# Pemmican



## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Anyone here make any or try any?


----------



## JeffreyD (Dec 27, 2006)

Oldcountryboy said:


> Anyone here make any or try any?


Done both. Don't care for it, too much fat, and there just seemed to be something wrong putting friut in it! Sorry, didn't help did I?


----------



## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

I've had pemmican before. It tasted somewhere between munching on one of those suet cakes they make for birds and the worst beef jerky you ever had.

I bought it at a truck stop in Montana, so there may be better pemmican out there.


----------



## Limon (Aug 25, 2010)

Ernie said:


> I've had pemmican before. It tasted somewhere between munching on one of those suet cakes they make for birds and the worst beef jerky you ever had.
> 
> I bought it at a truck stop in Montana, so there may be better pemmican out there.


Dang! I was reading a 19th century description of pemmican the other week and can't find it now. Basically, it said the lower-quality pemmican looked like it included a bunch of twigs, rocks and such in it, and the better-quality pemmican would probably taste better if it _*did have*_ the twigs, rocks and such in it. So, no, even back then it was something you ate because you needed to eat, not because it tasted good. Some other records say people used pemmican as a soup base and it was better that way. IIRC, it was used that way on some of the Arctic explorations.


----------



## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Limon said:


> Basically, it said the lower-quality pemmican looked like it included a bunch of twigs, rocks and such in it, and the better-quality pemmican would probably taste better if it _*did have*_ the twigs, rocks and such in it. .


:gaptooth: Oh that's funny!


----------



## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

Honey doesn't spoil and makes a great binding agent for anything you have well dehydrated. If you plan on being in the cold northern parts, you might go with the fat, as you would probably need it...sorry.

But if I were making it, I'd use honey for use in the summer for sure, and year around here, cause its so warm. You could pretty much make up your own flavor profiles, I don't think it has to taste bad. 

I think ground deer meat, dehydrated watermelon, some sort of seedless berries, some nuts that don't have a lot of oil (like pecans do), and some raisins if they were dry enough not to spoil, might be good, with just enough honey to bind and cover them well.


----------



## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

foxfiredidit said:


> Honey doesn't spoil and makes a great binding agent for anything you have well dehydrated. If you plan on being in the cold northern parts, you might go with the fat, as you would probably need it...sorry.
> 
> But if I were making it, I'd use honey for use in the summer for sure, and year around here, cause its so warm. You could pretty much make up your own flavor profiles, I don't think it has to taste bad.
> 
> I think ground deer meat, dehydrated watermelon, some sort of seedless berries, some nuts that don't have a lot of oil (like pecans do), and some raisins if they were dry enough not to spoil, might be good, with just enough honey to bind and cover them well.


You'd have to be in the frozen north to carry those ... otherwise with all that sugar ... the fire ants would carry you off.


----------



## praieri winds (Apr 16, 2010)

there are bunches of stuff about it if you google


----------



## secretcreek (Jan 24, 2010)

I made it before and liked the meat/berry/nut ratio...but I tried to bind it with crisco... as I did not have bear or deer tallow.... That was the only yuck part as I knew it was going to be odd textured. BLECHe. *(I used venison jerky that I ground up). 
scrt crk


----------



## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

secretcreek said:


> I made it before and liked the meat/berry/nut ratio...but I tried to bind it with crisco... as I did not have bear or deer tallow.... That was the only yuck part as I knew it was going to be odd textured. BLECHe. *(I used venison jerky that I ground up).
> scrt crk


What about regular shortening, would that work? It's mostly made out of beef tallow. It taste great when mixed with powdered sugar and food flavoring and put on top of a cake! 

Oh, and Karen, if you see this, sorry for cross posting this question so much. I didn't know where to put it to get the most answers so I just cross posted it everywhere. Didn't mean to insult/bug anyone!


----------



## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

Some folks use peanut butter to bind it with, but the shelf life and /or storage issue is something I would need to look into before traveling with it.


----------



## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Well I'm gonna try to make some over the weekend if I can get to it. I still have a lot of venison in the freezer that I need to use up before deer season gets here. "Bad luck to have last years venison in the freezer while hunting this year".


----------



## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Oldcountryboy said:


> Well I'm gonna try to make some over the weekend if I can get to it. I still have a lot of venison in the freezer that I need to use up before deer season gets here. "Bad luck to have last years venison in the freezer while hunting this year".


I'd have to say its good luck. You had enough to last till this hunting season instead of running out.


----------



## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

If you grind nuts without so much oil, like walnuts or filberts instead of peanuts it does not go rancid so quick, you only need enough oil to hold it together so no need to make it oily at all. We like it.

Dried huckleberries, hickory nuts and dried smoked salmon is great also....James


----------



## HillBettyMama (Aug 29, 2015)

I was pondering making elk and elderberry pemmican. Honestly I am surprised there we're not more threads and recipes on here! I only have a handful of nuts on hand and if I will include some in my recipe I will have to wait to make it. 
I have a very small amount of heart tallow to use, perhaps a quarter cup. What are the ratios of tallow to ground meat? I can get grass fed tallow at the health food store if need be. 
I mostly want to make some to store in my car for if we're ever stranded due to weather or whatever. If my first batch turns out well I might use pemmican in leu of jerky for spring and summer camping trips. 
Please share your pemmican recipes!


----------



## FireMaker (Apr 3, 2014)

Dry roast the nuts, it will last longer.
Dried fruit, chopped up are a nice add.
Pulverized did meat.

Mix about equal quantities, then pour in the rendered kidney fat. Elk, bison or beef fat. No pork or bear. You want the hard fat. Once mixed, I it it an loaf pan to cool. Wrap in wax paper and out it on the shelf. No refridgeration required. I have some that is over 10 yrs old and still taste great.


----------



## gunseller (Feb 20, 2010)

I have made it using olive oil for the fat. Works well fer me. I do not like anything in it but meat and fat.
Steve


----------



## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

JeffreyD said:


> and there just seemed to be something wrong putting friut in it!


I merely wish to point out here that a tomato is a fruit, and it goes quite well with beef.


----------



## osbmail (Mar 6, 2014)

I tried making it made a pretty big batch lard ,deer or beef dried ,some cranberries don't think it was very good idea I ate a little feed the rest to the chickens.Had better luck with country hams.It not to hard to make a dried ham that's worth eating and will last a long time.


----------



## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

This might seem like a dum question, but why not just make jerky with the meat, dehydrate the fruit. Then just keep it all separate? Why mush it all up?


----------



## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

The high calorie content come from the Elk or Buffalo fat. It is a lot easier to eat the combination rather than just the fat. Also properly made it uses pulverized jerky.


----------



## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

Hmm. If I needed fating travel food I think I would soak some corn or wheat then and fry it up. 

As for the pulverized meat. I think that would be best in dried soup mix, or hard tack, or take the meat add some water for spread on the cracker. Don't have wheat or corn. Grind up some beans to make the stuff.


----------



## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

You do know this is not a modern invention? Resources were limited a couple centuries or more ago, like what was frying, wheat.
Back in the 1980's a roll of pemmican over a hundred years old was found buried on the great planes by a old Indian village wrapped in buffalo rawhide that was considered eatable.


----------



## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

I know it was used long ago but didn't the early trappers make this stuff too? 

They had to melt the fat some how right? While your melting the fat throw some things in the pot to fry them up?

I am just trying to understand. Why when there seems like better options would they make such a yucky thing? 

I know the Indians did not have wheat, but they had corn, and from my understanding from what was served at the First Thanksgiving they had beans. They also had nuts and could make a nut flour.


----------



## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

I have heard of the Natives making acorn flour and washing the tannin out which they then used in soups. I am not sure if the eastern Indians made pemmican (there was the woods buffalo before the 1750's or thereabout). After the horse many plains Indians still cooked with pottery and hot rocks, frying came much later. I have not heard of melting the fat to make authentic pemmican, it was just ground together using rocks like a mortar and pestle. I believe parched corn was a mainstay for the early trappers along with the animals they caught. If the trappers used pemmican they most likely got it from the natives.

A receipt from a plains Indian (in the 1890's I believe) for pemmican was:
Kill three buffalo, save the fat from all three, dry one and while waiting for the one to dry eat the other two. (there was not a lot of fruit on the prairie with chokecherries being the prime one and sugar unheard of)


----------



## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Ziptie said:


> I know it was used long ago but didn't the early trappers make this stuff too?
> 
> *They had to melt the fat some how right? While your melting the fat throw some things in the pot to fry them up?
> 
> ...



Most Indians back then used stones and skins for cooking. From what I've read and been told by older Indian friends the "pots" were to fragile for the nomadic tribes to carry. They made the "yucky" stuff because it lasted. February was know as the starving month for a reason. Sometimes that was all that was available if the weather/hunting was bad.


----------

