what is the best way to preserve meat? smoke it? salt it? cut it into thin strips and dry it in the sun? can it in a pressure canner? Does anyone know of a good (free) resource that give step by step instructions for preserving mat either in a pressure canner or by smoking?

Freezing is the best method used in preserving meat. You have to pack the meat and freeze them in a frost free freezer. It should look like it has been vacuum packed. This is when the meat has portions or spots that look freeze dried.

Freezing is great until the electricity goes out.
Freeze drying is a process that some meat packers offer for home use. Sure it costs a bit more but in the long run its worth it if you want to keep meat for long periods with out the chance of spoilage from a blackout.
Ew I hated that smell.

But we like jerkey. So allot of meat gets smoked and dried for later use too.
Then you ahve smokehouse preserving.
Smokehouse preserving is a bit different than smoking.
Smoke house meats are covered usually in a salt and spice pack and stocking. Hung in an area with draft and is dry. A small smudge( small fire with wood to maintain a heat) is started in the center of the floor and tended. The minor heat, salt and draft slowly preserves the meat. If you eat country sured ham this is what you are eating.

j

Can you preserve other meats besides ham in the smokehouse? I want a good way to preserve venison but I don't want to rely on freezing.

I assume building a smoke house is not too complicated?

I'm not a hundred percent sure that meat can be effectively stored for an extended period of time. So, I would prefer to stick with products that have greater potential for lasting.

Does anyone know hot to build one of these at low cost? This would be something good to learn.

Yes, you can build a smokehouse of cinder block or use an old refrigerator, then construct a separate, underground (or lower) fire pit. The finished smoke house is quite versatile and will enable you to smoke hams and bacon as well as drying meats

A smokehouse can be used in the winter when outdoor drying racks are not feasible. It is easy to build up too much heat and ruin jerky. But it is possible to generate enough heat to cook hams and bear meat, should that be desired during the traditional fall and winter season for that activity.

When I was a kid, we had a smokehouse that was used for sausages and ham, if I remember correctly.

I have a question - I notice some smoked salmon in the stores isn't refrigerated, while some of it's frozen or refrigerated, so how would you preserve it in the way that doesn't require the cold storage?

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I don't think that salting the meat , is the best way to preserve meat, because when you salt the meat, it secrets moisture, which will indeed become a habitat for the bacterias . So as jimmy says its always good to keep the meat in the freezer.

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Keeping the meat in the Freezer is sufficient, even if you add salt to the meat , the moisture, the meat secrets can be dried out by placing it under the sunlight , so that it dries. And wait for few hours , so that the salt gets soaked in the meat.