Curses! My cases of tomato paste and sauce are going to have to go into my meal plans quickly then.

Thanks!

Edit: smoking is a good way to preserve meats as well. In my youth my father cold smoked salmon that had been soaked in a slurry of brown sugar and rock salt for ~3 days over alder until it became hard as a rock and translucent. In this way it would keep on a shelf at room temperature for ~6 months. If it got a skin of mold on it, you could just shave that off with a knife, like cheese. At least, in my poverty stricken neck of the woods we would.

You couldn't chew it, because it was indeed rock hard, but you could stuff a flake or so in your cheek and suck on it, which would eventually moisten it until you could, and the whole time you'd enjoy the delicious flavor. The natives called it Squaw Candy, and I can see why, because soaking it in a sugar slurry for days really made it sweet, the salt gave it electrolytic restorative properties, and the alder smoke just makes salmon delicious.

The sugar and salt also act as preservatives. Smoke houses were ubiquitous on homesteads back in the day for these reasons, since people didn't have refrigerators. The miasma of smoke keeps bugs away, so a smoldering fire of fragrant fruitwood or species like alder not only add flavor and carcinogens, but preserve food in the absence of refrigeration.