[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Usually meat was smoked, pickled, or dried.

Smoked- Salted and hung in a smoke house for three to six weeks.

Pickled- packed in barrels with vinegar, salt and spices.

Dried- Thinly sliced, salted and placed in the sun to dry. There is also cold drying that was done during the times when it was not quite freezing but very dry. This was not done often in the US as there were not a lot of places where you had these kind of conditions for a couple of weeks.

You also did sometimes did your slaughtering after the weather turned cold and stored your fresh meat in a shed where it froze solid. Probably with freezer burn before spring. :)

Chicken and turkeys were usually just killed and eaten fresh.

[MsLady]

Thanks for the info :) I never knew they pickled meat. That actually might be pretty good. As for the freezing. I can relate, I have a walk out freezer on my front porch in the winter ;) My grandma use to go out back grab a chicken and wring it’s neck. I’ve heard this is not a good way to do it, unless your an expert at it. If not you’ll only seriously hurt the chicken not kill it. Grandma was an expert at it from my understand.