Pemmican recipe – The ultimate survival food

Pemmican is widely recognized as the ultimate survival food and can safely last for years if kept in the right conditions. It was the number one trade item between the Native Americans and the settlers for over 100 years and is the main reason that Indians were able to survive the winter months.

(It may not look or taste the best, but it is good enough and can last for years)

It has to be made from bison or another kind of grazing animal that has red meat darker than beef. It was also made by the Inuit groups living across the north Canadian coastline who used Caribou as their meat source.

But what is Pemmican and how can I make some?

Pemmican is made by combining an equal mixture of powdered meat with rendered fat. When a bison was caught, all of the meat from the animal was cut into thin strips and put onto large drying racks. It was left there until it was dry enough to grind into a powder, at which point it would be combined with melted rendered fat from the same animal and mashed together into a thick paste.

(We don’t have too many of these guys around anymore, so you might have to substitute for beef)

It was normally formed into bars that could fit inside an airtight container, but the native Americans would turn an entire animal into pemmican and sow it up in its own skin as one huge ball of meat for the entire village.

The reason it is recognized as being the ultimate survival food is that it lasts for years if made properly and kept in an air-tight container, and the equal mixtures of fat and meat give it a high amount of calories and protein. It’s not the best tasting of foods but it isn’t bad either, and makes a good addition if you have a frying pan, as the fat melts out and gives the other ingredients flavor.

A simple Pemmican recipe – The ultimate survival food

Step 1 – Prepare your meat

Any type of red meat from a grazing animal will work, but it has to be darker than beef if you want a long shelf life. Bison is the best choice, but moose, elk, and caribou work very well, but you don’t have to use them and a decent cut of beef will do the job.

You will need an equal amount of fat to meat and most joints of red meat you can buy won’t have anywhere near a 50/50 ratio, so you may have to buy extra fat separately.

After you have your cut of meat, it is time to separate all the fat away and turn the meat into strips thin enough to be dried. The shape of the meat doesn’t matter as long as they are thin enough for all the air to escape.

(It doesn’t matter if there’s still a little bit of fat left in the meat, as long as it can dry properly)

Step 2 – Meat drying and grinding

Simply put your meat strips either on a drying rack in front of a fan, in the oven at the lowest temperature for several hours, or on some kind of rack in direct sunlight.

Depending on your method you want the strips to be hard and difficult to bend when they are ready. If they fold over easily and haven’t darkened much in color then they aren’t ready yet, the best sign they are ready is a few of them will crack when bent quickly.

When they are dry enough, you need to turn them into a consistency that is as close to a powder as you can get. They won’t grind up too finely because of the fibers in the meat, but something like thick cornmeal would be good. A long time ago this would have been done by putting the meat on a rock and smashing it into a powder with another rock, but today a food processor works just as well.

Step 3 – Preparing the fat

Put all the fat you saved earlier into a saucepan and heat over a medium-high setting. The fat will start to turn into a liquid and when it appears no more is forming, run it through a sieve and discard the solids. Remember to keep stirring the mixture and controlling the heat so the fat doesn’t start to fry.

(A can of army ration pemmican from the year 1900)

Step 4 – Mixing and forming

Take your required amount of dried meat powder and place it in a tub before pouring in the rendered fat. The fat shouldn’t be too hot and it’s important to only heat it so it is a liquid but won’t actually cook the meat. Mix the two ingredients well and then form it into your required shape before the fat begins to set.

The shape you go with doesn’t matter as long as the final product is kept in an airtight container in a cool place out of the sun. The final product can be eaten without cooking if needed, but tastes much better hot, though it’s difficult to cook it properly without it falling apart. Pemmican is better as an addition to other dishes and does a great job of increasing the calories and fat content of an otherwise plain dish.

If you want to add anything extra to your Pemmican, make sure you do it during the initial mixing stage instead of mashing it in later. It doesn’t matter what you add to it, but it has to be dried properly first, which means fresh fruit and vegetables aren’t an option.

Any kind of dried herbs or spices work well, but adding anything other than the original two main ingredients will drastically lower the shelf life of your Pemmican.