Pemmican | First Nations Development Institute (2024)

FAQs

Can you use Crisco in pemmican? ›

Do not substitute a soft fat such as lard, bear fat, duck, or goose fat, Crisco or butter. The denser and more saturated the fat, the better. Combine powdered meat and berries, pouring melted tallow until coated. The ratio is flexible, but I use roughly four parts meat, three parts berries, and two parts fat.

The last and arguably the most important element to this recipe is the fat. Don't use lard. It's too soft and gives the pemmican an unsatisfying texture.

Pemmican (Creepimikan, meaning "manufactured grease") is dried meat, traditionally bison (moose, caribou, venison or beef can be used as well), pounded into coarse powder and mixed with an equal amount of melted fat, and occasionally saskatoon berries, cranberries, and even (for special occasions) cherries, currants, ...

Pemmican- Fresh chokecherries were used in pemmican. (If the chokecherry patties were used, they had to first be soaked overnight.) Finely mashed cherries are mixed with dried meat that has also been mashed. Next, render fat and pour it over the mixture.

Pemmican should be stored in an airtight container to protect it from environmental exposure. Vacuum-sealed bags are particularly effective for this purpose, providing an environment devoid of moisture and air which could lead to spoilage.

There are not additional steps that are going to concentrate or otherwise mess with the flavor. Just make sure that, as you mix ingredients to taste, you go little-by-little. You can always add more salt, fruit, honey, or pepper.

Make Pemmican: Animal fat is the basis of this survival food that's been around for centuries. Combine bacon fat, lean dried meat, berries, and nuts and pound it into a paste. Flatten the mixture into patties and let it sit until it hardens.

Vegan pemmican recipe

The fat is quite easy, you just need something with lots of saturated fatty acids which is solid at room temperature (or even below room temperature, as the dish is meant for cold climates). Refined coconut oil or vegetable shortening are both readily available and tick this box.

Most dried fruits like raisins, cranberries, or blueberries still have quite a bit of moisture in them. For pemmican, you'll want to make sure that you have dried the berries as much as you've dried the meat. You can use a dehydrator or an oven. In a dehydrator it should take about 13 hours to get them really dry.

The Red River Colony imposed on that economic order and, when famine threatened the settlement in mid-winter 1814, Governor Miles Macdonnell (1767-1828) issued what became known as the Pemmican Proclamation. This law was meant to stop the export of pemmican to NWC forts in the West and retain it for the HBC settlers.

What are the best spices for pemmican? ›

This will make the pemmican with the best shelf life. 1–Place raw ground meat in a mixing bowl. Mix in your favorite spices like: black pepper, anise, rosemary, lavender. (This is my favorite all-round combo but it's good to have several varieties.)

What is Pemmican? Traditionally, pemmican was made with a mixture of dried meat and rendered fat. Made properly, pemmican would last indefinitely and could sustain an individual for months. Our modern-day version consists of a blend of bison, beef, berries, and other natural ingredients.

Both pits and bark contain cyanogenic glycosides, which release poisonous hydrogen cyanide when the pits are crushed (Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, 2020). Chokecherry pits cause more concern because they are easier to crush than the pits of the plums, cherries, or apricots.

The chokecherry fruit gall midge is a tiny fly that causes direct damage to the fruit. Adults emerge from overwintering pupae in late May and lay their eggs in the flowers. Tiny yellowish-orange maggots feed on the developing fruit.

If you can't find suet then we have found that grated vegetable shortening (such as Trex, Crisco or Copha) is a good substitute.

Is lard the same as Crisco? In a word, no, but they can be used for similar purposes. Lard is made from rendered pork fat, while Crisco is vegetable shortening made from palm oil and soybean oil. Crisco can be used in pie crust recipes and for frying.

How to choose between Crisco and lard. Despite their differences, Crisco and lard are mostly interchangeable when it comes to cooking and baking, though if you want to bake with lard, we don't recommend using the fat leftover from cooking bacon or pork shoulder.

When melted into an oil, the shortening is helpful as fuel. When soaked into a piece of cloth, melted shortening will act like a candle. The empty can is useful in melting snow for drinking water. It is much safer to drink warmed water than to eat snow, since warm water will help retain body heat.