my pemmican is not nice!

[Pignut]

Following on from this thread

I made some pemmican equal weights of plane jerky (Wizzed up in a blender)
and melted suet,

poured the suet into the jerky mixed (Added some chopped dry fruit)

Left to set

Tasted

It now tastes like grainy lard!

Is this how it should be?

 

[ANDYRAF]

You could try adding some herbs or some honey, just a guess as I've never made any myself.

 

[rik_uk3]

I don't think its supposed to taste nice as such, just keep you alive I guess. I've had some ready made stuff, it was awful

 

[Mike B]

Like Richard says Pemmican was never really designed to taste good,and the way you describe the texture as being like grainy lard sounds like you've got the mix right.
It was just a way of preserving food for a long long time.
The way I used mine which by the way was commercial stuff, was to use it like you would use stock cubes.
As for eating in it's cold form forget it unless I really really had no option.
Mike B...

 

[aarya]

Could possibly be used in breads of some sort, as it might give nice taste to the dough? Maybe?
Could it be used for frying, or does the meat constitute too much of the mix?
Perhaps it could be used to make some form of hot brew? Just add hot water, and it`d be like a sort of soup?
I`ve got no real idea, as i`ve never made pemmican myself.

 

[hedgepig]

Don't Arctic explorers heat it up and break biscuits into it?

 

[ForestNH/VT]

Sounds like you made the same mistake I did the first time and put in way too much tallow (suet). You want just enough to stick the mixture together. Half and half is far too much. I kept putting in more to get it to stick forgetting that it was cooling as I added it. The better way is to put in just enough very hot tallow to get things moist, then microwave the mixture or reheat it somehow until it begins to stick. The purpose of the tallow is a binder mainly and added fat only secondarily. Think of it as glue and not as an ingredient and your results will probably be much better. It is not as tasty as straight jerky in my opinion, but "grainy lard' is far off.

Forest

 

[Minamoo]

We make something like pemmican back home in Kenya. It's a Somali thing too only they make it with dried camel meat chopped into little cubes and then preserved in ghee. It tastes absolutely wonderful and I am sure you could make it with beef too. Just chop it up into little pieces, dry it, put it in a container and pour melted ghee in. Let it cool. When you want to eat it you can just have the chunks of meat cold or if you heat it up the ghee sort of 'cooks' the meat then you can just have the meat and save the ghee to use in your next lot. We used to love having it in packed lunches at school! It's called sololo. My mum never made it herself as she but we got it as presents from people. mmmmm.......sololo!

 

[IntrepidStu]

We make something like pemmican back home in Kenya. It's a Somali thing too only they make it with dried camel meat chopped into little cubes and then preserved in ghee. It tastes absolutely wonderful and I am sure you could make it with beef too. Just chop it up into little pieces, dry it, put it in a container and pour melted ghee in. Let it cool. When you want to eat it you can just have the chunks of meat cold or if you heat it up the ghee sort of 'cooks' the meat then you can just have the meat and save the ghee to use in your next lot. We used to love having it in packed lunches at school! It's called sololo. My mum never made it herself as she but we got it as presents from people. mmmmm.......sololo!

You say "dry" the meat. Whats the best way to do this?

 

[andy_e]

It now tastes like grainy lard!

Sounds more like the dripping I used to get given on bread when I was young.

 

[fishy1]

I made some recently, it defineately wasn't grainy. It wasn't nice as such, but I could see mine being nice when boiled with water to make soup etc. If anyone wants it, I have a few bars, I'll be honest I'm never going to eat them all, so I'm open to a swap for anything small.

 

[rik_uk3]

Sounds more like the dripping I used to get given on bread when I was young.

No mate, bread and dripping tastes good

 

[Pignut]

sounds like mine has gone fundamentaly wrong!! That will be 5 quid of beef downthe pan!!!!

 

[rik_uk3]

sounds like mine has gone fundamentaly wrong!! That will be 5 quid of beef downthe pan!!!!

It might be perfect, its just thats the way pemmican is?

I'll stick with a can of corned beef, plenty of meat and fat in it, and it tastes good

 

[Tadpole]

sounds like mine has gone fundamentaly wrong!! That will be 5 quid of beef downthe pan!!!!

I wouldn’t say “down the pan” you might just have to modify it by using it “with something” put some in a pan, cook it till the fat melts add some onions more minced meat and a tin of tomatoes and you have the beginnings of a bolognaise sauce. Or heat it in a pan, add some chopped onions, diced vegetables and some potatoes, and you have the starting of a rich stew, make dumplings (with the free floating fat from the stew)
As for the pemmican, the majority of the websites I have been on that mention it; seem to say that ¼ fats to ¾ dried meat and berries is the ratio to use.

 

[Minamoo]

You say "dry" the meat. Whats the best way to do this?

Well........We chop it into little pieces that that are about 1cm cubed and put them on a tray and leave it in the sun to dry. Here I would suggest you dry it in a dehydrator like you would if you were making jerky.