Anyone make pemmican?
just

Only made it once.
My buddy had fat from prime rib trimmings.
We added dried venison and cranberries.

We smoked the meat then put it in the dehydrator
We also put the dehydrated cranberries We bought in the dehydrator to lose some extra moisture.
We then chopped up the venison and cranberries very fine.
Melted the beef fat and poured over the mixture then stirred
We poured this into cupcake molds and filled halfway.

Strange to eat, but not bad. I remember that the cold fat in the pemmican took some getting used to.

If I did it again id add some salt

I made it once it wasn't terrible but there's a lot of stuff that I would rather eat.

I made some for a Junior High project. Kind of looked like a dog turd. Teacher said if I would eat some I would bet an A+!

Bear fat won't coat your mouth with grease, like cow fat does.

Thanks BigBob thats good to know

You want a hard fat, like tallow, for pemmican. Soft fats, like lard or bear grease, don't work the same. Also, pemmican is not a snack food. While it can be eaten straight, it is primarily for cooking. Shave a block into a kettle of water, bring to a boil, and add some corn, parched corn, or wild rice and cook into a thick porridge. The Canadian voyagers used peas. It will stick to your ribs and keep you going. You can also slice it fairly thin and hold it over the coals until it is hot, then eat it.

Don't add salt when making it. Salt attracts moisture, which shortens keeping time. Pemmican is probably the earliest form of an mre. It can be eaten plain, but a lot better cooked into a goulash or soup. It goes farther that way, as well.

Lard?

Beef and buffalo tallow are considered the best. I've never had the opportunity to use buffalo tallow. The greasy taste is completely different from hard to soft fats.

some early exploration into north pole, the explorers used pemmican. The needed the fat to keep bodies producing heat.

Woodsloafer72, was the prime rib trimmings we used, the right type of fat? If not could you explain a little further, thanks

The best beef fat is the internal fat called suet, or leaf fat if from hogs, it makes the best tallow and lard...you can render any fat and cook with it, but the suet fat is better...

It will work, but the suet is better. I wouldn't recommend deer fat if you have a choice.

Maybe we can get ksnow to chime in. He probably knows quite a bit, as well.

Bacon grease is considered lard. Any of you guys tried that?
just

Rendered coon fat?

I've never made it, but have read quite a bit about it. The fat used is typically referred to as suet, which would be the hard fat from bison, found around the kidneys.

I'd avoid deer fat too. Its got a wierd texture.

The old books talk about roasting jerky to make it crispy, pounding that into powder, adding dried chokecherries and mixing in melted suet. Then form this into balls, or cakes. In the old days they would put the warm mixture into cleaned out bladders, then seal them shut with melted suet.

It could double as a candle.