Author Topic: Gonna have a try at pemmican  (Read 7422 times)

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Offline Tracker0721

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Gonna have a try at pemmican
« on: February 06, 2020, 10:31:58 pm »
So it seems the traditional way to make pemmican is jerky pounded to powder, dried berries crushed up, mix em both with tallow until they hold together and then roll into balls, form bars, something. I’ve got some bear in the freezer to process so I was gonna trim that fat and make tallow. I may have some deer but if not I’ll get some beef from my sister. We have gallons of blue berries and huckleberries so I’ll have to get those dehydrated. So with my plan laid out, are there any tips on ratios? And how do I package it? I’m planning to bring it for my glass buttes trip in March or even spring bear/turkey in may if it lasts that long? And I read where almonds/walnuts can be added but then people countered that it reduces shelf life because the nuts can go rancid?
May my presence go unnoticed, may my shot be true, may the blood trail be short. Amen.

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2020, 12:30:52 am »
Nuts will go rancid if not kept cool, I think.  Use just enough tallow to bind the mixture.berries, cherries, apples, all dried of course.  Not sure about traditional, but some salt and other seasoning
Will help the flavor, may also help keep the nuts from going south.  If you are looking to make just enough for a couple months, the nuts should be ok.  Btw, I grew up thinking blueberries and huckleberries were the same berry, upgrade my learning, please! -C-
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry

Offline Tracker0721

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2020, 11:38:11 pm »
What! You thought they were the same? Well. That’s ridiculous. Wanna shoot me your address this summer and I’ll send you some fresh huckleberries and blueberries to try. The blueberries are almost flavorless compared to the huckleberries but huckleberries are a lot smaller. Dunno about blueberries, but we only find the huckleberries higher in elevation too. The valley is at 1000 feet and we start picking at 4000 on up.
May my presence go unnoticed, may my shot be true, may the blood trail be short. Amen.

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2020, 12:09:00 pm »
I will do that come summer!  Just a bit of uncertainty right now, we're thinking of moving.  Those do look very similar to blueberry leaves!  The lead line of the Missouri waltz is "way down in Missouri where the huckleberries grow"; I grew up in St. Louis, and live out around Columbia, St Joseph, and Kansas City before heading west.
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry

Offline Tracker0721

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2020, 04:59:35 pm »
So back East there’s a unique genius of huckleberry but the rest of them have really small differences from blueberries. It should be “clean blueberries” and “stainy blueberries” haha
May my presence go unnoticed, may my shot be true, may the blood trail be short. Amen.

Offline WhistlingBadger

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2020, 09:00:13 pm »
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. 
Thomas
Lander, Wyoming
"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."
~Louis L'Amour

Offline BoisBrule

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2020, 01:14:48 pm »
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.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2020, 09:05:07 am by BoisBrule »
"...break the skin of civilization, and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed."

Offline Mesophilic

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2020, 08:34:47 pm »
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.
Trying is the first step to failure
-Homer Simpson-

Offline BoisBrule

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #8 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.

« Last Edit: September 28, 2020, 01:41:20 pm by BoisBrule »
"...break the skin of civilization, and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed."

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Gonna have a try at pemmican
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2020, 12:04:45 am »
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.
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
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry