Interest in Pemmican or Suet??

[RoadtripsAndCampfires]

Are there any folks that have an interest in either pemmican or suet rendering?  If so, your thoughts?

 

[MrNoodly]

The first two pages of Google results for suet were about bird food, which is what I remember it as. What is it you do with the hard fatty tissue about the loins and kidneys of beef, sheep, etc., used in cooking or processed to yield tallow?

 

[RoadtripsAndCampfires]

Beef suet, rendered properly is like white butter. It has a high smoke point. It has a texture unlike other fat. In old times past it was used to make puddings. In older than that times it was used to make pemmican, a mixture of suet, dried meat and berries that got the Indians through cold winters and later used by the fur traders. I'm going to do a video soon on how to render it. My method is a bit different from some I've seen.

 

[maki2]

In the old times pemmican was widely used by travelers. It had a high calorie count due to the fat and traveling can be a very strenuous activity if you are walking, paddling or riding horses. More calories in a small package to carry was a very big help when you have to carry all you need on your back or in a canoe or in saddlebags.

Coating, ie sealing meats in fat is an effective method of food preservation as is increasing the acidity and the berries they used are very acidic. Plus of course the berries would prevent scurvy. Salt is also an important ingredient for health reasons as well as its preservative qualities. Salt can be difficult to find when traveling in remote area.

 

[XERTYX]

I read an interesting article some years ago about how "preppers" were not a new concept. They had found Adobe type dwellings with hidden compartments that housed spare tools, fuel, fire making tools, weapons, and intactish pemmican.

Apparently for a long long time there has always been one paranoid dude that was preparing for the end of the world.

 

[crofter]

Recipe?    ~crofter

 

[RoadtripsAndCampfires]

I will show you all a huge twist on the whole thing. I'm waiting for 25 pounds to come in at the meat market and then I'll render it.

 

[crofter]

Still waiting for that pemmican recipe, or a link to your how to video would be even better. I have preserved meat for short times with suet naturally, but have not made real pemmican.    ~crofter

 

[SheketEchad]

I was highly interested in pemmican when I was planning an AT hike, until I figured out just how much the critters might be interested as well

Still would love to see a good recipe for it now that I'm in the van.

 

[crofter]

Here is a recipie passed along by a Comanche man 
https://oyasin.io/pemmican-recipe/

#1. Gather your ingredients including:

• 1.5 pounds of lean, grass-fed bison shoulder roast
  
• 1 pound of fat (use bison kidney fat, bacon fat, or saturated fat specifically)
  
• 2 cups of dried currants
  
• 1 tablespoon dried edible sage

#2. Dry the meat – Add salt and pepper to the meat and set it out under the direct sun or in the oven at the lowest temperature (around 150 degrees). Open the oven routinely to let out moisture.
The meat should dry for 15 hours until it is so crispy you can make it into a fine powder. Next, put the dried meat into the processor to grind it up.
Crush it with your hand if you don’t have a processor, but make it into a powder.
#3. Add currants and sage – The dried currants and hint of sage are dry and thus should go into the powdered meat.
Mix them all together in a large bowl so the ingredients are evenly distributed. Once you are finished, add it to a large casserole baking dish with room for the fat.
#4. Render the fat – Heat your fat source in a crockpot, skillet, or wherever you choose.
Feel free to use the pemmican recipe coconut oil option. After all, coconut oil is saturated fat and similar to the animal fat, which allows it to stay in use longer without becoming rancid.
Once the fat has been rendered (it can take multiple hours), pour through a strainer to filter out any pieces.
#5. Mix powder with fat – The dried mixture in the casserole dish is waiting for some moisture to soak up. This is where you will slowly add the rendered liquid fat.
Try to maintain a 2:1 ratio between fat and the dried meat, currant mixture. This avoids creating a soup, liquid consistency, but add more fat as needed.
After the fat is added, some people put wet ingredients like maple syrup or honey, but we use neither of those here.
#6. Form and store pemmican – Put the casserole dish into the refrigerator and the saturated fat will quickly become a solid in the casserole dish.
Take out the dish with a solid pemmican block and cut it into smaller bars or pieces. Add these bars to individual containers and add to the refrigerator and freezer depending on the quantity.
Enjoy!


Let me know how it turns out. I actually found tons of recipes online using everything from vegetarian  foods, various wild meats, and this one.  I like the idea of using buffalo meat for the stamina factor. He stores this in a refrigerator, but you could seal it up good or vacuum pack and I bet it would last.  ~crofter

 

[SheketEchad]

I've not seen buffalo meat in a market since I lived in Decatur, GA by the International Market. Can it be found out West in markets?

Thanks for the recipe, I may try this over the winter while I'm cooling my heels at the S&B.

 

[crofter]

Buffalo meat can be found in markets in the sealed plastic packages, under a couple labels I have found, and the vacuum packed sealed packages last longer in storage. Guess where I found buffalo meat now? (I was buying at a much smaller store! ) Walmart  ~crofter

 

[Gypsy Freedom]

i have been rendering suet and tallow for years, pork fat back and trimmings into lard is another. i cook solely with animal fats and avoid milk products in the cold wet winters so no butter just lard, tallow and some bacon grease. i dont do much in the way of pastries or baking so i dont separate out the leaf lard or anything just render it all down and jar it up.

my favorite way to process chunks of fat into tallow or lard is to run the fat chunks through a course meat grinder and put them in a large pot or kettle then add a cup or 2 of water to get things started and slide the whole mess in the oven at 220f and leave it till all the fat has rendered out and the cracklings have settled to the bottom. then i dip off the pure gold into jars. the first jars are the lightest and they get more flavorful as you get down to the cracklings. then i strain the cracklings with the drippings going into more jars and then bag up the cracklings themselves to cook with eggs or chili or such. for smaller quantities i just put the ground fat in a crock pot with a cup or so of water and cook overnight on low. the grinding of the fat increases the yield of light colored lard or tallow and the overall yield as well and makes the cracklings a nice texture and size to mix into to other dishes

 

[Gypsy Freedom]

my long time basic "pemmican" type preparation is to take any basic jerky. beef chicken turkey what have you and grind it to a fine meal or powder. the drier (as in low moisture, not worried about left over fat) the better for keeping with out refrigeration. then i mix in what ever dried berries or fruit for a few carbs and then mix in the fat. i use just enough fat to make a nice dough at room temp or warmer and then when it cools i cut it into bars and package. i have been known to add cacao paste and sea salt or even a touch of hot pepper powder.

a chunk the size of a granola bar will keep me going most of the day

 

[crofter]

Yum!

 

[crofter]

my long time basic "pemmican" type preparation is to take any basic jerky. 

Do you make your own jerky? Do you think the meat can be preserved with fat and not salt?   ~crofter

 

[Gypsy Freedom]

Do you make your own jerky? Do you think the meat can be preserved with fat and not salt?   ~crofter

yes, most definitely. the trick is to get the meat/jerky very dry, cracker dri so it snaps and crumbles and use rendered fat that has been rendered out very dry. also make sure anything else you add is very dry like cacao paste or any berries, freeze dried berries or othe friut can be easier to find.

you get the moisture content down and that stuff will last a long time. parfleches of pemmican have been found that were hundreds of years old and still edible inside

 

[RoadtripsAndCampfires]

Still waiting for that pemmican recipe, or a link to your how to video would be even better. I have preserved meat for short times with suet naturally, but have not made real pemmican.    ~crofter

I did render it and video it but I have not edited nor put up ANY videos since my original post.  Was too busy building trailer and downsizing.  By the time we got to The Q we were exhausted and did nothing for a couple of months.  I still plan on working on this stuff but am just now starting to relearn how to do all that stuff (edit and maintain site etc.).  I just did not want to do any extra work after exhausting ourselves so bad working on the trailer.  I still plan to do it and actually have the suet in my refrigerator that I rendered a year ago and it looks and smells like it should.  f

 

[trailer-t]

Rendered kidney suet should be a required ingredient in chili (or chilli if from Illinois).
Springfield Illinois "tavern chilli" as they call it swims in that layer of fat. Wonderful stuff.

 

[Dingfelder]

I read an interesting article some years ago about how "preppers" were not a new concept. They had found Adobe type dwellings with hidden compartments that housed spare tools, fuel, fire making tools, weapons, and intactish pemmican.

Apparently for a long long time there has always been one paranoid dude that was preparing for the end of the world.

And whole religions.