pemmican

PEMMICAN AND PINOLE
Have you seen those “Survival Tabs” for sale? It is advertised as fifteen days of food for about $20 and will fit in an empty canteen holder. Now, number one, where in the heck do you put your canteen and two, why pay $20 for the “pleasure” of eating about 400 calories a day? Granted they taste pretty good. I tried one at a Preparedness Expo ( do they even have those anymore? ) and it tasted like a malt ball candy. But you can get the same results by eating two packets of Top Ramen and a vitamin pill every day and it will only cost you about $3. Or, you can take a page from our fearless explorers of Yesteryear ( pause for dramatic music ) and prepare Pinole and Pemmican for your bug out bag, trail food, emergency rations.
*
Pinole I covered in an article in the Bison newsletter ( buy your copy of the complete back issues in one handy e-book at www.bisonpress.com ). It is nothing more than a grain which is roasted and then ground. After you have your powder you mix a few heaping tablespoons in some water and choke it down. The “flour” expands in your stomach and breakfast is done ( or at least a snack ). No cooking or endless chewing. The grain is already cooked. I tried the method of taking some in your mouth and then washing it down but almost choked. It does work quite well and is tailor made for lazy and slacking folks that none the less want to eat healthy. It is perfect for a trail food as there is no preparation and a little will last a long time.
*
It should also be great for those not inclined to eat much fiber and wish to combat constipation. Which, by the way, you will readily get from eating nothing but MRE’s. They are handy, but far from cheap. A fifty pound sack of corn will cost the same as one meal, ready to eat. And how long will it feed you if turned into pinole? Months? I took a small toaster oven and roasted a few handfuls of corn ( I had bought a pound from Raily’s Market as they sell from bulk bins although at an extreme markup ). Then I ground them up, actually much easier than with raw corn. A few tablespoons in a little water ( not too much water, the swill settles to the bottom of the glass instantly ) and I forced it down and I got through the morning with no hunger pains. Of course stomach pains were a different matter as I guzzled coffee at work but at least then I had something besides an empty stomach to greet the new workday.
*
Pemmican is that strange concoction of shredded or ground jerky and dried fruit mixed in with melted fat. Yum!! I love a good deep fried anything myself, but I have never tried pemmican just because it sounds like a lard bar to me. But it is the perfect thing for winter emergency rations. You need a lot of fat in the winter if your body is trying to heat itself. Not today, as Larry the Lardass sits at home in front of his PlayStation in shirtsleeves with the thermostat turned up to 85. But in the future when heat is once again a luxury. You will need to generate your own heat.
*
To make pemmican ( there are many different recipes ) use about one and a half pounds of fat to one pound of jerky and a quarter pound of dried fruit. I don’t know if any fat will do. The recipe I see states lard or shortening. Butter sounds better to me but I don’t know if hydrogenised oil was picked to retard spoilage ( a little research on Google should let you know if you want to try another kind of fat ). Grind up your fruit and jerky and then melt your grease. Don’t let the grease get too hot, just enough to melt it. Take it off the heat to cool. As soon as it starts to congeal, throw in the fruit and meat. Add as much as you can until the grease won’t absorb any more. Cool a bit more and then pour into wax paper lined molds. I would imagine an easy way would be to pour into paper lined muffin tins. Place in a cool dry place to harden and dry, it takes up to a week. And I would imagine a cheese cloth would keep pests away.
*
After that you can wrap and place in plastic and freeze, or vacuum seal or just put it into a cool cupboard. It will keep up to about seven or eight months that way, theoretically. I would freeze it just to avoid any embarrassing food poisoning. Or at least vacuum seal it to remove the air if you are storing it in a bug out bag. I would also change it about every six months to be safe. You can easily buy the ingredients if you don’t have a dryer. At Wal-Mart big packs of jerky are about three bucks. Dried apples are a buck and change. Lard is under two bucks a bucket. For seven bucks you can make a good size batch. I would place the fruit and meat in a low temperature oven for a few hours to dry them further as they are quite moist for dried items ( one way to sell them cheap ).
*
You can eat them by putting a lump in a soup ( sounds gross ) or frying it up in its own grease ( yum ) or by eating a lump on the go ( your lard bar ). A very concentrated food source.

Original: http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/pemmican.html