Pemmican

[Satya]

I've just completed a comprehensive Pemmican manual that uses the same format as my Jerky Maker manual.  The pemmican manual covers a bit of history, as well as the entire process for making pemmican including rendering the fat, with pictures for every step. 

A bit of history?  The manual has grown greatly into a major, comprehensive work.  I can't wait for everyone to see it.  When you do post it, Lex, I'd like to know where you got that meat grinder, and the brand name.  Thanks!

[glennm01]

I'm back from my week on the road, and here to report on my pemmican results. I'm afraid it didn't go so well. I mean, I really wanted to like the pemmican, but simply couldn't stomach the taste more than just a little bit each day. I was hoping I'd acquire a taste for it as the week went on, but if anything, the opposite happened. I'm heading back out on the road in a few days for another week and a half, and while I will bring some pemmican with me, I'm not overly optimistic that I'll want to make it anything more than a small part of my dietary intake.

Satya, regarding Lex's meat grinder, I've seen it in action first-hand, and it is indeed the meat grinder to end all meat grinders! I'm pretty sure he built it from scratch though. The man is one seriously resourceful dude...

[Raw Kyle]

Sorry to hear that. I bought a good amount of pemmican from U.S. Wellness Meats and liked it well enough. It was a little too salty for my taste but other than that it was palatable.

[Satya]

Hey Glenn, that's okay.  My guys and I have been dipping pemmican pieces in salad dressing all afternoon, as I too need some seasoning.  I love it with seaweed.  It's a perfect snack, but I suppose unless you are used to it, it would be tough as the sole food source.  Okay Lex, next we need a meat grinder instruction manual, LOL!

Kyle, if your pemmican is too salty, you should try Lex's method without seasoning.  You can always dip it in some HOT SALSA or something. 

[Raw Kyle]

I'm definitely going to try Lex's method for sure. I'm tentatively planning a vacation in the Summer and would like to try and use pemmican as my primary food source.

[lex_rooker]

Okay Lex, next we need a meat grinder instruction manual, LOL!

I'm putting together a smaller grinder (#22) for a friend.  It wouldn't be much more trouble to shoot pictures and and make a parts and assembly manual as I go along.  The grinder is ordered from Choprite II.  These are made in the US and are not cheap ($200-$300) but very robust compaired to the imported junk.  The motor is an off the shelf gear-motor from Leeson.  Again, not cheap ($500) but will last forever.  You need a coupling sleeve from Dayton which is about $6, and then you have to make a spacer to raise the gearmotor so the shaft lines up with the grinder.  I mill my spacer from metal but a dense wood like maple would work just as well and could be made on a table saw for only a couple of bucks.

I made two of the big #32's for a dog food project.  They'll grind 800 pounds of raw meat per hour.  They cost about $900 to build but a commercial grinder of similar size and capability is over $5K.

Lex

[Satya]

Oh Lex, I was only joking, kind of.  But my DH is quite this sort.  You know, he changes timing belts, plumbs in water heaters.  Heck, the 2 of us installed a transmission in his old '68 Buick Riviera.  A meat grinder would be right up his alley. 

I shall patiently wait for this new manual in the coming months.  But you know, this is something YOU could sell.  The Rooker 2900 Deluxe Meat Grinder, I can see it now.

[lex_rooker]

But you know, this is something YOU could sell.  The Rooker 2900 Deluxe Meat Grinder, I can see it now.

This idea sounds suspiciously like something that could turn into gainful employment.  I did that for 42 years and have had enough of that.   I'm now very busy spending my available free time trying to find lots of things NOT to do.  There is just no way I could work a full time gig of making meat grinders into my already crowded schedule.  I'm completely tied up doing absolutely nothing.   Factor in breaks, meals, naps etc. and I now wonder how I ever found time for a JOB.

Lex

[prehistorik]

One question that I have not seen addressed:  can you incorporate organ meats in pemmican?  This would approximate your daily organ/meat/fat mix more closely.  I suppose you would have to heat organs above the boiling point of water, unfortunately.

[TylerDurden]

Not sure if that would work. After all, most organ-meats seem to have a higher water-content. Perhaps, heart or tongue, as they're basically muscle?

[Nicola]

One question that I have not seen addressed:  can you incorporate organ meats in pemmican?  This would approximate your daily organ/meat/fat mix more closely.  I suppose you would have to heat organs above the boiling point of water, unfortunately.

A person, who has been eating Pemmican for 4 years mentioned making Pemmican from organs (heart, liver, kidney...). He has made Pemmican with suet, muscle fat and marrow too. I have been told off for posting this "top forum" in my messages so I will keep it "a deep secret".

Nicola

[prehistorik]

Nicola, I have not the faintest idea what you are talking about.  Please elaborate.

In any case, Dr.Rons Ultra-Pure sells freeze-dried bovine organs in capsule form:
http://www.drrons.com/grassfed-new-zeland-organs-glands-intro.htm
I bought some of them.  It is possible to split the capsules, and poke out the powder contents: I found the supplements are quite tasty when eaten this way, even though they are freeze-dried. 

The expiration date is more than a year in the future, and they contain the whole organs (which would include the fat, I assume), so I wonder how freeze-drying preserves the fat for so long.  This would contradict Lex's statement that you had to heat the fat above boiling point to let the water out, because that is not how freeze-drying works. 

One could add this powder to pemmican, the only disadvantage being that the supplements are highy expensive. I calculated $65 per kg of original organ (in the case of Organ Delight), plus shipping.  But for an occasional travel food such as pemmican that might be acceptable.

[Nicola]

Nicola, I have not the faintest idea what you are talking about.  Please elaborate.

Well I can understand the message and it is English; I have mentioned the person and the forum on pemmican in one of my messages and got told off - so  .

Nicola

[lex_rooker]

I wonder how freeze-drying preserves the fat for so long.  This would contradict Lex's statement that you had to heat the fat above boiling point to let the water out, because that is not how freeze-drying works. 

Actually, that is exactly how freeze drying works.  Moisture is removed by pulling a vacuum on the frozen material to be dehydrated which substantially lowers the boiling point of water and the ice essentially turns directly to a vapour without going through a liquid state. This process is call "sublimation" The water molecules can then migrate directly through the cellular walls of the material - much like water vapour can go through some modern fabrics but liquid water can't.  Since you haven't heated the fat molecules, they do not melt and form a seal which traps the moisture.  The amount of power required to run the refrigeration equipment, keep the material frozen yet warm enough for sublimation to occur (yes, you must continually add heat to the frozen food while at the same time running compressors to keep it frozen!), and then run a vacuum pump is staggering.  It also takes a good bit of time so the process is very expensive even if you discount the huge initial cost of the equipment ( a small "table top" unit with a drying area of about 1 cubic foot will cost over $10,000 and weigh around 200 pounds).

In the tried and true low tech rendering process, I just heat the fat above the boiling point of water at sea level (212 deg F) to turn the moisture into a vapor and at the same time increase the vapour pressure so that it can escape the melted fat and tissue that surrounds it.  I can do this at home using a $20 hot plate and a $5 pot.  It's a simple matter of cost vs benefit.....

Lex

[lex_rooker]

Well, I think the Pemmican Manual is ready for prime time.  Several people have reviewed it (many thanks to Satya and Raw Kyle on this forum as well as Mary Massung, Kata Strong, and "Delfuego" from other forums) and I've corrected the errors and omissions that they discovered.  I would like to post it but it is about 1.5 MB in size and it appears that we can no longer post something of this size.  Anyone have a suggestion on how to proceed with this?

Lex

[Satya]

Lex, if you send me the final version, I can upload it to the traditionaltx.us site.  (It's not an all raw website, but it is a healthy living site for Texans.)  Then we can post a link here in this very thread.  This will take 5 minutes max from the time I get the email, cuz it's cold outside today and I am home.  I would also like to provide a link to it on the recipes page of the site found here, if you are game:
http://www.traditionaltx.us/recipes.htm

And then whenever Goodsamaritan or Tyler gets a chance, they can place it rawpaleodiet.com.  How does that sound?

[prehistorik]

Lex, you are absolutely right.  It seems we had a bit of terminological misunderstanding.  By boiling point I meant the normal boiling point (100 degrees Celsius):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_point
Too bad freeze driers are so expensive.

[Satya]

Okay, here it is, The Pemmican Manual:

http://www.traditionaltx.us/images/PEMMICAN.pdf

Now, I am seeing some lines on the images.  Perhaps that is due to compression or something?

I will link to this and the jerky recipe when I get the chance.

[lex_rooker]

Looks great to me Satya.  There are compression artifacts in some of the photos but nothing that detracts from their value.  I would have to use a much more generous compression setting to remove most of the artifacts and this would make the manual difficult for some people to download as it would be 20 mb or more.  The additional resolution in the photos wouldn't add any significant value.  The original MS Word file is just under 200 mb.

Lex

[Satya]

If you are happy, then I am happy.  I think you've become an honorary Texan, Lex.  You now have 2 recipes on the "local recipes" section of that North Texas Traditional Living website.  Please point out any errors or changes you wish in the text.  On the jerky recipe, I mentioned what a "great snake food" it was, lol.  Who knows, maybe snakes would like it, but I had meant to say great snack food. 

So whenever you get that meat grinder file done ... 

[carnivore]

Thank's for the manual Lex!

In order to render the fat at low temperature (or at least quicker), what about grinding the fat instead of cutting it in smal pieces  ?

[lex_rooker]

Thank's for the manual Lex!

In order to render the fat at low temperature (or at least quicker), what about grinding the fat instead of cutting it in smal pieces?

I do that often but then I have a large grinder so it doesn't take me long and again, I use a plate with large holes.  Pure fat doesn't have much tissue to pull/push it through the grinder, so small grinders - especiall if you use a small plate - will just fill up with fat that turns into paste in the grinder and won't come through the front.  In short, your milage may vary but certainly give it a try.

Lex

[Sully]

I have put suet into a food processor and it turns to powder. Its very easy to mix into ground meat. but it makes the meal much more dry.

[William]

Thanks for the .pdf files, Lex.

I grind jerky in a Green Life twin-gear juicer, and the result looks ~like the photo in your pdf, but the grinder you built looks interesting.
Hm. Wonder where I could acquire the parts? And why the 90° coupling?

[lex_rooker]

William,
The grinder is a Choprite-II, #32 bolt down hand grinder that is coupled to a Leeson 1 1/2 Horse Power right angle gear motor with a 10 to 1 reduction in speed.  In this case the motor itself runs at about 1725 rpm and the output of the right angle gear box is about 172 rpm.  Torque is about 500 ft lbs so this thing will chew up just about anything you throw into it, including fingers, hands, arms, whole chickens etc.

Everything is a stock off the shelf item with one exception.  The shaft of the gear motor is a bit over an inch too low to mach up with the shaft of the grinder so the gear motor is mounted on a riser block of sufficient height so the two shafts align.  I machined my riser out of mild steel but a hard wood such as maple would work just as well and be well within the capabilities of someone with a table saw and small drill press.

Link to Choprite crew down grinder page: http://www.chop-rite.com/Screw%20Down%20Meat%20Chopper.htm
The #32 grinder is about $325 if I remember correctly.  The Bean Plate was ordered online from a sausage making supply company.  Don't make the mistake of trying to use an imported grinder.  They just won't hold up.  I've shattered the blades, cracked the housings, and broken the auger shaft of the Porkette and some stainless steel job from china.

Link to Leeson right angle gear motors: http://www.electricmotorwarehouse.com/leeson_1phs_rt_angle.htm


This is the motor I used :
10:1 gear ratio; 175 rpm;  478 ftlbs torque; 1½ hp;  Catalog #W8210147-120017;  145TC frame; 700 stall torque; 69 lbs. $706.16
I also purchased the optional mounting bracket and the spacer I made went between the mounting bracket and the gear box.

Finally you'll need a shaft coupling sleeve.  The one I used is made by Dayton and available from Grainger Supply for about $20  It turned out that the drive shaft and the shaft of the grinder were about the same size so a straight through sleeve worked perfectly.  The set screw on the gear motor side of the coupler is tightened down but on the side that connects to the grinder auger the set screw is screwed in about 1/2 way to meet up with a "flat and notch".  This way the grinder auger just pushes in to the coupling sleeve and twist locks in place.  To remove the auger for cleaning you just turn the auger counter clockwise and it will unlock and pull straight out.

EVerything can be mounted on a wooden cutting board.  I encased my cutting board in a stainless steel sheet metal box since it was going to be used in a commercial environment for grinding dog food.  This made it very easy to clean  A later version I mounted on a 1" thick HDPE cutting board mounted on a 3/8" aluminum plate and this turned out beautifully as well.

As you can see this is a rather expensive proposition, however it is built like a tank and should last several lifetimes.  For about $1200 you will have a grinder that works better than a $5000 Hobart or Barkel.

For a home grinder I'd recommend a #22 bolt down grinder and a 1 hp motor.  This would bring the cost down to about $1000 and would do pretty much everything you'd ever want.

Lex