PEMMICAN- how to make the real stuff.

I HAVE made jerky and pemmican for 47 years. Avoid any commercial 'jerky' or 'pemmican'.

YOU have to make your own, but it is simple, really. The principle is low, controlled heat, no additives like salt or 'marinade' and very fresh meat and fat.

I OFFER the correct way to prepare true pemmican, based on the principles developed by the Native American plains people. It has been done this way for countless generations. I do not recommend making 'holiday pemmican' containing dried fruit- it willnto keep and has far too many carbs.

WE will use beef.

I RECOMMEND bottom round, with very little marbling- marbling makes drying slower, but while it may taste better as a partially dried, short lived and leathery jerky, it is counterproductive for making fully-dried jerky for pemmican.

THE RULE for drying jerky is use only very FRESH, NEVER FROZEN MEAT.

CUT into 1/8' slices/strips, ADD NOTHING.

DRAPE over rack, in oven- with door slightly ajar (adjust).

PLACE an incandescent light bulb of about 100w in the bottom and connect up through an adjustable thermostatic switch, with the sensor placed on the top shelf. Set to hold 104F/40C. Test with a good quality thermometer- jerky is going to be comparatively expensive to make, so you don't want to mess it up.

DRY only at precisely 40C (104F) no more, no less. Dry until dark in colour and very brittle/friable. The commonly seen 'leather-dried' jerky, while it might seem nice to chew on, will not keep very long without refrigeration, and cannot be used to make pemmican. Fully dried jerky is very tasty but is crumbly in texture, not 'chewy'. Store fully dried jerky in an air tight container, and check the smell from time to time for signs of deterioration.

DO not use marrow-fat, it spoils very quickly and will go rancid. If you use 'cod fat', that is,suet from the outside of the carcass it will yield a softer and perhaps nicer flavoured pemmican, but the hard 'kidney suet from around the kidneys will give a firmer and much longer-keeping pemmican, if that is what you are after.

RENDER the suet into tallow by placing 3/4" think slices on a rack in a pan in the oven at NO MORE than 250F. A higher temperature gives the tallow a burnt smell and taste and discolours the fat, lower temps take forever and may not properly dry out the tallow.

PROPER, long keeping pemmican is an even mix of dried lean and fat, 50/50 by WEIGHT (80/20 by calories). No berries or additives of any kind should be used, as they will cause rapid spoilage and are inappropriate if you are on a zero carb or very low carb diet.

WEIGH a portion of the crispy-crunchy totally dried jerky.

POWDER the jerky thoroughly. It will crumble to a powder very easily if it has been properly and thoroughly dried. It is best to process the jerky while still warm from drying to make sure it is very dry.

COOL the rendered liquid tallow to warm but not uncomfortably warm to your skin.

WEIGH AND POUR an equal weight of the warm liquid tallow onto the dry powdered jerky, mix and compress into a firm greasy mass- excluding all air.

PACK the fresh, soft pemmican into a dry container- fill until all air is excluded and seal tightly against moisture. It will keep at a cool room temperature, without refrigeration, for up to 30 years if it has been made with kidney suet/tallow. Perhaps less long if from cod suet. Jerky will not usually keep a year- even in a sealed jar. I doubt anyone will be able to store pemmican long enough for it to be a problem anyway- if you like it, unless you have enough ambition to make a lot of it.

TO EAT: Warm up some water (not hot), cut off a lump of pemmican and mash it in the water until you have a warm gruel. It is very greasy and hard to eat dry, but is very tasty as a gruel. To keep all the nutrients, it must never have been subjected to a temperature above 40C/104F. It will feed you as a single food, with no deficiencies in nutrition for a year or more, it even prevents scurvy.

JERKY requires added fat, to balance the protein. Unless you can add fat from another source, it is not good to eat it straight for very long by itself. Alone, lean jerky soon causes dysentery and debilitation from 'protein poisoning' (i.e.,'rabbit starvation').