View Full Version : Pemmican
fungi601
12-07-2011, 09:27
I came across this this morning and really found it to be an interesting thing I would like to add to my backpacking pantry. There are some links in the post also to make your own. http://nutrition-and-physical-regeneration.com/blog/941/meat/the-bread-of-the-wilderness-pemmican/ there is also an interesting video on the page too at the bottom.
Has anybody ever had any of this stuff or tried to make it?
I've been getting interested as I've been considering switching to a higher fat diet. I understand traditional pemmican to be 50% rendered lard and 50% dried meat, with the option of throwing in some berries. For the hiking I do, 3-14 days at a time MAX, I don't have to be quite so fussy about how long it needs to last. On the plus side, I love the taste of bacon fat, or any other animal fat. On the downside, I don't like to have more than 1/3 of my fats come from saturated fats. So working backwards, if I was to be burning 6000 kcal a day, which is about the limit for me, and 1800 kcal of that coming from body fat, and at most 1800 kcal coming from food fat, then 600 kcal at most from saturated fats, or about 67g of fat, and so maybe 150g of pemmican each day, for about 1000 kcal of my daily 4000 kcal coming from pemmican. I think I could stomach that quite nicely. I am not exactly sure how I would fit it in with the rest of my diet, of oats, nuts, seeds, lentil and herb soup, and milk with spiced tea, but I think I could fit it in with the oats, nuts, and seeds quite nicely, and maybe even the soup at night.
I think I would use regular ground beef, render out the fat, dry the beef at 170F, and then mix the fat back in again. I might be a little concerned about using ground beef vs whole beef. Not sure. I would throw in dried blueberries and dried cranberries, also dried at 170F using my convection oven. It would be nice to dry the berries at a lower temperature but my oven doesn't go lower, and the convection kicks out if I open the door. Maybe do something with the door open. Sun dried would be nice if we had the climate for it, but you can't have everything.
I've used Pemican bars on the trail in the past. It is like a small cake with meat in it. It tastes OK and does have a bunch of protein and fat in it.
Did a little refresher research on ground beef, and how much fat is 30% fat, etc.
100g of 70% lean, 30% fat beef = 14g protien, 30g fat, 56g water = 83/17 %fat/protien calories
100g of 77% lean, 23% fat beef = 16g protien, 23g fat, 61g water = 76/24 %fat/protien calories
100g of 80% lean, 20% fat beef = 17g protien, 20g fat, 63g water = 71/29 %fat/protien calories
100g of 83% lean, 17% fat beef = 18g protien, 17g fat, 65g water = 68/32 %fat/protien calories
100g of 90% lean, 10% fat beef = 20g protien, 10g fat, 70g water = 53/47 %fat/protien calories
Quite an eye opener, but I guess it makes sense because lean is 75% water and only 25% protien, whereas the fat portion is only 10% water and 90% fat, roughly. So on a zone diet you would really want to use the extra lean, or whatever it is that is 90% lean and 10% fat in order to get roughly equal protien and fat calories.
For pemmican, which I think is 50% DRIED beef and 50% RENDERED fat, I'm guessing the jerky portion would be roughly 3 kcal per gram, and the lard portion 9kcal per gram, so 25% protien and 75% fat by calories, so for that I suppose you would want to start with meat that is about 17% fat, 83% lean. In Canada I think we call that LEAN, as opposed to extra lean.
In terms of value for money, if you assume that you should be paying mostly for protien, the equivalent value of ground beef, when compared to 10% fat 80% lean being $2/lb on sale, for round numbers...
Regular = 30% fat beef = 14g protien, 30g fat = $1.40 per pound
Medium = 23% fat beef = 16g protien, 23g fat = $1.60 per pound
??????? = 20% fat beef = 17g protien, 20g fat = $1.70 per pound
Lean Beef = 17% fat beef = 18g protien, 17g fat = $1.80 per pound
Extra Lean = 10% fat beef = 20g protien, 10g fat = $2.00 per pound
Good news, I guess only about 50% of the fat in beef is saturated or trans. I did not know that. So I guess I could eat a fair ammount more pemmican after all, and still have only 1/3 of my fats saturated.
fungi601
12-07-2011, 17:57
Did a little refresher research on ground beef, and how much fat is 30% fat, etc...............
In terms of value for money, if you assume that you should be paying mostly for protien, the equivalent value of ground beef, when compared to 10% fat 80% lean being $2/lb on sale, for round numbers...
Regular = 30% fat beef = 14g protien, 30g fat = $1.40 per pound
Medium = 23% fat beef = 16g protien, 23g fat = $1.60 per pound
??????? = 20% fat beef = 17g protien, 20g fat = $1.70 per pound
Lean Beef = 17% fat beef = 18g protien, 17g fat = $1.80 per pound
Extra Lean = 10% fat beef = 20g protien, 10g fat = $2.00 per pound
Good news, I guess only about 50% of the fat in beef is saturated or trans. I did not know that. So I guess I could eat a fair ammount more pemmican after all, and still have only 1/3 of my fats saturated.
Jak, you got way too much time on your hands LOL Thanks for the breakdown though.
No good for gout! NO MORE bacon for me - EVER! (maybe......:o).
grasslandbeef.com has a pemmican blog page with info and links for preparing, etc.
I've had some very tasty stuff made with rendered doe fat, but I've heard nightmares about trying to use buck fat. This is the first I've heard of using beef, all the recipes I've seen are for venison or seal.
I suspect that the quality of the fat has a huge impact on the final taste.
Pemmican isn't a superfood. It's just a way of preserving meat. I can see it being as being as good as fresh meat, but I can't see it as being better. It's basically just 3 kcal of fat for every 1 kcal of protien, roughly speaking, which is the same as you would get from eating meat that is 17% fat and 83% lean. It just preserves the meat, and fat, by separating the two so you can render the fat without protien in it, and dry the protien with less fat in it, and then jamming the two back together again so it packs better.
As far as quality of meat and fat, I think that is mostly a matter of taste, although I think there is alot to be said for how beef is raised, or alternatively how well bison or caribou are living before you shoot them if that is your source of meat. I've had caribou from Newfoundland. It was very good. I would think that bison would be closer to beef, but it probably matters most what they have been eating, and how healthy they have been living, and how free of drugs, or parisites, they have managed to remain.
I think your best bet would be to get your meat from the most direct source, so you have a better idea what exactly you are getting. Know your butcher. They can tell you alot, whether it is game or stock.
For short hikes, I think you would be better off just making dried meat using meat that is not too lean, meaning like 17% fat. If you are only going for a week or two, the jerky can have a fair amount of fat on it and it will still keep well without the fat going rancid or the lean getting contaminated. For really long trips, like several weeks unsupported by boat, or canoe, or sled, then pemmican might make more sense in order to pack more densely and keep longer. Nutritionally it would be the same, roughly 100 kcal of protien for every 300 kcal of fat, if that's what you are going for, with some berries thrown in, or some oatmeal or biscuits on the side.
Still, it would be fun to make yourself, and not that hard. Separate the fat from the lean, render the fat. Dry the lean. Pulverize the dried jerky. Recombine the protien with the fat. Throw in some berries if you wish. Also, spice and sauce up the lean about before drying it, but that is also optional.
Wise Old Owl
12-08-2011, 01:00
Nuts - Jak - my homemade Jerk is low in fat and salt and because its soaked in low sodium Kikoman - its lasted months on the counter.
Here is one explanation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGJ4l_vg4YA
Pemmican is considered a super food. If done like native americans, the low temp process preserves the natural enzymes in the ingredients. These enzymes help with digestion plus your body doesn't have to work as hard. Seems super to me. Anyway just made my first batch. Tastes good and you could add any flavor you want to different batches for variety.
bemental
02-21-2015, 20:34
Pemmican is considered a super food. If done like native americans, the low temp process preserves the natural enzymes in the ingredients. These enzymes help with digestion plus your body doesn't have to work as hard. Seems super to me. Anyway just made my first batch. Tastes good and you could add any flavor you want to different batches for variety.
Wide and I experimented with making pemmican, turned out more like jerky snuff. Wasn't bad, just wasn't the same as jerky.
A bit on the dry side but we probably chopped it up a bit too fine in our food processor.
atraildreamer
02-22-2015, 13:55
This site has instructions, along with a video, on how to prep and dehydrate hamburger. It might be a good source of meat for your pemmican:
http://www.tngun.com/dehydrating-hamburger-aka-hamburger-rocks/
Just Bill
02-22-2015, 14:40
Pemmican in and of itself- basically the original cliff bar.
You take the best way to preserve meat (jerky) and the best way to preserve fat (tallow) and mix them into a portable form.
Indian Scouts used to carry Pinole (corn based) and Pemmican. Together they can form a complete set of travel rations.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/102586-The-greatest-jerky-on-the-planet
For Jerky- I use this stuff. I simply let it sit in the pantry in a paper bag until it fully dries out and becomes brittle (a few months).
Then I pound it up. You can go as fine as you want (food processer) but I found a bit of rough hand pounding to be better. It's nice to have a few chunks of flavor in there rather than a true jerky dust. The jerky itself provides a pretty good flavor to start with.
For Tallow or Lard- I've gotten it at the butcher shop before, never tried homemade.
*** on a side note- Good bone based gelatins and broths are supposed to be fantastic for you. One day I'd like to look into a stabilized version of tallow/lard that contained a portion of bone fats and marrows to increase the nutrition.
Technically- you can stop with meat and fat. The video WOO posted more or less covers it- though I prefer to warm the fats and mix in the meat so the meat sucks up the most fats.
Traditionally though, many more things were added to make the pemmican more complete (added flavor is a bonus)
Nuts (sunflower seeds are cheap and easy) but slivered almonds and crushed walnuts are great too.
Dried fruits- raisins are cheap- but use your imagination. Goji berries, Acai, or other super fruits make sense.
Superfoods- speaking of superfoods- Cacao nibs and chia seeds would be excellent additions as well.
Greens- You can dry and then flake (like parsley flakes) nearly any green you can get your hands on (spring mix, spinach, cabbage, etc.)
Don't go too heavy on greens and fruits as they are more likely to absorb ambient humidity for long term.
That said, edible pemmican has been found in archeological sites in America that is over 200 years old.
As far as I can tell- grains of any type were never added to pemmican- I don't know if there is a "stability" issue but I would imagine so.
Pinole-
Different subject entirely, but this can be your travelling grain based staple.
While popular again from "born to run" Horace Kephart and many others have described this commonly carried ration. In the south it was called Rockihomminy IIRC. It's not simply corn meal, but a process involving some fire ashes in the roasting process and crushing in a limestone vessel. The ash and lime add properties to the corn.
I use Masa Harina from Bob's Red Mill as the base ingredient. It is available at Mexican grocery stores generally. http://www.bobsredmill.com/golden-masa-harina-corn-flour.html
I often add a little blue corn meal- roughly 4-1 masa to blue corn. http://www.bobsredmill.com/blue-cornmeal.html
General recipe-
4 cups masa harina
1 cup blue corn meal
1 cup chia seeds
1 cup hershey 100% cacao special dark
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup cinnamon
1/2 cup smoked paprika
1/4 cup turmeric
Add all to a large pan (I use a big wok) and heat over low while whisking together. When it is all blended and warm to the touch it is done. Let it dry and store in Ziploc bags. On trail- 1/4 cup is a meal- roughly 100 cal.
It can be eaten "dry" which is the traditional method. Put a spoon full in your mouth, take a swallow of water to wash it down and repeat. Don't eat more than a few spoonful's at a crack when on the move.
A quarter cup of pemmican and a few spoons of pinole is a pretty filling meal. It's best to eat these foods as the natives did- nibble pemmican while moving and eat pinole when you reach a water source. Or basically- dribble in a spoonful of each every hour.
In addition for eating pemmican on the fly, I use pemmican in beef recipes on the trail: throw it in a freezer bag with some veggies and noodles (or instant rice) for a very satisfying and filling meal. The fat melts in the hot water for some liquid ambrosia :)
ChrisJackson
03-12-2015, 18:17
My order of pemmican just came in. Also trying Pro Bars. Looking forward to trying both these out while hiking.
I'm pretty sure the bear valley pemmican bars are just oats, corn, soy, barley, and nuts. Zero meat or rendered animal fat to be spoken of. Just FYI. It should be illegal to even call it pemmican :(
Here's the ingredients listed on their site: Malted corn and barley, nonfat milk, soy flour, honey, almonds raisins, oats, soy oil, sunflower seeds, cocoa, wheat bran, and carob.
Personally, I'd stick with getting some beef suet from a butcher to render the tallow, making your favorite beef jerky recipe, drying some berries, and voila!
ChrisJackson
03-25-2015, 18:18
After my first trip with Pro Bars and Pemmican bars (from Bear Valley)...I gotta say I'm hooked. I would like to try some REAL pemmican soon to get that experience. But I must say that for trips in the range of one to five-ish days...I'm pretty happy with just nuts, dried fruit, yerba mate, Pro Bar and the Pemmican. I have no illusions about longer trips...I think I'd need more variety. I think I'll end up trying to use some of the info here to make some authentic pemmican!
After my first trip with Pro Bars and Pemmican bars (from Bear Valley)...I gotta say I'm hooked. I would like to try some REAL pemmican soon to get that experience. But I must say that for trips in the range of one to five-ish days...I'm pretty happy with just nuts, dried fruit, yerba mate, Pro Bar and the Pemmican. I have no illusions about longer trips...I think I'd need more variety. I think I'll end up trying to use some of the info here to make some authentic pemmican!
Bear Valley bars are not pemmican, and in fact have nothing to do with pemmican, not even a component in common.
That being said if you are exploring assorted meal bars check out Grenn Belly Meal Bars
Just Bill
03-25-2015, 18:49
Just a fair warning too-
If you do make real pemmican, take er easy.
eating it takes a little getting used to for the old digestive system :bse
ChrisJackson
03-25-2015, 18:57
Thank you both for the tip and the advice! I'm always on the lookout for backpacking food solutions...thx!
Just a fair warning too-
If you do make real pemmican, take er easy.
eating it takes a little getting used to for the old digestive system :bse
Good advice, but that depends greatly upon one's "normal" diet. If one already eats lots of meat and saturated fats (contrary to the bad science promoted over the last 50 years), the transition is easier. :)
ChrisJackson
03-25-2015, 19:39
That's a good point. My current diet is high protein with fats...very little sugar at all. I've dropped weight like crazy. But I'm scared to eat like that whilst hiking. I think it'd be just one big bonk. So when hiking I incorporate the sugars from dried fruit and the bars. So in addition to wanting to make/try authentic pemmican...I'm also always trying to figure out how to introduce healthy carbs without the blood sugar spikes. So far I haven't had any nutritional blow ups while in the field yet but I have a 5 day trip coming up and I'll be depending on the bars. The good news is that there are outfitters accessible on this trip so I can get whatever my body needs if I'm not packing it. Just trying to balance the daily 9-5 diet with the backpacking diet :)
I have made a bit of jerky, but never went full in with the pemmican, although I would like to try it. It has certainly fueled some long treks over the historical record. :)
Next time I hike the AT I plan to eat mainly pemmican. It worked for Vilhajalmur Stefansson, who after living on a high fat diet with the Inuit in the Arctic continued to do it when he returned to the US. The best thing about such a diet is that it completely satisfies your hunger, as well as promoting fat burning in your body rather than running mainly on glucose metabolism. How many hikers eating high carb diets are starved all the time? Well this is a solution. And it may also help you avoid obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc.
Read about it. Even the USDA has revised their nutritional recommendations to admit that saturated fat is not so bad for you, which has been shown clinically. There's no correlation between saturated fat intake and heart disease. We were lied to.
Go with grass fed beef; look for recipes for paleo pemmican. Make your own jerky, pulverize it, and add rendered fat from beef (some use bacon, I've added coconut oil with good results, although it would melt in hot weather).
ChrisJackson
03-27-2015, 16:00
I was you-tubing and searching around yesterday evening for a pemmican source...the world seems ready for a pemmican business. Anyone want to start one? :-) lol.
...It may turn out to be more fun and rewarding to just make it on my own though...we'll see. I'd like to try making a batch in the next month or so. My evenings are kinda dedicated at the moment.
Rolls Kanardly
03-27-2015, 17:07
I came across this this morning and really found it to be an interesting thing I would like to add to my backpacking pantry. There are some links in the post also to make your own. http://nutrition-and-physical-regeneration.com/blog/941/meat/the-bread-of-the-wilderness-pemmican/ there is also an interesting video on the page too at the bottom.
Has anybody ever had any of this stuff or tried to make it?
REI sells a Bear Valley pemmican bar. I usually get one or two coconut almond when I stop in. They are very compressed and a little dry. One usually does the trick as an afternoon snack. 440 calories and 16 grams of protein.
Rolls
REI sells a Bear Valley pemmican bar. I usually get one or two coconut almond when I stop in. They are very compressed and a little dry. One usually does the trick as an afternoon snack. 440 calories and 16 grams of protein.
Rolls
Never tried those, but they certainly do not fit any reasonable definition of pemmican, lol.