Lex
I saw your dehydrator through a link at another forum. It is a great idea and you have spent a lot of time and effort to make this available to all. I appreciate what you have done. At present, I use my oven for dehydrating the beef jerky, but I can only do a few lbs at a time. I might make a dehydrator using your plans.
I tend to like the pemmican quite course just like you do. I have made several batches over the past 4 years, and have tried different methods. What I find that works the best is breaking off small pieces as I watch TV. Usually there is less than a pound of dried strips from each batch, and the small chunks will fit in a 1 liter mason jar. It takes about an hour to break it up. Of course this isn't quite small enough, so it gets run through a blender on the manual pulse setting in handful amounts. I don't worry too much about getting all the pieces uniform, but the smaller the chunks, the more fat it will obsorb. Too fine, as you say, tends to change the mouth feel to an undesirable state ( to me ).
I have tried grinding the dried meat through a meat grinder. It works as long as the meat is very dry. It sort of looks like the shredded beef and pork you can find in the Chinese food section in Super Store. This method also seemed undesirable because even though it doesn't come out as a powder, it is too fine for my liking. Pounding is quite labour intensive but does produce a nice texture. I'm still trying to perfect the best way with the least amount of work.
When I dehydrate the beef, it is done at about 105 degrees F. I know the official temperature is suppose to be above 160 degrees, but at this heat it cooks the meat and makes the pemmican taste gritty like sand. My oven has an adjustable temperature setting with a circulating fan. Each batch (about 3 lbs) is dried until brittle, which takes roughly 30 to 36 hours depending on weather humidity. Strangely, even though it is super dry, it does not come out gritty like the 160 cooked stuff. The jerky is easily broken up by hand. It is a darker color than fresh meat of course, but not nearly as dark ( almost black ) as when done at the higher temps.
The jerky is not spiced in any way. There is no honey or berries either in the pemmican. I do add some spices and/or some vegetables to the pemmican as I am eating it, or just plain. Mostly I eat pemmican as a warm soup or stew rather than a chunk. Either way is good. It is a rather bland meal when not spiced, but that doesn't bother me at all. If it did, I wouldn't be making it as there is lots of work involved. If I could find dried meat that was done at a low temperature and not contaminated with preservatives, I would buy it.
I make pemmican for a few reasons. It lasts virtually forever if dried and rendered properly. I work in a job where it is difficult to get food in some situations, and when there is some it is usually some carby junk food. I also save some of each batch for future food stores ( peak oil and all that doom stuff ). It is very handy to carry as a snack wherever I go. A person can live off of it for months at a time if need be. It can be eaten as is, or cooked as a meal if so desired. To me, it is the ultimate food.
I wish I could buy a suitable pemmican, but I don't see any that exist. There is of course a company that makes it that someone can order on line, but there are not many rave reviews. Of course anyone can make this simply. Lard and dried shredded beef are available in any store. But when I read the labels, I'd rather make my own.
Raw Kyle
If you are buying from an Amish Co-op, there is a possibility that you are getting real unadulterated lard and tallow. The only problem is that all food suppliers have to follow guidelines regarding their products. No one seems to sell food grade tallow without it going through some sort of bleaching process, or preservatives added. It's the same with jerky. You won't find a jerky that has been dried at less than 140 degrees, or that hasn't added preservatives and salt. So, ask a lot of questions before you buy.
The other alternative is to buy raw suet from them or a private butcher. It took me a while to find someone that would sell it to me. Most butchers and grocery stores that are cutting meat are only getting sides of beef, or precut large chunks from the meat packers and won't have any suet to sell you even if they wanted to. Others, I find are worried about your health when they find out that you are not feeding birds, and mysteriously there is no suet available today, or tomorrow.
There is some suet available in our local grocery store in the frozen meat section. It is mixed with flour though and is actually a little pricey for what they are selling. I suppose that the flour helps to keep the ground suet from sticking to itself and is possibly easier for making recipes that need accurate measure. Maybe, since most suet is sold at X-mas time, that it is largely going into Christmas puddings that are mixed with flour anyway. I don't really know the reason why it has to be sold mixed with flour. Oh well.
Ok, so you've managed to find some suet at a butcher. Many people say the butcher will give it to you for free, if you show up and ask for a small quantity, sure, it will be free. Ask for 50 lbs and see what they say. Likely it will be running you about $1 per lb raw, or $2 per lb ground up. Ground is probably easier for most people since it will melt faster and take only a few hours rather than a whole day to render. I get mine raw from the butcher pretty much whenever I ask for it as long as there is a day or 2 notice. He slaughters around a dozen cows a week. Grinding it up, he says, is actually a hassle and gums up the grinder because this type of fat is difficult to clean.
The next step is to separate or grind the suet into smaller pieces, as it comes as a large 1 to 2 lb chunk looking more like a lumpy yellowish organ with thin membranes. It can be cut up into 1" pieces, or just separate by hand. The fat from the suet has a higher melting point, so it will stick to everything like a wax, even to your fingers.Heat in an oven, or like lex, on the stove top with a thermometer at approximently 250 degrees. In the early stage as there is more water, the temperature will pretty much stay just above 225 quite easily. As the water gets simmered off, it will tend to raise, so be careful that you are tending to it. It's easy to get distracted making a large quantity while the fat seems to be taking forever to render, and it can increase in temperature to the point of ruining your fat, or actually starting a fire.
Once the suet is mostly melted and there are not too many bubbles of steam anymore, the chunks leftover can be scooped out and saved for snacks ( crackin's mmm ) or put on salads. I squeeze whatever fat that is left in these brown chunks to get as much fat out as possible, and discard the leftovers. It doesn't seem as tasty without the extra fat.
Strain, or filter this fat as there will be meat chunks and things still floating or settling at the bottom. After you have strained or filtered it you will have a golden brown liquid. But since there may be a little water left in it, especially if the fat was squeezed out of the cracklings, it will need to be further rendered until there are no more bubbles at all. If there is any moisture left in the fat, it will end up spoiling by going rancid like butter or old oil. What you now have is called tallow if you used suet from beef, or lard if it came from a pig. Beef is better as it is harder than pig lard at room temperature and will last longer.
Let the fat cool to around 125 degrees F or until it starts to congeal, and pour it into a container. Mason jars work good, or #10 size coffee cans with lids. Or, if you've already dried some jerky and either pounded it or ground it somehow, you can mix it 1 to 1 by weight tallow and dried jerky to make the pemmican right away.
Some tips.
The drier the meat and the fat, the longer the shelf life.
Don't overheat the suet. It imparts a bad flavour and breaks down the chemical structure of the fat.
Adding any other berries, honey, nuts or veggies will lower the shelf life.
It is my opinion that the meat is healthier if it is dried at a lower temperature as possible.
( I have read lots about why the official recomendations want you to "cook" the meat at a higher temperature, so it is up to you to decide what you want to do. There are lots of websites that will direct you to gov't guidelines for preserving meats. If nothing else, you should read them for your own information. )
Meat dried at too high temps will make pemmican taste sandy, or gritty.
Meat should be dried until it doesn't stick to drying racks, and can easily be snapped in half with fingers.
Do not add hot tallow to your dried meat. It will cook the meat as you are making the pemmican. You should be able to comfortably put your hand on the side of the container and it shouldn't feel hot.
When the tallow is cool enough to add to the meat, it will start to solidify, so think ahead about what you are going to do, or it will be hard to mix properly.
When it is mixed, it can be quickly rolled into handful sized balls, or spread into a pan and cut later when it cools.
Make small batches at first. I've been experimenting for 4 years and still am looking for the best ways to tweek it so it is just right. It sounds easy to just mix dried meat and fat. You may want to try out adding spices etc. If you make a large batch in the wrong way, it will be expensive in time and labour.
There are many different variations and ways to make pemmican. I have done it with coconut oil and fish. I have added raisins and nuts and different spices, or even tried clarified butter and bacon fat leftovers. I've read where Ray Audette has made it from hamburger fat. Stanley "The Bear" makes it and has a good posting of how it is done. Don Weiss has good pics of the process. And of course there are lots of postings in the paleo and low carb forums. It all depends on how much work you want to put into it and what your intended uses are. Mine is for versatile, portable, and long shelf life reasons, so plain pemmican using beef and tallow are the best for me. If someone were just making it for an everyday snack, less care would be required regarding moisture content and some time can be saved cutting corners. For greater ease, keeping the dried meat and fat separate can also be done and just scooped out whatever quantity is required.
Pemmican can be eaten plain, spiced, raw, fried, or as a soup. Soup is my favorite. Everytime I make it, there are different veggies and spices. Pretty well whatever I have in the house at the time (low carb of course) Only the meat and fat is consistantly the same.
One of the best resourses I've ever had for making and learning about pemmican was a book by Vilhjalmur Stefansson called "Not by Bread Alone" (or the earlier version "Fat of the Land"). It is a rare book, but has 5 chapters with around 100 pages on pemmican and it's importance in the early years.
Topic: Rendered fat from Wellness Meats - buyer beware. (Read 17560 times)