Modern Pemmican
Pemmican...the ultimate survival/trail food. First nations traditionally made pemmican using dried lean meat from buffalo, elk, or deer. The meat was slow dried by a fire or in the sun till hard and brittle then pounded into a powder. The powder was then mixed with rendered animal fat roughly 50% meat powder to 50 % fat and stored in "green" rawhide bags for the winter. Often, dried berries would also be ground and added to the mixture.
Pemmican is still a viable food source for tripping. With a few modifications of course! I first got tuned into this recipe by Rob C. formerly of Angus, (
, thanks Rob...my waistline will remember this). I am sure that he borrowed the recipe from someone else so I cannot take credit for this....but neither can Rob! Sorry pal!
Rob's recipe is....
1 lb dried Elk
1 cup dried blueberries
1 cup peanuts chopped
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
peanut butter to bind!
This is a great recipe on its own even tho I have not had the pleasure of having dried Elk and have had to substitute dried beef. I have made a couple of other changes as well to get the final product to suit my taste. The recipe is as follows.....
1 1/2 cups dried ground beef
1 cup dried fruit chopped (cherries, cranberries and blueberries)
1 cup chopped cashews (use any nuts that you like, cashews for me)
1/4 cup honey
Peanut Butter to bind it all together
In a blender, grind the dried beef till you get it almost to a powdery consistency.
Now toss together beef powder, coarse chopped berries and coarse chopped nuts.
Now its time to get messy....pour in 1/4 cup of honey and mix well with dry ingredients. Once mixed add peanut butter by the spoonful and start to mix all ingredients together with your hands. Keep adding peanut butter till all ingredients stick well together and you can form a tight ball.
Now, on a sheet of waxed paper form the ball into a long bar and cut the log into individual size bars....
I cut into bars that are roughly 2"x2"x1"....doesn't sound like a lot but this is a very dense, high calorie, high energy food!
Then I seal each bar into its own bag, you can use small ziplock bags or saran wrap to do the same. The longest I have managed to keep these is just three weeks in the refridgerator, not because they have gone bad but because we eat them before I can get an idea of just how long they will last. On the water I have had them for as high as 5 days in 25c heat without any cooling and they have been absolutely tasty! This batch is for my solo trip coming up at the end of April, assuming that the ice is gone from the lakes of course!
