Pemmican Frustration, Again

[Guest guest]

I finished making my 4th batch of pemmican recently, and I'm sorry to

say it wasn't any more edible than the last 3 batches. In fact, in

some respects, it was worse than the others. I used grass fed beef

round, cut very thin, and let it ferment in some cranberry waterkefir

for 3 days. I dehydrated it over 36 hours at 160 F on cooling racks

in my partially open oven--no need to run the heater those days. I

pulverized the brittle jerky in a blender, and I made sure not to

heat it too much. I added some dried, organic bitter cherries and

wild blueberries to the jerky " meal, " and then added the liquid, but

not too hot, organic buffalo tallow I made last year and have had in

cold storage since then. I let the stuff harden in the fridge, and

then carved it up into bar sized chunks. The taste test was

unpleasant. The jerky had a yeasty, bread-like taste that was

overpowering, the dried fruit was OK, and the tallow tasted terrible,

did not fully melt at body temp, and stuck to the roof of my mouth

like a combination of tasteless peanut butter and candle wax. Has

anybody made edible pemmican yet? I don't know how anybody eats this

stuff.

DJ

[Guest guest]

>Has

>anybody made edible pemmican yet? I don't know how anybody eats this

>stuff.

Maybe it is an acquired taste? I just don't like the taste of tallow, myself.

Though I'm getting to like plain fat off my steaks, so I guess I'm getting

there.

I found I wanted some " travelling fat " to go with my jerky, so I melted

some coconut oil, added a little " maple butter " (like maple syrup,

but thicker), unsweetened coconut, chopped roasted nuts, and cocoa. Spooned it

into candy cups, froze it. They look like Reese's pieces and taste wonderful,

and have very little " sweet " (most chocolate is too sweet for my

taste).

Heidi S

[Guest guest]

-

>I finished making my 4th batch of pemmican recently, and I'm sorry to

>say it wasn't any more edible than the last 3 batches.

I wish I could offer some encouragement, but so far my two batches have

sucked with a capital 's' -- and a capital rest of the word too. That's

why I ordered some pre-made pemmican from a farmer up in Canada, so I can

see what it's supposed to taste like (assuming he makes good pemmican, anyway).

I have wondered whether part of our problem is that we're rendering the fat

wrong, or whether we should try fat from a different source (we both got it

from the same place), but who knows. I am expecting some grass-fed beef

suet from a different farm sooner or later, so I'll try that.

-

[Guest guest]

This thread had me curious, so I did a Googgle on " Pemmican " .

Why your recipe calls for fermenting the beef first? Everything I've found

online suggests it was just dried beef that was used. Did you taste the

fermented beef before using it in the pemmican recipe?

Here's one of the recipes below. You mentioned you barely heated the

tallow, yet the author of this recipe points out, " If the suet is too cool

you will have to use a lot of it to stick the mixture together and the

pemmican will be too rich and fatty. " Also, " At this point, if the suet is

cooling down too quickly to allow it to soak in properly, you can microwave

the whole mixture to warm it up. " Of course you wouldn't want to use the

microwave, but it does seem that the suet is to be a binding agent and a

part of the powdered beef and fruit mixture, and not so much present that it

is a stand alone ingredient. And hey, if you knew all this already, my

apologies, I got carried away with Google. : )

Rhea

***

Best Pemmican Recipe

(About halfway down the page.)

http://www.scdiet.org/2recipes/meat01.html

(People of the Plains) Because keeping meat fresh was difficult, it was

dried and could then be stored for a long time. The lean parts of the

buffalo were cut into thin slices and hung on a tripod (much like in a tipi

foundation) to dry in the sun. Some of the dried meat was pounded into a

powder and mixed with hot, melted buffalo fat and berries to form pemmican.

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/luxton/sect_3/3b.htm

As for the taste of it.... ; )

It helps to keep in mind that the fur trade era didn't have the benefit of

modern technology like freeze drying or refrigeration. Voyageurs needed high

energy food that would keep and save them from starvation. Taste was a side

issue. http://www.whiteoak.org/learning/food.htm