Meals from What You Preserve Oakfolks Companion Guide, Volume 2
Somewhere near the bottom of your freezer is a package from last season. Gray at the edges, burnt through. You already know how that one ends.
That's meat you paid for, or walked miles for, going out a handful at a time.
None of this used to be normal. Before freezers, meat kept for a year on salt, smoke and time, and nobody thought twice about it.
Nobody passed that down. This book hands it back.
Stop losing meat to your own freezer. The right way to wrap, pack and store every cut, so this season's venison doesn't come out gray.
Can it, and it keeps for a year with no freezer and no power. Jars on a shelf don't care whether the lights are on.
Cure your own bacon and smoke your own sausage. Once you taste it, the store version is done for you.
Know exactly what's in every bite. Salt, smoke, time. Nothing you can't pronounce.
Nothing wasted from a hunt. Every cut, down to the trimmings, has a place.
And you won't be guessing. The steps are plain enough that first-timers get it right.
Four old skills. One book that teaches all of them.
Wrapping a cut so it survives the winter. Building a brine. Loading a smoker. Filling a shelf with jars that don't need power. Each one walked through step by step, so you're never left guessing.
Meat, fish and game sealed in jars that keep for the long haul. No freezer, no power, no worrying about a storm. You'll learn what gear actually matters, the mistakes that ruin a batch, and how to build shelves of ready-to-eat protein that can't be lost to a tripped breaker.
Freezer burn isn't bad luck. It's air, and air gets in one of about five ways. Learn which wrap actually holds up over a full season, how to pack a chest freezer so nothing gets buried and forgotten, and how long each cut of meat, fish and fowl really has. Most folks are losing meat right now and won't find out until March.
The oldest preservation craft there is. Dry cures and sweet brines for corned beef, hams, cured turkey and more, using real ingredients you can pronounce.
From choosing your wood to holding your temperature, learn to smoke bacon, sausage, fish and game the traditional way. Includes smokehouses you can build yourself, for any budget.
Dozens of them. Breakfast bacon, travel jerky, pepperoni, smoked sausage, cured turkey. The kind of food that made your grandmother's kitchen smell the way you still remember.
Fair warning: these are traditional quantities, written for a whole animal. Scale them down and they work fine, but you'll be doing the arithmetic.
Game and fish get their own treatment throughout. This season's deer or the morning's catch, you'll keep the bulk of it in good condition, and it'll taste better than anything off a store shelf.
The internet has a thousand opinions. This book has one method that works.
There's no shortage of preservation videos online. But fifteen that contradict each other won't fill a pantry. A proven reference will.
| This Guide | A Pile of YouTube Videos | |
|---|---|---|
| Tells you how to store it, not just how to cook it | ✔ | ✕ |
| All four skills in one method: can, freeze, cure, smoke | ✔ | ✕ |
| Covers meat, fish AND wild game | ✔ | ✕ |
| Salt, smoke and time, no harsh chemicals | ✔ | ✕ |
| Works when the power's out and the Wi-Fi's down | ✔ | ✕ |
| One voice that knows, not fifty that argue | ✔ | ✕ |
The Oakfolks Promise
Read it. Try it. If this book doesn't earn a permanent spot on your shelf within 30 days, send it back for every penny. No questions, no hassle. We only stock things we'd keep ourselves. The companion guide is yours either way.
First tries. Honest results.
★★★★★ Rated 4.8/5 by readers
"Paid for itself in one deer"
I used to give half my deer away because I didn't trust myself to keep it. This year it all went into jerky, sausage and the canner. Nothing hit the trash.
"The opposite of a padded prepper book"
I've got a shelf of preparedness books that are mostly filler. This one is plain and dense with no wasted pages. Canned venison with no freezer and it came out perfect.
"Never buying store bacon again"
I was sure I'd botch the cure. Followed it to the letter anyway, and a week later I was frying bacon I made myself. The store stuff tastes like wet cardboard now.
"Read it first, learn from my mistake"
My first batch of jerky came out way too salty. My own fault, I eyeballed it instead of following the book. Did it by the numbers the next time and my kids ate the whole tray.
"Felt like getting a piece of my grandad back"
My grandfather had the old edition. Corned my first beef last week and thought about him the whole time. This book is a keeper.
"My wife converted, my brother's getting a copy"
Bought it half expecting to shelve it. Now my wife, who never touched bacon, puts my maple cured on everything. Already ordered a second copy for my brother's birthday.
The questions folks actually ask
It's written exactly for you. Plain English, no experience assumed. Most folks start with something easy like jerky or bacon, get one win under their belt, and go from there.
That's most of our readers. A freezer is a fine place to keep meat, right up until it isn't. This book covers doing the freezing properly so less of it goes to waste, and three other ways to put meat up that don't need electricity at all. Most folks use all four eventually.
No, and we'd rather say so plainly. This is a preservation book. It starts once the meat is cut and covers keeping it: canning, freezing, curing, smoking. If you're after breaking down a carcass, that's a different book and we'll happily point you to one.
Honestly, maybe not much. This is a first-principles reference, at its best for folks in their first few years or coming back to it after a long gap. If you've been curing and canning for a decade, chances are you already know most of what's in here. We'd rather tell you now than take your money.
No. A lot of what's in here needs little more than salt, a container and some patience. Where gear helps, like a canner or a smoker, the book shows options for every budget, including rigs you can build yourself.
All of it. Meat, fish and game, start to finish. It's in the title for a reason. Hunters and anglers are exactly who this book has served for decades.
Old, on purpose. This is the revised and updated edition of a guide that's been in print since 1975. Salt, smoke and time don't go out of date. This one just outlasted the fads.
30 days, full refund, no questions asked. If it doesn't earn its keep on your shelf, send it back.
Learn it once. Keep it for life.
We're bringing back the know-how the modern world let slip. Preserving now, and more to come. Join the Oakfolks for the good stuff and first word on what's next. No spam. No noise.