No Oil

[GNJC]

Hmmm..... when you go up to Lapland it is air drying again (or used to be).

For the obvious reason that it's dry there; it's rarely temperature that is a problem, just humidity...

 

[TLM]

For the obvious reason that it's dry there

I am not so certain about that. Reindeer meat was dried late winter/early spring, if smoked then in autumn and in saunas, fish when caught. In north of Norway I have seen fish dried all year round but I don't know if there was a high season for that.

 

[GNJC]

I am not so certain about that. Reindeer meat was dried late winter/early spring, if smoked then in autumn and in saunas, fish when caught. In north of Norway I have seen fish dried all year round but I don't know if there was a high season for that.

I've only been up that way in Winter and high Summer, so have no experience of other times. The Winter is certainly dry enough, I'll have to take your word for the other times.

 

[Nice65]

Hmmm..... when you go up to Lapland it is air drying again (or used to be).

Because it’s dry? No offense, but you’re drastically missing the point with drying meat, it needs to be dry. Warmth or cold don’t come into it too much, freeze drying meat has always been a method of preservation.

Thanks for that; yep, I've made a lot of biltong over the years, outdoors where possible and indoors where not. But it's the scale and the time that make it difficult with a large volume of pork. I've started a thread on this in the 'Homestead' section.

Yeah, for sure. Biltong’s a doddle and a little goes a long way, big lumps of pork, as you say, is going to cost a lot in energy.

 

[TLM]

But most of the time the relative humidity here in the winter is high, over 90%. Freeze drying is slow but the meat does not go bad. Only in the spring when the sun does heat up things is it faster but while the day time RH lowers, the night time is very close to 100%.