Even better story than that guy who had something like 50 year old Mountain House freeze-dried cans tucked away in the attic and found that they were still pretty tasty. I remember someone posted that story about Mountain House on here a while ago.

If benjammin were still around, he'd be nodding his head since he's such a big fan of pemmican. Dehydrated, ground lean meat mixed with a natural, saturated fat like lard (Actually, maybe it was another kind of fat, and not lard. I forget the recipe.) will keep for many years at room temperature without spoiling or going rancid.

I should get up the courage to try making homemade pemmican some time. I don't think there's a store bought pemmican that will keep that long. To save wear and tear on their machines with really tough jerky, I don't think any of the mass produced ones dehydrate their meat as thoroughly as it should be dried out before grinding and mixing with the fat. I think I read that somewhere on one brand's website.

I do most of my cooking with virgin coconut oil, another saturated fat. Stable when cooking at high heat, and won't go rancid for a very long time. I have yet to have a batch go rancid on me so it's my choice for long term storage. And has many purported health benefits. A good brand has a very mild, basically indistinguishable taste. I also spread it on toast like butter.

I suspect that too many of us unknowingly cook with partially rancid cooking oils, particularly any of the various types of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, like corn, because they oxidize rather quickly. And rancid oil is very bad for the body. Actually, that's the primary reason to hydrogenate vegetables oils--to make them more shelf stable, like saturated fats. Such as lard. Ironic, no?