Pemmican History - Pemmican Patty (2024)

FAQs

Pemmican History - Pemmican Patty? ›

Pemmican: The Original Indigenous Superfood

Pemmican is dried meat, traditionally bison pounded into coarse powder and mixed with an equal amount of melted fat, and occasionally saskatoon berries, cranberries, and even cherries, currants, chokeberries or blueberries.

Jerky, here defined as seasoned and dehydrated meat, is porous — when exposed to humidity, the dry jerky actually absorbs water vapor out of the air and begins to spoil. Pemmican, on the other hand, is not porous. The rendered fat in Pemmican seals the pores in the dry meat, so that humid air can't moisten the meat.

Our modern-day pemmican bars feature a blend of bison and 100% grass-fed beef, both raised without antibiotics or added hormones. We then add berries, mineral-rich sea salt, a touch of maple sap-water and other natural ingredients native to Turtle Island (Indigenous name for North America).

You don't want to survive on pemmican alone. Strenuous backpacking will lead to daily glycogen depletion, best re- plenished with carbohydrates. For low to moderate exertion of long duration, diets high in fat work relatively well, but require a prior period of adaptation.

The Red River Colony imposed on that economic order and, when famine threatened the settlement in mid-winter 1814, Governor Miles Macdonnell (1767-1828) issued what became known as the Pemmican Proclamation. This law was meant to stop the export of pemmican to NWC forts in the West and retain it for the HBC settlers.

At room temperature, pemmican can generally last from one to five years, but there are anecdotal stories of pemmican stored in cool cellars being safely consumed after a decade or more.

Is pemmican good for you? When made with grass-fed meat, tallow, and other fresh ingredients, yes! Because pemmican has high concentrations of lean meat and fat, it is considered a high-calorie, high-protein, and high-fat snack. When it isn't combined with fruit, pemmican is essentially no-carb.

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.

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.)

Can you use Crisco to make pemmican? ›

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. The ratio is flexible, but I use roughly four parts meat, three parts berries, and two parts fat.

Pemmican Originates from Northern Tribes

The Ojibway, Cree and the Algonquian-speaking tribes call it Pimikan, meaning “manufactured grease.” The Lakota (Sioux) called it wasna ('wa' meaning “anything” and 'sna' meaning “ground up”).

Pemmican, in the Swallows and Amazons series, is bully beef (or tinned corned beef). The explorers choose to call it pemmican as that was a staple food used by many explorers. The original pemmican originated as a North American native foodstuff which consisted of fat, dried meat and dried berries ground up and mixed.

Pemmican is less commonly found in commercial settings and might require a special order or a visit to a specialty store. This leads to the next point, which is that pemmican is typically more expensive as it is rarer. Cost-wise, jerky can vary in price depending on the quality of the meat and the brand.

Just like you would for beef jerky. Unlike beef jerky Pemmican is not seasoned prior to drying. We will be using our Smokin It smoker along with Bella's Cold Smoke Generator to dry the meat and achieve a nice smoky flavor.

During the fur trade, pemmican was most often made by killing the buffalo, jerking the meat, making hair-out bags from its hide, and rendering tallow from the animal's marrow, suet, or fat. The dried meat was then broken up by pounding.

Elders teach youth about the traditional practice of sun-drying corn and wild berries through the hands-on process of working together with family. Buffalo meat was also traditionally sun-dried; this practice is now more commonly done through the use of a food dehydrator.

Pemmican should be stored in an airtight container to protect it from environmental exposure. Vacuum-sealed bags are particularly effective for this purpose, providing an environment devoid of moisture and air which could lead to spoilage.

Pemmican's high fat content and lack of moisture allow it to last for years without refrigeration, a feature that historically made it an ideal food for long journeys. What about the other half of the pemmican vs jerky debate - does beef jerky go bad?