Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (2024)

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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (1)

European explorers learned all kinds of things from Native Americans. Fish as fertilizer, the three sisters gardening method, and the process of making pemmican. The word comes from the Algonquin language known as Cree and the direct translation is rendered fat.

Because of the translation, you should understand that the basic ingredients of any pemmican recipe are meat and fat. Things like honey, fruits, nuts, and seasonings are added as well, for the most part, you are making a dried meatball that is preserved in its own fat. Some people also use bacon drippings for flavor.

Article continues below.

In this how-to article, we are going to create our own pemmican and I will walk you through the steps. I will also provide you with some variant recipes that are delicious.

Recipe for Pemmican

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs Quality Grass Fed Beef or Game Meat
  • ½ Cup Lard
  • 2 Tbsp Honey
  • ¼ Cup of Walnuts
  • About 8 dried apricots

Tools:

  • Deep pan to dry beef
  • Smaller pan to dry fruits
  • Food processor or Mortar and Pestle
  • Large mixing bowl
  • Wooden spoon

Directions:

STEP 1

It’s very important to take a sharp knife and slice that meat as thin as you can. The thinner your meat, the better to start with. This will all pay off when the time comes to break that meat down.

If you are making pemmican with a very sparse kitchen, limited skills, and merely for survival, I would recommend using a nice fatty ground beef. Otherwise, you can use very thin slices of beef and dry them in the same way.

I am using local grass-fed ground beef that is 80/20 fat to meat. Of course, I want to use the rendered fat for our pemmican, but you will need to add lard.

STEP 2

Spread the meat out thinly on a baking sheet or a perforated cooking sheet. I use one with high sides, so I can capture all that great fat coming off the meat. I like to salt the meat when I dry it in the oven as well. Just a light sprinkle across the meat. This also adds the preserving qualities of salt. It’s not necessary, but I do it.

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (2)

STEP 3

Dry this meat in the oven on the lowest setting for 8 hours or however long it takes. If you are using ground beef, you will have to drain the fat at some point. Don’t throw that fat away. You need to save it for a later part of the process. Most people use thinly sliced meat and that is the classic method, but I find that ground beef gets you to the pulverized state faster.

STEP 4

Grind the meat down as fine as possible. I recommend using a food processor. This is a very important part of the process. By doing this, you will be able to get maximum coating from the rendered fat. You want the rendered fat to cover the meat and the meat to fill out all of the added fat. There should not be a layer of melted fat floating above your meat.

STEP 5

Now pour the rendered fat onto the dried meat and mix it up. The pemmican mix should look like a ragu or a thick sauce. If you add too much fat you are going to have to strain some of it out. This is very important. Too much fat will make your mix inedible.

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (3)

STEP 6

The fat that you poured off your ground beef can now be mixed back into the dried meat. Add the lard as well and stir everything.

At this point, stir in any dried fruit or nuts. For this recipe, stir in the chopped walnuts and the apricots. Stir everything very thoroughly.

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (4)

STEP 7

Let the mix cool to room temperature. From here you can store it in many ways. We are going to use an ice cube tray to portion them out and then roll them into balls. You can also create loaves in a pan or small bricks in a ziplock bag.

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (5)

Variant Recipe Additions

  1. Add chopped dried apricots and cherries.
  2. Add lots of black pepper and raisins.
  3. Add soy sauce to the meat while drying, then crushed peanuts and ginger.

Conclusion

The store shelves are riddled with all types of granola and energy bars that are very popular. These bars often find a place in the backpacks of the modern adventurer. You see, pemmican is old news. While it is making a resurgence in survival circles, this fatty meat mix was probably given up when people started having concerns about things like cholesterol and heart attacks. We ran from fatty red meat for years and it was all due to bad science.

The great news is that fat is back! We know that it’s an essential ingredient in running a healthy human machine. For men, fat is incredibly important in terms of testosterone production. Because of this, we can enjoy those red meats and healthy fats again.

The irony in all of this is that pemmican was abandoned for sugary granola bars on the trail. Now we know that sugar was an under-the-radar killer being sold to the American public as a delicious treat. Turns out we should have been eating more meat and fat the whole time!

You May Also Like:

  • 14 Forgotten Emergency Foods You Should Stockpile
  • How To Render Lard The Easy Way
  • How to Make Soap from Fat and Ashes
  • How to Make a Bacon Fat Candle
  • 3 Reasons To Start Canning Meat

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the ratio of fat to meat for pemmican? ›

There are many subtle variations of pemmican recipes, each owing to what was available in those regions and seasons. However, in order for pemmican to be shelf stable it does require a one-to-one ratio of fat to meat by weight; although some recipes call for a two-to-one ratio of fat to meat for extra calories.

What cut of meat is best for pemmican? ›

Round is a good cut. Prepping: Remove all visible fat. To slice, use longest knife on partially frozen meat. Drying: Better taste if not cooked.

Can you use bacon grease in pemmican? ›

I used the fact from 3 pieces of center cut bacon, used some stored bacon fat and then added coconut oil until I had about a half a cup of fat. If you have some bacon grease stored away, this is the perfect time to put it to use. The cooked pieces of bacon were used in the recipe.

Is suet or tallow better for pemmican? ›

Suet is the fat around the kidneys of the cow and works best for pemmican because it stays hard at room temperature and will help to preserve your meat.

What is the best fat for making pemmican? ›

Melt tallow from beef, venison, elk or bison. Do not substitute a soft fat such as lard, bear fat, duck, or goose fat, Crisco or butter. The denser and more saturated the fat, the better. Combine powdered meat and berries, pouring melted tallow until coated.

Should you add salt to pemmican? ›

Add salt at a rate of 1.5-1.9% of the total weight of your powders used. For the original recipe, your mix will only be meat/salt. For a dried fruit mix, start with 30% dried fruit and 70% meat powder. Increase sweetness to taste by increasing the fruit powder or by adding honey.

How long can you survive on pemmican? ›

Today, this meat-based, long-lasting food can still satiate preppers, survivalists, and campers of all types for months or even years. Learn how to create your own pemmican recipe and why this food has such staying power.

Can you use butter for pemmican? ›

Ingredients. Lard (to hold together) Do not use shortening or butter.

Can you put spices in pemmican? ›

Pemmican consists of two fundamental ingredients — dried meat and tallow — and is used as a highly nutritious, on-the-go food staple. Spices can be and usually are added, while dried berries are sometimes a feature.

Can you add oats to pemmican? ›

I made two samples, the original containing just dried beef, beef dripping, dried fruit and honey, and what I called Amundsen's recipe with added oatmeal and some chick pea flour.

How to make modern pemmican? ›

Pound the meat into a nearly powder consistency using a blender or other tool. Grind the dried fruit, but leave a little bit lumpy for fun texture. Heat rendered fat on stove at medium until liquid. Add liquid fat to dried meat and dried fruit, and mix in nuts and honey.

What meats can be used in pemmican? ›

Pemmican has traditionally been made using whatever meat was available at the time: large game meat such as bison, deer, elk, or moose, but also fish such as salmon, and smaller game such as duck; while contemporary pemmican may also include beef.

What is the ultimate survival food? ›

Canned meats like tuna, chicken, and beef, along with canned vegetables like carrots, green beans, and peas, are packed with protein and essential nutrients, making them ideal for survival situations. And with a shelf life of up to 5 years, canned goods are a reliable choice for long-term survival food storage.

How much pemmican do you need to survive? ›

40 day winter: 12800 pemmican. 50 day winter: 16000 pemmican. These are near-minimums, though, and you should shoot for higher. (I say near because a colonist can survive for five days without food.)

How long will vacuum sealed pemmican last? ›

If stored properly, pemmican can last from 3 to 5 years.

What is the ratio for pemmican? ›

In general, pemmican calls for a ratio of roughly 1:1 tallow to dry ingredients. However, that's by weight. Your sawdust-like mixture of meat and berries may seem like a lot (see below), but it weighs relatively little.

What is the best fat to meat ratio? ›

And on this, experts concur — the most popular and flavorful ratio of lean to fat comes in at 80/20. Paul Vaccari, owner of New York City's Piccinini Brothers, which sells to restaurants as well as individuals, says his most popular mixture for hamburgers is an 80/20 ground chuck.

What is the fat to meat ratio for beef? ›

Up to 30% fat is allowed for both hamburger and ground beef. Ground beef is labeled by lean-to-fat ratio: 80/20 = ground beef that contains 80% lean meat and 20% fat. 85/15 = ground beef that contains 85% lean meat and 15% fat.

What is the best beef to fat ratio? ›

A 70% lean to 30% fat ratio might result in a burger that is too greasy. While it would be very juicy, the excess fat could overwhelm the flavor of the beef and make the burger feel heavy. The ideal fat ratio for a smash burger is between 15-20%.

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