I make mine with dried huckleberries and almonds most of the time. The oldest I've ever consumed was a batch that was two years old, and it was still okay (well packaged) made by an old indian farmer.

You mean the chewing tobacco? <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Just kidding. Actually I just read Cory Lundin's book 98.6 Degrees and he recommends it as the "ultimate trail food". I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds like a good idea.

<img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> What is pemmican?

The short answer is that it's a kind of "Fats / Foodstuffs" Combination, which last's a long time. Such as Years or more. High Energy and Nutritious as well.

Perhaps your question arises from Differences between British and American English. -As in "Truck" and "Lorry", -perhaps you in Britain don't share in our use of the word "Pemmican".

BTW, This is a good oppurtunity to advise my Fellow Americans here on the Fora and Site, that whenever you read one of our Members calling something "Plasters", -They're really Talking only about our own Bandaids. I've Run into this in Back Posts a Good Few Times, and unclarified.

I Hope this is of some Help. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Ddraig[/email]

Pemmican is lean meat dried,or 'jerked' It is then finely ground up and blended into melted animal fat and allowed to set up. Sometimes various wild berries were added. It is very long lasting. Some historical accounts mentioned pemmican stored 20+years and in perfect condition. It is more of a cold weather food when fat and protiens are needed. You would need to slowly introduce it to a diet previous to using it as the staple food to prevent intestinal distress.

In my case, it is rendered, filtered beef tallow, dried thin sliced meat, a little salt, a little pepper, dried huckleberries, and almonds. All the dried ingredients are ground coarse and mixed into melted tallow, which is then allowed to cool and harden. I've also used sunflower and sesame seeds at times. It packs as many calories as possible in the smallest space available and lasts longer than anything not hermetically sealed and sterilized that I've ever come across.

Check out this site for all the recipes you'll need to start experimenting with pemmican
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/pemmican.html
Ed

With the right amount of sweet berries, it tastes awesome!

I thought that the animal fat would go rancid and make you quite sick if you tried to store it for long periods of time, unless you were in cold conditions... I could be wrong.

Having grown up in the southern and southeastern regions of the US I was used to "hard" jerky or biltong where almost all the fat was trimmed off and the cuts were very lean.

On one of his programs Ray Mears eats some from the Vietnam war!

i saw that 1 too! Rather eat the bugs Gordan did than eating those! <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Bat
There is a difference. Animal fat left as is can turn rancid. The key difference is rendered. The solids are removed leaving only the oil. The resultant oil is solid at room temps. Think lard from pork or shortening from vegatable products. The oil portion degrades very slowly. It seals the food from oxygen and micro organisums.

Pemican is OK but very rich due to the fat content. It is great fuel especially during cold weather.

An article in the current issue of Backwoods Home substitutes peanut better for fat. I don't know if it will keep as long but it sound more appetizing to me.

I got a great recipe for BIF bars, using peanut butter and dates as the base. It is a great energy food that keeps well in the pack. I've used figs in place of dates for similar effect. It goes really well with a bag of granola type trail mix. Just watch out for black bears on the trail when you open it.

ah, I see.. That makes sense then.

At first I was thinking : " I bet it don't taste like anything I'd want to put in my mouth after a few summer days"

Bat69:

In our house, we still render pig fat for lard and the crunchy results after the fat is rendered are chopped up, put in their own container with a little bit of the rendered fat, salted and spiced to personal tastes and taste great when spread on toasted bread, winter or summer.

Bountyhunter