A ration of 4 oz of cured meat a day for 100 people is 25 lbs a day and 3,750 lbs over a 150-day winter, and the animals the parent article lists, 6-8 hogs, 2-3 cattle and 50-100 chickens, supply only about 49% to 99% of that before any weight lost in curing. Plan more animals, a smaller ration or other protein, and eat the short-keeping products first and the hams last.
Part of Large-Scale Smoking & Curing
Rationing cured meat is the scheduling of a fixed stock of preserved meat across a winter, matching a daily allowance to what was produced and to how long each product keeps.
The Parent’s Target Is Right; The Animal List Does Not Reach It
The target follows from the ration. With 100 people at 4 oz a day:
- per day: 100 × 4 oz = 400 oz = 400 ÷ 16 = 25 lbs
- over 150 days (the parent’s November to March): 25 × 150 = 3,750 lbs
The parent then says this “requires processing the equivalent of” 6-8 hogs, 2-3 cattle, 50-100 chickens and seasonal game and fish. Test that with the parent’s own weights (150-200 lbs of meat per hog; 400-600 lbs per cow):
| Source | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Hogs | 6 × 150 = 900 | 8 × 200 = 1,600 |
| Cattle | 2 × 400 = 800 | 3 × 600 = 1,800 |
| Chickens, at an assumed 3 lbs of meat each (not from the parent) | 50 × 3 = 150 | 100 × 3 = 300 |
| Total | 1,850 lbs | 3,700 lbs |
Against 3,750 lbs, that is 1,850 ÷ 3,750 = 49% at the low end and 3,700 ÷ 3,750 = 99% at the high end. Even the high end falls just short, and these are the weights of meat before curing and smoking, which lose weight as they dry, and before any meat eaten fresh at the kill. Game and fish are unquantified, so they could close part of the gap but are not a plan. The finding is that the animal list falls short of the ration by up to about half. (This is a finding about the parent article, not a change to it.)
Ways To Close The Gap
- Reduce the ration. At 2 oz a day the need halves to 1,875 lbs, which the list covers everywhere except the very bottom of its range (1,850 lbs).
- Add protein from other sources: beans, eggs, dairy, fish (Legumes: Tepary Beans, Cowpeas).
- Process more animals, accepting the cost: each animal ate grain, forage or both over its life, so raising more meat animals takes land and feed from people (Feed-to-Meat Ratios by Animal, Livestock Feed Conversion).
- Treat the target as a ceiling, not a baseline, and decide what the community does when cured meat runs low in February.
The Salt This Takes
Curing 3,750 lbs at the parent’s dry-cure ratio of 8 lbs salt per 100 lbs means 3,750 × 0.08 = 300 lbs of salt, which sits inside the 200-500 lbs a year for meat curing in the salt article’s budget (Salt Production & Sourcing). Salt, like meat, is a limited input.
Issue Order Follows Shelf Life
The parent’s shelf lives (see Shelf life expectations by method) set the eating order. Hot-smoked fish (1-2 weeks) goes first and fresh, then sausage (2-6 months) and bacon (2-4 months), then jerky (3-6 months), and ham (6-12 months) is held for the end of winter and spring. Drawing hams early and leaving bacon to age wastes the product with the shorter life.
What You Need
- A stock count by product and date, recorded when the meat is put into store (Resource Ledgers)
- A calendar of issue, by week
- The harvest labour calendar, since butchering is a community event (Harvest Labor Calendar & Work Coordination)
Method: Plan The Winter
Step 1: Count the animals planned and compute meat weight with the weights above, using low and high.
Step 2: Compute the ration target and compare. If the low estimate is below target, choose a remedy now, in autumn.
Step 3: Assign each product to a month by its shelf life, shortest first.
Step 4: Re-count monthly and adjust the issue.
Common Mistakes
- Planning to the top of the range.
- Counting live weight as meat. The parent’s weights are meat; a live animal is more.
- Ignoring loss in curing and smoking.
- Drawing hams in November.
Safety
Pressure to stretch rations must not extend shelf lives
When the stock runs short, the temptation is to eat past the end of a product’s range or to eat meat that smells off. Do not. Discard spoiled meat, and do not seal or store under-cured meat to stretch it. A community short of protein is better served by cutting the ration than by illness from spoiled cured meat.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Meal Planning at Scale — fitting the meat ration into the daily menu
- Combine with: Community Kitchen Design & Operation — where the stored meat is used