How Did We Not Poison Ourselves???
Catherine Dunlap June 2015

Why am I still alive? One would wonder reading the current information on the Internet about the way we preserved food when I was growing up. Granted, we were backward, not having electricity until I was eighteen or so. However, we did preserve our food and never, so far as I remember, did we suffer food borne illnesses.

Since we always had cattle, sometimes pigs and always chickens we needed to preserve meat for later use. Doing our own butchering was a task of some magnitude. The job continued as the meat needed to be preserved. Only on the day of the slaughter did we enjoy fresh meat. If it was cold enough perhaps a few more days such luxury was enjoyed.

We canned lots of the meat, whatever the variety. The meat was cut off the bone, packed in jars and then boiled in a “water bath” for four hours. Current wisdom says it can only be processed in a pressure cooker at the correct pressure or it will be unsafe. We were always careful to recook the meat when it was opened. The taste of meat prepared that way cannot be duplicated. It was very good…a wonderful memory.

Corned beef was also a staple. Reading now how to make corned beef is not the same. We did it by putting it in a large crock and salted it very heavily, covered and left it to “cure”. It was taken out as needed, par-boiled to remove the excess salt and then prepared for eating. It was still salty but good and kept several months. Hams and bacon were cured and smoked though we did not always raise pigs.

The term “water glass” came to mind as I thought about preserving eggs. Checking that out, I found my mind was not playing tricks. My mom mixed up a solution, put it in a crock, and put whole raw eggs in it. They could then be taken out and used in winter when the hens were not laying. According to the info on the Internet, the eggs can be used up to six months. I don’t recall using them that long or doing it often.

Sauerkraut was made most years and of course, there was always canning of fruits and vegetables. In the era prior to electricity it was a hard job. Fruit was not too difficult because they only had to be processed 20 minutes but always on the wood stove. Vegetables however required 4 hours and as a result the house was always hot in canning season.

Potatoes, carrots, pumpkins and squash were kept in the cellar. It was just a dirt cellar but it was the coldest place to store things. Dairy products were kept there also. Without refrigeration it was our only choice.

It is easy to understand how exciting it was the day we got electricity! That is a tale for another day.