Preserving with Fat

A time-honored way of protecting meat, fish and shellfish from air, and thus from some of the micro-organisms that cause spoilage, is to seal it in fat. The method best suits pork, goose and duck, which all render quantities of tasty fat during cooking. Long, slow cooking reduces the moisture content of the meat and eliminates bacteria, as well as making the meat fork-tender. However, because fat turns rancid, fat-sealing is a relatively short-term means of preservation: four months in the refrigerator is the recommended maximum.