Pemmican

[miles]

Hey.

I know there's a pemmican topic somewhere but I couldn't find it.

I want to know what's the lowest temperature which can be used to render the fat.

[pioneer]

I am very interested in this as well and would love to know the temp.

[lex_rooker]

You must remove all the water from the fat which requires that you render it at a temperature above the boiling point of water.  I render about 300 lbs of fat per year and I keep my final highest temperature around 240F (115C).  This is high enough to remove the water in a resonable time but low enough that the fat doesn't burn.

There are those that will try to tell you that you can render fat at 104F but this is not possible.  First the water won't be removed, and worse, the higher saturatated fatty acids won't even melt out of the tissue so the fatty acid profile of the resulting supposedly rendered fat is destroyed.

You can find all the instructions for making pemmican in my Pemmican manual.

http://www.dirtycarnivore.com/Docs/PEMMICAN.pdf

Lex

[MaximilianKohler]

It seems unnecessary to cook fat in order to make this... if you needed something for a trip you could just bring dried meat and regular fat with you, that way nothing would have to be cooked. Right?

[Löwenherz]

You must remove all the water from the fat which requires that you render it at a temperature above the boiling point of water.  I render about 300 lbs of fat per year and I keep my final highest temperature around 240F (115C).  This is high enough to remove the water in a resonable time but low enough that the fat doesn't burn.
Lex

Hi Lex,

do you see any differences regarding digestion between eating cooked (rendered) beef fat and 100% raw beef fat (suet)? Or any other differences?

I can remember that stool diameter was much bigger when I was eating cooked animal fats several year ago. On a 100% raw vlc diet stool is smaller and I still wonder sometimes if this can be "correct".

Löwenherz

[Löwenherz]

It seems unnecessary to cook fat in order to make this... if you needed something for a trip you could just bring dried meat and regular fat with you, that way nothing would have to be cooked. Right?

But the fat begins to stink after some days, doesn't it?

Löwenherz

[RawZi]

http://www.dirtycarnivore.com/Docs/PEMMICAN.pdf

Lex

    Lex, do you have any idea which grinder might be a good choice to grind fresh raw bone-in chicken (like for pet-food)?  Maybe the same one you use in the dried meat preparation in the pemmican manual?

[MaximilianKohler]

But the fat begins to stink after some days, doesn't it?

Löwenherz

probably it depends what kind you get... all the beef fat I get stays pretty solid at room temp and doesn't change in texture or smell or taste for weeks/months... but it's also a lot less pleasant to eat unless warmed to around 90/100F
I'm looking into getting some lamb fat which is supposed to be much softer at room temp. Maybe the lamb fat would start to smell after a couple days, we'll see...