Whoa… That is easy. I can’t believe it stores for years just like that. Where do you store it?

This may sound silly but can u make it into strips for easier packing and eating?

Good article and very informative.
I tried a couple of variations of Pemmican. One of which was substituting the ‘animal fat’ with peanut butter. That was tasty and sustaining without the sugar rush of honey. I suppose combinations of all three would work as well.
Tinman

What keeps the fat from becoming rancid? I think the peanut butter/honey might be great, and the honey acts as a preservative. I do make my own jerky, but in some situations (when water is an issue) the salt can be a problem. I’ll have to try this. Any idea about proportions? It looks like about equal parts by volume of meat/berries and enough of the binder to hold it together.

Great article.
When I moved to Oregon as a little girl, this old indian man made a similar item out of acorn meal,dried berries,pinenuts and deer tallow.
The other thing he would make used smoked salmon,dried onions and acorn meal. I don’t know what he used to bind the second recipe with. however the salmon was better.

Great questions Anna, I was wondering the exact same things.

I would imagine that people could melt palm shortening to use instead of the animal fat if they wanted – it doesn’t add any flavor, but it would give you the healthy fat calories you would need if you were going to be living off of this.

great post, I had something similar in mind. Food for thought: even if you don’t like fat, still make at least half and half for long term storage. Keep in mind that we noadays associate fat with getting fat…back in the days there wasn’t any processed and fast foods, Game meat is very lean and the fat is very much needed by the body. If you use nuts, try roasting them first, because of the fat content in them, should make them last longer,

Mighty fine information. I’ll have to save this one and try it.

I found this article very interesting. I am a vegetarian so I am thinking of ways I could make this veggie friendly. What sort of stuff could one substitute for the meat, ground up? I know TVP is stable.

Recently I read in an old backpacker’s book about making meals ahead of time and just dehydrating. Then all you have to do is add water. He suggested meals like lasagna could be made and dried ahead of time. I thought this would be another way for making meals for one’s BOB.

Actually, Honey doesn’t affect blood sugar the same way that other sugars do:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/is-honey-a-safer-sweetener/#axzz1zl1I2l8u
So as long as you’re using high quality pure honey (raw is even better), the sugar spike won’t be so bad.
I have beef tallow that a friend rendered just WAITING to make this snack. I think it will be perfect for me for the high fat content because I am always hungry and the fat can manage hunger far better than anything else.

Thanks for the great article.

Could you use ghee or coconut oil instead of animal body fat? Too bad they melt at lower temperatures.

You’re right about the honey Ginny, it absorbs into the blood much slower than other forms of sugar. I only buy pure honey. It is a multiple use item and should be part of every prepper’s stockpile.

Won’t the peanut oil go rancid? Also is there any reason that you can’t also use a little of the honey with the lard? JJD

This is awesome, my late grandfather used to make it when I was a kid before we would camping. Said he learned it from a Shawman from a Pyute back in the 1920’s

Badger359

that is a very informative article.i dont have a dehydrator of my own , that additional comment about the screens is a good alternative i will let you know how it works out

How long does the jerky last on it’s own? I make jerky all the time, but it gets consumed quickly. Do you have any information on storage/shelf life of jerky? Assuming the jerky is VERY dry…

I also make my own jerky and have had alot of luck using my foodsaver but i use the bags. Make sure your jerky is really dry then put it in the foodsaver bag flat with about half an inch between each piece giving it air chanels. vacume seal on extended seal and store in a dark cool place! I can get 3 years out it that way! Hope it helps!

Could you not use dehydrated vegetables instead of fruit?

What alternatives are there to honey and rendered animal fat. I’m not anti-fat per se however my body does not tolerate it in large amounts since I’ve had my gall bladder removed. With the honey, we have an agreement – I don’t eat it, it doesn’t make me sick.

This is a great idea and looks to me than it can be cheaper than the long shelf life food you can buy!!

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thank you TI for sharing this .

I’ve been interested in trying my had at pemmican for awhile. I would not be too worried about animal fats in a survival situation, actually much argument has been made that animal fats are GOOD for you and NOT the health culprits they have been labelled as in the past.
Anyone who has looked into the ‘paleo’ diet knows that animal fats are considered by many to actually be very healthy and an excellent source of much needed energy.
thanks for the ‘how-to!’

Good article and instructions.

Comments suggest the use of fish as a substitute for beef. What about using small game (squirrel or rabbit) or poultry (chicken or turkey)? Also, can oatmeal be added as a filler and fiber source?

Thanks.

Pemmican is perhaps not just hundreds, but indeed thousands (if not tens of thousands) of years old. Nobody knows, for sure…

I would consider Pemmican the ultimate survival food as proven through thousands of years of testing by native peoples… it includes all of the necessary survival “food groups”, Fats, Vitamins, Protein, Carbohydrates, Electrolytes, etc…

Supplement that epic meal with fresh spring water and a fresh young fawn roasted on a spit with Lemon Juice added, all while partying around a campfire. Now you are a human!

Look into using ‘Agave’ Nectar
It’s a thick, syrupy juice from Agave Cactus. I have a friend who is type 2 diabetic and she uses that as a sweetner because of the low glycemic index.
Tinman

If you have not a gallbladder you need enzymes, and keeping fresh raw food like sprouts would help in a time where you do not have the enzymes in stock, Betaine HCI helps because it is the liver that does not tolerate fats. You can always grow sprouts and eat them.

FAT IS A NECESSARY FOOD SOURCE FOR OUR BODIES AND IN AN EMERGENCY CAN SUSTAIN BY ITSELF–WHEN IN DOUBT: REACH FOR FAT! FAT IS ALSO VERY GOOD IN DEVELOPING THE MYELIN PROTECTING NERVE FIBERS IN BABIES IN THE WOMB AND WAS HELPFUL TO ME AS WELL IN RECOVERING FROM NERVE DAMAGE. <3+W

Hi Anna,
Proportions?… It’s more about texture than exact amounts.
Rancidity was never a problem because it just never hung around long enough.
It’s one of those things you just have to experiment with for a more personal touch.
Tinman

In Alaska they dry salmon , but even dried into jerky , its still very oily . I wonder if the use of an oily fish would be adverse to this application or not ?

I was wondering if using sausage casing would be a good idea. I read a lot of books about early native Americans and that was what they used. Could you also use dried onions and such? And how would using dried herbs effect the longevity of the product? I am new to the whole idea of survival stuff, but am very interested. Could you give a list of everything you could use to make it with? Thanks so much!!

Wow. Genius. Will try this when I get home from Afghanistan.

can I use lard from, the store? When I was rendering my beef fat, my husband came in and said “You are not putting that into anything I am going to eat” Throw that away”

I ended up using peanut butter with the beef and blueberries…it tastes great!

I learn so much here and end up doing more research on these topics. Thanks for the great blog & comments.
Pemmican would be good to share with my dogs. I like that the recipe is tweakable.
Thx

Hi everyone…hope there are still ppl reading this blog. My question is why hasn’t anyone mentioned bringing the meat up to 160 degrees before dehydrating????? Is that just a given? My little dehydrator only gets up to 150 degrees so I think before I dry any beef I will cook it first. Also, I added dried tomatoes and dried onions in my first batch, put them all in a blender together and they were pretty good. Used honey because the fat had gone bad in the refrig and that gave my little round pems a great taste. But none of my family would try them because I hadn’t cooked the meat first!!!!! What do you think?? THX Rusty

Thanks for getting back to me on this….I was a little concerned, however I agree about the native Americans and I will take your advise on the oven heating. Never thought about heating after I dehydrated>>>> learn something every day here…. thanks a million Rusty

I made some with lean beef, lard from the grocery and my “brilliant” idea of using raisins. My assumption was that they were already pretty much dried. I did put them in the dehydrator with the beef, but they really didn’t seem to change.

When I put them in the food processor, they made a huge ball of “nougat”. The mixed ingredients look just like your picture, but i wanted to make strips. I rolled them flat, and used a pizza cutter to slice them AND to pick them up off the cutting board, since they kept falling apart. I thought a few days in the dehydrator might bind them better, but i was wrong.

Will this be the same outcome with any fruit? Also,
Won’t using Honey and/or Peanut Butter just create a big sticky mess?
and about the temperature, why don’t you want the meat to be fully cooked?

Thank you for this information and sorry if you’ve already answered these questions.

J

smoke the meat for an hour or 2 helps with preservation and adds flavor too

I was also curious as to what temperature to set my food dehydrator to. I always assumed above 140 was good, since milk is pasteurized at 145 and some government regulation (it’s law somewhere ) stipulates that the minimum surface temperature for commercial kitchens is 140 degrees Fahrenheit. I also consume my jerky quickly, so I never really gave long-term storage a thought. So I guess I have two questions: what is the highest temperature meat set out in the sun can reach in the northeast? And two: will dried meat that is not really “cooked” such as sun dried or cold- smoked last longer than cooked meat? I remember an instructor from the Tracker School in NJ saying that pemican should be made from cold-smoke dried meat since this has a longer shelf life. Something about cooking it making it spoil sooner.

Anyways thanks for the great articles, keep up the good work

Great recipe. I have seen other recipes before but nothing this “modern”. The local Native Americans made pemican with venison, chokecherries and vension tallow. Would pork lard from the store be a suitable pre-made fat for this.? Is there any thought on what the “stuff” in the fruit does for preservation, some better than others? I used to visit with an older Native American lady years ago and she said her mother made the dried meat. It was sliced very thin and sun dried hanging from pole racks. The meat was sliced from a large cut and not cut all the way through at the bottom and then flipped over 180 degress and sliced again almost all the way through again. It sort of turned out out like an accordian when pulled from the ends. Between the UV rays and heat from the sun and drying all the moisture out of the meat, it was safe to eat.

CM

For those who are worried about getting fat from using fat the human body requires 30% animal fat in its daily diet so it does not store the bad fats in the body. A regular consumption of animal fat found in meats and dairy keeps the body from storing fat to use as a supplement.
For another dieting tip. Eating cucumbers in a vinegar and salt broth will fill you up good to eat before large holiday parties empty calories keep you from pigging out.
Suppose to have been used by gypsies for hundreds of years So the gypsy girls can stay thin despite the large festivals and feasts they are accustomed to.

Thank you for posting this. I am going to use rendered bear fat and venision with cherries for my fist experiment. I really appreciate you posting this recipe.

No, no! Please do not use lard from a store! It is almost always hydrogenated, which is the opposite of healthy.

Thanks for the post! a nice simple way to make the separate components and put them together.

i am not a fan of fruit pemmican, but do find the meat/fat only version rather …. boring. my ‘re-vention’ is to season the mixture as if it were jerky or steak (but with lower concentrations of spices)

my fave is to add garlic powder, coarse ground pepper, and a pinch of salt to the powdered meat, just before i add the melted fat. yum!

thanks for a great post!

Great method!

Bison was the traditional meat of choice for pemmican used by the Cree and others in Canada (you can still find Bison at some select butcher’s here in Manitoba and some independents). Pemmican should be our national food, as Pemmican allowed for the settlement and development of Canada’s interior (prairies). It’s safe to say many fur traders and settlers would have died from starvation without it.

Rod Salm
Death At Your Door a weekly webcomic about Death living a life.

Can I make pemmican using ground meats (beef, turkey, etc.)? I know that ground beef can be cooked and dehydrated into “rocks” for food storage, but all the fat is rinsed away in this process. Can it be used at all after that? Or should I stick with steak-like meats to dehydrate?

You can dry the meat using a solar oven see http://www.ehow.com/how_2083_make-solar-oven.html . I have made an oven like this and added something. Using the cardboard roller from 2 toilet paper rolls inserted into the lower and upper portion of the oven and makeing regulator flaps over them you can vary the temperature in the oven fairly well. Getting the meat to the 160 degrees is easier this way.

Some good info on here, great. Just a quick question please – why not use a FATTIER meat in the first place, e.g. Ribeye, skirt, sirloin etc and then there’s less need for the added tallow surely?

Am I correct with this? Sorry if this may be a naive question but answers appreciated.

Cheers,

John,

(Sheffield, UK)

John – The reason not to have fatty meat has to do with the moisture content of the fat on the meat. When you try to dry fatty meat on a dehydrator it doesn’t give up it’s moisture well, and can wind up going rancid from oxidation during storage. That’s why you use fat that’s been “rendered” or cooked long enough to drive all the water out of it, then filtered to remove solids. Low moisture meat, fat, and berries (etc) will keep much longer without spoilage.

Peter – My understanding about why “cooked” meat spoils faster versus “dried” meat has to do with what happens when meat reaches that “sear” point. Y’know, when that tasty browning action happens on a steak? It’s from some of the proteins chemically combining with sugars… and the more of that high temperature stuff that happens the less other processes that stabilize the meat can continue to exist (positive, fermenting bacteria, like in summer sausage, etc.) Most sites recommend “cooking” meat ‘cuz of our litigious society. Don’t wanna recommend just drying meat the way humans lived on it for millennia. Somebody might get sick, blame you and come after your assets.

i got this from Prepper Chicks on FB. Super article! Thanks!

Hey, I believe I saw this in the USAF manual, and as you said you were primitive in your younger days, I was curious if you’d used the teepee method of smoking meat. Where you dig the trench with the hole at one end and teepee at the other.. .

Hey Jason,

Yes, but not with the hole. I’d just create a tripod (teepee) rack to hang the meat and place that next to a smoking fire (the heat and smoke helped preserve it)

Thanks for the great article and recipe. I want to make some pemmican, however, my body doesn’t like beef all that much and my nutritionalist suggests I eat more turkey, chicken, and pork. Can I substitute the beef and beef fat called for in your recipe with turkey breast and pork fat and would anything else have to be different for these ingredients to work for pemmican.

Thanks in advance.

Rick

If I didnt want meat in this recipe what could I substitute the dried meat for?

Could you replace the dried beef with beef jerky? PLEASE respond quickly!

I dehydrate all kinds of fruits and veggies and vacuum seal them for long term storage. I have some sweet potato powder that I made a couple of years ago. I bet that would taste great in this recipe. As soon as I put it together I will let you know.

Great Pat. Look forward to it!

Made some this morning after I dehydrated the meat overnight. I partially froze the meat to make it easier to slice. It was a 3lb top round roast. I added 1c crushed dehydrated blueberries, about 1/4c dehydrated butternut squash powder for dry ingredients. I added 1/2 honey and 1/2 rendered suet for wet ingredients adjusting for texture along the way. It is delish!
I shaped it into golfball size balls and put in the freezer. Once hard, I will slice and vacuum seal for storage in small packets. I am thrilled with pemican. I had heard about it long ago but it just came up in conversation at Cabela’s last week so I thought I would look it up.

Jerky can last for years if you package and store correctly. I vacuum seal and store in plastic bags or jars and increase shelf life to at least twenty five years. I have found if you can vacuum seal all your food stuffs you increase the shelf life by at least 5 to 10 years if not indifinetley. You must keep vacuum sealed food in a dry, dark, cool place.Just last week I was making some gluten free almond bread and realized I did not have any almonds to chop up. I went into my stores and found some almonds that I had vacuumed sealed three years ago. I cut open a bag and the smell of fresh almonds bowled me over. Just like the day I packaged them. Took what I needed and resealed the rest. If you do not have a vacuum sealer you are missing out on tons of food storage opportunities.
There is a great pemican recipe on this site which will give you meat preserved as long as you need. Just did up some pemican for the first time today and love it.

Would adding nuts, such as chopped almonds or sunflower seeds, affect its shelf life?

JTwig,

Yes it would lower the shelf life due to the non-rendered fats in the nuts/seeds.

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Wow! This is amazing! I have been looking for something that I can stuff in a pocket and forget about until its needed, and this sounds perfect! Is there an advantage to using berries rather than vegetables?

I read in a book about Tecomseh that the Indians of the old north west(great lakes)liked to use the red berries from sumac trees.very high in vitamin c etc.

Spot on with this write-up, I actually believe this site needs a lot more attention.
I’ll probably be back again to see more, thanks for the info!

Nuts and berries are Vegan-friendly, as is peanut butter… You could use dried nuts to make flour (almonds, acorns, pine-nuts and hazelnuts all make wonderful flour!) and just make your ball from that. It really wouldn’t be “Pemmican” however, without the meat. Check out

Sorry, it won’t let me past the link, just google ‘ehow.com’ – how to make nut flour.

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The Native Americans lived on this stuff for thousands of years before we even dreamed up MRI’s or anything like that. I plan to make some and put it in my hurricane kit for next year. Great idea. I think the sourness of the mixture is part of why it keeps. I’m going to have to look into that further. I’m actually very curious about the reason.

Peanutbutter will go rancid. Not a good idea for long term storage.

I have been buying beef fat from the butcher in 20 lb batches. I render it in the crock pot and then can it in sterilized quart jars. I use the pressure cooker to can. I have about thirty quarts done. This is something to keep on hand for all cooking. You never know when you won’t be able to buy a bottle of cooking oil. Would make a great barter item as well.

Is there a good use for the leftovers solids after rendering other than dog treats? There is this boneheaded Labrador of my family that can’t wait for the next batch!

I was making some of this, when this made me stop and think:

“If you dislike the idea of using animal fat as a binder you can replace it with honey instead. It will keep for a long, long time just as normal pemmican will.
Just keep adding honey to the dried, shredded meat and berries until it binds enough to form it into a ball shape.”

OK, I have some cranberries left…. and some TVP…..

Added some dried Almonds (before I read the comment about unrendered fats)

and Behold! … Vegetarian Pemmican.

I’m a newbie to survival training and meat preservation so apologies for a potentially dumb question, but can someone explain to me the ideal method and heat range to preserve meat at to avoid botulism?
Why does cooking the meat and then preserving it increase the risk of botulism? I would have though the incidence of bacteria would be higher in raw meat in something like pemmican? Is it because the spores can survive the cooking process and then multiply without competition from other bacteria? In a survival situation is there anyway to treat botulism poisoning apart from seek medical aid? Cheers for the info- great site!

My nieces read a recipe in a novel (Wolf brother by Michelle Paver) where the people make a sort of pemmican using dried salmon, deer fat and juniper berries. They really want to try it but we haven’t gotten to it yet.

Further up on this blog I read this in a post, so in case you look back here I copied and pasted it for you:

Comment by Kit
2013-02-06 18:59:51
John – The reason not to have fatty meat has to do with the moisture content of the fat on the meat. When you try to dry fatty meat on a dehydrator it doesn’t give up it’s moisture well, and can wind up going rancid from oxidation during storage. That’s why you use fat that’s been “rendered” or cooked long enough to drive all the water out of it, then filtered to remove solids. Low moisture meat, fat, and berries (etc) will keep much longer without spoilage.
Peter – My understanding about why “cooked” meat spoils faster versus “dried” meat has to do with what happens when meat reaches that “sear” point. Y’know, when that tasty browning action happens on a steak? It’s from some of the proteins chemically combining with sugars… and the more of that high temperature stuff that happens the less other processes that stabilize the meat can continue to exist (positive, fermenting bacteria, like in summer sausage, etc.)

Garbonzo powder immediately comes to mind, but any dry beans might pulverize well in a food processor.

Peanut butter might work but the shelf life is not near as long. The saturated fat and honey are both considered imperishable but peanut butter only lasts a few years, so if you’re looking for a long term stored food I wouldn’t use peanut butter.

Has anyone tried freeze dried meat to make pemmican?