PEMMICAN -- the original survival food -- Recipe & Taste Test

**Creating Homemade Pemmican: A Step-by-Step Guide**

Greetings, beautiful lovelies! It’s Emmy, and today I’m excited to share with you how to make pemmican—a traditional Native American food that has been sustaining people for generations. If you’re not familiar with pemmican, let me give you a brief overview. Pemmican is made from dried meat, often caribou, moose, beef, or deer, which is extremely lean and dried to perfection. It also includes pulverized dried fruits like blueberries or chokecherries. These ingredients are combined and bound together with rendered fat, such as tallow or suet, forming patties that can last for months—even years.

The word "pemmican" is believed to originate from the Cree word for rendered fat or tallow, which makes sense given its key role in the recipe. I’ve always been fascinated by pemmican since learning about it in school books, and now I’m finally getting to try making it myself!

### Inspiration for Making Pemmican

The inspiration for this recipe came from a camping trip to New Jersey this summer, where we stumbled upon an abundance of wild blueberries. It was the perfect opportunity to gather fresh ingredients for our pemmican project. After collecting the blueberries, I washed them, removed any leaves or debris, and froze them to prepare for drying.

### Drying the Blueberries

For the drying process, I used my Ronco food dehydrator, which I’ve relied on for various projects in the past. To ensure even drying, I lined the dehydrator with parchment paper and arranged the blueberries in a single layer. The dehydration process took about 12 to 16 hours, during which time the berries shrunk considerably—by roughly half or a third of their original size.

### Preparing the Dried Beef

Next up was preparing the dried beef. I chose a lean cut—an eye of round beef weighing about one and a half pounds. The recipes I consulted emphasized the importance of using very lean meat to prevent rancidity, so this cut fit the bill perfectly. To make slicing easier, I froze the beef for a short time until it was just firm enough to handle.

Once frozen, I sliced the beef into ultra-thin strips and placed them on a rack in the oven. Setting the temperature between 170°F and 180°F, I let the meat dry until it became rock hard and completely crisp. This process took about four hours, but the exact time can vary depending on the thickness of your slices.

### Why Use the Oven?

I opted to use the oven instead of my food dehydrator because the higher temperature ensures that any potential bacteria like salmonella are killed. The dehydrator operates at a lower temperature (around 120°F or 110°F), which isn’t sufficient for meat preservation. Safety first!

### Grinding the Meat and Fruit

Traditionally, Native Americans would grind or pound the dried meat into powder using stones—a labor-intensive process! Luckily, I found a modern solution in my food processor. After drying the beef, I loaded it into the processor to create a fine, fluffy powder.

I then moved some of this ground beef into my blender for an even finer texture, as the volume of meat wasn’t enough to make the processor work effectively on its own. The result was a dry, crumbly powder that was perfect for mixing with other ingredients.

### Adding the Dried Blueberries

Once the beef was ready, I added half a cup of the dried blueberries. In some recipes, keeping the berries slightly chunky is recommended to add texture. I emptied the blended meat into a bowl and mixed in the blueberries thoroughly.

### Binding Everything Together with Fat and Sugar

Next came the fat—in this case, two tablespoons (or more) of melted lard. The fat serves multiple purposes: it adds calories, binds all the ingredients together, and acts as a preservative by repelling moisture, which can lead to mold growth. Importantly, it doesn’t add any flavor, allowing the natural tastes of the meat and berries to shine.

Finally, I added a touch of sugar to taste. Initially, I considered using honey as a more "natural" sweetener, but upon reflection, I realized that honeybees aren’t native to North America. It’s likely that Native Americans traded for sugar instead. So, sugar it was!

### The Science Behind Preservation

It’s fascinating how pemmican works on a scientific level. Water is the primary culprit in food spoilage, which is why desiccants are included in preserved foods to remove moisture. By drying both the meat and berries thoroughly and replacing any remaining water with fat (which is hydrophobic), we create an environment where bacteria and mold can’t thrive.

Traditionally, pemmican would be stored in a leather bag for easy portability and eaten directly from the pouch while traveling.

### Tasting the Finished Pemmican

After all that hard work, it was finally time to taste the finished product! I gave it a little prayer ("itadakimasu!") before taking my first bite. The result? It was delicious! While the dried beef can be tough and fibrous, the flavor is rich and savory, with the blueberries adding a sweet touch that’s amplified by the sugar.

The lard doesn’t contribute any flavor but does an excellent job of holding everything together. I was worried about the lack of salt making it bland, but the natural flavors of the beef, combined with the sweetness of the berries and sugar, made it perfectly tasty.

### Final Thoughts

Making pemmican has been a rewarding experience that connects me to the traditions of Native American cuisine. It’s not only a practical way to preserve food but also a reminder of how our ancestors utilized every resource available to them.

If you’re interested in exploring more traditional Native American recipes, be sure to check out my previous videos on fry bread and ugu duck. I’d love for you to share this video with your friends and family, follow me on social media, like this video, and subscribe for more content. Until next time—take care!

Thank you for joining me today, and I hope you enjoyed learning how to make pemmican as much as I did!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: engreetings my beautiful lovelies it's emmy welcome back today i'm going to be making pemmican so if you're not familiar with pemmican pemmican is a food of many native peoples it consists of some kind of dried meat sometimes caribou mousse beef deer that is really really lean and has been dried and it also contains some kind of dried fruit dried blueberries dried choked cherries and these are both pulverized into a powder and then it's binded together with some kind of fat some kind of rendered tallow or suet this is all combined together and formed into patties and this of course lasts for a very long time anywhere from a few months to even years so the word pemmican is believed to be taken from the cree word for rendered fat or tallow makes a lot of sense and ever since i learned about pemmican in school books way back i wanted to know what it tasted like so i'm going to be making it today the inspiration to make this recipe actually came from this summer we went on a camping trip to new jersey and we found tons and tons of wild blueberries so what i did the summers after we gathered our blueberries and washed them and picked all the leaves and stuff out of them i froze them and then after freezing them for this recipe i dried them i placed them in my ronco food dehydrator which i've actually used quite a bit and i lined it with a bit of parchment paper so i placed them in an even layer and it took quite a while it took probably about 12 to 16 hours to get all the moisture out of my berries so here what my dried berries look like now they have shrunk considerably i would say by a half or a third so the recipe i'm going to be using today is one that i found on the firstnations.org website and i will put the link down below and here is my dried beef and this was about a pound and a half of eye of round beef i chose that particular cut because it is very very lean there's hardly any fat and all the recipes that i looked it said to make sure you use very lean meat and i imagine that's to prevent rancidity what i did was i placed it in the freezer for a little bit to freeze it up a little bit so i could cut it really really thinly so i cut into very thin strips and then i placed it on a rack and i put it into my oven at 170 to 180 degrees fahrenheit until it was completely crisp and dry and that took about four hours or so it may take a little bit less or may take a little bit more depending on the thickness of your meat you'll know when it's ready when it's just rock hard solid and completely dry now the reason why i want to do this in my oven rather than doing in my food dehydrator is my oven has a higher temperature my food dehydrator is probably more around 120 degrees or 110 degrees which is not hot enough to kill any potential salmonella or cross contamination so if you're dealing with meat you want to do it at a higher temperature in your oven we're going to grind up our meat and our fruit so traditionally the meat would be ground or pounded into a powder using a stone or rock as you can imagine this would be very very labor intensive so what i'm going to use and what i read in the first nations recipe book is i'm going to use a food processor so let me grab that okay this is about three to four ounces completely dried so that's about a cup ready here we go wow that's loud holy cow it's making my food processor dance off the counter okay so after wrestling with my food processor i put the dried beef into my blender i don't think i had quite the volume of meat to blade ratio for it to grind very well so i put everything into my blender there's more contact between the dried meat and the blades and it's doing a much better job pretty much have a dry fluffy powder so now i'm going to add my half cup of blueberries in a few recipes that i read it said you can keep the berries a little bit chunky for a little bit more texture so now i'm going to empty out my blender now i'm going to add some melted lard about two tablespoons another teaspoon or so lastly i'm going to add a little bit of sugar just sugar to taste my first inclination was actually to add honey because i thought it would be a more natural source of sweetener but on second thought i realized that honeybees are not native to north america so it wouldn't be a natural source of sweetener anyways they probably traded for sugar i imagine so i've learned that water is actually what makes things go bad oftentimes so desiccants and packets that are included in some of the preserved foods that we have is to remove the water because mold and things grow with water so in this case we've removed the water from the meat we've removed the water from the berries and we've replaced it with fat which is hydrophobic which will repel the water so a great way to preserve food traditionally i think this would be stored in a leather bag and just eaten from a pouch for demonstration purposes i'm going to show you little bite size bits alrighty so here's the finished pemmican let's give it a taste all right here we go itadakimasu it's actually really tasty it does take some time to work through it because the dried beef is so dry and fibrous but it actually tastes delicious you taste the blueberries in there that little touch of sugar makes the blueberries taste even sweeter and it just tastes like dried beef just like a really good beef jerky without all the salt and the preservatives and the nitrates mhm it was great so the lard in this recipe serves many purposes number one being it has lots of calories number two it binds everything together number three it acts as a preservative it repels all of the water but it doesn't have any flavor so it doesn't taste like much of anything it just kind of holds everything together i was worried that since there's no salt in here that it would taste bland but doesn't at all that little bit of sugar and the blueberries and just the natural flavor of the beef itself absolutely delicious love it that's a long time with fruit though so there you have it homemade pemmican if you're interested in some other native people's recipes be sure to check out the fry bread and the ugu duck recipe that i tried previously all right i hope you guys enjoyed that one i hope you guys learned something be sure to share this video with your friends follow me on social media like this video subscribe and i shall see you in the next one toodaloo take care bye ohgreetings my beautiful lovelies it's emmy welcome back today i'm going to be making pemmican so if you're not familiar with pemmican pemmican is a food of many native peoples it consists of some kind of dried meat sometimes caribou mousse beef deer that is really really lean and has been dried and it also contains some kind of dried fruit dried blueberries dried choked cherries and these are both pulverized into a powder and then it's binded together with some kind of fat some kind of rendered tallow or suet this is all combined together and formed into patties and this of course lasts for a very long time anywhere from a few months to even years so the word pemmican is believed to be taken from the cree word for rendered fat or tallow makes a lot of sense and ever since i learned about pemmican in school books way back i wanted to know what it tasted like so i'm going to be making it today the inspiration to make this recipe actually came from this summer we went on a camping trip to new jersey and we found tons and tons of wild blueberries so what i did the summers after we gathered our blueberries and washed them and picked all the leaves and stuff out of them i froze them and then after freezing them for this recipe i dried them i placed them in my ronco food dehydrator which i've actually used quite a bit and i lined it with a bit of parchment paper so i placed them in an even layer and it took quite a while it took probably about 12 to 16 hours to get all the moisture out of my berries so here what my dried berries look like now they have shrunk considerably i would say by a half or a third so the recipe i'm going to be using today is one that i found on the firstnations.org website and i will put the link down below and here is my dried beef and this was about a pound and a half of eye of round beef i chose that particular cut because it is very very lean there's hardly any fat and all the recipes that i looked it said to make sure you use very lean meat and i imagine that's to prevent rancidity what i did was i placed it in the freezer for a little bit to freeze it up a little bit so i could cut it really really thinly so i cut into very thin strips and then i placed it on a rack and i put it into my oven at 170 to 180 degrees fahrenheit until it was completely crisp and dry and that took about four hours or so it may take a little bit less or may take a little bit more depending on the thickness of your meat you'll know when it's ready when it's just rock hard solid and completely dry now the reason why i want to do this in my oven rather than doing in my food dehydrator is my oven has a higher temperature my food dehydrator is probably more around 120 degrees or 110 degrees which is not hot enough to kill any potential salmonella or cross contamination so if you're dealing with meat you want to do it at a higher temperature in your oven we're going to grind up our meat and our fruit so traditionally the meat would be ground or pounded into a powder using a stone or rock as you can imagine this would be very very labor intensive so what i'm going to use and what i read in the first nations recipe book is i'm going to use a food processor so let me grab that okay this is about three to four ounces completely dried so that's about a cup ready here we go wow that's loud holy cow it's making my food processor dance off the counter okay so after wrestling with my food processor i put the dried beef into my blender i don't think i had quite the volume of meat to blade ratio for it to grind very well so i put everything into my blender there's more contact between the dried meat and the blades and it's doing a much better job pretty much have a dry fluffy powder so now i'm going to add my half cup of blueberries in a few recipes that i read it said you can keep the berries a little bit chunky for a little bit more texture so now i'm going to empty out my blender now i'm going to add some melted lard about two tablespoons another teaspoon or so lastly i'm going to add a little bit of sugar just sugar to taste my first inclination was actually to add honey because i thought it would be a more natural source of sweetener but on second thought i realized that honeybees are not native to north america so it wouldn't be a natural source of sweetener anyways they probably traded for sugar i imagine so i've learned that water is actually what makes things go bad oftentimes so desiccants and packets that are included in some of the preserved foods that we have is to remove the water because mold and things grow with water so in this case we've removed the water from the meat we've removed the water from the berries and we've replaced it with fat which is hydrophobic which will repel the water so a great way to preserve food traditionally i think this would be stored in a leather bag and just eaten from a pouch for demonstration purposes i'm going to show you little bite size bits alrighty so here's the finished pemmican let's give it a taste all right here we go itadakimasu it's actually really tasty it does take some time to work through it because the dried beef is so dry and fibrous but it actually tastes delicious you taste the blueberries in there that little touch of sugar makes the blueberries taste even sweeter and it just tastes like dried beef just like a really good beef jerky without all the salt and the preservatives and the nitrates mhm it was great so the lard in this recipe serves many purposes number one being it has lots of calories number two it binds everything together number three it acts as a preservative it repels all of the water but it doesn't have any flavor so it doesn't taste like much of anything it just kind of holds everything together i was worried that since there's no salt in here that it would taste bland but doesn't at all that little bit of sugar and the blueberries and just the natural flavor of the beef itself absolutely delicious love it that's a long time with fruit though so there you have it homemade pemmican if you're interested in some other native people's recipes be sure to check out the fry bread and the ugu duck recipe that i tried previously all right i hope you guys enjoyed that one i hope you guys learned something be sure to share this video with your friends follow me on social media like this video subscribe and i shall see you in the next one toodaloo take care bye oh\n"