Pemican
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Whether prepping your bug-out bag with non-perishable snacks or finding an easy way to preserve your meat, making pemmican is a great way to use any meat.
Meats such as Beef, Venison, Elk, Bison. Beef or Wild Game Tallow. Dried Berries
1. Begin by slicing the meat thin, about ¼ - ⅓ of an inch thick. 2. Remove any fat left on the meat, and then dry it by hanging over a fire, in the sun, in a dehydrator, or in an oven. Hanging the strips on thin branches or racks a few feet above a fire is the traditional way, but can take over 12 hours to completely dry. 3. Once fully dried out, pulverize the meat into a powder. With modern conveniences, you can use a food processor or grinder to mill it into a fine powder. Alternatively, you can use a mortar and pestle or simply crush it repeatedly between stones. Although more labor-intensive, this step can be completed by hand. 4. If you are adding berries to your recipe, they need to be dried and pulverized as well. 5. Prepare the fat separately by rendering it in a pot at a low temperature until it stops bubbling. Drain it through a strainer to remove any solids. 6. Place your powdered meat and any extras you’ve added into a mixing bowl or casserole dish, and very slowly add the rendered fat. As you pour, the powder will absorb the fat, so make sure you evenly spread it throughout the mixture and it does not become too runny 7. Once the fat absorbs into the powder, let the mixture sit for a few hours as it cools down and firms up. 8. You can form the mixture into squares, or balls for storage.
When preparing pemmican, try to use the leanest cuts of meat possible. Large game animals such as deer, elk, moose, or bison are preferable. However, use beef if necessary. If you have any fat left from harvesting the animal, use that. If not, talk to your local butcher and buy some rendered beef fat.
