Pemmican proportions

[William]

Reluctant too buy a weigh scale, so how to find the proportions of rendered fat to dried beef?

Traditional pemmican makers had no scales, of course they had generations of experience; I have neither, still, there must be a way.
I've thought of just mixing it so it isn't too runny, maybe not.

Have dried 5 lb. (before drying) already, and am about to start on the fat rendering.

Ideas wanted.

[Satya]

Lex is producing a pemmican instruction booklet in the future ... at least I am hoping that it is still a plan of his.  Doesn't the fat end up being somewhat cooked for pemmican, thus ensuring longer shelf life by ridding it of all water?

[stevesurv]

Lex is producing a pemmican instruction booklet in the future ... at least I am hoping that it is still a plan of his.  Doesn't the fat end up being somewhat cooked for pemmican, thus ensuring longer shelf life by ridding it of all water?

Yes. The careful rendering of the suet rids the fat of most of the moisture. It's a relatively long process. Most people recommend rendering the fat twice. The meat should be dried till brittle also. Adding things like dried fruit or nuts shortens the shelf life. Properly made pemmican can last years without refrigeration.

[TylerDurden]

Yes. The careful rendering of the suet rids the fat of most of the moisture. It's a relatively long process. Most people recommend rendering the fat twice. The meat should be dried till brittle also. Adding things like dried fruit or nuts shortens the shelf life. Properly made pemmican can last years without refrigeration.

Agreed. Stefansson himself pointed out that pemmican sweetened with dried berries lasts much less long than ordinary pemmican.

[Metallica]

i order pemmican online

[lex_rooker]

William,
Dry the meat thoroughly.  It should crack when you bend it otherwise there will be too much moisture in it and the pemmican will spoil.

Once the meat is dry, shred, pound, or grind it to separate the fibers of the meat.  I like to pound mine as I prefer longer fibers so that it is chewy and has a better mouth feel.  If you grind it to sawdust in a blender or food processor it will taste somewhat gritty.

Render your fat by dicing it into about 1" square cubes or smaller and then put on the heat and fry slowly until all of the fat has been released from the cell structure and the moisture has boiled off.  Again, the idea here is to remove all the moisture so that there is no water to support the growth of bacteria, mold or other critters.  I use a dial thermometer when I do this to make sure that I don't over heat the fat.  I try not to let it get over about 250 deg F.

Once the fat is rendered, put a couple of paper towels in a strainer and pour the fat through the paper towels to remove all the sediment.

The last step is to take melted fat and mix it into your shredded meat.  If it is well shredded then the dried meat will absorb about an equal weight of fat.  I use a spoon and press it into lined cupcake pans and let it harden.  When made this way it will keep for months or years without refrigeration.

That's pretty much it,

Lex

[wodgina]

Hey Lex

Cheers for that, I'm going to take some traveling with me to the tropics next month so I'll let you all know if I can get it to last.
How bad is it for me do you think?

Cheers

[William]

Got it, thanks.
Start baking the fat today in the oven.

[lex_rooker]

William,
Rendering the fat in the oven works well it just takes longer.   Set the oven at 250-300 deg and leave it over night. In the morning, pour the fat through the paper towel lined strainer and you're done.  When rendering on the stove top I can render several pounds of fat in about 1 hour. 

Andrew,
I took several pounds with me on a trip back east and ate pemmican almost exclusively for 2 weeks and did fine.  For me, I found that about 350g (12 oz or 3/4 lb) was about right for a day's ration, but then we weren't doing much real activity - mostly driving around sightseeing and the occasional short walk.  My "cupcakes" were about 2 oz each so I at 5 or 6 per day.  I carried them stacked in 2 rows to each 1 gallon ziploc bag in my backpack.  Ten pounds was just about perfect for 2 weeks.  I pack lightly so counting clothes and 2 full weeks of food my pack weighed right at 30 lbs.

Lex

[Raw Kyle]

Lex, about how much fresh weight of meat for jerky compares with fresh suet for rendering come together well to form even proportioned pemmican? I'm about to make a Slanker's order.

[lex_rooker]

Kyle,
I don't use expensive grass fed meat from slankers when making pemmican or jerky.  I purchase "Eye of Round" roasts from Costco.  It is reasonable in price and has very little fat so there is little waste.  10 lbs of lean meat will give you about 3 to 3.5 lbs of very dry meat so the yield is about 33% by weight.  This really has to do with how well the meat is dried.  For pemmican the meat should crack when bent.  It should not be rubbery.

I do use fat from slankers as it's the lipid profile that I believe is most important to our diet.  60 lbs of fat rendered to about 45 lbs so the yield is somewhere around 75% by weight.

Pemmican is then a 50/50 mixture of rendered fat and shredded dried meat by weight.  This should give you a product that is somewhere between 65% and 70% calories from fat.

Lex

[Raw Kyle]

Ok so doing a quick calculation that would mean if I wanted to dry 5 lbs of meat it would take about 2.2 lbs of fresh suet to combine with it?

I think I'll use the good meat for jerky because I can afford it and want to support the grass fed agriculture as much as possible.

[lex_rooker]

Kyle,
Slankers sells their suet and beef fat in about 4 lb packages so 1 package would easily cover you if you're only going to dry 5 lbs of meat.  I usually purchase 20 lbs at a time.  This gives me enough to make my normal daily food as well as some to render when needed for pemmican etc.

I grind all the fat I receive as soon as I get it and store it in 1 gallon ziploc bags in the freezer.  This makes it easy to scoop out what I need when I mix my food or I can grab a whole bag and render it.

Lex 

[Raw Kyle]

Do you use a home meat grinder? I was looking at getting one of those, and also a meat slicer for making thinner cuts for jerky then I can do by hand with a knife.

[wodgina]

I've got a meat grinder (by hand do you want it?)

[Raw Kyle]

Are you offering me a meat grinder? Sure!