To help with this, coupon/frugality blog “Living Richly on a Budget” has a nice list that gives general timeframes that should give you ideas on when to buy. The list breaks out on each month the various holidays that have sales associated with them, as well as general harvest times, and grocery themes that most chains subscribe too. These are important as manufacturers and stores often work together to get the best deals during these sales. Combine smart use of coupons, along with planned bulk purchases and you can get that much more food into your families budget and storage.

An example of their January information:

National Oatmeal Month: Quaker
Diet Foods: Healthy Choice, South Beach, Lean Cuisine, Special K, Kashi, Smart Start, 100 Calorie Packs, Yogurt
Super Bowl Sunday: Pepsi, Coke, Chips, Dips, Cheese, Sandwich Items, Crackers, Snacks, Wings
Seasonal Produce: Oranges, Pears, Grapefruit, Tangerines, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chard, Collards, Kale, Kiwi, Avocado, Cabbage, Spinach
Clearance: Christmas Decorations, Toys, Wrapping Papers,
Winter Health: Cold Medicines and Vitamins

Living Richly On A Budgets’ Grocery Sale Cycles. I’d recommend using their nice printable version to keep a list along with whatever binder/clipboard or other organizational tool you use to keep track of your preparedness supplies.

But how about a nice way to build a simple, portable stove? Because we all know that when winter really hits around here, simple ways to heat and good are of utmost importance. And I wanted something that was an actual stove (with chimney) that was nicer than the truly survival ones you make from #10 cans. Behold, the ammo-can stove:

Click here to view the embedded video.

After the break you’ll find a complete unboxing and review of the 7 liter Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker as well as an introduction to thermal cookers and why they matter to preppers.

Unboxing

First things first, here are some pictures documenting the unboxing process.

This is what is shipped to you, a fairly plain cardboard box with the shipping label, etc. attached.

Opening the box reveals a well packaged inner box cushioned by some foam peanuts.

Here is the inner box removed. It has a handle built into the box to facilitate removing the box from the packaging. It also makes a nice storage box for the cooker later on.

Saratoga Jacks has done a nice job in branding the box.

The full logo is on the side of the box.

Once the box is opened, there is an instruction sheet with some bad English translations. We’ve been told that a new set of instructions and a recipe book will be included in any cookers purchased in time for Christmas. The cooker is cradled by an upper and lower piece of Styrofoam to protect it while in the box.

Further protecting the finish on the cooker is a plastic bag.

Finally, the cooker is revealed. What you can’t see in these pictures is a sturdy fold down handle for carrying the cooker.

With the lid open, there is an pot lid and some foldable handles in evidence.

Removing the lid reveals a small pot inside a larger pot.

The small pot has been removed.

The thermal cooker with all the internal pots and lids removed.

What is a Thermal Cooker?

So, if you are like me you are wondering what a thermal cooker is and how does this fit into being a prepper? A thermal cooker is essentially a crock pot that does not use any electricty or fuel source to cook food. Given that cryptic explanation you might be asking yourself how this works. To illustrate this, let me explain how we recently cooked a nice dinner in our cooker. You might also want to review a post Jayce did several years ago on cooking oatmeal and cereals in a Thermos.

We started off by putting some rice in the small pot with some water. Next we put some chicken, chopped vegetables, potatoes and some stock and spices into the larger pot. Both pots were put on our gas stove and brought to a hard boil. After boiling for about 4 solid minutes we pulled both pots off the stove and placed them in the thermal cooker, sealing the lid.

Six hours later we opened up the cooker and had a nice, piping hot meal from straight from the cooker. The cooker is a highly insulated container which due to its insulation efficiency loses very little heat over time. When you place a partially cooked but hot meal into the cooker then seal it, the heat is contained in the cooker and the contents continue to cook due using the thermal mass of the meal itself.

Prepper Usage

From a prepper perspective this allows for a very efficient use of fuel. Rather than simmer something on the stove for hours you can instead minimize the amount of fuel consumed by putting the pots into the thermal cooker after a few minutes of heating. Your camping stove for example would be on for 5 minutes rather than for 40 minutes. We’ve also found that this is a great way to prepare food in advance to take along with us.

If we know we will be traveling for several hours we can prepare a meal in the thermal cooker and bring it along with us. After several hours, when it is time to eat, the meal has fully cooked without the need for continuous fuel use. This also removes the worry of leaving a crock pot on during the day while you are away. I don’t like to do this as it presents a possible fire hazard. A thermal cooker eliminates this concern for my family.

I don’t have direct experience with some other competing thermal cookers, but I do know that this product is made well from quality components. There are currently two sizes available, a 5.5 liter and a 7 liter model. In order to reduce heat loss to the air, you want to be sure to use the correct sized model for your needs. A partially filled cooker will not maintain heat with the same efficiency as a full cooker due to heat loss into the air gap above a partially full cooker.

The Thermal Cooker also makes for a nice cooler. In the same way that the cooker’s insulation seals in the heat, it can be used as a cooler to keep things cold for reasonably long periods of time. This provides a secondary usage for this tool and helps us to limit uni-tasker devices in our preps.

Critiques

The 5.5 liter model will cook a meal for 3-5 people while a 7 liter will hold a meal for 6-10 people. You’ll want to use the model that fits the size of the meal you are cooking. Sometimes it isn’t convenient to cook a larger meal just to fill a cooker, and I don’t want to have to buy two cookers to handle both small and large meals. To that end I hope that Saratoga Jacks comes up with an add on to the 7 liter model perhaps consisting of an insulated sleeve and a small pot that would allow you to efficiently cook a smaller meal in the larger cooker without needing to purchase a complete cooker.

Word of Caution

One additional note that perhaps doesn’t need to be said. The thermal cooker is NOT meant to be heated directly. You heat the inner pots OUTSIDE the cooker, then place the hot pots into the cooker. The cooker has plastic components which will melt should you attempt to put the cooker over a flame or other heat source. Heat the pots, not the cooker! :)

Conclusion

Overall my wife and I have both enjoyed using this new tool. It has the potential to save us money on gas and electric bills and can reduce fuel consumption in an emergency. If you are interested in this, give them a call. If there is enough interest we may try running a group buy as well to save our readers some cash on these cookers.. Please post a comment below and we can answer any questions you might have about this review.

Several of the stoves getting setup

Last weekend several of the UtahPreppers got together with some friends to begin doing some hands on tests to start preparing for winter. Recently several of us have acquired new stoves and we wanted to give a conduct some tests to compare how well they worked. For our first meet up we wanted to test a few stoves and other devices with the group. While we learned a lot we realized that we’ve got some more comprehensive tests to run through before we can highlight each of them adequately. But before we move along with the individual tests, we wanted to thank some of the people that helped make this first stove test so much fun and informative.

Volcano Grills

In terms of stoves, Volcano Grills is nothing new to longtime readers here. We’re all big fans of this product and it keeps getting better. Mark with Volcano Grills showed us a few changes that they’ve made to the stoves to improve them and gave us a few new ideas about things to try. We’ll be reporting some of the results and showing off a few things you will want to have for your stove.

EcoZoom Rocket Stoves

The principle of a rocket stove has become quite popular recently with various build it yourself plans and kits available online. While you can make various types yourself you may want a more well-made product to depend on for long term usage. EcoZoom Stoves let us use one of theirs and we’ll be letting you know how that worked.

FireBox Folding Stove

A local newcomer, we first met the creator of the FireBox Folding Stove at the self-reliance expo in Salt Lake City. It was great to see a local with a well-made product. We knew we’d have to put this thing through some tough tests to see if it lived up to the demo.

QuickStove

Another local the QuickStove is a Stove-in-a-Can concept that seemed right up our alley. It is a self-contained kit that allows for emergency cooking and storage in your 72-hour kit

Saratoga Jacks

One town over from our test site, the Saratoga Jacks folks didn’t have far to travel. They came with their thermal cookers that we’d been researching and let us have a little hands-on time.

They also provided us with a unit to run through its paces and conduct some longer term tests. For more info see Mike’s review of Saratoga Jack’s Thermal Cookers

Eden Valley Foods

Newcomers to the food storage market, Eden Valley Foods brought over a few samples and some great information regarding various food manufacturing and storage methods as well as information on how freeze fried food are manufactured, shipped and stored.

FoodStorageMadeEasy

Along with the UtahPreppers authors that made it to our event we also had Jodi from FoodStorageMadeEasy.net, some of our best local friends. Their site is a great resource for people overwhelmed with the idea of food storage and looking on how to get an easy entry into our world.

Coming Soon:

As we get review posts about each of these products ready we’ll update this page with links. You can also follow our RSS feed to get updates when they come out.

We’ll hopefully be having more group events soon, so don’t forget to let us know (contact us, or here in the comments) if you’re interested in coming out, or if you have something you’d like to see tested!

As handy as the device is, there were some shortcomings.  First off, the device I most wanted to use on it is extremely finicky with what it allows to charge (yeah, it’s an iPhone), and the variability of solar electricity meant that the iPhone didn’t like accepting the charge.  Secondly, some of my devices simply take AA or AAA batteries, and I didn’t have a good charger that would run off the USB adaptor that the 7m provides.

Thankfully there is a relatively new product that addresses these shortcomings, their Goal0 Guide 10.  In short, it’s a battery charger, that doubles as a combined power pack for those devices you would most likely charge from the panel.

Key Features

The Guide 10 is a very simple device, that makes lightweight solar usage possible for a backpacker. It starts as a simple AA or AAA charger. It just plugs in to your 7m (or other panel) through their simple adaptor, and you can lay it out in the sun. If you are hiking, the 7m already has loops to tie on to your pack, and the Guide 10 has a nice metal cable so you can attach with a carabiner. The Guide 10 is operated via simple three way switch. On allows you to charge devices from the rechargeable batteries, Off allows you to stop providing power to external devices to stop phantom power drains and recharge the batteries at a faster rate through your solar panel. The third position turns on an integrated LED light. Simple and handy, this proved quite functional when using my kit. Charging may also come via a standard USB Mini-B adaptor, which plugs into a standard usb in case you wanted to charge from a computer or other device.  Using the device means simply either taking out the batteries to use them, or plugging into the full-size USB port and flipping the switch to run in ‘power pack’ mode.

Inline Charging

For devices like my phone that don’t like the variables associated with solar charging, the Guide 10 really helps provide a clean power source.  If I simply plug in the phone to the pack, and the pack to the panel, I get the correct amount of power to my phone even if a cloud decides to get in the way. Even if your electronics are too finicky, it’s a lot easier on them to be treated this way!

Storing For Later

Sure, a power pack of four AA batteries isn’t going to power my laptop, but I have a lot of devices that work quite well on that much electricity. While I could provide a lot of light with one of Goal0′s Light-a-Life’s, they are rather large and too bright for backpacking.

Using a small USB powered light stick though works extremely well.  During my last campout I would plug in one of the Luna Lights into a battery pack, and have just an amazing flood of light for our group. Best of all it barely sipped the power even from these AA batteries.  Using the light for several hours during the night, I still only needed a small charge during the day to get back to full power. I could have easily still gone to charge a phone or other devices along with my lights, which I think is the critical test I needed to prove this was the right size for my needs.

According to the product site, the 7m panel takes approximately 3 hours to charge the Guide 10 while a 3.5 watt panel takes approximately 6 hours.

What’s Missing

When looking online, I noticed them using AA and AAA batteries. However in the package, it doesn’t have the plastic insert you need if you want to charge the AAA batteries, unless you buy that specific model.  This was my one strike against the product.  You get the insert supposedly by purchasing a pack of their Goal0 branded rechargeable batteries (you can use any NiMH rechargeable though). Personally I’d suggest just getting the one pack of their batteries for the adaptor, and then using your preferred brand. Nothing wrong with theirs, which are a nice modern battery, but there are plenty of options in that space.

Apparently though, James bought the full Adventure kit, and that did come with the AAA piece. It seems it doesn’t come with just the standalone Guide 10 (in the two that I purchased).

 Conclusion

To me, the Guide 10 pack is what really makes the Adventure Kit worthwhile. While the set with the speakers and panel is nifty, the real usefulness exists only when you add this into the mix. If you haven’t already bought one, they now sell it with the batteries and charger instead of the speaker as the Goal0 Guide 10 Adventure Kit.  If you are building any kind of Get Home Bag, BOB, or similar emergency kit where you want to be able to maintain a charge on some small communications or light devices, this is the best product on the market for lightweight solar charging. It’s extremely simple to use, doesn’t have unnecessary pieces, and will easily attach to your pack.

Last fall I tried some Tattler reusable canning lids. I canned jam, tomatoes, and salsa with them. The Tattler company has been making these lids since 1976. They are two pieces–a plastic lid and a rubber gasket. You’ll need the metal rings that came with your jars or you can buy some extras on the Tattler site if you’re short on rings. The lids are BPA free and made in the USA. Tattler has them available for wide mouth and regular jars. The upfront cost of $7.00-$8.00 per dozen is, of course, more than the metal lids, but with regular re-use they pay for themselves pretty quickly.

Canning with the reusable lids is similar to using regular metal lids with the exception of having to loosen the ring just a bit before canning to allow the jar to vent and then tighten it after your jars are done processing. (For a full tutorial on using them, you can check my review of the lids on my blog.)

By the time this fall had rolled around, I had a number of lids from jars we had opened, and more canning to do, so all the reusable lids got used again without any problems with seal fails. Also, all the jars from last fall that used the reusable lids that we hadn’t opened are still sealed up fine. Sweet. Needless to say, I’ve stocked up on a bunch of these lids.

Last year's tomatoes canned with Tattler Reusable Canning Lids

Now, if you’re canning something to go into your county or state fair, or if you are planning on giving your canned goods away as gifts, use regular lids. When I did the salsa this year, I used some regular lids and some reusable lids thinking I would be sharing some for Christmas. However, sweet husband has since informed me he’s not parting with his salsa, so I guess I could have used all reusable lids!

Salsa--the white lids are the reusable ones

If you do a lot of canning and want to continue in a grid down situation without stocking a crazy amount of metal lids, the Tattler reusable lids are the lids for you. If you don’t do a lot of canning, these lids could also make a great barter item or even a great Christmas gift for that canner or preparedness nut on your list. After my year of testing, I’d say these are definitely a product worth checking out.

The kits come with a Needle Driver, forceps and a pair of scissors along with a sterile field, gloves and 2 sutures.  They also come with the step by step pictorial guide that you can see in the picture.  These are very nice kits and the price is fantastic!  If you would like to order them, send an email to DrBonesClass@aol.com and let them know what you would like to order.  There will be shipping on top of the cost, of course.

Dr. Bones also showed me that he had a full instructional video on suturing – for entertainment purposes of course – that covers how to establish a sterile field, how to suture and how to tie suture knots.  It’s a very well done video, so if you’re wanting to learn check out the video below and then go get some pig feet to practice on (you can get them at most grocery stores in the gross meat section)!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Finally, my brother sent me a picture of what his scalp currently looks like.  You can see that it healed up very nicely and has a very minimal scar.

(click on the picture for a larger image)

Benefits to raising chickens

There are a number of benefits that people interested in backyard chickens generally cite. Some of the most cited benefits are below:

Fresh Eggs

Fresh eggs have a noticeably brighter, more yellower or orange yolk. Fresh eggs have also been scientifically shown to be more nutritious and are reported to be better tasting than store bought eggs which are often several weeks old.

Research conducted by Mother Earth News compared eggs from 14 flocks across the United States. The study found that when compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, free-range eggs contained:

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 3/2 more vitamin A
• Twice the omega-3 fatty acids
• Three times more vitamin E
• Seven times more beta carotene
• Four to six times more vitamin D

Pest Control

If you allow your chickens out in your yard, even occasionally you will find that they are great at helping control pest bugs and weeds. Chickens will eat most bugs and weeds such as ticks, fleas, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, fly larvae, grubs and slugs. Our chickens even once attacked a mouse that was unlucky enough to jump into the coop. Fortunately for the mouse, it managed to get out of the coop before being pecked to death. Be cautious however as many chicken breeds will also love to eat some of the plants in your garden. You don’t want to eliminate the pests at the expense of your crop.

Fertilizer

Chicken droppings are great fertilizer for your garden. They are quite ‘hot’ though and need to be processed with compost or through another process and should not be applied directly to your plants or it could ‘burn’ them. To resolve this issue, many gardeners will add the droppings in to their compost in small quantities. This enriches the compost and distributes the nitrogen evenly.

Chicken Meat

You can raise chickens for meat, but generally meat birds are different breeds from egg producing breeds. Some egg producing breeds also grow large enough and in the right areas to be useful for egg production. You also shouldn’t forget that once an egg producer stops laying, they can still provide you with meat. Even the stringiest rooster can taste great in a chicken stew or after being bottled in a mason jar.

Teaching Responsibility to Children

Raising chickens can (some would argue should) be a family affair. Chickens need to be fed and watered daily, so assigning children to do these chores can help them develop a sense of responsibility. It can also reduce the psychological separation from our food supply that exists in modern day America. Knowing where your food comes from is the first step to learning how to produce it on your own and working towards being more self reliant. Isn’t that what we are trying to do?

What you’ll need

Chickens

Perhaps it doesn’t need to be said, but obviously you will need chickens. There are a number of ways to obtain chickens. You can often source them locally (although seasonally) through IFA or other similar stores. Many people enjoy having exotic and fun looking chickens. There are many breeds available and the only way to get some of them is through mail order breeders. A simple search online will provide you with a long list of mail order chicken suppliers. Determine what breed you want then find a reputable supplier, either locally or via mail order.

When determining what breed you should get, the breed chart at BackYardChickens.com is a good place to start.

Coop

You chickens will needs someplace to stay warm and dry as well as a comfortable location to lay their eggs.

People raising backyard chicken are increasingly using Chicken Tractors, a smaller moveable coop that is great for a few chickens and is relatively inexpensive in terms of materials and construction time. Others prefer a more elaborate traditional coop some of which can be considered art (Art of the Chicken Coop: A Fun and Essential Guide to Housing Your Peeps). Another option is to allow your chickens to be completely Free Range. You will find that they will roost in the evening on railings, in trees, on fences or wherever they can get off the ground and huddle together. Here in Utah this can work well over the summer and for part of Spring and Fall. For Winter however you should have a way of keeping your chickens warm so a chicken coop or shelter of some sort will be needed. Amazon offers a number of books on building chicken coops from complete plans,  to tips and tricks, to a Dummies book on building coops.

Food and water

Most stores that sell chickens also sell chicken scratch and a supplement for egg producing chickens. Scratch is generally a mixture of corn and other grains. The egg mixture is oyster shells plus other ingredients meant to deliver calcium to ensure strong egg shells. This may also assist chickens in laying more frequently but I haven’t personally noticed a difference. If your chickens are free range, or at least let out a few hours a day you will find that the amount of food you need to provide will be reduced. They will make it up with weeds, bugs, etc. Given the relatively small size of most yards today, you will still probably want to supplement some. Observe your chickens and their laying patterns to help you decide what and how much to supplement with store bought food or vegetable based table scraps.

You should also be aware that chickens drink a lot of water. You will need to ensure that they have easy access to water year round. In the dead of winter a heat lamp is also helpful in warming the chickens and keeping the water ice free, but depending on your exposure to cold weather you may need a dedicated heated water container.

Other birds

Traditionally a number of other bird species have been raised traditionally in order to provide both meat and eggs for families. These are not as popular today for a number of reasons, both economic and practical.

Turkey – Turkeys produce about a third the number of eggs as a chicken, but have a lot more meat on them. It seems like these are more practical as meat birds. The primary value in their eggs seems to be in producing more turkeys. On a related note, most modern breeds of turkeys are produced as meat birds. They reach maturity quickly in order to harvest meat faster. This causes the turkeys to have a short natural life span. Like meat chicken breeds, when they are ready to harvest for meat, they may be too large and top heavy to walk.

Duck – Ducks can be a good addition or substitute for chickens. Depending on the breed, (Khaki Campbells for example) ducks can produce an egg a day on average, much like many chicken breeds. Duck eggs are typically the same size as a large or extra large chicken egg and are higher in fat and cholesterol, but are also rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. A downside is that ducks require a bit more space and care. You will likely need a small wading pool or tub of water for them as well.

Geese – Geese generally lay for only a portion of the year, typically from late Spring to late Summer or early Fall. They do not lay reliably like most ducks and chickens although their eggs are larger. The true value in geese is in their ability to help maintain established orchards by eating young undesired saplings and through their use as alarm animals. Many cultures have used geese in place of dogs or other animals as they will immediately alert you to intruders.

Quail – Quail produce very small eggs, often daily. These eggs are prized by chefs for their rich flavor. Caring for quail is more difficult than the aforementioned species as they are more sensitive to heat and cold and thus must usually be raised indoors.

Resources

News articles

Backyard chickens, bees cutting edge of growing local food movement

Why all the interest in raising backyard chickens?

Throwback at Trapper Creek Post on chickens

Chicken tour begins in Salt Lake on Saturday

Survival Blog – Raising Backyard Chickens

Cooped Up: Chickens Come Home to Roost for Urbanites With a Yen for Hen

Useful Links

Poultry Keeper

Country Enterprise

New Agrarian

Urban Homestead

That’s when my car Preps came to the rescue!

I grabbed my puncture repair kit from the truck, pulled out the rasper tool and shoved it in the nail hole while twisting it left to right and up and down.  When I extracted it, the tire verified I’d done a good job by beginning to leak at a much faster rate!  I quickly grabbed the needle tool and pulled a patch strip from the patch card and threaded it through the eye of the tool.  Then I applied the rubber cement to the patch strip and shoved the needle tool deep into the tire.  Once there were just a half inch or so of the patch sticking out, I extracted the tool by quickly pulling straight back on the needle tool.  The split in the eye of the tool gave way and left the patch in the hole while letting the tool come free.

The rubber cement needed to set for a minute and I needed to refill the tire with air.  So, I grabbed my 12V mini air-compressor from the truck and plugged it into one of my cigarette lighters and turned it on so it could start building up air.  By now the rubber cement should have set up well enough so I grabbed my leatherman and cut the hanging ends off of the patch.

Finally, I hooked the compressor up to the valve stem and filled it back up with air.

In less than 5 minutes I was able to plug the puncture, refill the tire and get back on the road.

Being a Prepper is awesome!

Cured Meats (from livestrong.com)

Curing meat is an age old process.  It has been used to preserve, intensify flavors, and make unpalatable cuts of meat acceptable for consumption. Most of us don’t worry about the preservation aspect so much anymore, but if you’ve ever made a marinade then you’ve dabbled in curing (perhaps with out even knowing it).  In this post I’m going to go over some of the ingredients needed to cure meat and introduce a couple of salt mixtures that can be very useful in curing your meats.  I’ll also go over some things that could be kept in your food storage.

First of all there are a couple of items that are needed to cure meat.  You don’t have to use each of these items when you cure, but they all play an important part in the curing process.

1. Salt
2. Sugar
3. Nitrites/Nitrates
4. Smoke

Salt

Lets talk about salt first.  In terms of curing, salt’s primary purpose is to kill the microbes that inhabit the meat you are trying to cure.  Of course a very nice side benefit is that your meat tastes better in the process.  There are two primary ways to apply salt to meat: a dry cure, and a wet cure.

The dry cure is simply applying the salt along with any spices directly on the meat and putting it in a cool place to allow the curing process to take place

The wet cure (brining) uses water and salt.  The meat is submerged in the brine until done.

The length of time to cure really depends on what you want to do with the meat.  If you are trying to store the meat then you need to make certain that all harmful microbes and bacteria have been killed off.  This will take longer and of course depends on the size, weight, type of meat etc.  If you are curing for flavor and are going to be cooking the meat, then it is less important to kill the harmful bacteria.  You just need to give the meat enough time to pull in the salt and other flavorings that have been applied.

Sugar

The main reason for sugars in cures is to help compensate for the harshness of the salt.  Additionally the sugar brings flavor to the meat.  Think maple syrup when curing bacon.

Nitrites / Nitrates

“Nitrite does a few special things to meat: it changes the flavor, preserves the meat’s red color, prevents fats from developing rancid flavors, and prevents many bacteria from growing, most notably those responsible for botulism poisoning” – taken from Charcuterie pg 38.  You generally won’t store nitrites or nitrates by themselves but they are found in many commercial curing salts such as Mortons Quick Cure, InstaCure and DQ Curing Salt.  One common cut of meat that really benefits from salt curing with nitrites is a brisket.  If you let that set for a week then the brisket will cure, and will turn the nice red color that is associated with Corned Beef.

Smoke

Smoke is used in curing for two reasons.  Really the main reason any more for smoking is to apply flavor to the meat.  The smoke also helps preserve the meat.  Generally hard woods are used to help smoke the meat.  Ham, for example, is a smoke cured meat.  You can also use smoking as just a flavor enhancer.  The weekend BBQ jumps to the next level when you start smoking your meat.

What to store

1. Salt.  The salt that you plan on using for curing should not have iodine.  That will mess with the flavors of the cure.  I don’t have any direct recommendations on the amount to store, but most simple recipes can call for 2 cups of salt or more.  If you plan on doing a lot of curing then be sure to store plenty.  Plus if you have extra you can use it as a barter item.  You really should have a few different kinds of salt.  Kosher salt is great.  Keep lots of this on hand.  You can also get regular table salt (just with out the iodine).  You should also have some curing salt such as the Mortons Quick Cure or InstaCure that were mentioned earlier.  You don’t usually need as much of this since a little goes a long way.
2. Sugar.  In most wet and dry cures the sugar is about half the amount of salt used.  So store half the amount of sugar that you plan for salt.
3. Wood.  This one is hard since it is bulky.  You can get everything from wood chips, chunks and of course whole logs.  I generally keep several bags of my favorite woods (maple, mesquite, hickory).  In a pinch you can also store liquid smoke, but it doesn’t always work as well.

Like most preparedness matters you really should practice curing before you need it.  The upside is that the results are delicious!

Try making:

• corned beef
• bacon
• brining a chicken

With the help of the curing process they all taste fabulous.