When I wrotePrepper's Livestock Handbook,I researched off-grid meat preservation methods and came up with quite a few. What surprises me now, is that I didn't think of pemmican. Pemmican is one of those things I recall reading about in grammar school history lessons about Native Americans and the early English and French explorers. I'm not sure why it didn't come to mind when I did my research for that book.
I was reminded of pemmican when I was watching videos to pass the time while I shelled pole bean and turnip seeds for next year's garden. I subscribe to two historical cooking YouTube channels, and I ran across pemmican videos on both. Off-grid food preservation interests to me, so I did a little more research and decided to give it a try.
What is pemmican? It's dried meat, traditionally made frombuffalobison or venison. After it's dried (typically by the sun or campfire), it's powdered and mixed with melted suet or tallow. Sometimes, it contains dried fruit, but sometimes not. It's shelf stable, which means it doesn't require refrigeration for storage. That makes it ideal for long trips, when hunting or stopping at the convenience store isn't possible. It's a concentrated source of protein and calories, and because it's fully cooked, it can be eaten as is (which is why it's often thought of as a survival food), or as an ingredient in soup, stew, or hash.
The ingredients are simple: lean raw meat and suet or tallow. Since dried fruit is optional, I opted for a plain version. Here's the process in pictures.
 |
| Lean, top round beef roast. It weighed 2.42 pounds. |
| |
| Cut cross grain into thin strips for dehydrating. No seasoning added. |
| |
Dried crisp, which took about 12 hoursin the
dehydrator. The dried weight was 0.75 pound. |
Pemmican is different from jerky in several ways. One is that it is cutcross grain instead of with the grain. Jerky is highly seasoned and dried untilit's pliable. Pemmicanis not seasoned and is dried until crisp.
| |
Cutting cross grain meant it was easy to snap into pieces for the
next step. Here it is in my power blender, ready to ground fine. |
| |
| Meat "powder." (Actually, more like very tiny fine shreds.) |
If suet is used, it needs to be rendered, i.e. melted to remove non-fat bits. If it's made from pig fat it's called lard. If it's made from cow, sheep, or goat, it's called tallow. My blog post onrendering tallowis here. Since I already had it, I just had to melt it to mix with the finely ground dried meat.
| |
Melted tallow is added to bind the meat powder together. The amount
is roughly the same weight as the meat or less. I used my goat tallow. |
| |
It needs enough tallow to hold together without being overly
greasy.Gloves were recommended for easier hand clean-up. |
| |
| Pressed into a mold and allowed to cool. |
| |
| Turned out of the bread pan mold after a night in my unheated pantry. |
| |
Mine was crumbly when sliced. I'm guessing
this means it could have used more tallow. |
Of course, we sampled it, and it wasn't what I expected. I watched a number of prepper videos where they sample it and think it's extremely bland and tasteless. Nobody seemed to care for it much and thought it's best use was for survival food. Dan and I thought it just tasted like beef. Not terribly greasy, and it could have used some salt, but the flavor was fine.
| |
I packed most of it into wide-mouth pint
canning jars and then vacuum sealed them. |
So, what will I do with it? Modern thinking classifies pemmican as a survival food, to eat as-is in a bug-out or emergency situation when one is unable to cook. For that, I think the addition of powdered dried fruit would help, not only for flavor, but to provide much needed carbohydrates. Historically, however, pemmican making was a food preservation method, and it was cooked, or used as an ingredient.As an ingredient, I found two recipes for it: rubaboo and rousseau (or rechaud).
Traditionally, pemmican was stored in skins rather than molded as most modern instructions call for (because how many of us have a few storage skins handy?) For my second batch, I added salt (1/4 tsp. per 1/4 pound dried meat) and packed it directly into pint canning jars.
|
| 1/2 lb dried meat + tallow = roughly one pint of pemmican |
I can scoop out what I need when I use it.
When we taste tested this batch, we thought that the salt ratio of 1/4 tsp. salt to 1/4 pound dried meat was perfect.
Next time, I'll share how I made rubaboo and what we thought of it. (Click here for that blog post).
Resources:
Pemmican: An Experiment in Preserving Meat
© Dec 2022byLeighathttp://www.5acresandadream.com
FAQs
Today, this meat-based, long-lasting food can still satiate preppers, survivalists, and campers of all types for months or even years. Learn how to create your own pemmican recipe and why this food has such staying power.
How is pemmican preserved? ›
These strips of meat were cut thin, dried in the sun, then smoked, and finally ground into a fine powder before adding fat and dried berries. The mixture would be stored in sewn bags of animal hide for easy transport or trade. Some bison-hide bags would be filled with 90 pounds of pemmican.
What is the ratio of fat to meat for pemmican? ›
The fat and protein have to have a one-to-one ratio for preservation to take place. Some pemmican has a two-to-one ratio of fat to protein, perfect for a carnivore's diet and to keep you going on the long haul. This type of pemmican tastes like greasy, plain beef jerky and Antarctic exploration was founded on it.
How did Native Americans keep meat from spoiling? ›
Smoking. One of the most popular ways for Native Americans to keep their meat for longer was by smoking it. While salting was generally known as a good preservative option, salt was usually hard to come by which meant that smoking was one of the leading ways to preserve fish, bison and other meats.
Why was pemmican banned? ›
The Red River Colony imposed on that economic order and, when famine threatened the settlement in mid-winter 1814, Governor Miles Macdonnell (1767-1828) issued what became known as the Pemmican Proclamation. This law was meant to stop the export of pemmican to NWC forts in the West and retain it for the HBC settlers.
Is pemmican bad for you? ›
Is pemmican good for you? When made with grass-fed meat, tallow, and other fresh ingredients, yes! Because pemmican has high concentrations of lean meat and fat, it is considered a high-calorie, high-protein, and high-fat snack. When it isn't combined with fruit, pemmican is essentially no-carb.
Can pemmican be eaten raw? ›
Pemmican (also pemican in older sources) is a mixture of tallow, dried meat, and sometimes dried berries. A calorie-rich food, it can be used as a key component in prepared meals or eaten raw.
What is the ultimate survival food? ›
Canned meats like tuna, chicken, and beef, along with canned vegetables like carrots, green beans, and peas, are packed with protein and essential nutrients, making them ideal for survival situations. And with a shelf life of up to 5 years, canned goods are a reliable choice for long-term survival food storage.
How much pemmican per day? ›
A colonist eats ~40 pemmican a day. With 8 colonists for a: 10 day winter: 3200 pemmican. 20 day winter: 6400 pemmican.
Is pemmican similar to beef jerky? ›
Texture-wise, jerky and pemmican are worlds apart. Jerky is known for its chewy and sometimes tender consistency, which varies depending on the cut and preparation of the meat. Pemmican, in contrast, has a dense, compact texture due to the combination of ground meat and fat.
Add salt at a rate of 1.5-1.9% of the total weight of your powders used. For the original recipe, your mix will only be meat/salt. For a dried fruit mix, start with 30% dried fruit and 70% meat powder. Increase sweetness to taste by increasing the fruit powder or by adding honey.
What cut of meat is best for pemmican? ›
Round is a good cut. Prepping: Remove all visible fat. To slice, use longest knife on partially frozen meat. Drying: Better taste if not cooked.
How did they preserve meat 200 years ago? ›
Salting was the most common way to preserve virtually any type of meat or fish, as it drew out the moisture and killed the bacteria. Vegetables might be preserved with dry salt, as well, though pickling was more common. Salt was also used in conjunction with other methods of preservation, such as drying and smoking.
How did Cowboys keep meat from spoiling? ›
Brine was saltwater that was traditionally "strong enough to float an egg." Preserved in this way, homesteaders could keep meats for weeks and months at a time. However, like the other staple of pioneer diet, salt pork, "salted down" meat had to be laboriously rinsed, scrubbed, and soaked before consumption.
How did cavemen preserve meat? ›
Archeological evidence suggests humans weighted mammoth meat and submerged it in cool ponds, where it would stay somewhat fresh. Later, the earliest food technologies—smoking, drying and salting—emerged to protect similar meaty bounties.
Is pemmican a good survival food? ›
Pemmican is known for providing energy and protein in a very small serving. This calorie dense super survival food is light weight, has a long shelf life, and is very easy to make.
How much pemmican per person per day? ›
I find I can eat 1/4-1/2 lb. of pemmican twice a day when I'm doing serious calorie burning from hiking and carrying a pack. So pemmican becomes my staple. It is possible for a person to eat only pemmican and thrive since it is a complete and balanced food.
What survival food has the longest shelf life? ›
Freeze-dried meat is the ultimate long-term protein source. Its 25+ year shelf life is unmatched by any other food item. In addition, it is lightweight, convenient to prepare, and as nutritious as the real thing. We cannot think of any reason to not include freeze-dried meat in your emergency food stockpile.
How does pemmican not go rancid? ›
Jerky, here defined as seasoned and dehydrated meat, is porous — when exposed to humidity, the dry jerky actually absorbs water vapor out of the air and begins to spoil. Pemmican, on the other hand, is not porous. The rendered fat in Pemmican seals the pores in the dry meat, so that humid air can't moisten the meat.
