How to make pemmican, the original trail ration

Pemmican comes from the Indigenous nations of the North American plains; the word itself is from Cree. Dried meat, pounded fine and sealed in fat, made a food that travelled well, kept through the seasons and packed a great deal of energy into little weight. Fur traders and explorers later built whole supply systems around it. It is sometimes called the first MRE, and the comparison holds: it needs no cooking, no water and no refrigeration on the trail.

Nutritionally it is mostly protein and fat, with a little carbohydrate if berries go in. Hikers and backcountry travelers who use it tend to report that it gives steadier energy than sugary trail food.

You will need

• Lean meat: beef, venison, bison or elk. Trim away every bit of visible fat, which would go rancid.
• Raw beef suet or trimmings for rendering. Butchers often give it away or sell it cheaply.
• Optional: dried berries, such as blueberries, cranberries, saskatoons or pitted cherries.

A good starting ratio is equal weights of dried, powdered meat and rendered fat. Berries, if used, can make up about a quarter of the dry mix.

Step 1: Dry the meat safely

Slice the meat thinly, about 1/4 inch, across the grain. Partly freezing it first makes it much easier to cut.

The old way of drying was to lay the meat in the sun between two window screens for a day or two. Current food-safety guidance says raw meat should reach 160°F before it is dried, because a dehydrator or the sun does not get the meat hot enough to kill bacteria before it dries out. The National Center for Home Food Preservation gives two ways to do this: bring the strips to a boil in water or marinade and boil them for 5 minutes before drying, or heat the dried strips in a 275°F oven for 10 minutes afterward (NCHFP).

Then dry the strips in a dehydrator or oven at 140°F. For pemmican, keep going well past the jerky stage until the meat is brittle and snaps cleanly. Dry the berries separately until leathery with no moist spots.

Step 2: Render the fat

Rendered beef or mutton fat is tallow; rendered pork fat is lard. Tallow is traditional and firmer at room temperature. Three methods work, and all end the same way: when the fat has melted into a clear golden liquid with browned bits (cracklings) floating on top, strain it through a metal sieve lined with cheesecloth, a coffee filter or a paper towel into a clean glass jar.

Slow cooker: cut the fat into small pieces, put them in the cooker on low, and leave it for several hours, stirring now and then.

Stovetop: grind or finely chop the fat in a food processor or meat grinder, put it in a heavy pan over the lowest heat, cover, and stir occasionally until it has melted down.

Oven: spread small pieces in a roasting pan and render at around 225 to 250°F until the fat has melted out.

Hot fat burns badly. Keep children away, handle the pan with dry oven gloves, and never add water to it.

Step 3: Combine

1. Grind the dried meat in a blender or food processor until it is fluffy, almost like coarse cotton. Traditionally it was pounded between stones. Grind the berries separately.
2. Mix the meat and berries in a bowl.
3. If the tallow has set, warm it gently until just liquid. Pour it over the mix a little at a time, stirring as it goes.
4. Stop when the mix is saturated: a handful squeezed together holds as a firm ball and does not crumble.
5. Press it into a pan and cut it into bars once cool, or roll it into balls.

Storing

Wrap the bars in waxed paper and keep them in an airtight container somewhere cool and dark. Traditional pemmican was said to keep for years, and very dry meat sealed in pure fat does resist spoilage, but no food-safety agency has tested a home recipe for long shelf life. The practical limit is the fat going rancid. Refrigerate or freeze anything meant to keep for more than a few months, and throw out any bar that smells sour, soapy or stale.

A version without the fat

Some people bind the meat and berries with honey instead. Stir honey in until the mix holds together as a ball. It tastes sweeter and is easier to like at first, but it trades the slow, steady energy of fat for a quicker sugar rush. It is also no longer pemmican in the traditional sense, and it should be stored just as carefully.