Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Making your own meat powder is a great way to add shelf-stable meat to your pantry. Meat powder can add a dash of protein to any meal and easily dissolve into soups and stews when you are out of fresh meat.
What I love about making your own meat powder is that you can make sure that you like all of the ingredients. There are no fillers or ingredients that are hard to pronounce because you can mix and match items in your kitchen that you and your family prefer.
While meat powder may not be the main part of your daily meals in your home today, it could be quite beneficial in an emergency situation when there is no meat supply. I also love that you can use those odd cuts of meat from animals that are hard to use.
Keep reading to learn how to make your own meat powder that has a long-lasting shelf life.
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What You’ll Need
It should be easy to find all of these items either in your fridge or pantry. Again, you can omit, add, or change this recipe to fit your needs.
Meat Powder Ingredients:
- 1 lb. protein (I used pork neck bones that I found at the bottom of the freezer. Any cheap protein will do for this recipe!)
- 1 large carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- ½ white onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. Dried parsley
- 1 Tbs. vegetable oil (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
How to Prepare Meat Powder
My original recipe stated to shave off the meat from the bones, but I was having trouble doing so with the pork neck bones that I chose. So, I decided to deviate from the recipe and pressure cook all of the ingredients in the Instant Pot.
Cook Ingredients
I roughly chopped the vegetables since I knew that I would be pulverizing it all later on. I cooked all of the ingredients except the vegetable oil in the Instant Pot at high pressure for 20 minutes. I allowed the pressure to release naturally so that the meat would fall off the bone.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you could also cook the ingredients in a skillet to ensure that everything is cooked through. This is where you would add in the optional vegetable oil from the ingredient list, so the food doesn’t burn on the skillet.
Blend Ingredients
I removed the bones and threw all of the ingredients into a Vitamix blender. You could also use a food processor at this point. The main goal here is to create a mixture that incorporates all of the ingredients. The mixture itself doesn’t look that appetizing, though. I was honestly a bit skeptical that this wet liquid would ever dry enough to become a powder.
Spread & Bake
Preheat the oven to 250°F and spread the mixture evenly onto a baking sheet. I used a silicone baking mat to make clean up easier, but you could also use parchment paper or grease the baking sheet itself. Try to create a thin layer of the mixture so that you don’t end up with extra dry spots and areas that are still wet in the middle.
Check For Dryness
I let the mixture dry in the low-temperature oven for two hours and then pulled it out to find this. As you can see, some areas that looked almost burnt while others were still a bit wet. At this point, I crumbled all of the mixture in the Vitamix one more time and then put it back on the baking sheet to dry some more.
The drying time of your meat powder mixture may be less or more than this, depending on the ingredients that you use. The important part is to make sure there is no excess liquid anywhere that could spoil your meat powder. Dry it until the powder is easy to crumble and contains no visible liquid. If you aren’t sure if the powder is dry enough, keep it in the oven longer.
If the powder isn’t as fine as you would like it, you can always add it to the blender one last time to create an ultra fine powder that doesn’t have as many crumbles.
Store in Airtight Container
Once the meat powder is fully dried, you can store it easily in a mason jar or other airtight container. To store this item long term, it would be best to dry can the jar or use a vacuum sealer to remove all of the air inside. Other storage options include a vacuum-sealed bag that has all of the air removed as well.
Once you have made a meat powder, you can store it in many different ways. Some people leave a jar of it in the fridge to use immediately, while others seal up their powder to put away in a stockpile. Use this meat powder to add to eggs, soups, stews, and sauces to add some protein to your meals.
If you ever open up a jar of meat powder that looks questionable, always err on the side of caution and throw it away. Remember that the liquid inside the meat and mixture is what spoils the powder, so making sure to dry it as long as possible is key to prolonging the shelf life.
Be creative and use any kind of meat that you have leftover. This meat powder would be great using chicken, beef, pork, or even goat or mushroom as long as you cook it thoroughly and remove the liquid. Add in your own mix of vegetables and seasonings to create meat powders that you and your family will appreciate in an emergency situation.
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