Pemmican: My way

[mt terry d]

Cut the meat into thin strips or run it through a grinder if you like and dehydrate it till it's dry; dry enough that it breaks
when you bend it. Max temp 125 degrees because higher and you're cooking it which apparently removes some of the nutrients

Take the dried pieces and run them through a blender or grinder and blender till it's powdery. It's hard on the blender but replacements are cheap at GoodWill. Ear protection advised ( High blender db and higher wife yelling at you you're ruining the blender! db's)

Get some freeze dried fruit of your liking. Sweet fruit is best, blueberries are good, strawberries are really good but more expensive. Run it through the blender till powdery.

Get some beef suet from the grocery or locker. Cut it up into small pieces. Simmer it on the stove, don't burn it, stir it now and then, until the little bubbles quit coming . That's your tallow.

Mix meat to fruit at a 2:1 ratio by volume. Add a dollop of local honey. Pour in liquid tallow a bit at a time mixing and squishing until it holds together reasonably well. ( probably a bit more than the fruit by volume but go slow or have more meat/fruit powder to add if it gets too wet) Important to squish it as it seems to get the tallow into the meat. You can put it in a pan, squish it down good, toss in fridge for a bit to get tallow to solidify and take it out and cut into bars

OR

I prefer to make little balls of it about 1 1/4 " diameter, squishing it real well like you're making a snowball really hard to hit your brother with.

Now, I haven't added any salt which would be good to ingest with it. I will experiment with that.

The only problem I've had so far is making myself stop eating them.

*EDIT*
A few pecans chopped up ( not powderized) add a nice little crunch.

 

[wildwilderness]

Can you add some pictures of what it looks like?

 

[mjh]

Made some pemmican some years ago in a similar fashion with some deer meat. Not sure I pulverized the meat and berries as much as you did. Adding a dollop of honey and pinch of salt is a good idea. I rolled mine in wax paper into rolls/logs about 5 inches long. Froze the batch and pulled one package out as a time as needed.
I don't have any photos.

 

[mt terry d]

Can you add some pictures of what it looks like?

 

[MightyWhitey]

So I just made some and it tastes a lot better than I expected. I left it in the fridge in the pan overnight but it didn’t set up as hard as I’ve seen in several different videos. It’ll hold its shape ok but you could push your finger through it pretty easy. I’d like it to be a little harder so it’ll ride around in my pack better. Anybody know what I did wrong?

 

[mt terry d]

That looks really close to what my bars turn out like.

The balls hold together better than the bars for me.

Maybe because I can compress them better ?

 

[MightyWhitey]

Hmm. Well I guess we’ll see how it goes.

 

[*zap*]

You need good tallow/low fat meat to make great pemmican. Tallow made from 100% beef suet(kidney fat). Very low fat meat.

 

[mt terry d]

I'm using elk.

I forgot to mention,you don't need to "wait till it's done" to see if you like it.
When you get it mashed up good just take a part spoonful and try it. Don't like it?
Add more honey or fruit or brown sugar or whatever till you do.

You can even just smash up and remix your already made bars or balls. It's very forgiving.

 

[Mike Islander]

Usually I just use powdered meat and Wagyu beef tallow. Sometimes I add a little powdered strawberry. I use it as a primary snack since I'm allergic to eggs and peanuts, and not interested in high carbs, all of which are often found in snack bars and other camp snacks.

Best so far is with a tiny bit of powdered honey, ground dried blueberries, strawberry powder, and ground pecans. As long as you mix the fat in completely, it will last months or even years, even with the dried fruit and nuts.

But it never lasts more than a day or two in my house.

 

[Huntingfarandwide]

So I just made some and it tastes a lot better than I expected. I left it in the fridge in the pan overnight but it didn’t set up as hard as I’ve seen in several different videos. It’ll hold its shape ok but you could push your finger through it pretty easy. I’d like it to be a little harder so it’ll ride around in my pack better. Anybody know what I did wrong?

View attachment 648983

Thats my kind of Brownie!!!

 

[MightyWhitey]

I vac sealed mine and have ate a few pieces so far. It’s pretty damn good! I used deer meat, beef fat, blueberries, dates, pecans. I might have went a little heavy on the salt but I’ll definitely be making more of this stuff.

 

[mt terry d]

ground dried blueberries
View attachment 652297

How do you dry & grind them ? Mine stay sticky so i went to freeze dried.

 

[Mike Islander]

How do you dry & grind them ? Mine stay sticky so i went to freeze dried.

I dried mine in a countertop oven the first time, dehydrator the second time. Both worked great. Crackling dry, then in a blender. I sift it in a wire colander and put any remaining chunks in a mason jar for snacking at work.

There is probably a better way to powder the meat than a blender, but I don't know what it could be.

 

[mt terry d]

I'm sorry, I meant the berries.

 

[Mike Islander]

I'm sorry, I meant the berries.

I bought powdered strawberries on Amazon. I used my dehydrator on the blueberries.

 

[mt terry d]

I think my blueberries have been in the dehydrator for a couple days, then on a cookie sheet in front of the fireplace for a week and another day in the dehydrator. Still chewy, meaning it just globs together when trying to blend/powderize it.

I tried freezing the dehydrated berries and then the blender but they thaw fast.

Maybe I'll try doing that outdoors next weekend when it's supposed to be about -30.

 

[Reddish]

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.

 

[*zap*]

you can use very low fat groundbeef....

 

[JBirthisel]

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.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk