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Gonna have a try at pemmican

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WhistlingBadger:
Good luck on the pemmican!  I've never tried it, but I hear it's pretty good if you do it right.

You guys ever try grouseberries?  (Vaccinium scoparium)  Another member of the blueberry/huckleberry clan.  They taste like sunshine, hope, courage, the innocence of youth, all that kind of thing.  The berries are tiny, tiny, and it takes about half an hour to pick a handful, but it will be the most delicious handful you've ever tasted. 

BoisBrule:
Sorry for bringing such an old topic back from the dead... Pemmican requires what I grew up calling "dry meat". Technically speaking... "jerky" I guess, but, not seasoned, not marinated, not salted... only very lightly smoked (the smoke is more to keep flies away while the meat is drying, than it is to flavour anything. But you can smoke it more heavily if you wish).

traditionally, the muscle would be well trimmed, then sliced extremely thin, "unrolled" as it's cut, so one round muscle/roast or whatever cut you're using,  for example, would result in a long sheet... cut with the grain, not across. Then it's placed between layers of butchers paper and walked on in moccasins to break the fibers up.  If you want to try it, eye of round is a good easy cut to do it with.

Then it's cut smaller, and hung over a wooden frame, with a small smoky fire lit nearby. A windy hot, dry day is best for it, but not necessary. Humidity obviously screws with things. Flipped a few times, dried until brittle-dry, then packaged in paper bags. It's not about heat and it's not about "smoking". It's about dry, without flies blowing on it. At this point, it's what we call "dry meat", and it's eaten as is, usually with fat on it. I prefer using butter... elders prefer lard. It's an acquired taste. I don't know a whole lot of folks that haven't grown up with it, that enjoy it. It's raw, air-dried wild meat.

From there, it's as described. Pound it to powder, mix with rendered fat and dried berries. I grew up eating caribou, but moose is common. I find deer to be a bit... "tallowy" tasting, personally, but that's just me.

Mesophilic:
Here's a good vid on the topic...add the  H to the prefix ss always

ttps://youtu.be/HQZj1-lSilw

Cooking with pemmican
ttps://youtu.be/JHMAoIJuiVU

There's a few more videos on their youtube channel as well.

BoisBrule:
I have to say, regarding those videos....

Metis:  It's pronounced "May-tee". Not "met-iss".

That one little detail kinda taints the rest of his videos for me. It's a simple, ESSENTIAL, detail... when speaking of an ethnic group, one should make the effort to at least get their name right.

Hawkdancer:

--- Quote from: BoisBrule on September 28, 2020, 01:19:45 pm ---I have to say, regarding those videos....

Metis:  It's pronounced "May-tee". Not "met-iss".

That one little detail kinda taints the rest of his videos for me. It's a simple, ESSENTIAL, detail... when speaking of an ethnic group, one should make the effort to at least get their name right.

--- End quote ---
glad to know the correct way of pronouncing the name, most Yanks don't know French at all, much less correctly!  Most of us ain't real good at English!  We could get into that in pm's >:D (lol)!  I hope to try to put together some pemmican this fall with a mix (kinnickinick) of ingredients!
Hawkdancer

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