Pemmican: My way

The pemmican you guys have posted looks much better than mine did. Mine was objectively not very good, I'm fairly certain I went too heavy on the fat. The dog loved it but everyone else thought it was gross. With a full freezer this year, I think I may have to make another run at it.
 
I assume freeze dried berries would be best, but more expensive. I really want to make this, but my meat stock isn’t much this year.
Yes, they work really well but , as you say, pricey. I'd like to be able to use fruit I can dry myself.
 
The pemmican you guys have posted looks much better than mine did. Mine was objectively not very good, I'm fairly certain I went too heavy on the fat. The dog loved it but everyone else thought it was gross. With a full freezer this year, I think I may have to make another run at it.

Yeah too much fat leaves a real filmy feel in your mouth. If you are trying to eat it straight


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Another spin on pemican that I do is just 50/50 powdered meat and fat. I dehydrate my meat like above and blend to powder. But I’ll eat these as a dinner meal. I’ll throw the pemican puck in a bag with a beef/chicken bouillon cube, add some water. It makes a tasty soup if you’re not super hungry, easy to add rice or mash potatoes for a full meal.


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Add some of @Larry Bartlett minimus nutrition to that !!

I'm going to have to try out some of this pemican stuff

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Add some of @Larry Bartlett minimus nutrition to that !!

I'm going to have to try out some of this pemican stuff

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Personally I like whole meat more than ground beef seemed to leave it fluffier and less grainy. Could be that my blender sucked.


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I got meats, it's the fat I don't have.

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The pemmican you guys have posted looks much better than mine did. Mine was objectively not very good, I'm fairly certain I went too heavy on the fat. The dog loved it but everyone else thought it was gross. With a full freezer this year, I think I may have to make another run at it.

Recipes call for equal parts meat and fat, but in practice that is far too much. I add fat slowly and mix until about like thick peanut butter or slightly thicker.

I bought Wagyu beef tallow on Amazon. Looks like beautiful Crisco, but tastes wonderful.
 
Some notes from my pemmican experiments:
- 2:1 or 3:1 meat to fruit by volume is about right.
- I prefer ground meat over strip as it's easier to get powdered in the blender.
- Use the blender when no one else is home.
- I prefer rendered bacon fat over beef. I render my own, but you can get pre rendered Bacon Up at some grocery stores.
- Peaches, strawberries, apples, pears, cherries, mangos, apricots, bananas, and pineapples are easy to dehydrate and tasty. Blueberries and cranberries are also good but hard to dehydrate.
- Chicken works, too. Super lean.
- Salt goes well with the sweetness of the fruit.

I love the stuff but must break in my digestive system slowly. I overdid it on a camp trip, and let's just say it did me very wrong.
 
My wife and I have pretty well settled on smoking the beef for a couple of hours then finishing it in the dehydrator. It picks up just enough smoke to give it some flavor.

I also usually dry some blue berries and maybe add a bit of honey if the berries aren't all that sweet. Blast it all to powder in a Vitamix then add 35ish% melted fat. Usually tallow but I killed a buffalo and that fat makes for much harder pemmican that hold up well bouncing around in a pack.
 
I've settled on this ( for now)

2 cups of powdered elk ( sinews sifted out)
1 cup powdered freeze dried blueberries
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup honey
1 cup tallow

Making a bunch for my 1 year old grandson. Should be like rocket fuel for him.

I like Adam's method of smoking first. That sounds tasty.
 
Two things:
1) While frozen, sliced wafer thin with a Cabelas electric slicer. Then dehydrate and it powders up very nicely without beating the daylights out of the blender.
2) The grandkid loves it. :)
 
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