[pct-l] Pemmican

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

US Wellness Meats sells pre-made pemmican, but it melts at moderate  
temperatures and is not fully dried. I wouldn't trust it out of  
refrigeration for longer than a couple days. The packaging says to  
keep frozen. As far as I know, they are the only company to mass- 
produce pemmican. They've been talking about a shelf-stable version  
for a very long time but I don't think they've come out with it yet.  
Their meat processor does not have a grinder that can grind fully- 
dried meat so they do not dry the jerky completely and that's why  
it's not shelf-stable. It's wet and thus will spoil.

It really is not hard to make pemmican yourself. I really thought it  
would be hard but it isn't. I use London broil when it's on sale at  
Ralphs. It's a pretty big cut of beef that's cheap when on sale. I  
cut it as thin as possible and trim as much fat as possible. I dry it  
in the worst, cheapest dehydrator on the market until it's crispy. I  
pulverize it in my ordinary household blender. Then pour in enough  
melted beef tallow (purchased as tallow rather than rendering my own)  
to have a consistency that will stick together. I've made it too dry,  
I've made it too waxy. Doesn't seem to make a whole lot of  
difference. You can always melt it over again and add more tallow or  
more meat if you get it wrong.

I guess Shroomer was really hungry by the Winds. I brought avocados  
to the trail and they never got ripe so we ate them unripe and hard.  
Not too bad, actually, but he made it sound like it was manna from  
heaven.

On Jan 9, 2013, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> From: "JPL" <jplynch at crosslink.net>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Pemmican
> To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
>
> Sorry if this has been asked before.  Are there  recommended  
> commercial
> sources for good pemmican?  :)