How long does salted bacon keep in the refrigerator. How long can you keep salted lard at home

kerescan - Oct 16th, 2015

Pork fat is a fairly versatile product. It can be eaten in its pure form and various dishes are prepared with it. Also, it has powerful healing and preventive properties. And lard is also used in everyday life to soften leather products and give shine to some surfaces. We will not talk about how to use it for household needs, but what are the benefits and whether there is any harm to health, we will tell you about the methods of salting and storage at home.

Despite the fact that lard is almost 100% fat, it is widely used in traditional medicine. The first who began to study the phenomenon of fat was Academician Pokrovsky Valentin Ivanovich. It was he who “sorted out” this product and came to the conclusion that nature balancedly combined the most useful substances for the body in fat. These are fat-soluble vitamins and fatty acid. Special attention deserves arachidonic acid, which is responsible for the cellular activity of the body and for cholesterol metabolism. The second is even more important. Consisting of this most harmful cholesterol, lard, with its moderate consumption, fights cholesterol deposits in the body. At the same time, cholesterol from fat is simply not deposited on the walls of blood vessels, and already formed plaques dissolve. It has a lot of that beneficial substance, like lecithin, which has a beneficial effect on blood vessels - it makes them elastic.

Many modern doctors, using their research and based on the conclusions made earlier, have come to the following conclusion: fat is most useful for those people who, by the nature of their activity or lifestyle, experience problems with the respiratory system. These are asthmatics, people suffering from bronchitis and tuberculosis. Also, as a preventive measure, lard is good for heavy smokers, tourists and athletes, who are often high in the mountains - the air there is very rarefied and, therefore, it is very difficult for them to breathe. It also has a powerful analgesic effect. Fat, but only fresh, can be applied to the places of pain. It will anesthetize inflamed joints, eliminate migraines, in just a few minutes it will remove swelling from the gums and the tooth will stop hurting. These, and many other useful properties of it, were also used by our grandmothers and with the help of fatty product deal with any pain. Be that as it may, but I argue that fat is good for the body.

Basically, people use it as a food product. There are a variety of recipes for making lard, but according to the types of salting, they are divided into three methods:

- dry (lard is salted in dry salt);

- wet (lard is salted in brine);

- hot (this is a kind of wet, but when the fat is boiled in brine).

Any type of salting involves, in addition to salt itself, the use of various spices. Already prepared salted bacon can be further smoked, hot or cold, from which it will become even tastier.

How to choose the right fat.

In order for the fat to turn out delicious, it must first be chosen correctly. A good-looking product is a uniform white or white-pink color. A thin, sharp knife enters fresh, good-quality lard rather gently, like butter. The skin of this product is very thin and flexible.

If you find that the purchased fat is not a quality standard, you can try to save it:

- with a smell that resembles urine, the fat must be soaked in water. Boar fat, and that is how it smells, will cease to smell unpleasant if you add a little garlic juice to the water (2 tablespoons per 1 liter of liquid);

- with hard fibers in fat, it must first be salted in any chosen way. Then, the finished lard can be twisted in a meat grinder with garlic - you get a delicious spread called “Ukrainian lard”. Garlic should be taken to taste and, according to the same criterion, ground pepper can be added to the mass.

Video: How to choose a good fat - Tips from "Everything will be fine."

Salted lard at home in the future must be properly stored:

- it is better to put boiled lard in the freezer and use it within three to four months;

- prepared by the wet salting method - it is allowed to store much more, up to twelve months;

- lard, which was simply rubbed with dry salt, has the shortest shelf life - only one month.

These shelf life of salted lard are not very strict. Some fat will be tasty and without foreign smell even in a year, and some will “suffocate” a little after a month. In any case, lard can be used for cooking a variety of dishes even after the expiration of its shelf life or deterioration of consumer qualities.

See video: Salo - Food without harm.

Salo is very popular and is available in almost every home, so many will be interested to know what conditions are necessary for long-term storage of lard (fresh, salted, smoked and boiled) and how long it can be stored, so in this article we will figure out where and how to store lard at home (in the refrigerator or freezer) and what is its shelf life.

Among buyers, ordinary fresh lard or salted lard is in greatest demand, followed by smoked and boiled lard, therefore, in the same sequence, we will consider separately where and how to properly store each type of lard, since they have different storage conditions and periods.

Note: regardless of the type of fat, fresh or processed (smoked, baked), it should be stored at a low temperature (below 10 degrees Celsius), and for long-term storage of fat, it needs to be frozen in a freezer, it is also important that there is no direct contact sunlight and high humidity.

Where and how to store fresh fat?

Fresh fat cannot be stored at room temperature, and in the refrigerator it can lie for no more than a few days, so it must immediately be salted or thermally processed (smoked, boiled) to increase the shelf life.

To increase the shelf life of fresh fat, you should use the freezer (shelf life increases to 3-4 months). Depending on how the lard will be used in the future, it can be frozen in a whole piece (if you continue to salt it), or divided into small pieces that can be used immediately (for frying, for adding to other dishes). Before sending fresh fat to the freezer for storage, it should be packed in parchment (food paper), and if the pieces are not large, each should be packed separately, then placed in a plastic bag or wrapped with cling film and sent in this form to freezer for freezing.

How to store salted lard (after salting)?

Salted lard has a longer shelf life than fresh lard and can be stored for a long time, both in the refrigerator and in the freezer.

For storage in the refrigerator, lard is wrapped in food paper (parchment) or placed in a glass jar and closed with a lid. For longer storage, lard can be additionally sprinkled more abundantly with salt (if desired, with seasonings), while the lard will absorb only a certain amount of salt, and the excess salt residue can be easily removed with a knife when consumed.

In the freezer, salted lard can be stored for more than a year, for this it is enough to divide it into small pieces in advance so that it is convenient to get them out as needed, pack them in parchment and cling film on top and place them in the freezer. By the way, it is frozen lard that is convenient to use as a snack, since it can be easily cut into very thin slices (while it is frozen).

Note: if you bought or salted a large piece of bacon, then part of it can be placed in the refrigerator for everyday needs, and most of it can be divided into smaller parts and placed in the freezer.

Salted lard can also be stored in a basement or cellar, having salted it abundantly in advance and placed either in glass jars with a lid, or in wooden boxes (boxes can be used if the cellar is not humid).

How to store smoked lard at home?

The principle of storage of smoked lard is the same as that of salted lard, only the shelf life is slightly different (salted lard is stored longer than smoked lard).

The conditions for storage in the refrigerator and freezer for smoked lard are the same as for salted bacon, but more often it is simply stored in the refrigerator, because after a long freeze, the taste qualities change slightly for the worse.

The lard boiled in spices becomes more tender and pleasant in taste, while its shelf life is not very different from salted lard. More often, boiled lard is prepared in small quantities to be eaten immediately and not stored for a long time (do not freeze in the freezer).

Pieces of boiled bacon are pre-packed in parchment (food paper) and placed in the refrigerator in the main compartment. In this form, it can be stored for several months.

There is also an option when lard is melted to get fat, on which many dishes and frying are cooked. In this case, fresh or salted lard is melted and poured hot into a glass jar, wait until it cools completely, cover with a nylon lid and place in a refrigerator or cellar. It is also possible to pour the melted lard (fat) into a special plastic food container that can be placed in the freezer for longer storage.

How to keep lard on the road without a refrigerator?

If you are going on a long journey or when you need to send fat, so that it does not deteriorate, you must follow a few simple rules:

• Fresh without a refrigerator, especially in hot weather, will quickly deteriorate, so it is better to take only salted lard (or smoked) on the road. Salted bacon without a refrigerator will not deteriorate on the road for several days, the main thing is to pack it in food paper, and not in a plastic bag in which it can “suffocate”.
• Most best option use a cooler bag that will keep the temperature low.
• For long-term transportation without a refrigerator, lard (salted, smoked) can be frozen well, and then wrapped in several layers of parchment or newspapers (paper will help keep the cold longer). Vacuum packaging can also help.
• Before long-term transportation, salted lard can be rolled up in a jar (there will be no access to harmful microorganisms, and this method will also help preserve the lard itself and will not affect the taste).

With proper preparation, lard will “survive” a long journey without any problems, it is not for nothing that fishermen, hunters and tourists love it so much and take it with them as a nutritious and healthy snack in addition to other products that have a long shelf life.

Shelf life of lard at home

• The shelf life of fresh fat is up to 3-5 days in the refrigerator and up to 3-4 months in the freezer.
• The shelf life of salted lard is up to 3 months in the refrigerator and up to 1 year in the freezer.
• The shelf life of smoked bacon is up to 2 months in the refrigerator and up to 1 year in the freezer (it is rarely frozen, often kept in the refrigerator).
• The shelf life of boiled lard is up to 3 months in the refrigerator.
• The shelf life of lard (rendered lard) in the refrigerator is from 1 to 2 years.

In conclusion to the article, it can be noted that knowing how to store lard at home (after salting, boiled, fresh and smoked), you can not worry that it will quickly deteriorate and lose its taste and beneficial features(the main thing is not to forget about the expiration date of the fat). Their helpful tips and reviews on how to properly store fat at home, leave in the comments to the article and share it in in social networks if it was helpful to you.

Fat is a tasty and healthy product that contains valuable arachidonic acid, which is necessary for the good functioning of the heart, kidneys and brain. Improper storage of fat leads to the fact that, soft and white, it gradually turns yellow and an unpleasant odor appears.

So, how to store fat at home?

Here it is necessary to follow the rules for choosing good fat, to know the subtleties of salting and to take into account the necessary method of preserving the product.

Good and high-quality - it is white or pinkish soft fat with a pleasant taste.

Storing fat in the refrigerator

Still, lard at home is best stored in the refrigerator. It is allowed to keep in unsalted form frozen in the freezer.

Salted lard is real in such ways:

1. Canned.
2. In jars under a capron lid.
3. Wrapped in fabric or paper.

Before storing fat in the refrigerator, the product is rolled into jars. During preservation, the fat is cut into pieces.

Pieces of bacon are placed in the prepared boiling brine (1 liter of water, 1 tablespoon of salt) and boiled for 5-8 minutes.

Jars with lids must be sterilized.

3-4 cloves, 1-2 allspice, 1-2 bay leaves and the same number of garlic cloves are placed in each jar. All this is poured with boiling brine and rolled up.

When a full jar is opened, all pieces of bacon are transferred to the freezer.

Staying in the refrigerator, lard retains its valuable properties for up to 3 months.

When you need to save a lot of fat, then this product placed in the freezer. Salo is cut into medium pieces, which are wrapped in paper napkins and packed in cellophane. This way of preserving fat will extend the opportunity to enjoy a nutritious product for up to a year.

So, how to store smoked lard at home is also necessary, so there are such methods:

• Pieces are wrapped in cotton cloth and stored in the refrigerator.
• Pieces are wrapped in parchment paper and hung in a dimly lit cold place.
• The pieces are wrapped in canvas, tightly wrapped in cellophane and placed in the freezer.

Depending on how much fat is stored in the refrigerator, the appropriate method is selected. For long-term (2-3 months) preservation of fat, it should be placed in jars.

The brine is not required. It is enough just to roll medium-sized pieces of lard with salt.

How to store lard without a refrigerator?

If there is a lot of fat, then everything is done according to the old method of preservation.

They take a wooden box or with holes (holes are required for draining or absorbing brine), lay out the inner area with paper and pour a centimeter salt layer. Pieces of bacon are placed on this layer and sprinkled with salt so that the space between the pieces is filled.

Before this, fat without sprouting meat is stuffed with garlic and falls out in herbs with pepper.

The top is covered with a layer of salt, on which the next pieces of lard are placed. This is done from the top. At the top, everything is covered with paper and pressed down with stones.

In this form, dry lard can be stored for up to a year.

Balcony for conservation is suitable only in winter. In summer, without a refrigerator, lard feels great in the cellar.

Lard on a hike is an indispensable product, but how to store salted lard in such conditions? After all, keeping it in a bank is inconvenient.

There are three ways:

• Sprinkle with salt and red pepper and wrap in parchment paper.
• Wrap with nettles, and on top - newspaper (gray printed paper).
• Wrap with cotton cloth.

These are all the answers to the question of how to store salted lard at home.

How to salt?

When the owners understand where to store the fat, the latter must be properly salted.

Per kilogram of fat you need to take:

• Salt (3 tbsp., rock or sea, do not take "Extra" and iodized).
• Black ground pepper (1 tablespoon).
• Garlic (cut into strips, stuffed into 5-centimeter cuts).
• Dried herbs.

The last two ingredients are applied at will, taking into account the tastes of the hosts. All of the above are mixed.

Before storing fat in the refrigerator, cut into thick pieces, it is rubbed with the resulting mixture and folded into an enamel bowl. The top is covered with a lid.

In this form, the fat should stand in the cold.
After salting, the fat is taken out, wrapped in cling film and placed in the freezer, where it can stay up to a year.

Additional video recipe for delicious lard:

Ways to store fat directly depend on the type of product, because it can be fresh, salted, boiled, smoked or baked. Any fat, regardless of the type of processing, should be properly stored at temperatures below +10°C. In a city apartment, you will have to keep the product in the refrigerator - only there you can create suitable conditions. Residents of rural areas can do without a refrigerator by identifying fat in a cellar or a makeshift glacier. Only in this case it is necessary to ensure low air humidity and sufficient ventilation of the room in order to prevent the development of fungi and mold.

fresh fat

Fresh fat, if it is not planned to be processed in the near future, must be kept in the freezer:

• If in the future the product will be used to prepare various dishes, it can be pre-cut into portioned pieces, having thought in advance what size they should be.
• If in the future it is planned to salt the bacon, it can be frozen in a whole piece by making deep transverse cuts with a sharp knife - they will be useful for evenly salting the piece.

Large and small pieces of fresh fat should be wrapped tightly with cling film and placed in the freezer.

Fresh fat, like any other semi-finished product, should not be re-frozen. This increases the risk of developing pathogenic bacteria and impairs the taste of the finished snack.

Salted bacon

Salted bacon, unlike fresh, is a ready-made product that can be taken out of the refrigerator at any time and served on a table. Getting delicious bacon at home is easy - you can pickle it in brine or use dry salting:

• Cover the bottom of a wooden box with parchment paper and sprinkle with a layer of rock salt.
• Lay the pieces of lard skin side down on top and cover them with a layer of salt.
• If there are a lot of pieces of pork product, lay them out in several rows, generously sprinkling each row and the voids between them with the same salt.
• The top layer in the box should be made of salt - it should be covered with paper and a clean cotton cloth.
• Put the load on top and put the box in a dark, well-ventilated and cool place. It is better if it is a dry cellar or a glacier.

Do not be afraid that the fat will not salt or deteriorate - salt is an excellent preservative. In addition, the pork product will absorb exactly as much salt as needed, and not a gram more. So spoiling the taste of the finished bacon is very difficult. And if you pickle it with garlic, passed through a meat grinder, or use various spices (ground black pepper, dill, cumin, Provence herbs), you get an incomparable snack.

This option is more suitable for salting lard on a large scale. Similarly, you can pickle a small piece of fresh product bought in a store or on the market, but it is better to take an enameled pan without chips and damage as a container. Otherwise, the technology for obtaining salted fat is no different:

Salt → Fresh fat → Salt → Paper → Cargo

The product processed in this way must be kept at room temperature for 24 hours, and then put in the refrigerator. After 3-4 days (this period is usually enough for salting), it is worth checking the readiness of the lard: if the color of the veins has turned red-brown, it is ready for use.

After salting, the piece must be removed from the pan, scrape off excess salt, wrap the fat in cling film and put it in the freezer. As needed, you can get a savory snack, cut into thin plates or sticks (as you like) and serve. Well-salted lard can be stored in the freezer for up to a year or even longer.

You can store the product by salting it in a glass jar. It can be a small 1.5-liter container or a capacious 3-liter container. When salting bacon in a jar, it must first be sterilized and dried, put the pork pieces tightly in a container, generously pouring salt, pour it to the very top and tightly close the jar with a nylon lid. If the salty product is intended for long-term storage, the container can be rolled up with a sterilized tin lid. If this is not done, the fat will “age” - turn yellow from exposure to oxygen and lose its characteristic taste.

Lard in jars for long-term storage

Smoked lard

A delicious hot-smoked product is obtained from salted lard. Regardless of whether it is purchased in a store or cooked with your own hands, smoked bacon should be stored in the refrigerator, first wrapped in paper and then wrapped in several layers of cling film.

In this form, it will lie in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks. But if you need to keep a fragrant piece for a longer period, it should be transferred to the freezer - there it can lie much longer without losing taste and nutritional value.

With large volumes of smoked lard, when it is difficult to fit it in the freezer, ready-made pieces can be hung on hooks in a dark, cool, ventilated room: a cellar or an attic. The lard must first be wrapped with paper or a breathable cloth. Alternatively, smoked bacon can be placed in wooden boxes and sprinkled with rye chips or dry sawdust from fruit or deciduous trees.

A cellar or basement with high humidity is categorically not suitable for storing smoked lard. Under such conditions, the product in a short time will be covered with a slimy coating of mold and become unfit for human consumption.