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This is something that I tried in February of this year. I packet salted beef cubes with some honey into a mason jar and kept it at room temperature for 6 month. The jar showed some evidence of fermentation. I don't know if the beef or the honey fermented a bit but the meat was still perfect. I made it into a stew in August of 2026. The honey adds a sweet taste and that is maybe a bit unexpected but everybody liked it. The meat was tender but not too soft.

The Egyptians used honey as a preservative already thousands of years ago and salted meat packed into barrels was used on long voyages.

Here is the process:

• I salt beef cubes and keep them over night in a strainer. This will pull some of the juices out of the meat.
• I pack the salted cubes tightly into a mason jar and add a teaspoon full of liquid honey at every layer. The honey fills any gaps. The accidental small air bubble is OK.
• At the top I put spacer and covered the sides of the spacer also in honey. I used a round wood disk as a spacer. This way the beef does not have any air exposure.
• I close the jar but not too tight as a small amount of fermentation will occur and produce gases.
• I store it in the pantry with a small plate under the jar (some honey/juice mixture will overflow).

Beef packed on the 10th of February 2026. Picture taken in August. aid kit

Some foam on the side: signs of fermentation

A new batch just started. The wooden disk on the left is the kind of spacer that I use a the top of the jar to keep the slated beef submerged in honey