#pemmican

Day 305 of Kenny McCormick holding food

Day 305: pemmican

Food: pemmican

You can use meat grinder instead of blender to grind dried meat, nuts, fruit, salt, etc... The sticky berries get ground into the dried meat eliminating that issue. Add a little solid tallow in also to keep the blade and other moving parts lubricated.

If you make it with onion or garlic powder it makes a great soup/stew starter that you can add foraged ingredients to. Use hardtack to thicken the stew.

My family in the northwest are salmon fishermen. They make a version of it with salmon and berries mixed in. I’ve some in a soup and just plain. It was honestly great plain like a powdered jerky. They warned me not to eat too much because it was like it was a concentration and highly nutritious. It gave me lots of energy and it was hard not to eat too much when it tasted so good. I love it!

Roald Amundsen used pemmican on all his expeditions, he was first to reach the geographical South Pole in December 1911 and he sailed the Northwest Passage for the first time in 1903. He used half and half of fat and meat, he added oatmeal and peas. And for the dogs he made dog pemmican with fishmeal and more fat. His description: "Pemmican tastes excellent, takes up little space and can be eaten raw, fried or boiled." Especially as provisions on a sledge expedition, it is invaluable".

The key to longevity is getting all the water you can out of the tallow, meat and fruit. I generally add just 10% by weight dried fruit to the meat and then about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of the dry mixture, then equal parts by weight dried mixture and rendered tallow. For my last batch I smoked the meat for an hour before I dried it and ground it up and the flavor was absolutely amazing! It's definitely the best trail food ever.

Last time i rendered tallow i saved the crunchies for my dog, she loved that mixed with her kibble!

From the comments though I think there is a misconception about what tallow is. You can just heat any animal fat and filter it but heat it again and get all of the moisture (bubbles) out. Then if you put it in jars and keep moisture away it will last for a very long time.

Moisture is what makes fats go rancid. That is why adding nuts reduces the storage life too. But actual tallow is made from the fat around the kidneys. Even at room temperature or above it is solid rather than liquid. It has more the consistency of wax, basically. But that's why it is good for this. And candles. It isn't affected by water and keeps all of the dry ingredients away from the moisture, which is what makes things go bad. Other fats are fine for short term events like hiking or camping but for true long term shelf stable Pemmican kidney fat tallow is what you want.