Also also: Pemmican doesn't need to be eaten like an energy bar, like you were doing. It absolutely can be, that's a perfectly valid way to consume it. But there's loads of other ways to use it, that turn it into a proper meal. Like pan-frying it, or adding some local vegetation and turning it into a stir-fry. The most common way the Native Americans used it, was to put it in some boiling water with local vegetation, to turn it into a kind of on-the-trail soup.
Saying eating it like an energy bar is a valid way to consume it is like saying eating a dry brick of ramen is a valid way to consume it lol. I first heard of incorporating berries and nuts from hikers and thought "why would you add berries to your soup base?" Pemmican is essential for primitive skills and native american skills enthusiasts because you are already going to be foraging, just by happening to pass herbs, tubers, and greens, and you're going to want to boil them anyway for sanitation. Pemmican is meant to easily dissolve in the water and make the meal highly nutritious, plus delicious. I don't know where the idea of eating them as a food bar came from, but it seems to be a modern hiker thing, considering none of the "primitive skills" books ever mention berries or nuts, yet all the "bushcraft" ones do. Pemmican is basically just nutritional fortification for the boiled vegetables you forage. When you combine an assortment of edible plants with a healthy amount of animal fat and protein, you have a very well rounded diet. It is not intended as a 'survival food' and while it is possible to live off pemmican, it was never intended to be eaten alone. It was intended to allow someone out on a trip to be able to have thorough nutrition from foraging without having to hunt any animals. The funniest part is people talking about how it doesnt taste good. No shit! Neither does a spoonful of beef stock! You're not supposed to eat it! Berries might make it tolerable, but if you prepare it in a soup it's delicious.
@@N8Dulcimer Eating ramen dry is pretty popular in Asian countries. It's common for school kids to take the packet of seasoning, and add it to crushed up ramen noodles and munch of them like chips. This works well for camping when you don't have ready access to water and want to eat something with a bit of flavor.
@@PenTheMighty I used to eat it like that as a kid also. Now as an adult, I chop and boil some veggies with the seasonings, let an egg soft boil in the water, stir in the noodles, then crack the egg. Which do you reckon tastes better and which do you reckon is more nutritious? I know it's not an exact analogy with ramen but my point is that pemmican is intended as a soup base and it doesn't taste as good dry because it's not meant to be eaten dry.
@@N8Dulcimer Eating it "dry" is absolutely one of the way *the Native Americans who invented it, themselves* would sometimes eat it. Just because it's not as enjoyable as it is in other forms, doesn't make it an invalid way of eating it. And if you'd bothered to read through my *entire* initial comment, rather than reacting as soon as you read "that's a perfectly valid way to consume it," you would have seen I *already addressed* the fact that using it to make soup was the most common way Native Americans used it.
Fantastic demonstration! Pemican is good stuff. I have always said, "it's survival food. If you don't like it, you're not hungry enough." When you are truly hungry, just about anything tastes good
My son asked me how my pemmican was. I told him if you're hungry it tastes great. He laughed. Thanks to me and his Mom he's never been "hungry". I also told him my BFF Arlo loves it. I used fat from my grass-fed highlanders which probably closer to bison fat than store bought corn fattened beef so it tasted different. I don't have the cattle anymore so probably wouldn't make it with store bought suet. I also long ago made a pemmican knock off with ground venison ,raisins, and some oat meal. It was pretty good.
Hahahaha my grandma used to always say "hunger is the best sauce." Never a truer statmenr! I say it to my 12 yr old daughter when she doesnt like what I cook. She looks at me like im an idiot 🤣
The key to longevity is getting all the water you can out of the tallow, meat and fruit. I generally add just 10% by weight dried fruit to the meat and then about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of the dry mixture, then equal parts by weight dried mixture and rendered tallow. For my last batch I smoked the meat for an hour before I dried it and ground it up and the flavor was absolutely amazing! It's definitely the best trail food ever. Thanks for a great video
@@larrybulthouse455 actually, the original native recipes that lasted for years didn't require any salt. Rendering the tallow and completely drying the meat is all that's necessary to preserve it
@@clayhayeshunter I saw that you have a freeze dryer. Wouldn't picking up some liquid air to flash freeze the ingredients, then freeze drying them give you a better product in the end? I'm curious as to why you chose the food dehydrator, instead.
What about adding other powders such as carrot, onion, garlic, tomato, bell pepper, jalapeno, seasonings? The shelf life is my #1 so does adding vege powders affect shelf life?
@@elisadelaurenti2516I write down everything that I find useful 😊 and writing things down also helps you memorize it so if you need it later, it's already in your brain
My family in the northwest are salmon fishermen. They make a version of it with salmon and berries mixed in. I’ve some in a soup and just plain. It was honestly great plain like a powdered jerky. They warned me not to eat too much because it was like it was a concentration and highly nutritious. It gave me lots of energy and it was hard not to eat too much when it tasted so good. I love it!
Roald Amundsen used pemmican on all his expeditions, he was first to reach the geographical South Pole in December 1911 and he sailed the Northwest Passage for the first time in 1903. He used half and half of fat and meat, he added oatmeal and peas. And for the dogs he made dog pemmican with fishmeal and more fat. His description: "Pemmican tastes excellent, takes up little space and can be eaten raw, fried or boiled." Especially as provisions on a sledge expedition, it is invaluable".
That's where I first read about pemmican too. Thought it was done kind of dried corned beef, which I guess it is kind of, but it's good to have seen what it really is and how it is made .
I first read about pemmican from the failed Ernest Shackleton Endurance expedition. They reference dog pemmican a lot and basically survived off of it.
Massive changes in food production underway and not for our health and safety. Quite the opposite. Soon there will be no food we can trust to be safe for consumption. The consequences of eating processed foods, even produce, will be dire to say the least. Survival will be way beyond ordering bulk survival foods products. Learn how to garden organically and save your own seeds. Get into an 1800s mind set lifestyle. That's survival. Pemmican is a perfect food, but consider the tallow used. What cow did it come from? Consider what's happening with our beef industry right now. Just one example of what's happening in our food production. Do some research. Buy local if possible. Find a farmer who will raise a cow for you and share the meat as payment. Raising your own should be a goal. Get into that 1800s mindset.
So I’ve been watching all the videos on pemmican. I just made a batch from about 4 pounds of beef that I had made into jerky and vacuum sealed in the freezer. About a pound of jerky. I have some Wagu beef tallow I use for searing steaks and other things. It’s probably much spicier than regular pemmican. I’ll say this, I let my dog lick the bowl I mixed it in, and she looked at me like, “who do you need me to kill for some more “ lol.
Dogs and cats are naturally carnivore animals just like us humans. So its no wonder they go crazy when they get of taste of actual meat instead of the overly processed dog/cat food in the bag that is full of "Natural" ingredients and vegetables. Which are foods that Dogs and Cats would not naturally eat in the wild.
I didn’t know about the 2nd cooking of tallow to remove last of moisture. Makes sense. Fruit needs to be fully dehydrated, as well as meet. Could blend up & dry on trays at same time as meat. Honey powder would also have zero moisture. There are some amazing comments in this section. A treasure trove! Thx for doing taking time to show your process. Looks delicious!
Hey Clay I watched your videos on making clean water next to a muddy stream, it was great in my opinion. I have been a tradesperson most of my life which often made me think out of the box. I love cooking, since I am 66 years old and my Mom was born in 1910, everything she cooks was from scratch. The food back then was much safer. I have traveled X-Country by train 3 times as a kid, I have great memories of seeing this Beautiful Country, the 3 days on a train was was like watching an amazing movie. Driving X-Country was great also, the Painted Desert is Magical. I will share your videos with certain members and friends who appreciate DIY cooking. As me and my wife lived in a rural area of upstate NY, the outdoors were all around us. During blizzard storms we had no power and we would melt snow to flush the toilet or just let it melt for drinking. A simple kerosene heater kept us safe until the Army Corps of Engineers could repair the dirt and shale road we lived on, it was originally a seasonal bungalow colony, but I converted it to a full time house, it a fun project. I have worked on both types of wells powered by a surface or jet pump or a deep well with submerged pumps etc. I think anyone who enjoys the wonderful outdoors should have a basic understanding of survival knowledge. Blenders are a basic tool for almost every kitchen, like making bread crumbs and stored safely in mason jars. Canning is a fun way to preserve many types of food as I believe you are fully aware of, having a root cellar is a great way to store canned foods in mason jars. Mason jar are affordable and last forever if you take care of them, perhaps you could do a video on preserving jams, peppers etc to keep your pantry full when you’re unable to get out to a store. Many years ago my neighbors would buy bushels of tomatoes at the end of the season, the family would save all their large soda bottles, sterilize them and make giant pots of marinara sauce and cap them with a capping press. I bet they are still available somewhere ??? Thanks Clay, I think your videos are great !!!
Things like this is what should be taught in every school… elementary through college. Mandatory classes that cover everything like… Wilderness survival, foraging, Homesteading, gardening/farming/livestock, home/vehicle repair. Emergency situations. Medical care. Alternative energy. Kids are never too young to learn, and adults are never too old to stop learning.
For best results, bring rice or ground up beans. Cook both or either and when it's almost done, mix in pemmican. A dash of Old Bay, cayenne or whatever for some bling.
Just made some using cocoa butter as the fat (I noticed cb and tallow had the same melting point). Turned out really good. I also used freeze-dried raspberries and strawberries, cocoa powder, and sea salt.👍👍
@bobanderson6656 supposed to be similar to tallow. I guess the cocoa flavor fades, but that's about it (never noticed cocoa butter tasting like much anyway). I'm thinking of adding rolled oats (won't last as long), honey, and chunks of dried fruit. Meat candy bars 👍👍
@clayrobinett840 From everything I've read, it has a very long shelf life. The only negative I've read in that regard is that CB loses some flavor over time.
Pemmican is my go to for hunting, hiking and camping in cold weather conditions especially. Delicious once you get used to it and it makes it so much easier to hit those cold weather high calorie requirements! I put blueberries in mine too, it makes it almost like a silky sweet meat chocolate or something and I love it.
“Silky sweet meat chocolate.” If you ever have to utter those words, you’ve gone off the trail! Haha, I’m kidding. This stuff seems like good survival food. I’ve never been hungry enough to need it, and I’ve been hiking and camping since I was a kid (36 now.). If I ever need to pack for a long term outdoor adventure, I will absolutely consider this!
I'm disabled now, but i used to hike extensively back in my teens and twenties. My last trip was a 2 week excursion to the pacific northwest in Aug 1989, when my group did Raineer, St Helens, and Adams. Concentrated "grab n go" foods like pemmican are great for long strenuous excursions like that, when you NEED those calories, and want to avoid luggin around unnecessary water weight or bulk. If I could go back in time, i'd definitely have packed along a supply of bars like this.
My friend uses beef tallow for making soap. We found a super efficient way of rendering the tallow... After you grind, put it in a giant pot with water. Bring to a boil, pour through cheese cloth and let cool. Everything separates and the tallow forms a solid disc on top. It keeps the tallow at a much lower overall temp, so it ends up with a much cleaner smell and doesn't get that funk that comes from crock pot rendering.
Thanks for the tip ! Now you gave me a idea, "Smoked Pemican." I am a BBQ Pit Master and my style of doing brisket I put the brisket on a rack in a deep sheet pan, I save the juice for chili and other recipes. The fat solidifies in a orangish mass (because of the smoke and spices) on top. Would using some of this give the Pemican a BBQ flavor? Just curious?
@@Freedom_Half_Off I'm going to do what Clay did to remove the excess moisture. After he strained it from the crockpot he heated it up again on the stove until there were no more bubbles coming up.
After seeing the grate for that dehydrator I'm a little surprised OP didnt put the berry sludge (blended fruit) into the dehydrator for a spell. The wax paper method would work for the fruit as well.
I literally just decided yesterday to make pemmican and bought the tallow I need. I’m using goat meat from one I raised, plus blueberries and elderberries. This video was perfect timing, thanks brother!
Great presentation.. preserving these ancient techniques is so important, and awesome to see you getting your boy involved with it early. Picked up the same Excalibur dehydrator last year and I'm not a kitchen gadget/appliance kinda guy but it's a game changer!
Just made quickie Pemmican, bought a 5oz bag of Jerky @ Walmart, put in blender to powder, bought a jar of Beef Tallow and melted some in skillet, add powdered jerky & mixed, spoon into silicone mold to cool. Makes 2 Pemmican hockey puck size bars about 500 calories each.
Alternative way of getting the fruit dealt with: Dry it up in the dehydrator, anyway. Grind into that "gum" you mentioned. Spread this over some wax paper and put it *back in the dehydrator.* Grind some more when it comes out. If it's still gummy, *do it again.* The reason fruit goes gummy when you try to just powder it after one time in the dehydrator, is because of all the sugar. Sugar likes to hold onto moisture, so the larger the fruit particles, the more moisture it'll like to cling to. But drying them the best you can, then running them through the blender, will give you smaller particle sizes, allowing you to draw out more moisture. It may take many repetitions that keep you going until you have a more of a fruit dust than a fruit powder, but most fruits can eventually be turned into a powder rather than a gum. Note that everything said above also applies to vegetables known for being high in sugar content. Carrots, beets, sweet onions...lots of things like this, will also at least partially gummify the first time you try to grind it after drying.
Also, alternative flavoring idea for your pemmican: Dry up and grind some kind of allium (onion, garlic, leek, etc.), some herbs, and various greens, and toss those in, to create a savory version.
Ok, question: if you were to get ALL moisture out of fruit/veg, would the shelf life of the pemmican then be long again or does it still impact the shelf life to being shorter?
@@Tess1061 Bear in mind that I'm no expert, so I might just be talking out of my butt here, but: I would imagine it would still have a little impact on the shelf life, owing to the fact that fruit is just more susceptible to that than meat, by nature. It would probably have a much lesser impact, though.
@@Tess1061Moisture is the enemy of all stored and dried foods like pemmican and jerky. Like when making biltong, the less moisture, the longer the shelf life.
Thank You for showing your process for making this. I’ve been wanting to do this but really didn’t feel comfortable giving it a shot until I saw this video. You broke down every step with all your best practices plus the comment section enlightened me more with possible variations in processing the tallow to flavoring the final product. Awesome keep it up. You got a sub from me.
Excelent video. As a curiosity, here in Brazil, indigenous people also came up with a food that was done for long storage and to be eaten in long journeys. It was called in ancient Tupí as "pa'soka". The prefix "pa" means "to finish" and "soka" means "to ground". It consisted of ground sundried meat of any source and cassava flour grounded together in a big wodden mortar. Later on, mine workers looking for gold in the north added sugar to the mix for extra calories. Today, we write it as "paçoca" (the pronounciation doesn't change much). And it can mean two different foods. One, very traditional food in the north and northeast regions is, like I said, sundried grounded meat mixed with cassava flour. The other is type of "sweet" made from grounded peanuts, salt and sugar (also delicious). Keep the good work, man. I might try to make some pemmican myself. Very interesting idea.
Many thanks for this demonstration, Clay. I have a hundred lbs of frozen ground beef, and now I know what I'm going to do with it. I don't have a dehydrator, so I'll just use my oven at low temp.
@@clayhayeshunter Yeah.... unfortunately it's all regular grind - cheap and greasy. But I just read last night that beef brisket can work, and I think I have five of them in the deep freezer. We are prone to power outages where I live, and sometimes they are lengthy. So I'm going to start by converting one of them into pemmican. I'm thinking of smoking it, but im5guessing the meat needs to stay uncooked? So what if I were to dehydrate the mea first and then smoke the dried strips for a fee hours? Alternatively, I'm also considering using liquid smoke on the meat, prior to drying it, and skip using the smoker. If it all goes well, then I'll do the other briskets as well.
Clay provides some of the very best practical survival advice and instruction. As someone who learned to survive in my youth in African bush with the very best survival experts (the Selous) and plenty of hands-on experience since then, I still find plenty to learn here. I'm no youngster anymore but trust me - adaptable creativity, experienced eyes and great knowledge saves a helluva a lot of hard work... and wasted time. I can survive in any kind of bush environment (don't fancy Desert or Snowy extremes - too old for that game). During Covid... (In my sixties, while supposedly on holiday in southern France) I found myself marooned and homeless in a foreign country - I had to put my skills to the test for months! The biggest problem (apart from the cold) was the police finding and knocking down my "stealth 😊shelters" and arresting me... Until a translator could be found. Realizing there was no sensible solution they simply let me go with a fine!! - 😆Which by that time I had no way of paying. Something of a joke all round. There's plentiful water, wild boar, rabbits and pigeons for the taking in southern France - a little wild foraging and scrumping for herbs and veggies. Er don't pick on the big boars 200kg plus - I rather take on warthog any day! I'd lost a year in France before finding opportunity and some helpful souls to make enough money to return. Now back in Africa - I'm far from sure returning was a good idea. I arrived to discover I had ABSOLUTELY nothing left - EVERYTHING GONE - business, home, furniture, clothing - ZIP!! (Thanks to the bankers!!!) Try coming back from that folks, it ain't easy at my age. Then when you think life has thrown at you what it can - it kicks you in the balls. My hip collapsed. Now hobbling around - I discovered the "state" isn't going to fix it - unless you can pay. Being white these days is a disadvantage it turns out. So first it has to be fixed - then... I'm seriously considering putting those skills to the test again if I could find a spot free of human predators. Southern Africa is fenced to the wazoo - largely because of animal predators and city life sucks, if you're broke! Wild Animals aren't really the problem in a survival situation (if you know what you are doing...) Regulations and human predators are! Believe it or not Europe, Asia and the Americas offer more open accessible wilds than Africa. Amazing isn't it. If I can put the travel funds together the global south offers many opportunities... and then there's Russia - Last bastion of Christian and traditional values! Nothing to keep me here, no family except 2 woke kids who cancelled me years ago. Yep, fix the hip and get some travel funds and I'm off for one last adventure... what have I got to lose? Absolutely NOTHING.
You are invited to Native America, Antlers Oklahoma USA. I give you address when you write. I am 60 and want to learn much more and need help living life.
Thanks for doing this. I might try it just to see what it's like. I like the use of honey since honey never spoils and because of that I think it will act as a further preservative for the pemmican.
Make Erbsen-Wurst it's a survival food which doesn't spoil, uses animal fat and peas or beans, then it is rolled to a sausage shape for easy storage and battlefield consumption.
I feel like vacuum sealing it would be a good idea. Obviously not going to do much for shelf life, but keeping moisture out if you are trekking through humid environments.
You can use meat grinder instead of blender to grind dried meat, nuts, fruit, salt, etc... The sticky berries get ground into the dried meat eliminating that issue. Add a little solid tallow in also to keep the blade and other moving parts lubricated.
@@instinctivearcher6146 Yes I have, but just mindful of making sure your dehydrated fruit, even nuts are completely dry. I honestly over dry my fruit and I give nuts a session or as needed. The reason I dry my nuts is along with their natural oil they will absorb water from the air. Having a higher speed blender (pricey yes) does make a difference. I have the Vitamix grain container that I do the nuts in, but you have to pay attention as they will turn into nut butter if you blend too long. Great videos btw, I was happy to find your channel by chance.
I cannot wait for try this now so thanks for creating this helpful video - have been wanting to try this for ages but bus I feel compelled!!!! Thank you so much!!!!
If you make it with onion or garlic powder it makes a great soup/stew starter that you can add foraged ingredients to. Use hardtack to thicken the stew.
Does it really need those two ingredients to make a soup starter? Just sayn. I was thinking along those lines as i was watching, just not sure why you can't add those later.... cheers
No reason not to add spices- change up for breaky , lunch and dinner. Different spices for soups, pastas etc. A two inch slice is about 300 calories, so you can judge your amount needed per day and like you said adding hard tack rounds out your meal. Excellent to put aside in your emergency provisions.
@@scott729 Good point, so really just plain is best. Fat + protein Would spices possibly store better coated in fat just like the meat does? That might be a reason to add them from the beginning.
Thank you for best pelican recipe to follow, I made it many moons ago and hope for a better result this time Greetings from medic Shirleygirl, who is almost carnivore, work long hours and need a back up food source in the field Look forward to more ideas! Love and light
Thenks for the recipe. As for the solidified fat in your jars... you can experiment with making "smalec", you can easily find the recipe in the internet. Basically you combine it with onion, spices, a bit of meat and it's a perfect as a spread on home made bread with pickled cucumbers on the top. Can eat it other way as well and add other ingredients for flavor, just it will shorten its longevity.
My mother used to make a ground pork dish where you serve it cold and spread it on hot bread or toast, It's called conton. The cold fat liquifies into the bread, it's delicious.
Pemmican is fantastic! Reminded me that wonderful Aztec style chocolate I bought once: mixed with lard, salt and hot chili pepper - wonderful energy bar!
You can dry your blueberries right down to almost no moisture. They will blend into a dry powder. I put them in the oven on 200 and go for around 12 hours when they cool you can tell they are dry. Use wild berries as they dry quicker, and are healthier
Yes that would be fine . Make they are totally dry as its the moisture that will cause issues. another important part is the length of time you are planning to store them. long term has to have nothing that will compromise the pemmican. Clay stated he liked using nuts in them but was using them in the near future. hope this helps @@annikadjurberg6762
@@annikadjurberg6762 Sorry for the late response, i don't remember seeing a notice, and was answering another question. Sure that works as well. Ive done it both ways, and just prefer the ground up form.
That's a lot of work! My favorite survival food is a PayDay candy bar. Doesn't melt and makes the grade as far as calories go. But this is valuable information. Always wondered what goes in pemmican.
Can't wait to try this, as I'm becoming more and more obsessed with food preservation! I plan to use honey that I fermented garlic and spring onion bulbs in. Honey also contains excess water and fermenting alliums releases that water along with honey's high viscosity (not sure of the chemical reaction). It will also add another layer of savory flavor. Has anyone added powdered herbs? My mind is going in so many flavor directions. 😅
With mine I incorporated some dehydrated greens along with rolled oats to make a more balanced meal pemmican bar. I lived off of it for a few days and felt great. The next batch I make I'm going to experiment with adding moisture back into it for meat pie type recipes and try using it for soup type meals as well
Having read a lot of stuff about the explorers of the 1700s and 1800s I was always reading about pemmican. Now I know more about what it is and how it's made. Thanks👍
Thanks for posting this. Just started the carnivore diet this year due to some other health challenges. Also going to start my first season of bowhunting this fall. Was wondering what I was going to do for food while I was out in the woods. This will be perfect.
@@mikafoxx2717 Vitamins A, B, C, K, E can all be hard to obtain if you're strictly consuming muscle meat, but may be obtained if you add organs. You can also have difficulty sourcing enough Boron, Calcium, Potassium, Copper, Magnesium, Manganese, and Lithium if you rely on purely meat-based sources. You may only need trace amounts, but it can still be difficult to do without plant-based sources. You may also have difficulty sourcing enough Polyphenols and fiber. Multivitamins are cheap and easy to take. Obviously you shouldn't take health advice from youtube and you should talk to a real, _legitimate_ doctor before starting or continuing a diet as severe as a strict carnivore diet. Just be smart about it. Humans evolved as omnivores.
Thank you for icluding the tips like how to know when there's no moisture left in tallow. Haven't heard anyone mention it so I've probably been doing it wrong.
Thank for another great video, Clay. I just recently made your original pemmican “recipe”. Pro tip: Pastry cutter to work those gummy fruit balls into meat powder. 👍🏻
My local butcher sells Wagyu beef tallow. It’s amazing. Texture of a bar of soap when it’s solid, beautifully white, and absolutely delicious. Might have to make some bougie pemmican.
So for a survival perspective or adding this to a survival cache you have, how would you recommend storage ?? Would Mylar bag with oxygen packet help this stay long for 20+ years. I’m really wanting to make essentially a stockpile of these but want to make sure it’s stored properly especially when it comes to meat etc
I know this is a very late reply, but we use a chamber vacuum sealer, 02 absorbers and thick Mylar bags - the chamber sealer forms the Mylar around the pemmican bar beautifully and we can make very uniform bars. We've eaten three-year-old bars ('winter' pemmican with 50/50 bison and tallow) and they're as good as fresh. We found a freeze-dryer to be far superior for drying the meat, but the cost of a freeze-dryer is far beyond a dehydrator. There are plenty of great videos out there about rendering pharmaceutical-grade tallow as well. One note is to make sure the tallow is not too hot as you don't want to 'cook' the meat. Fine line between 'warm enough to pour without being hot' and 'starting to solidify'.
I'm so glad to see you using Elk. That's is even better than grass fed fed cows. There is only one thing you can do to make it even better. Either use the elk fat, or buy grass fed beef tallow. Which is usually more affordable than frags fed beef itself. Great job.
A really good use of pemmican if you only use very lean meat and tallow and nothing else ( this is how it lasts the longest ) Use it to make soups and stews anyway you want I love to make hardtack too The hardtack can be used as thickening agent for stews My fave is sauté onions/ celery / carrots in a little tallow then add garlic Then add pemmican just crush it up and spread it around Then add a little tomato powder Store it all and coat it all Then add water chopped cubed or however potatoes Some hard tack Let it all get stewed up over low heat for a good while Add salt and pepper to taste and any other spices you want It’s super good A million variations
Good stuff. Never made it with elk, but make it with grass fed beef, pecans, and fresh picked blackberries from the yard. It's also good with fresh, ripe picked muscadines.
Very cool, thank you @ClayHayes and also commenters. I not only have the base recipe(s), but quite a few options from other people as well. This could keep me busy for a long time...
According to one historical source the tallow should be "hot enough for frying donuts" so like 350F. The final texture will be more enjoyable. I've also done the mixing in a big double boiler to keep everything hot until very well combined. If the dried meat fibers aren't totally saturated with fat the texture can be unpleasant as the tallow texture is more noticable. It should be too hot to knead by hand.
I've read just the opposite, so I'm curious what historical source states this. The sources I've read state the tallow should be cool enough to handle, so you DON'T cook the meat. John and Geri McPherson state this very clearly in their book(s), and even have a little saying that goes with it "Cooked meat kills", or something like it, if I remember correctly.
@@nathanbailey9153 The Fat of the Land by Vilhjalmur Stefansson compiles many primary sources from times and places where pemmican was produced in large quantities and served as a staple for months or years.
@@nathanbailey9153 I think there's an assumption that you have to knead the meat and tallow together but I think you're MUCH better off in every way if it's hot enough to mix by stirring with a big spoon instead.
I can't wait to make mine. My dehydrator just came in. I'm going to do top round, and grass-fed Tallow, with sea salt and a little bit of local honey. I'm debating dried fruit but I don't think I need it since I'm primarily carnivore diet
Great. Unless im missing something. Doesnt adding fruits make it lose the shelf life thing? I made pemmican from chicken and also turkey. No nuts and no fruits. It tasted great to me because i was in a ketogenic diet. So the texture was something different. Also 4 bites of it makes you feel like not eating more. Its the perfect survival food.
I like this video and it has good information. Pemmican is a great food when you aren't going to have refrigeration. From the comments though I think there is a misconception about what tallow is. You can just heat any animal fat and filter it but heat it again and get all of the moisture (bubbles) out. Then if you put it in jars and keep moisture away it will last for a very long time. Moisture is what makes fats go rancid. That is why adding nuts reduces the storage life too. But actual tallow is made from the fat around the kidneys. Even at room temperature or above it is solid rather than liquid. It has more the consistency of wax, basically. But that's why it is good for this. And candles. It isn't affected by water and keeps all of the dry ingredients away from the moisture, which is what makes things go bad. Other fats are fine for short term events like hiking or camping but for true long term shelf stable Pemmican kidney fat tallow is what you want. He also mentioned freeze dried foods. That's ideal. The tallow is like vacuum sealing. It keeps the dry ingredients from rehydrating until ready to eat. Both have to be rehydrated either before or after eating though. If you get desperate and eat either without adding liquid or drinking they will draw moisture from your body and potentially kill you. Hydrate or die!
Thank you for a great video. We heading out on our first backpacking trip and excited that the least interesting thing about our trip will be the food we eat!
this was a great video. thanks for sharing. I'm always looking for snacks/food to take out for a day of hunting. most of the time its home made jerky. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I kind of shortcut this process by slicing partially-frozen beef across the grain into paper-thin strips, then drying it all inside my cold smoker and finally storing it vacuum sealed in clean Mason jars. Keeps forever in my pantry and can be eaten by itself or mixed with other foods, though personally, I eat ONLY meat.
If just the plain beef and tallow version was portioned and each sealed in a vac. bag, how long would it keep for in varying temps? As in, always keeping some stored in your favourite hike pack. Never taking it out. Going out hiking in all kinds of weather throughout the year. Just set and forget, unless you get into trouble out in BF nowhere and need it. And no, not taking it out and storing it in a fridge or a basement or cellar or cave or hole in the ground. Left in the bag, through thick and thin, right next to the lighter and med kit. Thanks!
Great video. Will have to try it. Pretty time intensive. Love the fact that it will last a long time (without nuts). I usually carry Clif bars. Thanks for showing us.
I took some venison outside loin (backstrap) and made some pemmican with it. A couple of times I've taken a Snickers bar sized piece and about the same in Gouda cheese and a jar of milk kefir for my lunch at work. It's amazing how filling that lunch is and how long I stay sated. I'm not even thinking of food again until 5:30-6pm.
I always eat a high-fat meal before head to the woods. Fat controles satiety, the state of not being hungry. This is done through a complex process of hormone regulation. Three chief hormones grellen leptin and pyy. Foods that don't Spike insulin are your best bet for all day hunts. Insulin fluctuations are your control signals for hunger. Don't tell other hunters this I love it when the woods empty out at 10 am....ha ha good stuff Clay!
THANK YOU FOR SHOWING THIS. One tip I can give you, to help you with your procedures, is to put a NON-coated paper plate under your mixing bowl. It curtails the moving around, to a great degree. I enjoy-joyed your content.
Gotta make me a batch. On my birthday my son sent me a tub of Wagu beef tallow. First thought , what an odd gift. Second thought was I can make some pemmican! I heard it wouldn't keep long with nuts, but I keep it frozen anyway so that's not a problem and I got a ton of venison jerky meat and a bunch of grass-fed beef roasts. I also have a deer skin that needs smokin so looks like it's time.
Dehydrating the fruit till it also crunches will grind much better. Using beef feed tallow only from cattle, Buffalo, elk, deer, etc. will help ot last a lot longer. The beef far n the stores have been grain feed on the cattle lots. This destroyed the amino acids and omega 3 fatty acids by throwing the omega out of balance. The water in the frozen blue barriers will reduce shelf life. Nuts only last about a year. Just some thoughts on the pemmican for extended shelf life.
i tend to add some large crystal salt(sea salt or the like) when i make this having some little bursts of salt mixed in make it taste a bit sweeter and i find that if i am eating this i tend to be being more physically active and sweating so a bit of extra salt is a good thing and yes i am one of those people that joys the flavor though i tend to go with dried cranberries and cherries as blueberries dont last long enough in our house to make it to the dehydrator
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Also also: Pemmican doesn't need to be eaten like an energy bar, like you were doing. It absolutely can be, that's a perfectly valid way to consume it. But there's loads of other ways to use it, that turn it into a proper meal. Like pan-frying it, or adding some local vegetation and turning it into a stir-fry. The most common way the Native Americans used it, was to put it in some boiling water with local vegetation, to turn it into a kind of on-the-trail soup.
Saying eating it like an energy bar is a valid way to consume it is like saying eating a dry brick of ramen is a valid way to consume it lol. I first heard of incorporating berries and nuts from hikers and thought "why would you add berries to your soup base?" Pemmican is essential for primitive skills and native american skills enthusiasts because you are already going to be foraging, just by happening to pass herbs, tubers, and greens, and you're going to want to boil them anyway for sanitation. Pemmican is meant to easily dissolve in the water and make the meal highly nutritious, plus delicious. I don't know where the idea of eating them as a food bar came from, but it seems to be a modern hiker thing, considering none of the "primitive skills" books ever mention berries or nuts, yet all the "bushcraft" ones do.
Pemmican is basically just nutritional fortification for the boiled vegetables you forage. When you combine an assortment of edible plants with a healthy amount of animal fat and protein, you have a very well rounded diet. It is not intended as a 'survival food' and while it is possible to live off pemmican, it was never intended to be eaten alone. It was intended to allow someone out on a trip to be able to have thorough nutrition from foraging without having to hunt any animals. The funniest part is people talking about how it doesnt taste good. No shit! Neither does a spoonful of beef stock! You're not supposed to eat it! Berries might make it tolerable, but if you prepare it in a soup it's delicious.
@@N8Dulcimer Eating ramen dry is pretty popular in Asian countries. It's common for school kids to take the packet of seasoning, and add it to crushed up ramen noodles and munch of them like chips. This works well for camping when you don't have ready access to water and want to eat something with a bit of flavor.
@@PenTheMighty I used to eat it like that as a kid also. Now as an adult, I chop and boil some veggies with the seasonings, let an egg soft boil in the water, stir in the noodles, then crack the egg. Which do you reckon tastes better and which do you reckon is more nutritious? I know it's not an exact analogy with ramen but my point is that pemmican is intended as a soup base and it doesn't taste as good dry because it's not meant to be eaten dry.
@@N8Dulcimer
The natives used to make pemmican with saskatoon berries.
It's not a new thing.
@@N8Dulcimer Eating it "dry" is absolutely one of the way *the Native Americans who invented it, themselves* would sometimes eat it. Just because it's not as enjoyable as it is in other forms, doesn't make it an invalid way of eating it. And if you'd bothered to read through my *entire* initial comment, rather than reacting as soon as you read "that's a perfectly valid way to consume it," you would have seen I *already addressed* the fact that using it to make soup was the most common way Native Americans used it.
Fantastic demonstration! Pemican is good stuff. I have always said, "it's survival food. If you don't like it, you're not hungry enough." When you are truly hungry, just about anything tastes good
I can attest to that...
Ive been white man hungry before. I agree. If you're hungry, you'll eat almost anything.
My son asked me how my pemmican was. I told him if you're hungry it tastes great. He laughed. Thanks to me and his Mom he's never been "hungry". I also told him my BFF Arlo loves it. I used fat from my grass-fed highlanders which probably closer to bison fat than store bought corn fattened beef so it tasted different. I don't have the cattle anymore so probably wouldn't make it with store bought suet. I also long ago made a pemmican knock off with ground venison ,raisins, and some oat meal. It was pretty good.
Hunger is the best spice ;)
Hahahaha my grandma used to always say "hunger is the best sauce." Never a truer statmenr! I say it to my 12 yr old daughter when she doesnt like what I cook. She looks at me like im an idiot 🤣
The key to longevity is getting all the water you can out of the tallow, meat and fruit. I generally add just 10% by weight dried fruit to the meat and then about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of the dry mixture, then equal parts by weight dried mixture and rendered tallow. For my last batch I smoked the meat for an hour before I dried it and ground it up and the flavor was absolutely amazing! It's definitely the best trail food ever. Thanks for a great video
Great tips.
You Simon Kenton you!!
I think the salts important as that is the cure to curing and preserving all meat.
@@larrybulthouse455 actually, the original native recipes that lasted for years didn't require any salt. Rendering the tallow and completely drying the meat is all that's necessary to preserve it
@@clayhayeshunter I saw that you have a freeze dryer. Wouldn't picking up some liquid air to flash freeze the ingredients, then freeze drying them give you a better product in the end? I'm curious as to why you chose the food dehydrator, instead.
As far as dryness is concerned, the honey added to the experimental batch may attract and retain moisture as honey, like all sugar is hygroscopic.
This is the type of information our young people should be watching.
Very detailed and easy to digest , so to speak 😂
Thanks!
Defo,!! I'm guna make this with my nephew.
I see what you did there...😎❤
Indeed, they should also be gathering good, reliable books and guides on how to feed themselves. They may soon lose their online capabilities.
What about adding other powders such as carrot, onion, garlic, tomato, bell pepper, jalapeno, seasonings? The shelf life is my #1 so does adding vege powders affect shelf life?
@@elisadelaurenti2516I write down everything that I find useful 😊 and writing things down also helps you memorize it so if you need it later, it's already in your brain
My family in the northwest are salmon fishermen. They make a version of it with salmon and berries mixed in. I’ve some in a soup and just plain. It was honestly great plain like a powdered jerky. They warned me not to eat too much because it was like it was a concentration and highly nutritious. It gave me lots of energy and it was hard not to eat too much when it tasted so good. I love it!
Very cool!
Yes, we're FISHERMEN FAMILY TOO. Go for it
Roald Amundsen used pemmican on all his expeditions, he was first to reach the geographical South Pole in December 1911 and he sailed the Northwest Passage for the first time in 1903. He used half and half of fat and meat, he added oatmeal and peas. And for the dogs he made dog pemmican with fishmeal and more fat. His description: "Pemmican tastes excellent, takes up little space and can be eaten raw, fried or boiled." Especially as provisions on a sledge expedition, it is invaluable".
good info!
That's where I first read about pemmican too. Thought it was done kind of dried corned beef, which I guess it is kind of, but it's good to have seen what it really is and how it is made .
Thankyou, lovely we bit of history. ❤
Sounds like the dogs got the better recipe...🐕🐶🐟🐟🙂
I first read about pemmican from the failed Ernest Shackleton Endurance expedition. They reference dog pemmican a lot and basically survived off of it.
And 100% healthier then any type of store bought survival food for damn sure.
Truth!
Massive changes in food production underway and not for our health and safety. Quite the opposite. Soon there will be no food we can trust to be safe for consumption. The consequences of eating processed foods, even produce, will be dire to say the least. Survival will be way beyond ordering bulk survival foods products. Learn how to garden organically and save your own seeds. Get into an 1800s mind set lifestyle. That's survival. Pemmican is a perfect food, but consider the tallow used. What cow did it come from? Consider what's happening with our beef industry right now. Just one example of what's happening in our food production. Do some research. Buy local if possible. Find a farmer who will raise a cow for you and share the meat as payment. Raising your own should be a goal. Get into that 1800s mindset.
Absolutely!
You are the real deal and I thank you for zero bs or hype.
Stay strong live long Clay 👍
So I’ve been watching all the videos on pemmican. I just made a batch from about 4 pounds of beef that I had made into jerky and vacuum sealed in the freezer. About a pound of jerky. I have some Wagu beef tallow I use for searing steaks and other things. It’s probably much spicier than regular pemmican. I’ll say this, I let my dog lick the bowl I mixed it in, and she looked at me like, “who do you need me to kill for some more “ lol.
haha
Ich hab nochn Mopped inne Muffathalle stehen
Dogs and cats are naturally carnivore animals just like us humans. So its no wonder they go crazy when they get of taste of actual meat instead of the overly processed dog/cat food in the bag that is full of "Natural" ingredients and vegetables. Which are foods that Dogs and Cats would not naturally eat in the wild.
Clean, that pot very good!or your next recipe will be: streptococcus pemican...
Wagu beef tallow... fancy. 😎🙄
I didn’t know about the 2nd cooking of tallow to remove last of moisture. Makes sense. Fruit needs to be fully dehydrated, as well as meet. Could blend up & dry on trays at same time as meat. Honey powder would also have zero moisture.
There are some amazing comments in this section. A treasure trove!
Thx for doing taking time to show your process. Looks delicious!
Hey Clay I watched your videos on making clean water next to a muddy stream, it was great in my opinion. I have been a tradesperson most of my life which often made me think out of the box. I love cooking, since I am 66 years old and my Mom was born in 1910, everything she cooks was from scratch. The food back then was much safer. I have traveled X-Country by train 3 times as a kid, I have great memories of seeing this Beautiful Country, the 3 days on a train was was like watching an amazing movie. Driving X-Country was great also, the Painted Desert is Magical.
I will share your videos with certain members and friends who appreciate DIY cooking. As me and my wife lived in a rural area of upstate NY, the outdoors were all around us. During blizzard storms we had no power and we would melt snow to flush the toilet or just let it melt for drinking. A simple kerosene heater kept us safe until the Army Corps of Engineers could repair the dirt and shale road we lived on, it was originally a seasonal bungalow colony, but I converted it to a full time house, it a fun project. I have worked on both types of wells powered by a surface or jet pump or a deep well with submerged pumps etc. I think anyone who enjoys the wonderful outdoors should have a basic understanding of survival knowledge. Blenders are a basic tool for almost every kitchen, like making bread crumbs and stored safely in mason jars. Canning is a fun way to preserve many types of food as I believe you are fully aware of, having a root cellar is a great way to store canned foods in mason jars. Mason jar are affordable and last forever if you take care of them, perhaps you could do a video on preserving jams, peppers etc to keep your pantry full when you’re unable to get out to a store. Many years ago my neighbors would buy bushels of tomatoes at the end of the season, the family would save all their large soda bottles, sterilize them and make giant pots of marinara sauce and cap them with a capping press. I bet they are still available somewhere ???
Thanks Clay, I think your videos are great !!!
Thank you for sharing those great memories and great info!
Things like this is what should be taught in every school… elementary through college. Mandatory classes that cover everything like… Wilderness survival, foraging, Homesteading, gardening/farming/livestock, home/vehicle repair. Emergency situations. Medical care. Alternative energy.
Kids are never too young to learn, and adults are never too old to stop learning.
For best results, bring rice or ground up beans. Cook both or either and when it's almost done, mix in pemmican. A dash of Old Bay, cayenne or whatever for some bling.
Just made some using cocoa butter as the fat (I noticed cb and tallow had the same melting point). Turned out really good. I also used freeze-dried raspberries and strawberries, cocoa powder, and sea salt.👍👍
Sounds great
cool. what's the shelf life with the cocoa butter?
@bobanderson6656 supposed to be similar to tallow. I guess the cocoa flavor fades, but that's about it (never noticed cocoa butter tasting like much anyway). I'm thinking of adding rolled oats (won't last as long), honey, and chunks of dried fruit. Meat candy bars 👍👍
@@carrdoug99 sounds pretty interesting!
@clayrobinett840 From everything I've read, it has a very long shelf life. The only negative I've read in that regard is that CB loses some flavor over time.
Pemmican is my go to for hunting, hiking and camping in cold weather conditions especially. Delicious once you get used to it and it makes it so much easier to hit those cold weather high calorie requirements! I put blueberries in mine too, it makes it almost like a silky sweet meat chocolate or something and I love it.
Great description!
“Silky sweet meat chocolate.” If you ever have to utter those words, you’ve gone off the trail! Haha, I’m kidding. This stuff seems like good survival food. I’ve never been hungry enough to need it, and I’ve been hiking and camping since I was a kid (36 now.). If I ever need to pack for a long term outdoor adventure, I will absolutely consider this!
I'm disabled now, but i used to hike extensively back in my teens and twenties. My last trip was a 2 week excursion to the pacific northwest in Aug 1989, when my group did Raineer, St Helens, and Adams. Concentrated "grab n go" foods like pemmican are great for long strenuous excursions like that, when you NEED those calories, and want to avoid luggin around unnecessary water weight or bulk.
If I could go back in time, i'd definitely have packed along a supply of bars like this.
Best pemmican tutorial I've seen. Thanks, Clay. This is on my list of stuff to try later this year.
Have fun!
My friend uses beef tallow for making soap. We found a super efficient way of rendering the tallow... After you grind, put it in a giant pot with water. Bring to a boil, pour through cheese cloth and let cool. Everything separates and the tallow forms a solid disc on top. It keeps the tallow at a much lower overall temp, so it ends up with a much cleaner smell and doesn't get that funk that comes from crock pot rendering.
Great tip
That’s how I have always rendered fat.
Thanks for the tip ! Now you gave me a idea, "Smoked Pemican." I am a BBQ Pit Master and my style of doing brisket I put the brisket on a rack in a deep sheet pan, I save the juice for chili and other recipes. The fat solidifies in a orangish mass (because of the smoke and spices) on top. Would using some of this give the Pemican a BBQ flavor? Just curious?
@@Freedom_Half_Off I'm going to do what Clay did to remove the excess moisture. After he strained it from the crockpot he heated it up again on the stove until there were no more bubbles coming up.
That crock pot ensutes all the water is released for longevity of the pemmican
Tip: For the berries, you can chill the blender pitcher/blades. That way the friction-generated heat doesn't happen as fast.
Good tip
After seeing the grate for that dehydrator I'm a little surprised OP didnt put the berry sludge (blended fruit) into the dehydrator for a spell. The wax paper method would work for the fruit as well.
Or use a better quality blender, like a Vitamix.
I literally just decided yesterday to make pemmican and bought the tallow I need. I’m using goat meat from one I raised, plus blueberries and elderberries. This video was perfect timing, thanks brother!
Good luck!!
Dude you're incredible. This is so cool that you'd share this with us. Thank you so much.
Great presentation.. preserving these ancient techniques is so important, and awesome to see you getting your boy involved with it early.
Picked up the same Excalibur dehydrator last year and I'm not a kitchen gadget/appliance kinda guy but it's a game changer!
Just made quickie Pemmican, bought a 5oz bag of Jerky @ Walmart, put in blender to powder, bought a jar of Beef Tallow and melted some in skillet, add powdered jerky & mixed, spoon into silicone mold to cool. Makes 2 Pemmican hockey puck size bars about 500 calories each.
Alternative way of getting the fruit dealt with: Dry it up in the dehydrator, anyway. Grind into that "gum" you mentioned. Spread this over some wax paper and put it *back in the dehydrator.* Grind some more when it comes out. If it's still gummy, *do it again.* The reason fruit goes gummy when you try to just powder it after one time in the dehydrator, is because of all the sugar. Sugar likes to hold onto moisture, so the larger the fruit particles, the more moisture it'll like to cling to. But drying them the best you can, then running them through the blender, will give you smaller particle sizes, allowing you to draw out more moisture. It may take many repetitions that keep you going until you have a more of a fruit dust than a fruit powder, but most fruits can eventually be turned into a powder rather than a gum.
Note that everything said above also applies to vegetables known for being high in sugar content. Carrots, beets, sweet onions...lots of things like this, will also at least partially gummify the first time you try to grind it after drying.
Also, alternative flavoring idea for your pemmican: Dry up and grind some kind of allium (onion, garlic, leek, etc.), some herbs, and various greens, and toss those in, to create a savory version.
Ok, question: if you were to get ALL moisture out of fruit/veg, would the shelf life of the pemmican then be long again or does it still impact the shelf life to being shorter?
@@Tess1061 Bear in mind that I'm no expert, so I might just be talking out of my butt here, but: I would imagine it would still have a little impact on the shelf life, owing to the fact that fruit is just more susceptible to that than meat, by nature. It would probably have a much lesser impact, though.
@@Tess1061Moisture is the enemy of all stored and dried foods like pemmican and jerky. Like when making biltong, the less moisture, the longer the shelf life.
Thanks for taking the time to show this old classic. Great to have on a hike or hunt. Fruit and honey look like a good add in.
Thank You for showing your process for making this. I’ve been wanting to do this but really didn’t feel comfortable giving it a shot until I saw this video. You broke down every step with all your best practices plus the comment section enlightened me more with possible variations in processing the tallow to flavoring the final product. Awesome keep it up. You got a sub from me.
Good luck
I subscribed too and I'm clueless when it comes to outdoor stuff!!! 😎
Excelent video. As a curiosity, here in Brazil, indigenous people also came up with a food that was done for long storage and to be eaten in long journeys. It was called in ancient Tupí as "pa'soka". The prefix "pa" means "to finish" and "soka" means "to ground". It consisted of ground sundried meat of any source and cassava flour grounded together in a big wodden mortar. Later on, mine workers looking for gold in the north added sugar to the mix for extra calories.
Today, we write it as "paçoca" (the pronounciation doesn't change much). And it can mean two different foods. One, very traditional food in the north and northeast regions is, like I said, sundried grounded meat mixed with cassava flour. The other is type of "sweet" made from grounded peanuts, salt and sugar (also delicious).
Keep the good work, man. I might try to make some pemmican myself. Very interesting idea.
Many thanks for this demonstration, Clay. I have a hundred lbs of frozen ground beef, and now I know what I'm going to do with it.
I don't have a dehydrator, so I'll just use my oven at low temp.
That works. Make sure to use lean beef!
@@clayhayeshunter
Yeah.... unfortunately it's all regular grind - cheap and greasy. But I just read last night that beef brisket can work, and I think I have five of them in the deep freezer. We are prone to power outages where I live, and sometimes they are lengthy. So I'm going to start by converting one of them into pemmican. I'm thinking of smoking it, but im5guessing the meat needs to stay uncooked? So what if I were to dehydrate the mea first and then smoke the dried strips for a fee hours?
Alternatively, I'm also considering using liquid smoke on the meat, prior to drying it, and skip using the smoker. If it all goes well, then I'll do the other briskets as well.
I've seen other pemmican tutorials, but this one made me confident that not only can I do it, I also won't forget how. :P Thanks.
Clay provides some of the very best practical survival advice and instruction. As someone who learned to survive in my youth in African bush with the very best survival experts (the Selous) and plenty of hands-on experience since then, I still find plenty to learn here. I'm no youngster anymore but trust me - adaptable creativity, experienced eyes and great knowledge saves a helluva a lot of hard work... and wasted time.
I can survive in any kind of bush environment (don't fancy Desert or Snowy extremes - too old for that game). During Covid... (In my sixties, while supposedly on holiday in southern France) I found myself marooned and homeless in a foreign country - I had to put my skills to the test for months! The biggest problem (apart from the cold) was the police finding and knocking down my "stealth 😊shelters" and arresting me... Until a translator could be found. Realizing there was no sensible solution they simply let me go with a fine!! - 😆Which by that time I had no way of paying. Something of a joke all round. There's plentiful water, wild boar, rabbits and pigeons for the taking in southern France - a little wild foraging and scrumping for herbs and veggies. Er don't pick on the big boars 200kg plus - I rather take on warthog any day!
I'd lost a year in France before finding opportunity and some helpful souls to make enough money to return. Now back in Africa - I'm far from sure returning was a good idea. I arrived to discover I had ABSOLUTELY nothing left - EVERYTHING GONE - business, home, furniture, clothing - ZIP!! (Thanks to the bankers!!!) Try coming back from that folks, it ain't easy at my age. Then when you think life has thrown at you what it can - it kicks you in the balls. My hip collapsed. Now hobbling around - I discovered the "state" isn't going to fix it - unless you can pay. Being white these days is a disadvantage it turns out. So first it has to be fixed - then...
I'm seriously considering putting those skills to the test again if I could find a spot free of human predators. Southern Africa is fenced to the wazoo - largely because of animal predators and city life sucks, if you're broke! Wild Animals aren't really the problem in a survival situation (if you know what you are doing...) Regulations and human predators are! Believe it or not Europe, Asia and the Americas offer more open accessible wilds than Africa. Amazing isn't it.
If I can put the travel funds together the global south offers many opportunities... and then there's Russia - Last bastion of Christian and traditional values! Nothing to keep me here, no family except 2 woke kids who cancelled me years ago. Yep, fix the hip and get some travel funds and I'm off for one last adventure... what have I got to lose?
Absolutely NOTHING.
May God Bless you on your journeys.
You are invited to Native America, Antlers Oklahoma USA. I give you address when you write. I am 60 and want to learn much more and need help living life.
Juniper Berries are an old-Fashioned addition that is really nice...i like it.
Ooh! I will have to add some when we make pemmican next week for our homeschool project! Thank you for the idea!
Thanks for doing this. I might try it just to see what it's like. I like the use of honey since honey never spoils and because of that I think it will act as a further preservative for the pemmican.
Honey and all sugar will make you thirsty. Think about that depending on where you are going and the availability of spring water.
Awesome stuff! Up here in Canada Pemmican was a staple for the Voyageurs during the fur trade era. Old school protein bar plus meal replacement!
Very cool!
@mz4637Trudeau fucked us all over and let the rainbow parade take over our values.......
Make Erbsen-Wurst it's a survival food which doesn't spoil, uses animal fat and peas or beans, then it is rolled to a sausage shape for easy storage and battlefield consumption.
I feel like vacuum sealing it would be a good idea. Obviously not going to do much for shelf life, but keeping moisture out if you are trekking through humid environments.
You can use meat grinder instead of blender to grind dried meat, nuts, fruit, salt, etc... The sticky berries get ground into the dried meat eliminating that issue. Add a little solid tallow in also to keep the blade and other moving parts lubricated.
Great tip
If he had used a Vitamix it would have blended just fine.
@@greenidguy9292 you tried it?
@@instinctivearcher6146 Yes I have, but just mindful of making sure your dehydrated fruit, even nuts are completely dry. I honestly over dry my fruit and I give nuts a session or as needed. The reason I dry my nuts is along with their natural oil they will absorb water from the air.
Having a higher speed blender (pricey yes) does make a difference. I have the Vitamix grain container that I do the nuts in, but you have to pay attention as they will turn into nut butter if you blend too long.
Great videos btw, I was happy to find your channel by chance.
I have a grinder but that tallow tip is golden - thank you!
I cannot wait for try this now so thanks for creating this helpful video - have been wanting to try this for ages but bus I feel compelled!!!! Thank you so much!!!!
If you make it with onion or garlic powder it makes a great soup/stew starter that you can add foraged ingredients to. Use hardtack to thicken the stew.
Thanks for the tips!
Does it really need those two ingredients to make a soup starter? Just sayn. I was thinking along those lines as i was watching, just not sure why you can't add those later.... cheers
No reason not to add spices- change up for breaky , lunch and dinner. Different spices for soups, pastas etc. A two inch slice is about 300 calories, so you can judge your amount needed per day and like you said adding hard tack rounds out your meal. Excellent to put aside in your emergency provisions.
@@scott729 Good point, so really just plain is best. Fat + protein
Would spices possibly store better coated in fat just like the meat does? That might be a reason to add them from the beginning.
Thank you for best pelican recipe to follow, I made it many moons ago and hope for a better result this time
Greetings from medic Shirleygirl, who is almost carnivore, work long hours and need a back up food source in the field
Look forward to more ideas!
Love and light
Thenks for the recipe. As for the solidified fat in your jars... you can experiment with making "smalec", you can easily find the recipe in the internet. Basically you combine it with onion, spices, a bit of meat and it's a perfect as a spread on home made bread with pickled cucumbers on the top. Can eat it other way as well and add other ingredients for flavor, just it will shorten its longevity.
My mother used to make a ground pork dish where you serve it cold and spread it on hot bread or toast, It's called conton. The cold fat liquifies into the bread, it's delicious.
Just found this channel. Binge watching. Very informative, entertaining. I’m a happy camper! South Louisiana.
Awesome! Thank you!
the excitement of new Clay upload , great stuff as always
Pemmican is fantastic!
Reminded me that wonderful Aztec style chocolate I bought once: mixed with lard, salt and hot chili pepper - wonderful energy bar!
Actual chocolate? Or pemmican with the additions you mentioned?
@@grumpyoldbastard0563 no, that was real Aztec recipe chocolate, made in Mexico.
You can dry your blueberries right down to almost no moisture. They will blend into a dry powder. I put them in the oven on 200 and go for around 12 hours when they cool you can tell they are dry. Use wild berries as they dry quicker, and are healthier
What about if you want to keep them whole for texture ? Does that work ?
Yes that would be fine . Make they are totally dry as its the moisture that will cause issues.
another important part is the length of time you are planning to store them. long term has to have nothing that will compromise the pemmican. Clay stated he liked using nuts in them but was using them in the near future. hope this helps @@annikadjurberg6762
200 C or F degrees?
@@firefly5574 Fahrenheit, sorry
@@annikadjurberg6762 Sorry for the late response, i don't remember seeing a notice, and was answering another question.
Sure that works as well. Ive done it both ways, and just prefer the ground up form.
That's a lot of work! My favorite survival food is a PayDay candy bar. Doesn't melt and makes the grade as far as calories go. But this is valuable information. Always wondered what goes in pemmican.
Thanks for covering the details on this. Glad you added honey, saved me from asking.👍👍
Glad it was helpful!
Can't wait to try this, as I'm becoming more and more obsessed with food preservation!
I plan to use honey that I fermented garlic and spring onion bulbs in. Honey also contains excess water and fermenting alliums releases that water along with honey's high viscosity (not sure of the chemical reaction). It will also add another layer of savory flavor. Has anyone added powdered herbs?
My mind is going in so many flavor directions. 😅
How about sundried powdered mushrooms foraged and/or bought. Sundried so they manufacture a nice bioavailable vitamin D3
Wild onions. Chia seeds. Garlic mustard, an awfully destructive invasive species. Harvest as much as you can before it seeds
With mine I incorporated some dehydrated greens along with rolled oats to make a more balanced meal pemmican bar. I lived off of it for a few days and felt great. The next batch I make I'm going to experiment with adding moisture back into it for meat pie type recipes and try using it for soup type meals as well
Good for extended hunts and can be mixed into dehydrated foods for protein
Having read a lot of stuff about the explorers of the 1700s and 1800s I was always reading about pemmican. Now I know more about what it is and how it's made. Thanks👍
Thanks for posting this. Just started the carnivore diet this year due to some other health challenges. Also going to start my first season of bowhunting this fall. Was wondering what I was going to do for food while I was out in the woods. This will be perfect.
Good luck
I wouldn't skip on multivitamins if you aren't consuming veggies, you'll wreck your shit
@@Hawk7886What vitamins would they lack? Go on. Vitamin C doesn't seem to ever lack when not eating any carbs.
@Hawk7886 please explain I believe you are misinformed
@@mikafoxx2717 Vitamins A, B, C, K, E can all be hard to obtain if you're strictly consuming muscle meat, but may be obtained if you add organs. You can also have difficulty sourcing enough Boron, Calcium, Potassium, Copper, Magnesium, Manganese, and Lithium if you rely on purely meat-based sources. You may only need trace amounts, but it can still be difficult to do without plant-based sources. You may also have difficulty sourcing enough Polyphenols and fiber. Multivitamins are cheap and easy to take. Obviously you shouldn't take health advice from youtube and you should talk to a real, _legitimate_ doctor before starting or continuing a diet as severe as a strict carnivore diet.
Just be smart about it. Humans evolved as omnivores.
Thank you for icluding the tips like how to know when there's no moisture left in tallow. Haven't heard anyone mention it so I've probably been doing it wrong.
No problem
Thank for another great video, Clay. I just recently made your original pemmican “recipe”.
Pro tip: Pastry cutter to work those gummy fruit balls into meat powder. 👍🏻
Great tip!
My local butcher sells Wagyu beef tallow. It’s amazing. Texture of a bar of soap when it’s solid, beautifully white, and absolutely delicious.
Might have to make some bougie pemmican.
It reminds me of LOTR, " And how many did you eat , Pipin. "Four.."
I make my tallow with a pressure cooker,,,,run it for about an hour,,then finish it off in a pan,,,pretty quick process, Thank You Clay for the video
So for a survival perspective or adding this to a survival cache you have, how would you recommend storage ?? Would Mylar bag with oxygen packet help this stay long for 20+ years. I’m really wanting to make essentially a stockpile of these but want to make sure it’s stored properly especially when it comes to meat etc
I know this is a very late reply, but we use a chamber vacuum sealer, 02 absorbers and thick Mylar bags - the chamber sealer forms the Mylar around the pemmican bar beautifully and we can make very uniform bars. We've eaten three-year-old bars ('winter' pemmican with 50/50 bison and tallow) and they're as good as fresh. We found a freeze-dryer to be far superior for drying the meat, but the cost of a freeze-dryer is far beyond a dehydrator. There are plenty of great videos out there about rendering pharmaceutical-grade tallow as well. One note is to make sure the tallow is not too hot as you don't want to 'cook' the meat. Fine line between 'warm enough to pour without being hot' and 'starting to solidify'.
I love your measuring methods - hands. That’s awesome!
Top tier content as always. Want to try my hand at pemmican this year.
@mz4637 You ain't gonna survive mister!
"...delicious bar of pemmican..." said no one ever before 😅 Thanks for this recipe - can't wait to try it!
Great video! I’ve made pemmican for many years, but your video showed me easier ways to do it👍👍
I'm so glad to see you using Elk. That's is even better than grass fed fed cows. There is only one thing you can do to make it even better. Either use the elk fat, or buy grass fed beef tallow. Which is usually more affordable than frags fed beef itself. Great job.
Clay to keep the fruit from gumming up and just a touch white flour. Worked wonders when running it in the blender
Great tip!
A really good use of pemmican if you only use very lean meat and tallow and nothing else ( this is how it lasts the longest )
Use it to make soups and stews anyway you want
I love to make hardtack too
The hardtack can be used as thickening agent for stews
My fave is sauté onions/ celery / carrots in a little tallow then add garlic
Then add pemmican just crush it up and spread it around
Then add a little tomato powder
Store it all and coat it all
Then add water chopped cubed or however potatoes
Some hard tack
Let it all get stewed up over low heat for a good while
Add salt and pepper to taste and any other spices you want
It’s super good
A million variations
Good stuff. Never made it with elk, but make it with grass fed beef, pecans, and fresh picked blackberries from the yard. It's also good with fresh, ripe picked muscadines.
Great idea!
Very cool, thank you @ClayHayes and also commenters. I not only have the base recipe(s), but quite a few options from other people as well. This could keep me busy for a long time...
According to one historical source the tallow should be "hot enough for frying donuts" so like 350F. The final texture will be more enjoyable. I've also done the mixing in a big double boiler to keep everything hot until very well combined. If the dried meat fibers aren't totally saturated with fat the texture can be unpleasant as the tallow texture is more noticable. It should be too hot to knead by hand.
Thanks for the info
I've read just the opposite, so I'm curious what historical source states this. The sources I've read state the tallow should be cool enough to handle, so you DON'T cook the meat. John and Geri McPherson state this very clearly in their book(s), and even have a little saying that goes with it "Cooked meat kills", or something like it, if I remember correctly.
@@nathanbailey9153 The Fat of the Land by Vilhjalmur Stefansson compiles many primary sources from times and places where pemmican was produced in large quantities and served as a staple for months or years.
@@nathanbailey9153 I think there's an assumption that you have to knead the meat and tallow together but I think you're MUCH better off in every way if it's hot enough to mix by stirring with a big spoon instead.
@@instinctivearcher6146 Thank you, I'll have to take a look at that book and check out the sources. I appreciate you providing the source.
I can't wait to make mine. My dehydrator just came in. I'm going to do top round, and grass-fed Tallow, with sea salt and a little bit of local honey.
I'm debating dried fruit but I don't think I need it since I'm primarily carnivore diet
Great. Unless im missing something. Doesnt adding fruits make it lose the shelf life thing?
I made pemmican from chicken and also turkey. No nuts and no fruits.
It tasted great to me because i was in a ketogenic diet. So the texture was something different.
Also 4 bites of it makes you feel like not eating more.
Its the perfect survival food.
Nuts will decrease shelf life but I think you'll be ok with berries as long as they're dehydrated well.
What a fantastic kitchen you have. It’s bigger than where I live.
I like this video and it has good information. Pemmican is a great food when you aren't going to have refrigeration. From the comments though I think there is a misconception about what tallow is. You can just heat any animal fat and filter it but heat it again and get all of the moisture (bubbles) out. Then if you put it in jars and keep moisture away it will last for a very long time. Moisture is what makes fats go rancid. That is why adding nuts reduces the storage life too. But actual tallow is made from the fat around the kidneys. Even at room temperature or above it is solid rather than liquid. It has more the consistency of wax, basically. But that's why it is good for this. And candles. It isn't affected by water and keeps all of the dry ingredients away from the moisture, which is what makes things go bad. Other fats are fine for short term events like hiking or camping but for true long term shelf stable Pemmican kidney fat tallow is what you want. He also mentioned freeze dried foods. That's ideal. The tallow is like vacuum sealing. It keeps the dry ingredients from rehydrating until ready to eat. Both have to be rehydrated either before or after eating though. If you get desperate and eat either without adding liquid or drinking they will draw moisture from your body and potentially kill you. Hydrate or die!
Thank you for a great video. We heading out on our first backpacking trip and excited that the least interesting thing about our trip will be the food we eat!
this was a great video. thanks for sharing. I'm always looking for snacks/food to take out for a day of hunting. most of the time its home made jerky. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Very cool. It's one of those things to have in your back pocket to make you useful in a Mad Max situation.
A trick for straining tallow is to use the large filter bags used for straining paint.
You have a hell of a cool kitchen. All the gadgets.
Really great breakdown of the process. Thanks for this !!
I kind of shortcut this process by slicing partially-frozen beef across the grain into paper-thin strips, then drying it all inside my cold smoker and finally storing it vacuum sealed in clean Mason jars. Keeps forever in my pantry and can be eaten by itself or mixed with other foods, though personally, I eat ONLY meat.
Duuuude! This sounds like the tastiest protein bar!!!! And its so healthy!
If just the plain beef and tallow version was portioned and each sealed in a vac. bag, how long would it keep for in varying temps? As in, always keeping some stored in your favourite hike pack. Never taking it out. Going out hiking in all kinds of weather throughout the year. Just set and forget, unless you get into trouble out in BF nowhere and need it. And no, not taking it out and storing it in a fridge or a basement or cellar or cave or hole in the ground. Left in the bag, through thick and thin, right next to the lighter and med kit.
Thanks!
Great cooking show!
Props to the camera person.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers from Alaska
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thankyou for sharing your experience and knowledge I arsed anew this about the fat thanks ....good life 😊
Awesome video. Can't wait to try this out.🤟
last time i rendered tallow i saved the crunchies for my dog, she loved that mixed with her kibble!
Great video. Will have to try it. Pretty time intensive. Love the fact that it will last a long time (without nuts). I usually carry Clif bars. Thanks for showing us.
Hope you enjoy
Great tutorial. Thanks. I will skip the fruit and nuts as they basically get in the way of nutrients. I may try the honey though.
Good video Clay, love learning new recipes that will keep for long periods of time!
Glad you like them!
I took some venison outside loin (backstrap) and made some pemmican with it. A couple of times I've taken a Snickers bar sized piece and about the same in Gouda cheese and a jar of milk kefir for my lunch at work. It's amazing how filling that lunch is and how long I stay sated. I'm not even thinking of food again until 5:30-6pm.
Yeah, all that fat really sticks!
Excellent video! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Definitely something I need to try to make one of these days, thanks for the tips
You bet!
I always eat a high-fat meal before head to the woods. Fat controles satiety, the state of not being hungry. This is done through a complex process of hormone regulation. Three chief hormones grellen leptin and pyy.
Foods that don't Spike insulin are your best bet for all day hunts. Insulin fluctuations are your control signals for hunger.
Don't tell other hunters this I love it when the woods empty out at 10 am....ha ha good stuff Clay!
THANK YOU FOR SHOWING THIS.
One tip I can give you, to help you with your procedures, is to put a NON-coated paper plate under your mixing bowl. It curtails the moving around, to a great degree.
I enjoy-joyed your content.
Thanks for the info!
Gotta make me a batch. On my birthday my son sent me a tub of Wagu beef tallow. First thought , what an odd gift. Second thought was I can make some pemmican! I heard it wouldn't keep long with nuts, but I keep it frozen anyway so that's not a problem and I got a ton of venison jerky meat and a bunch of grass-fed beef roasts. I also have a deer skin that needs smokin so looks like it's time.
After you grind your frozen fruit, you could add it to the air dryer for a couple of days to remove moisture and improve shelf life.
Great Video!! Deer season is around the corner. Will be using Venison! :)
This is a good video with easy to understand instructions and information. Please, how do you store it and what is the shelf life of pemmican?
Dehydrating the fruit till it also crunches will grind much better. Using beef feed tallow only from cattle, Buffalo, elk, deer, etc. will help ot last a lot longer. The beef far n the stores have been grain feed on the cattle lots. This destroyed the amino acids and omega 3 fatty acids by throwing the omega out of balance. The water in the frozen blue barriers will reduce shelf life. Nuts only last about a year. Just some thoughts on the pemmican for extended shelf life.
i tend to add some large crystal salt(sea salt or the like) when i make this having some little bursts of salt mixed in make it taste a bit sweeter and i find that if i am eating this i tend to be being more physically active and sweating so a bit of extra salt is a good thing and yes i am one of those people that joys the flavor though i tend to go with dried cranberries and cherries as blueberries dont last long enough in our house to make it to the dehydrator
My great grandfathers served in ww2 and the vietnam war so pemican was a field favorite to them and thats why i got into survival skills
That was really interesting... Thanks for the education on Pemmican
Great info here, thank you for offering it to us. I want to try this with some venison I have in cold stores.