Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (2024)

This post may contain affiliate links.* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Click here to read our affiliate policy.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (1)

European explorers learned all kinds of things from Native Americans. Fish as fertilizer, the three sisters gardening method, and the process of making pemmican. The word comes from the Algonquin language known as Cree and the direct translation is rendered fat.

Because of the translation, you should understand that the basic ingredients of any pemmican recipe are meat and fat. Things like honey, fruits, nuts, and seasonings are added as well, for the most part, you are making a dried meatball that is preserved in its own fat. Some people also use bacon drippings for flavor.

Article continues below.

In this how-to article, we are going to create our own pemmican and I will walk you through the steps. I will also provide you with some variant recipes that are delicious.

Recipe for Pemmican

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs Quality Grass Fed Beef or Game Meat
  • ½ Cup Lard
  • 2 Tbsp Honey
  • ¼ Cup of Walnuts
  • About 8 dried apricots

Tools:

  • Deep pan to dry beef
  • Smaller pan to dry fruits
  • Food processor or Mortar and Pestle
  • Large mixing bowl
  • Wooden spoon

Directions:

STEP 1

It’s very important to take a sharp knife and slice that meat as thin as you can. The thinner your meat, the better to start with. This will all pay off when the time comes to break that meat down.

If you are making pemmican with a very sparse kitchen, limited skills, and merely for survival, I would recommend using a nice fatty ground beef. Otherwise, you can use very thin slices of beef and dry them in the same way.

I am using local grass-fed ground beef that is 80/20 fat to meat. Of course, I want to use the rendered fat for our pemmican, but you will need to add lard.

STEP 2

Spread the meat out thinly on a baking sheet or a perforated cooking sheet. I use one with high sides, so I can capture all that great fat coming off the meat. I like to salt the meat when I dry it in the oven as well. Just a light sprinkle across the meat. This also adds the preserving qualities of salt. It’s not necessary, but I do it.

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (2)

STEP 3

Dry this meat in the oven on the lowest setting for 8 hours or however long it takes. If you are using ground beef, you will have to drain the fat at some point. Don’t throw that fat away. You need to save it for a later part of the process. Most people use thinly sliced meat and that is the classic method, but I find that ground beef gets you to the pulverized state faster.

STEP 4

Grind the meat down as fine as possible. I recommend using a food processor. This is a very important part of the process. By doing this, you will be able to get maximum coating from the rendered fat. You want the rendered fat to cover the meat and the meat to fill out all of the added fat. There should not be a layer of melted fat floating above your meat.

STEP 5

Now pour the rendered fat onto the dried meat and mix it up. The pemmican mix should look like a ragu or a thick sauce. If you add too much fat you are going to have to strain some of it out. This is very important. Too much fat will make your mix inedible.

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (3)

STEP 6

The fat that you poured off your ground beef can now be mixed back into the dried meat. Add the lard as well and stir everything.

At this point, stir in any dried fruit or nuts. For this recipe, stir in the chopped walnuts and the apricots. Stir everything very thoroughly.

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (4)

STEP 7

Let the mix cool to room temperature. From here you can store it in many ways. We are going to use an ice cube tray to portion them out and then roll them into balls. You can also create loaves in a pan or small bricks in a ziplock bag.

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (5)

Variant Recipe Additions

  1. Add chopped dried apricots and cherries.
  2. Add lots of black pepper and raisins.
  3. Add soy sauce to the meat while drying, then crushed peanuts and ginger.

Conclusion

The store shelves are riddled with all types of granola and energy bars that are very popular. These bars often find a place in the backpacks of the modern adventurer. You see, pemmican is old news. While it is making a resurgence in survival circles, this fatty meat mix was probably given up when people started having concerns about things like cholesterol and heart attacks. We ran from fatty red meat for years and it was all due to bad science.

The great news is that fat is back! We know that it’s an essential ingredient in running a healthy human machine. For men, fat is incredibly important in terms of testosterone production. Because of this, we can enjoy those red meats and healthy fats again.

The irony in all of this is that pemmican was abandoned for sugary granola bars on the trail. Now we know that sugar was an under-the-radar killer being sold to the American public as a delicious treat. Turns out we should have been eating more meat and fat the whole time!

You May Also Like:

  • 14 Forgotten Emergency Foods You Should Stockpile
  • How To Render Lard The Easy Way
  • How to Make Soap from Fat and Ashes
  • How to Make a Bacon Fat Candle
  • 3 Reasons To Start Canning Meat

Simple and Delicious Pemmican Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the best spices for pemmican? ›

This will make the pemmican with the best shelf life. 1–Place raw ground meat in a mixing bowl. Mix in your favorite spices like: black pepper, anise, rosemary, lavender. (This is my favorite all-round combo but it's good to have several varieties.)

Is suet or tallow better for pemmican? ›

Suet is the fat around the kidneys of the cow and works best for pemmican because it stays hard at room temperature and will help to preserve your meat.

What is the ratio of meat to fruit in pemmican? ›

For a dried fruit mix, start with 30% dried fruit and 70% meat powder. Increase sweetness to taste by increasing the fruit powder or by adding honey. For spicy dry mix, mix an original mix and then add crushed red pepper to taste. You can also add honey to the spicy mix to get the sweet/spicy thing going on.

How long will homemade pemmican last? ›

At room temperature, pemmican can generally last from one to five years, but there are anecdotal stories of pemmican stored in cool cellars being safely consumed after a decade or more.

What keeps pemmican from spoiling? ›

So, to sum it up, pemmican can shelf for a long time because it is dried to remove moisture and then coated with fat to keep away oxygen. This preservation method allows pemmican to stay edible for several years, making it a reliable and long-lasting source of food.

Can you use Crisco to make pemmican? ›

Do not substitute a soft fat such as lard, bear fat, duck, or goose fat, Crisco or butter. The denser and more saturated the fat, the better. Combine powdered meat and berries, pouring melted tallow until coated. The ratio is flexible, but I use roughly four parts meat, three parts berries, and two parts fat.

Why doesn't pemmican go rancid? ›

Jerky, here defined as seasoned and dehydrated meat, is porous — when exposed to humidity, the dry jerky actually absorbs water vapor out of the air and begins to spoil. Pemmican, on the other hand, is not porous. The rendered fat in Pemmican seals the pores in the dry meat, so that humid air can't moisten the meat.

Can you survive off of pemmican? ›

Centuries ago, Indigenous peoples and foreign fur traders across North America used pemmican to tide themselves over through long winters. Today, this meat-based, long-lasting food can still satiate preppers, survivalists, and campers of all types for months or even years.

What cut of meat is best for pemmican? ›

Meat: Beef or bison. Grass-fed only. Round is a good cut. Prepping: Remove all visible fat.

How much pemmican should I eat a day? ›

There are accounts of people surviving off of pemmican for months at a time. Very active individuals say they can eat one-quarter to one-half pound of pemmican twice a day to help fuel their adventures. Pemmican is a much more nutritionally balanced food source than jerky alone.

What is the modern version of pemmican? ›

What is Pemmican? Traditionally, pemmican was made with a mixture of dried meat and rendered fat. Made properly, pemmican would last indefinitely and could sustain an individual for months. Our modern-day version consists of a blend of bison, beef, berries, and other natural ingredients.

Is pemmican worth it? ›

Nutrition Value

Both pemmican and jerky are high in protein, making them excellent choices for a nutritious snack. Pemmican, with its combination of dried meat and fat, provides a calorie-dense option.

Can you use butter for pemmican? ›

Ingredients. Lard (to hold together) Do not use shortening or butter.

What temperature do you bake pemmican at? ›

Slice beef into thin strips, spread on oiled racks placed on cookie sheets and bake several hours in a 150 degree oven until well-dried (you may also use a dehydrator). We have a really great local, little meat store that sells all kinds of locally- and properly-raised meats and animal products.

Can dogs eat pemmican? ›

Pemmican (dried lean bison meat pounded to a paste with melted fat) was a staple for the dogs – and for voyageurs – because it would keep for long periods of time under almost any conditions.

How did Native Americans make pemmican? ›

During the fur trade, pemmican was most often made by killing the buffalo, jerking the meat, making hair-out bags from its hide, and rendering tallow from the animal's marrow, suet, or fat. The dried meat was then broken up by pounding.

How much pemmican do you need to survive? ›

40 day winter: 12800 pemmican. 50 day winter: 16000 pemmican. These are near-minimums, though, and you should shoot for higher. (I say near because a colonist can survive for five days without food.)

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Maia Crooks Jr

Last Updated:

Views: 6176

Rating: 4.2 / 5 (43 voted)

Reviews: 82% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Maia Crooks Jr

Birthday: 1997-09-21

Address: 93119 Joseph Street, Peggyfurt, NC 11582

Phone: +2983088926881

Job: Principal Design Liaison

Hobby: Web surfing, Skiing, role-playing games, Sketching, Polo, Sewing, Genealogy

Introduction: My name is Maia Crooks Jr, I am a homely, joyous, shiny, successful, hilarious, thoughtful, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.