Anyone made Pemmican

[liv]

I was reading about it and I watched a you tube video. But I am not sure I would like it - does look like a sensible emergency thing.
Any people here into it?

[Desertthorn]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

I don't know if its still here, but our first food expert Naja did a whole post on Pemmican. It was years ago,

[Desertthorn]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/snacks/237-pemmican.html

LOL 2003, boy I can always remember food.

[liv]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

Thanks - wow good memory there.
It was interesting that she mentioned hamburger grease. It was actually hamburger grease that got me thinking about pemmican. I poured a truckload down the drain and plugged it (Yes it was dumb - I do know better but sometimes my absent mindedness gets the better of me) And it got me thinking if there are ways I could use it. It is pure energy and I hate to throw food out.
Hmmmm ....

[Desertthorn]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

I just don't think I would like the taste, so if you ever decide to make it let me know and maybe I'll give it a go also

[liv]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

I just don't think I would like the taste, so if you ever decide to make it let me know and maybe I'll give it a go also

I know I am not sure either. This is why I posted - a bit curious if anybody had the experience. - If know I had to survive on the tundra I may appreciate it but right here in civilization - not so sure.

[not2late]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

I never made pemmican, but I've done some experimenting with my food dehydrator over the summer and made beef jerky by dehydrating roast beef and pastrami slices I bought at the deli counter. It was alot easier and faster than traditional jerky recipes. But ask the deli counter to slice the roast beef about 1/8-1/4 inch thick.

[mizski]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

Isn't pemmican basically jerky and fat, ground up and mixed together? Sounds like great survival food. Not sure if I'd like it though.

I had to google it and came up with this interesting link from a Native American site. Don't care for the last paragraph though (the A Word Of Caution one). If you read it you'll know what I mean.

[not2late]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

It's meat and fat....sometimes berries were added to the meat/fat mixture.

[timbrewolf1]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

I've made lots of pemmican. My interest was piqued years ago by Ray Audette's book Neander-thin. I've had varying degrees of success with pemmican. It's a laborious process - especially if you're smoking your own jerky. But it is WELL WORTH IT!

I made a batch last week and (as much as I hate to resort to an overused IM acronym) OMG!!! You wouldn't care if you EVER ate anything else. Here's the process.

1 Lightly freeze any beef or venison (to make slicing it easier)
2 Marinade overnight in teriyaki, worchestershire, and beef stock (I'd made a roast and saved the juice)
3 Smoke the jerky strips (I used a screen door set horizontally on a 2X4 stand and put a window over it, to keep flies out, and made a very small fire in a very small grill and just kept it smoking)
4 When the strips were almost dry I put them through a hand crank meat grinder (you can usually find these inexpensively second hand stores or flea markets - check ebay if not)
5 Once I had the "meal" from the jerky I put it in the oven at 180 degrees, stirring occasionally, to evaporate more of the moisture. You want the meal fairly dry but it doesn't really have to be bone dry unless you really are planning to store it for a long time without refrigeration.
6 This is another departure from the norm - I used hog lard rather than beef suet. I heated the previously rendered lard (oh yeah, I forgot to tell you to render pig fat) and sliced a few garlic cloves into it and let them "fry" just a little bit. Technically you wouldn't really want the lard to get this hot but hey whatever works, right?
7 Now pour the lard into the jerky meal until it's saturated but not soupy.
8 I put my pemmican into cupcake papers in a muffin pan and let that cool.

Brace yourself for an oral orgasm. You really wouldn't mind it AT ALL if you were stranded on a deserted island and this is all you had to eat.

Notes: If the meat isn't really dry or you use lard instead of suet it is probably best to keep the pemmican refrigerated. In theory pemmican will last YEARS (like 40!) without refrigeration.

Pemmican, to my way of thinking, is a lifestyle. It is a weekend project at best and, although the cupcake papers make it a bit more manageable, it is rather a glorious mess to eat. But once again I have to tell you that my experience last week left me thinking OMG!

[liv]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

Thanks for the post Timbrewolf. Oral orgasm eh.
You smoke it as well. That sure does add another taste dimention to it.
When I grew up we used to eat a lot of air tried fatty meats. I think I miss that. Or air dried fish. Those were good too.

[timbrewolf1]

Re: Anyone made Pemmican

When I grew up we used to eat a lot of air tried fatty meats. I think I miss that. Or air dried fish. Those were good too.

Where did you grow up? Whoever your peeps were sure knew how to live right! I've had dried fish but not often and, maybe, not even on purpose. I think I smoked some once. I need to get into that because I live on the Big Island of Hawaii now.