Survival Foods: How to Make Pemmican

By Susan Dickson

Survival Foods: How to Make Pemmican thegearhunt.com

As a survivalist, you probably already know that you’re not going to have a fridge to store your food in if the worst should happen. What you do know is that there are many, many, many ways that the United States, or even the rest of the world, could suddenly find itself forcefully off the grid. No phones. No electricity. No order. And certainly, no fridge to store your ice-cold water and fruits, veggies, and plenty of meat to choose from.

That is why as a survivalist it’s important to be ready for what is coming, even if it doesn’t get here in your lifetime. One of the ways to get prepared is by knowing how to make the best survival foods. There are certain basic survival foods that you should begin getting together now, just in case the worst happens, and we will list a few of those in the first section of our blog, but you need to know how to make your own survival foods as well.

Ones that travel well, store well and will feed your family and keep them full in a world that is no longer the land of plenty. One of those foods in Pemmican. Pemmican is said to be the ultimate survival food and is known as a superfood as well. Why?

Because, pemmican is nothing more than dried meat, fat, and sometimes some berries are added in. It’s easy to make, last a low time and is easy to store. In a survival situation, you can’t ask for more than that. In this blog, we will learn what makes pemmican the ultimate survival food, a brief bit about the history, and how to make it yourself and how to store it as well. So, grab your survival kit and let’s delve into our blog on how to make pemmican, shall we?

Basic Foods You Need to Stock in Your Survival Shelter Now

When a natural disaster or other such emergency strikes, there is going to be run on banks and stores as you have never seen. Shelves will be quickly cleared and soon there will be no food to get. That’s why as a prepper, there are a few foods, other than what you grow yourself, that you are going to need for the survival of you and the family you love. Below we will provide you with a list to get you started.

Canned Alaskan wild salmon
Brown rice

Dried beans
Trail mix
Peanut butter

Nuts in bulk
Energy bars
Chocolate bars

Beef jerky
Coffee
Instant coffee

Sea veggies
Powdered super greens
Bottles of supplements

While these are by far not all of the foods you need if you’re in a survival situation, it is a start. There are also foods you can grow and foods you can make that will keep well to feed your family with. One of those foods is pemmican, as we mentioned earlier. In our next section, we will go into a little bit of the history of pemmican and everything else you might need to know or be interested in knowing as well.

What is Pemmican?

Pemmican by definition is a concentrated food that consists of lean dried meat, melted fat, and other ingredients that have been added to it over the years. It is a great source of protein, making it a go-to food for many bodybuilders and athletes. It’s also used by preppers, who know that it has a long shelf life and can keep even a grown man full for most of a day.

What is the History of Pemmican?

It is thought that pemmican was first made by the Inuit tribes, who lived in the Alaskan tundras and the Arctic areas of the world. However, it is known that it was also eaten by Native American tribes on other continents as well.

Since all of these tribes were travelers, moving to where food and warm weather was as the seasons changed, they needed food that would travel well and not spoil. That is where pemmican is thought to have come from, and it is making a reappearance today with so many people worrying that the end of days is coming fast.

Traditionally, thin strips of elk, bison, moose, and deer were used to make pemmican, by drying it out over the fire. It was then pounded into a powder, then liquid fat was added. Sometimes the tribes added nuts or berries to the pemmican as well.

When travel spread, it became clear to settlers and explorers that pemmican was a valuable food to have and made many, many expeditions possible, where the men would have starved without it.

Why is it the Ultimate Survival Food?

You’re probably wondering what about pemmican makes it the ultimate survival food. The fact is that pemmican is made of just two ingredients, though some people add berries and other things to theirs. The protein provided by the meat itself will give you the strength to make it through any journey you have to go on due to your survival status. The fat gives you the energy to make it to the end of the journey, and when berries or nuts are added, they provide you with valuable nutrients, antioxidants, and fiber that can help you survive as well. It has been said that you can survive for weeks eating nothing but pemmican and drinking water. It’s not a heavy food to carry, so will fit well in your bug out bag, making it worth its weight in gold.

What is important to note is that pemmican does not taste good, but then you’re worried about survival, not how the food tastes, and this food can help you survive. On top of that, if the food doesn’t taste great, then you’ll be less tempted to eat it too fast, making your group run out of food long before you reach your destination. If you haven’t tried pemmican, you need too. If you are serious about prepping for the end of days, or any other disaster that could strike, then you need to learn to like it and learn how to prepare it as well. Now, we come to our section on how to make pemmican. Pay attention. It’s not hard, but you want to get it right the first time, of course!

How to Make Pemmican

The ingredients for making pemmican are pretty simple, but we will list them below anyway.

What You Need

Meat: Regular beef is fine. Make sure to use the thigh or the shoulder, as those are the leanest chunks and work the best.

Fat: The best way to do this is to go to your butcher and ask for a pound of beef suet. Some people use fat from the kidneys, but it’s not something you have to use.

Extras: The choice of which extras you choose to use in your pemmican is completely up to you. Some ideas include berries, chopped nuts, dried fruits, peanut butter, maple syrup, and even chocolate and sugar if you so, please. These extras are totally optional and up to the person making the pemmican.

Dry Out Your Meat

You’ll want to cut all of the fat off of the meat first, then cut it in thin strips. Once the strips are ready, put it on a drying rack in full sunlight, or put it on the lowest setting in your oven on a rack. If you choose to go with drying the meat in sunlight, make sure to start early because it will take all day. Whichever option you choose, you want the meat to be so dry that it cracks when you bend it. It needs to be really brittle, so if when you try to bend it, the meat is rubbery in the middle it’s not ready yet.

Grind Your Meat

Once the meat is dried out, it’s time to throw it in your food processor and then turn it into a powder. Don’t worry if you don’t have a food processor, just grind it the best you can and throw it in your blender to finish up.

Render the Fat

You’ll want to cut off all of the meat first before you render the fat. The fat needs to be heated up, which you can do in a crockpot, on the stove or in the oven, whichever you prefer. Whichever form of heat you choose, make sure to put it on the lowest setting and simmer the fat for several hours. Stir occasionally and remove from the heat when the fat is no longer bubbling.

Mix Your Meat and Extras Together

Using a large bowl, you want to mix your dried meat and any dry ingredients you want to add extra together. Make sure that the bowl is large enough to leave room for the fat, without being cramped or running over.

Add in Your Fat

Once these are mixed, you want to slowly add your fat, by adding one-part fat to every two parts of meat you have in the bowl. Once you have these added and mixed, then you can add any wet extras, such as peanut butter or chocolate syrup, you want to add in.

Don’t Forget to Form It

One of the most popular methods of forming your pemmican is spreading it in a casserole dish, then letting it firm up so that you can cut it into bars and squares easily. Many people simply roll the pemmican into little balls, however. The choice of which is entirely up to you.

And Now You Store It

While pemmican has a super long shelf life, it is possible to preserve it for even longer if you store it the right way. Keep it stored in an airtight container and put it in a cool, dry place and it will last you a long, long time to come.

See? Making pemmican isn’t near as hard as you thought it would be. Now, that you know what it is, the history, the reasons you should pack it in your bug out kit, and how to make it, there’s nothing left but to do it.

Ways the World Could End

Many people feel that preppers are crazy and have no idea what they are talking about and that there is no way the world could end. We beg to differ with that, as the signs are there, from natural disasters to possible EMP’s and from global warming to other countries taking us out with nuclear bombs. Here are a couple of the ways the world could come to a screeching halt for you to think about.

Natural Disasters

From hurricanes and tornados to tidal waves, earthquakes, and lahars, natural disasters have become a quite common occurrence on earth today. If that’s not enough to get you prepping, think of the asteroids that are constantly hurtling towards earth or the giant solar flares that have been reported and you might just change your mind.

Human-Triggered Disasters

Global warming, ecosystem collapse, biotech disasters and more could end the world as we know it at any point in time. All of these are human-triggered disasters and something that could quickly put the world off the grid and leave everyone befuddled and not sure where to turn next. That is why so many people prepare for what many believe is the inevitable collapse of society as we know it. Will you be ready?

Whether you believe in the doomsday prophecies out there, or not, it’s still a good idea to be prepared for whatever could happen. Even a hurricane coming through your town can leave you without power for weeks.

This concludes our blog on survival foods and how to make pemmican. Until next time, stay safe, everyone and make your pemmican!