stripes put it under a fan in the room temperature.  After about 2 days outside gets dry and crusty while the inside is still soft.  I just toss it in refrigerator just like that.  Lasts for weeks.

[RogueFarmer]

In my experience it seems like you need to limit your jerky ingestion and allow it to digest because you can eat a lot more jerky by dry matter than you would normally eat meat. If it starts to grow mold which it often does if you try to keep it very long, I just eat it and never have I experienced adverse effects.

You can actually make pretty dang good jerky from lungs if you happen to have any of those.

[kalo]

Tyler, no local nice grub?

And lung jerky? Please explain

[TylerDurden]

I will  obviously have to treat each small piece of jerky as though it is a sizeable meal in and of itself. I presume that the jerky will last for ages  as long as all the moisture/water-content  is removed from the meat.

Can't get hold of lungs. I would need access to a farmer, and farmers' markets  are a problem and direct delivery from farms is an issue when within a large city.

[TylerDurden]

Tyler, no local nice grub?

I will eat maggot-infested high-meat in a few months if I have access to lots of high-alkaline mineral water.

[eveheart]

I presume that the jerky will last for ages  as long as all the moisture/water-content  is removed from the meat.

That's what I thought, too. However, my jerky went moldy when stored in containers at room temperature. Perhaps that's why most jerky makers use salt and such before drying the meat. I'm not crazy about dried meat, anyway.

[dariorpl]

In Argentina there's a very popular kind of pork+beef jerky called salame or salamin, which is similar to salami, but made into a kind of jerky. Just as salami, it's very high in salt, and usually includes whole pepper grains and other spices (cheap ones also add flour and sugar). It goes inside pork intestines like a sausage, and it's tied and hung and allowed to age at room temperature for at least a month. The outside is always covered in mold. These molds taste amazing, but most people remove the outside dry layer of intestines (or cellulose/plastic in cheap ones) with the mold before consuming. However, the molds do give it a very particular taste and it's really good. I know how it sounds, and most people don't think about what they're eating, because if you tell them they'll probably throw up lol. It's just a traditional food and nobody thinks about it too much.

It's traditionally eaten as an afternoon snack with friends, with cheese and olives, and sometimes bread or beer.

I would be consuming a lot of these if it wasn't because they're so high in salt, and I'm supposed to have 0 salt in my primal diet. Unfortunately, many people have gotten the idea that it's the salt that kills "the harmful bacteria in raw meat" and so it would be a challenge to get a producer to make me one without salt. Besides, the meat they use is grain fed, which would be ok except for all the fat.

EDIT: Actually it seems that the original salami from Italy is made this way also. But I was more used to salami being the one that needs to be stored in the fridge.

[jessica]

i store my dried meats in a cheesecloth type bag in a cool, dry place.  it seems to get a little moldy the older it gets but always tastes and smells delicious.  i think it just allows it to continue ageing.

[cherimoya_kid]

Besides, the meat they use is grain fed, which would be ok except for all the fat.

Grainfed is NOT ok. I promise. You're better off being vegetarian than eating grainfed meat.

[dariorpl]

Grainfed is NOT ok. I promise. You're better off being vegetarian than eating grainfed meat.

I've been eating mainly lean grainfed beef for 5.5 months and doing great with it. I get most fats from organic grainfed free-range eggs and non-organic avocados.

For the past couple months only, because I couldn't find them before, I've added some organic dairy that I'm not sure if it's grassfed or not, and organic grainfed free-range chicken, and organic avocados.

Every now and then I have various types of wild caught fish, but they're very lean and don't particularly appeal to me, except for the eyes, I could eat those all day. I've been looking for swordfish or other types of wild caught high fat ocean fish, but couldn't find any. The only high fat fish I can find are river fish, and I'm afraid of rivers being too polluted. Good quality oysters are great but it's hard to get them. I also have other occasional meats such as grainfed rabbit, and what I think may be partially grassfed lamb and goat... And when I can get them, which is very rare, wildcaught fresh squid is great (most is frozen)

AV said conventional meat is ok as long as you eat only the lean muscle, because the toxins are stored in the marrow, organs and fat.

[eveheart]

I've been eating mainly lean grainfed beef for 5.5 months and doing great with it.

I tend to agree with CK about the dangers of grainfed ruminant meat. As with all dietary blunders, we do great for extended periods of time, then we get older and sicker and think we are experiencing the effects of age alone, and not diet.

[dariorpl]

I tend to agree with CK about the dangers of grainfed ruminant meat. As with all dietary blunders, we do great for extended periods of time, then we get older and sicker and think we are experiencing the effects of age alone, and not diet.

If I was able to get grassfed meats I would switch in an instant. Also if that was the case I would eat more of the fat, organs and marrow, and less of the lean muscle.

But I've been vegetarian in the past (though not with raw dairy and raw eggs), and I've been vegan (high raw), and I think I'm doing much better now on the primal diet with raw grainfed beef than without it.

[TylerDurden]

I have very rarely come across claims in the RVAF diet community that a few people have recovered gradually from  illnesses as a result of eating raw, grainfed meats from supermarkets. At first, this seems logical since if the grainfed meats are not cooked, there ought to be very few heat-created toxins in the meats. In actual fact, though, scientific tables on the levels of Advanced Glycation End products show that there are still lots of that very heat-created toxin in raw, grainfed meats, albeit only half or less than what is found in the cooked version thereof. From my own personal experience, I would suspect that few really serious health problems can be solved with raw, grainfed meats. When I first started going in for RVAF diets, I was forced to choose the lowest possible quality of raw grainfed meats, which tasted so foul that I had to gulp vast quantities of alkaline mineral water to avoid vomiting the stuff up soon after. Eating such only led to the relief of one symptom, simply because I was not eating cooked animal foods at all. The meat was useless though all in all.

[ciervo-chaman]

i think dariorpl its not getting 100% grainfed feedlot meat. it must be grain finished, like almost all meats here in argentina.

i don't know if all the studies done to "grain fed animals in the USA" can be applied to "grain finished animals in ARG", I think they must be really diferent quality of meats.

I'm actually doing pretty well too eating for 8 months of the same beef as dario, and i'm feeling better than in all my life..

it even tastes delicious, not foul as you describe.

if it is not THE BEST, it is sure best than standard, and best than raw vegan, and best than vegetarian..

[dariorpl]

I think they eat grass only for a very short amount of time and most of the raising is done in feed lots.

I've heard "grain finished" is higher quality than the regular meats here. Only the worst quality of meats in the country reach the Buenos Aires city. Everywhere else, you can get better quality. Probably the quality you can get in your area is better than what I get here.

The one I get does taste good, but the fat doesn't. I don't like the texture of the fat, and the taste is not appealing like I feel it should be if it was a healthy animal. At least they're not given antibiotics and hormones like in the rest of the world. But they are vaccinated.

The fat in lamb and goat does taste a little better, which is why I think they may have a higher percentage of grass in their feeding. It's just hard to get them fresh (never been frozen). I sometimes eat the marrow from these two, also. But maybe I shouldn't.

And then the rabbit tastes very similar to chicken, which is why I suspect they're grainfed.

[ciervo-chaman]

now that you say, i realize that i have got very few times fats that were tasty (and that times, i fed almost exclusively on that fats, they were pig fat one time and beef fat many times).

maybe fat taste is a good way to have a better knowledge of health of the animal. i think summertime fats were tastier than autumn ones.. cause right now there is like 2 months that i dont taste a good fat.


on topic:
i think if you eat the jerky SLOWLY, and rehidrating it with your saliva completely, you maybe will need 20% more meat (before it dries) than fresh one (for example if you use to eat 5 pounds of meat, you will need aprox 1,2 pound of jerky), . i think that if you eat it in a hurry without being able to rehydrate slowly, you will need even more.
just random tgoughts.

i will try to do some jerky too i had been eating a lot of dry aged meats, and the better part is always the outer, that dry purple tasty skin

[dariorpl]

Maybe that's because in the summer there's more fresh grass and less grain or dry grass in the feed?

[TylerDurden]

This all makes no sense. A few years ago, I would read articles about how argentinian beef was FAR superior to UK beef simply because it was 100% grassfed. There were tales about how BSE was nonexistent among Argentinian cattle because the Argentinians did not go in for feeding their cattle grains, for the most part, and because they also did not go in for the stupid inbreeding practice of allowing only one bull to artificially inseminate thousands of females, thus drastically lowering the immune-systems of  UK cattle.

[dariorpl]

I had previously thought that the water-content of raw muscle-meat  was just 30%, but I guess I was wrong.

Yeah I thought it was 80-85% for some reason. Apparently it's 75-77%

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/7511?manu=&fgcd=

[dariorpl]

This all makes no sense. A few years ago, I would read articles about how argentinian beef was FAR superior to UK beef simply because it was 100% grassfed. There were tales about how BSE was nonexistent among Argentinian cattle because the Argentinians did not go in for feeding their cattle grains, for the most part, and because they also did not go in for the stupid inbreeding practice of allowing only one bull to artificially inseminate thousands of females, thus drastically lowering the immune-systems of  UK cattle.

That was before the current socialist regime that started in 2003-2004 and has increasingly accelerated in the pillaging of the economy.

A lot of things have happened to the argentinian economy since then, and beef production was perhaps the most affected of all.

[eveheart]

i don't know if all the studies done to "grain fed animals in the USA" can be applied to "grain finished animals in ARG", I think they must be really diferent quality of meats.

"Grainfed" beef in the US is what you are calling "grain finished." Young stock are weaned to pasture, then shipped to feedlots to fatten during their last few months of life. If a young animal is weaned to grain, it would never live to reach market maturity. As soon as grain is introduced, the toxins resulting from improper digestion start to ruin the liver and digestion in ruminant animals. Meat inspection standards ignore a significant level of toxins in the flesh of animals as long as the muscle is nice and marbled.

Why would someone want to eat toxic meat, unless they are utterly starving?

[dariorpl]

My choice right now is to eat grainfed or to eat no red meat at all. I feel like my body needs red meat.

[TylerDurden]

My choice right now is to eat grainfed or to eat no red meat at all. I feel like my body needs red meat.

Well, there is raw wildcaught seafood....?

[dariorpl]

Yeah, but I don't consider that red meat.