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How to make Pemmican - The Ultimate Survival Food

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Invented by the natives of North America, pemmican was used by Indian scouts as well as early western explorers. These people spent a great deal of time on the go and depended on having portable, high-energy, highly nutritious, and filling foods that would last for long periods of time.

Pemmican was light, compact, high in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and if done properly can last anywhere from a few years (decades) up to a lifetime without refrigeration!

Pemmican consists of lean, dried meat which is crushed to a powder and mixed with hot, rendered fat. Back in those days the natives made it with bison, deer, or elk but nowadays it is usually made with beef. Crushed, dried berries can be added as well.

A man could subsist entirely on pemmican, drawing on the fat for energy, the protein for strength and vitamins for health. There are a few cases in history of people living for months (in good health) only out of pemmican.

So, it’s easy to understand why I choose pemmican as the ultimate survival-superfood.

People really should avert their gaze from the modern survival thinking for just a bit and also look at how the guys who wandered the west 130 or so years ago did it. As I’ve said it in a recent article (30 Lost Ways of Survival from 1880) the “SHTF” we all prep for is what folks 150 years ago called “daily life:” No electrical power, no refrigerators, no Internet, no computers, no TV, no hyper-active law enforcement, no Safeway or Walmart.

How to Make Pemmican

You’ll need:

  • 4 cups lean meat or a pound (deer, beef, caribou or moose)
  • 3 cups blueberries (or other dried fruits)
  • 2 cups rendered fat (or 1/2 pounds)
  • Optional – unsalted nuts and about 1 shot of honey

Get about a pound and a half of lean, grass-fed shoulder roast and let it firm up in the freezer so you can slice it thin.

Add salt and pepper. Set the oven to the lowest possible temperature (around 150 degrees) and put the strips of meat directly onto the rack. Crack the oven door to prevent moisture buildup.

At this point, you can also put a handful of frozen wild blueberries on a small oven pan to dry out with the meat.

Let the meat dry out for about fifteen hours, or until it is crispy. Toss it in the food processor until it becomes a powder. Do the same with the blueberries. In the old days they’d pound it with a rock to turn it into a “powder”.


For the fat portion of pemmican, you can use tallow (rendered beef or mutton fat) or lard (rendered pork fat). Cut up your fat in small pieces and place the fat into the crockpot. Set the crock pot on low heat and remove it only after it becomes completely liquid. Use a strainer to avoid all the crispy bits; you just want the pure, liquid fat.

 

 


Mix the meat and berry powder together, then slowly add the hot liquid fat. Pour just enough so that the fat soaks into the powder – slowly.

 

 

 

 


Let it firm up, then cut it into squares or roll it into a ball.

If done and stored correctly it can last for decades. Wrap these “pemmican balls” in wax paper and store them in a ziplock bag in a cool, dark place.

Back in the 1800, the native people Canada (Metis) would go southwest onto the prairie, slaughter buffalo, convert it into pemmican and carry it north to trade at the North West Company posts. For these people on the edge of the prairie the pemmican trade was as important a source of trade goods as was the fur trade for the Indians further north. And this is because for a serious journey, almost all foods would have been too heavy to carry.

If you’ll ever have to bug out – especially without a car – keep this in mind: Pemmican is the most compact, light, natural and nutritious supply you can take with you.

Source: askaprepper.com

Resources:

How to Prepare for the Coming Food Crisis

30 Lost Ways of Survival from 1880 We Should all Learn



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    Total 12 comments
    • privatess

      amazing post, thank you so much!

    • Trex

      Cool , thanks for the information !

    • chefjim

      “store them in a ziplock bag in a cool, dark place.” I can’t think of a cooler, darker place than my refrigerator.

    • truthlovingsoul

      great post, thanks. :)

    • C. Davis

      Thanks! I personally made it last year and a couple of times with my dad when I was a child. If you put too much fat it will go rancid after a few months. The secret is to pour just enough liquid fat to soak into the (meet) powder. The taste is not bad but not very good either. In fact, with time, it will grow on you – but remember that this is a survival food.

      • westgate

        I have also seen pemmican recipes with peanut butter.

    • Maurice Ronald The Keyboard Warrior

      Does this work with chicken?

      • C. Davis

        It should work very well with chicken breast, but it doesn’t last that much because chicken is not as low in fat as some beef so it doesn’t dry as well. The natives made it with “wild meat” which had almost no fat.

    • iamamerican

      This is a great recipe, and great post, I have already made pemmican and stored it, but thanks for giving this info to others.

    • srsly1

      Thanks for this post, I’ve been wondering about an easy recipe for this lately.

    • lola-403

      Interesting post. One little thing — while the Métis are proud and persevering Aboriginal people in Canada, they trace their descent from mixed ancestry of Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. It’s not quite correct to call them “the native people of Canada”. There are, in fact, three groups of Aboriginal people in Canada (Metis, Inuit and First Nations) and within these there are MANY (more than 600) recognized indigenous bands in Canada, just as there are in the US (more than 500). These would be Blackfoot, Cree, Sioux, Pawnee, Cherokee, Iroquois, Haida, Huron, Algonquin and many others. In fact, the word “pemmican” is a CREE word, derived from another word in that language meaning fat or grease.

    • Dr Richard Ruhling

      Dried fruit and nuts would be much easier to make, keep well and be healthier
      Two parts whole grain (wheat, corn, oats or rice) and 1 part dried peas or beans give a balanced protein
      that has provided sustenance for millions of poor people
      watch 5 min of video at http://RichardRuhling.com

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