I think you may have the wrong idea about preserving meat. Yes, it is a priceless skill. The idea of preserving meat is not to have a surplus of meat, but to keep it from spoiling between the time you harvest it and the time you use it. While there will always be another animal to harvest, when you take a deer, you aren't going to eat the whole thing before it spoils. Take a deer (or other animal), use what you can while it's fresh, and salt or smoke the rest so you can use it rather than letting it rot and be wasted. Preserving meat is not an act of preparing, rather having the ABILITY to preserve meat is an act of preparedness.
