If you live in a seasonal climate that has a winter, then you have a natural refrigerator in the event of a disaster. You simply preserve food by keeping it outside on ice and snow. However if you are in a warmer climate then you might be looking at other options to survive. The tips in this article can also help those in seasonal climates preserve food during a hot summer.
If you have animals and are looking to store butter then you can a hint from ancient peoples and wrap the butter in animal intestines and store it in a cool place in a bog. Survivalists who have tried this say it works but that the butter does not taste that great.
Stuffing animal intestines with meat that need refrigeration is an ancient Paleolithic habit. Our ancestors would take the intestines of animals, clean them and pack them with meat. A few rocks would be added to the packing to add weight to the package. The ends would be tied off and attached to a long cord. They would then be dropped into a deep lake or pond.
Before refrigeration salting was the main way to preserve anything. After animals were slaughtered meat would be salted to draw out all the blood. A brine would be brewed out of saltpeter and water and the meat would be sunk into a vessel full of the brine. Before it was cooked the meat would be completely rinsed so it could be edible.
Smoking was another method used to preserve food in the old days. This is how hams were preserved and some of these hams were still good to eat after twenty years. The meat was brined first and then smoked inside a container. There are both cool smokers and hot smokers. Cool smokers are containers or smokehouses into which smoke is piped from a fire. Many ancient cultures used this method to preserve fish.
Yet another method of preservation was to pack meat in lard. The lard would prevent oxygen from permeating the meat and rotting it. This method works particularly well if you are trying to preserve bacon.
If you are storing perishable foods in a shelter , lake or bog it is probably a good idea to get a thermometer so you can periodically measure the temperature of the food. This can help you avoid a case of food poisoning.