First a little vocabulary lesson. Lard is rendered pork fat. Rendering fat is a heating process that removes the water. Tallow is rendered beef fat or suet. Schmaltz is rendered chicken or goose fat.

If meat is salt cured, then cooked, then stored in lard, tallow or schmaltz in a sterile container, the fat acts as a barrier to bacteria and the meat can be preserved for months. But you can’t just cut off a slab of meat, pack it in lard and expect it to last because the meat may have bacteria in it already. That’s why cooking, or even better, salt-curing then cooking, is important. Sterile salted meat packed in a sterile container with sterile rendered fat, stored in an air-tight container, in a cool place, are the ingredients for successful meat storage without refrigeration.

The fat acts much like the wax used to store some jellies, keeping the bacteria and moisture away from the preserves.

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