Pemmican?

[Abbe Osram]

I would like to make myself some Pemmican
does anyone have a recipe for it?

cheers
Abbe

:chill:

 

[tomtom]

What is it..? does it go by anyother name.. i have never heard of it.

 

[Bushmaster]

I'll be trying this recipe out next week. The recipe came from the book "The
Spirit of the Harvest".

Pemmican

Servings: 6

2 cups buffalo jerky or beef jerky, shredded
1 cup dried chokeberries or tart red cherries, chopped
6 TBSP tallow(beef fat) or butter, melted

Combine all ingredients and form into 6 patties. Refrigerate until serving.
:wave:
Geoff

 

[Abbe Osram]

I'll be trying this recipe out next week. The recipe came from the book "The
Spirit of the Harvest".

Pemmican

Servings: 6

2 cups buffalo jerky or beef jerky, shredded
1 cup dried chokeberries or tart red cherries, chopped
6 TBSP tallow(beef fat) or butter, melted

Combine all ingredients and form into 6 patties. Refrigerate until serving.
:wave:
Geoff

thanks mate I knew someone here would know.

cheers
Abbe :chill:

 

[Bushmaster]

You're very welcome :wave:
Geoff

 

[Ridge Runner]

What is it..? does it go by anyother name.. i have never heard of it.

I believe it was the trem used to describe the dried meat that Arctic explorers carried with them.

We mostly call it "Jerky" here, but you can buy Pemmican in any grocery store in the northern states.

I love the stuff and make my own.

 

[Carcajou Garou]

Old style pemican: 1/2 dried meat pounded into 1/2 rendered fat by weight, with seasonal berries added if available. Sealed in leather "parfleche" and used for long travels along with parched corn. The Metis in the Manitoba's used to sell pemican to the Hudson's Bay Company to feed the the Yorkshire Men in the Yorkshire boats that later transported the furs to the Hudson's Bay. This was during and after the "Voyageurs" and the fight between the Hudson's Bay Co. and the Norwester's Co. based in Montreal. Excellent fare for travel at that time bland and tiresome by today's taste but did the job.
just a thought

 

[Abbe Osram]

Old style pemican: 1/2 dried meat pounded into 1/2 rendered fat by weight, with seasonal berries added if available. Sealed in leather "parfleche" and used for long travels along with parched corn. The Metis in the Manitoba's used to sell pemican to the Hudson's Bay Company to feed the the Yorkshire Men in the Yorkshire boats that later transported the furs to the Hudson's Bay. This was during and after the "Voyageurs" and the fight between the Hudson's Bay Co. and the Norwester's Co. based in Montreal. Excellent fare for travel at that time bland and tiresome by today's taste but did the job.
just a thought

thanks mate for the historical background cool info!!!
:chill:
Abbe

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

Jerky will have a minimal moisture content. True pemmican holds virtually none. This is what made it remain fresh, even after years if stored safely. The recipes using jerky are fine. The stuff is so tasty storage is seldom a problem.

 

[brucemacdonald]

A couple of years ago my wife and I made some of our own using dried beef and dried blueberries. We experimented with lard and with suet. By far the more successful was the batch with suet; the lard batch was unpleasantly greasy. The taste was "interesting" - any kind of seasoning would improve the flavour no end.

Ours probably had too much moisture in it though as eventually it succumbed to weevils in our larder. :yikes:

In Ray Mears' original book he mentions that one recipe used by the Native Americans involved cherries with the stones left in.

A google on "pemmican" will yield loads of recipes, but British bushcrafters should bear in mind that most of the recipes are written in American English so like us, you may find some interpretation problems (eg a "cup" is not a standard UK measure).

Best of luck - have fun making it.


Bruce

 

[brucemacdonald]

I meant to say, that biltong (African jerky) is becoming more easily available over here in the UK. A colleague returning from South Africa brought back some Ostrich jerky which was very nice. Funny, I seemed to be the only one in the office who liked it..... :rolmao:


And those seeking alternative cured meats for the trail should always remember those comestibles which served the British Empire well: bully beef, and of course Spam (TM).

Best wishes


Bruce

 

[Abbe Osram]

A couple of years ago my wife and I made some of our own using dried beef and dried blueberries. We experimented with lard and with suet. By far the more successful was the batch with suet; the lard batch was unpleasantly greasy. The taste was "interesting" - any kind of seasoning would improve the flavour no end.

Ours probably had too much moisture in it though as eventually it succumbed to weevils in our larder. :yikes:

In Ray Mears' original book he mentions that one recipe used by the Native Americans involved cherries with the stones left in.

A google on "pemmican" will yield loads of recipes, but British bushcrafters should bear in mind that most of the recipes are written in American English so like us, you may find some interpretation problems (eg a "cup" is not a standard UK measure).

Best of luck - have fun making it.


Bruce

hi
what is the difference between lard and suet? We don't have a translation into swedish. I find lard but suet doesn't exist.

thanks mate
Abbe

 

[Wayne]

Suet is that fat from the Aorta of a cow.

 

[Moonraker]

Suet is that fat from the Aorta of a cow.

Wayne, suet is the fat around the kidney, not the aorta which is the large arterial trunk that carries blood from the heart to be distributed by branch arteries through the body. Websters Dictionary says:

The fat and fatty tissues of an animal, especially the harder fat about the kidneys and loins in beef and mutton, which, when melted and freed from the membranes, forms tallow.

I can understand the confusion though :

 

[Moonraker]

hi
what is the difference between lard and suet? We don't have a translation into swedish. I find lard but suet doesn't exist.

thanks mate
Abbe

See the description above Abbe. It is the hard fat around a kidney. In French it is 'graisse de rognon' so in Swedish perhaps something like

( lammnjure) njure tjock :?:

The word 'suet' derives from the Anglo-Norman suet and that from sue or 'tallow'.

 

[Wayne]

My mistake i always thought it was the aorta. Learn something new everyday.

 

[Moonraker]

Found a very interesting article from the Notukeu Museum in Canada with great details here:

From what I have read it gives a good description of what pemmican actually was/ is.

From the record, pemmican was made from thin slices of lean meat from large game animals such as: bison, moose, elk, and deer. They were dried over a fire, or in the sun and wind. The dried meat was ground and shredded between stones, to which was added ground dried wild berries. Finally, melted fat, suet, and bone marrow grease was added to the mixture. It could be eaten as a soup, broth, stew or as is. When available, leaves of the peppermint plant or wild onions were added for flavour. It's greatest asset was that it kept well.

Full details here:

Experiments in Pemmican Preparation

There is a tremendous photo guide of how to prepare it here :biggthump :

Making Pemmican

I love the 'hafted pemmican pounder'

It looks like the pounder is made with a pebble? held onto a (filled? similar to an old fashion leather kosh?) leather haft? Really nice looking tool.

 

[Abbe Osram]

Hi Guys,
thanks for all the help and info, I learned a lot and I am able to make my own Pemmican now. I believe I will have a hard time finding suet here in sweden, I know now what it is but we mostly have supermarkets here and they hardly sell any kind of fet. I found that in one store they could get lard for me if I order, but suet will be funny to explain to them. :wave:

thanks to all :You_Rock_
cheers
Abbe

 

[brucemacdonald]

Abbe, if you're having problems getting hold of beef suet, just PM me and I am sure I can send you a packet of dried suet in the post. The most common brand available here in the UK is Atora, available in most supermarkets for those who make Christmas puddings and jam roly-poly.

Best wishes,

Bruce

 

[george]

Interesting - in Indonesia you can walk in to any market and find all sorts of different dried foods from tiny fishes and prawns to meat that has been shredded the way Moonraker's post shows, its called dendeng or abon abon. I used to carry bags of it to supplement my staple diet of noodles when in the forest. They dry it with various spices and flavourings and although it took some getting used to, my favourite was dendeng manis - dried meat sweetened with red palm sugar and soy sauce. It would have been very straight forward to turn that into pemmican. I wonder if you can get it from Indonesian food stores in the UK? Those of you out there in the Netherlands should be able to get hold of it easily.

George