Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Friday, August 10, 2012
MEAT
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ate a dark, outer crust that dry before putting the game 10 days before cutting it up, muscle proteins and makes makes it harder for flies to lay bags back on. if possible. Hanging the meat the meat more tender and fla• Hang meat for a week to promotes the breakdown of vorful. eggs on the meat. Let the meat
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sure there are no holes in the bags. • Don’t bone meat out unless it is absolutely necessary. Boning out meat exposes more meat to the air, and it’s harder to keep the meat cool and dry with several pieces piled on top of each other in a game bag. • Hang the meat on a meat pole to get it off the ground and allow air to circulate. If you don’t have a meat pole, build a mat or bench branches or sticks to keep the meat off the ground. If you have a raft, lay sticks across the raft and lay the meat on top of the sticks to get it off the floor of the raft. • Check and move meat at least once or twice daily, pulling the game bags up to avoid the bags from sticking to the meat and moving loose pieces of meat around. • Never store meat in plastic bags.
Keep it dry
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• Bring lots of tarps, both to use during the butchering process and to use as shades or shelters after you get back in camp. Keep a tarp over the meat at night even if it’s not raining to avoid condensation or dew from settling on the game bags. • Do not store meat on the floor of a raft for any reason; it will get wet and spoil. Construct some kind of frame that allows you to keep the meat off the floor and pack your gear in dry bags so it can be stored in the bottom of the raft in place of the meat. • Keep meat covered with a tarp at all times when it’s raining and check to make sure water is running off the tarps, not onto the meat. • After hanging the meat, remove the game bags and spray the meat with a citric acid/water mixture (2 ounces of citric acid per quart of water) until the mixture begins to run off the meat. The citric acid will slow bacteria growth and help cre-