Pemmican

[Black Hand]

I've read accounts where hides were scraped to make "soup" in winter and rawhide moccasin soles were roasted and eaten. Compared to these, pemmican would be a luxury...

 

[Vaino]

W/ all the questionable foods Zimmern eats, he must have "the runs" often. Just doesn't admit it. Michael Palin made documentaries of his world wide travels and ate whatever foods were available and confessed that his stomach and bowels were seriously upset quite often.

Eating rancid fat or even "old fat" and even different kinds of fat mixed w/ some good stuff isn't what I would even sample....so pemmican doesn't even appeal to me in the least.

Starving explorers, voyageurs and other restless people out in the wilderness who are on the verge of cannibalism might consider the lesser of 2 evils and opt for pemmican or they might not.....Fred

 

[coloradoclyde]

Starving explorers, voyageurs and other restless people out in the wilderness who are on the verge of cannibalism might consider the lesser of 2 evils and opt for pemmican or they might not.....Fred

Funny you should say that....I have read far more accounts of cannibalism, than I have of people eating pemmican....

 

[Black Hand]

In reality, pemmican is (likely) less fatty than bacon, so eating it shouldn't be a "shock" to the system. Enough rendered fat is added to hold it together and coat the fibers of the dried meat. It seems that what is most alarming to many is the unfamiliar factor which also keeps people from trying foreign/ethnic foods. In the general scheme of things, I've eaten thing far stranger than what essentially amounts to a well-marbled steak in disguise....

 

[satx78247]

TRUE. - I won't tell the "sensitive types" here how KIM-CHI was traditionally made & what it smells like.

yours, satx

 

[coloradoclyde]

TRUE. - I won't tell the "sensitive types" here how KIM-CHI was traditionally made & what it smells like.

yours, satx

What?...In a pot buried in the ground?.... I knew an Asian lady that made it on her back deck in a crock.....How she kept the coon out of it is beyond me....Maybe they ended up on the menu too... :haha:

 

[tenngun]

An underline on your post should be GOOD pemmican. I've had some pretty fatty stuff. Normally we eat from 150 -300 calories of bacon. Not 3000 calories.
But do think good vs a pound of fat with an ounce of jerky and a raisin , the stuff I've seen passed off as pemmican.

 

[Black Hand]

An underline on your post should be GOOD pemmican. I've had some pretty fatty stuff. Normally we eat from 150 -300 calories of bacon. Not 3000 calories.

Just remember that your caloric need doubles or triples when in the field, so 3000 calories would be a good start. Then again, I'm a skinny guy with a not-so-skinny appetite which only increases in the field...

Never go on a scout without bacon.

 

[crockett]

In the wilderness fat is a rare commodity- bears were killed just to get the fat. The dried meat was plentiful. I'd go with this idea of enough fat to hold it together- like a hard sausage, although that process is different.
The currants could shorten the shelf life- that is the acids in the fruit/berries impacting the fat but it didn't happen overnight.

 

[tenngun]

An underline on your post should be GOOD pemmican. I've had some pretty fatty stuff. Normally we eat from 150 -300 calories of bacon. Not 3000 calories.

Just remember that your caloric need doubles or triples when in the field, so 3000 calories would be a good start. Then again, I'm a skinny guy with a not-so-skinny appetite which only increases in the field...

Never go on a scout without bacon.

Im a fat boy that has to fight my weight all the time.
Yes you could starve on 2500 calories a day in the woods. If its cold you can burn 4-5000 calories just sitting by the fire.
Do you make your own bacon?
I cant since I had to move in to town. now I get mine from turkey foot traders and its a-1
Pemmican is a good thing to carry, and when I could smoke stuff, I smoked pemmican. I made it not only out of deer, but also turkey and ham.
All and all bacon jerky and some sort of grain is my go to for trekking, with hard tac raisins and butter are common. Puddings in a haste have become a trail food favorite for me.

 

[crockett]

I just wanted to update this a bit. I am currently reading David Thompson's "Travels" He was with the HBC and then the Northwest Co. and was on the Columbia when the Astorians were there.
He writes several times of jerky being made by "splitting" the meat into strips or cutting lengthwise, etc. I realize that today a lot of folks cut slices across the grain with the idea it dries faster and is easier to eat but the original method seems to be cutting along the grain.
Thompson also speaks of a variety of berries, cranberries, service ? berries, etc. These berries were dried and then mixed in and it was done sometimes but not all the time. Some pemmican was just the shredded jerky and fat.
He also spoke of using bear fat and mixing that with venison or bison jerky. And the pemmican was stored in "skin" bags. Some of these skin bags were huge, weighing 90 pounds.
On this skin bag business, a word of caution. I know in sausage making putting WET meat in an airtight casing raises concerns on botulism. I have no idea on the pemmican. It seems if it is already dry it wouldn't be a problem but I thought I would at least mention it.

 

[Claude Mathis]

He writes several times of jerky being made by "splitting" the meat into strips or cutting lengthwise, etc. I realize that today a lot of folks cut slices across the grain with the idea it dries faster and is easier to eat but the original method seems to be cutting along the grain.

Old photos bear this out.

I agree that cutting across the grain seems to be a modern (easier to chew) method. We tend to cut it into small pieces too. Perhaps because many today see it as a “snack”, not a “food source”?

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I agree that cutting across the grain seems to be a modern (easier to chew) method. We tend to cut it into small pieces too. Perhaps because many today see it as a “snack”, not a “food source”?

Claude,

I wonder if it's the tools available for preparation as well? We have very sharp knives, nice flat, level counters, and cutting boards. If you simply started carving muscle tissue straight out of the game animal right after opening the hide, would you not follow the bones to which the muscles were attached and so be going along with the grain instead of cross-grain? Literally going from the animal on the ground to the rack over the heat source as quickly as you could?

LD

 

[Claude Mathis]

I agree that cutting across the grain seems to be a modern (easier to chew) method. We tend to cut it into small pieces too. Perhaps because many today see it as a “snack”, not a “food source”?

Claude,

I wonder if it's the tools available for preparation as well? We have very sharp knives, nice flat, level counters, and cutting boards. If you simply started carving muscle tissue straight out of the game animal right after opening the hide, would you not follow the bones to which the muscles were attached and so be going along with the grain instead of cross-grain? Literally going from the animal on the ground to the rack over the heat source as quickly as you could?

LD

I agree, but it may also be easier to deal with larger pieces to begin with and cut off small pieces later (after drying) as needed, rather than spending a lot of time cutting small pieces initially, when it may not be necessary?

I found a video. I think the meat he chose was too fatty to begin with and he didn't remove enough fat before drying, but it shows the basic steps, for someone who has never heard of or made pemmican. (He's demonstrating something from a book he's selling)
http://d3uaxf08soql4q.cloudfront.net/thelostways/VSL Pem 2-Desktop.m4v

 

[Black Hand]

I read a description where they mentioned unrolling the meat. Think opening-up a jellyroll, just with meat and a knife. This way the meat was cut thinner (with the grain) for drying but remained as larger pieces (sheets of meat). Unfortunately, I can't recall where I saw it...