Okay, while I was home I went through the pile of cooking notes in the boxes packed away since I left to go to Baghdad. Here's what I could find. I know I have others, but this is a good simple one that I have used a time or two.

3 cups lean dried meat (beef, buffalo or venison is preferable, but you could use salmon, pork, fowl or even bear if you had to, just be sure that it is fresh to begin with and lean). I dry my meat either in a Big Chief smoker or an oven set to less than 200 degrees, until it is rigid and brittle if possible. It has to be really dried out.Then I put it through a food processor or blender to get it to a lint or powder stage.

3 cups beef tallow. Don't use lard, it is too soft, and game fat will add a strong and not necessarily desirable flavor. To make tallow, I take trimmings from meat I've processed or head to the butcher to get his and put it in a pan and bake it at about 220 until I have a lot of clear melted fat in the pan, then I strain the clear fat through linen or a couple coffee filters.

3 cups nuts, seeds, dehydrated fruit, veggies, or more dried meat. You want small, almost minced size, but if using more meat, it doesn't have to be pulverized like the first lot. Depending on how you want the pemmican to taste you will incorporate the additives accordingly. Sweet or savory. You could also add herbs and spices at this stage, but try not to salt it up if you can avoid it.

Let the tallow cool just enough to handle, but still remain liquid. Incorporate the other ingredients and work it till the fat sets, so the bits don't tend to settle so much. Finish by forming it into 2-3" balls and wrapping in saran wrap and aluminum foil, then packing in a tin or a ziploc or whatever. In the freezer they will last indefinitely. In the refrigerator they could last years. In a cool cupboard (72 degrees f or less) they should hold up at least 6 months.

You could put rolled oats, sweeteners, corn meal, or well you get the idea into this basic set up. You could eliminate the meat and use TVP instead I guess.

Anyways, if you have questions, ask away.

What's it taste like? Never had pemmican, so I can only guess. It has always sounded fatty or greasy to me, but I am probably wrong. I was wrong once before...

Thse are good pack grub, and tend to hold up well so long as they stay dry. They don't last near as long as Pemmican, but I thought you might appreciate these as well. When we are out elk hunting, the guys (and girls) will pack along a few of these with their other provisions.

Big Ben's Coon Balls

3 cups baking mix (bisquik or make your own)
1 lb hot breakfast sausage
1 lb sharp cheddar or jack cheese
1 small can diced green chiles, or diced jalapenos if you can take the heat
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
Several dashes of hot sauce

Makes about 30 balls

Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough into balls about ¾ to 1 inch in diameter. Place on pan spaced so sides don’t touch. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to a cooling rack. When cool, put in airtight containers (ziplocs or plastic containers). Will keep unrefrigerated for a month or so, as long as they are kept dry. Will keep in the refrigerator for up to three months. Will keep in the freezer for maybe a year. Unused dough can be refrigerated or frozen and used later.

You're spot on there. It will be fatty or greasy on the pallette. Even in soup form it is this way. I can tell you from my experience fatty or greasy when you are working up a strong appetite is just fine. It isn't something you want to eat regularly at home and that's not what it is intended for. When you are trying to stay alive in a bad environment, you may find like I have that your appetite for different types of food changes. It's like a can of chili. When I am home, a few spoonfuls of shredded cheese and a couple corn chips is more than enough, but when I am at camp or out cutting piles of wood in the rain, I can't hardly get enough cheese in the mix. I dunno, maybe it's just the way I grew up spending so much time in the wet forests behind my house.

Just being out in the "woods" does tend to change your taste in food. I can remember as a kid eating (and loving) stuff on a camping trip that I would not have touched at home...

Cool post!
I have been thinking about making some Pemmican but the tallow part was a bit foreign to me.
I looks like it may taste a little odd to us modern folks but as a food ration it looks interesting. Plus I like learning the skills of yesteryear.
I guess I will have to go buy some fat from the butcher.