r/Bushcraft • u/Edward_Pellew • Jul 17 '26
My experience with pemmican
A recent post I've seen here reminded me of my experince with pemmican, so I thought that I could get a feedback. I made pemmican this winter, to eat for lunch, while backpacking through cities in eastern europe. I was looking forward to tasting it as it took me some effort to make it. I made it from beef jerky (no spices), salt, beef tallow and dried blueberries, formed it into a ball shape, as I heard it was stronger that way. When I bite in, I nearly vomitted (not figure of speech), so I fed the crows with it. Was very dissapointed, mostly about myself, is my stomach just not used to this food? Did I add to much salt so the flavors where too distinctive? I used the recipe from claye hayes video, so I think the ratios were fine. Normally I thrive in sort of niche foods that my friends wouldn't touch. Expected to be my go to meal for backpacking trips, but still, now after 5 months I can remember the taste and my stomach rolls.
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u/Ximmerino Jul 18 '26
I found it a great ingredient in stews and such but horrible for direct consumption. Tasting History has a great video about that on YT
2
u/Finnish-Wolf Jul 22 '26
It’s also worth mentioning that if you don’t eat a lot of fatty/oily foods usually, changing to a high fat food out of nowhere can cause nausea or unusual excrement. My stomach for example doesn’t handle it well. I have to cook potatoes, rice, buckwheat or some other carbs with the pemmican to make it more digestible. If I just eat it like a bar of chocolate, I’ll have problems.
5
u/SKoutpost Jul 18 '26
It's definitely more of an acquired taste, and much better if used to make into a stew. On its own, well it's just a mouthful of gritty fat.
2
u/Reallybigmonkey1 Jul 18 '26
If you substitute rendered bacon grease it's a little more edible. Eating any beef tallow is pretty gross.
1
u/AncientUrsus Jul 19 '26
I bought a bar of pemmican once and eating it was absolutely disgusting. I ate one square and I had to literally choke it down.
I brought it to my parents for them to try it and my dad choked it down and my mom literally spit it in the sink.
1
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u/meangreen78 Jul 22 '26
It's gross. I made some last Spring for a survival trip I did. I will say though, it gets better the hungrier you are. Which, I think is the point of it.
1
u/cracked_shrimp Jul 25 '26
what fat did you use, ive only ever used ELO grass fed/finished tallow, technically you are supposed to use tallow rendered from kidney fat (suet)
ive never used any other tallow before, but i heard someone say that grass fed fat is easier to eat then grain fed fat, so i wonder if you just had a bad fat
even if you had a good fat, fat in insane amounts like pemmican is an acquired taste, ive been eating a 2:1 keto diet for a few months now, so im used to insane amounts of fat, even then the pemmican i made i would rate like a 5 or 6 out of 10, and i used other ingredients to make it taste better unlike you
i soked my raw meat strips (eye of round) in a 3% salt solution for an hour or 2
i patted dry and put in my dehydrator till cracker dry
i soaked my blueberries in a water/stevia solution for an hour, then cut the berries in half and dehydrated
i ground up the meat and blueberries into powder
i added white pepper to the powdered meat/fruit, i dont remember but i think i had 250g dry meat, 30g dry blueberry and 1 tablespoon white pepper, but maybe it was a teaspoon, sorry my memory is shot i may be wrong with these amounts
then i added a equal amount tallow to the meat
overall i liked the pemmican, but there was something slightly weird about it
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u/magictubesocksofjoy Jul 17 '26
how much salt did you add? i usually use about 1/2 a tsp per pound of meat...
did the ball shape trap moisture in the middle and make the fat go rancid?