Pemmican With Dried Fruit and Greens!

if you look close, you can see all that goodness – beef, apricots, blueberries, cherries, kale, nettles, wow!

Okay, I’m writing this one in a hurry, because I’m leaving this morning for a six-day backcountry climbing trip. I thank the spunky little bird outside my window who decided that 4:30 a.m. was the perfect time to begin an operatic serenade, complete with call and response from a bird across the street. It gave me the extra time to whip this post together before I leave. Sigh.

So, what’s the excitement all about? I made pemmican for the first time this week! I’ve never had pemmican before, unless you count those non-meat, pre-made bars by Bear Valley that are labeled Pemmican, but don’t have much in the way of traditional ingredients in them. Edible, nutritious, but not a go-to for me.

sunrise viewed from Sulphide Glacier on Mount Shuksan

Why did I make pemmican? It happened like this; I did an alpine start for a glaciated peak a couple weeks ago, and when you get up at 3:00 am, there’s not much cooking going on. You’re lucky if you have time to brew up something hot to drink, and likely you’ll just throw on cold boots, slug some water, slip into your harness, shoulder the pre-loaded pack and take off while wondering why the hell you put yourself through this shit.

Shortly followed by a mind-blowing sunrise over pristine alpine peaks, making you forget all your pre-dawn whingeing.

Shortly … followed … by a blood sugar crash because you had no breakfast, forgot to put your munchy snacks in your pocket during the pre-dawn blur, and you don’t want to slow the group down by having to stop to make it right.

Which is a bad idea because if you bonk, you put everyone’s plans and safety at risk.

In other words, I wanted an easy breakfast to put in my pocket – that wasn’t the same thing as lunch – and be glad I had when I finally realized I was hungry at 4:15 a.m. trudging on some glacier.

Sure, my lunchy snacks are great for on the trail, but I wanted something that kind-of mimicked my typical breakfast in a condensed form. For breakfast at home I typically have a large serving of protein, along with some steamed dark greens and a powerful carb like sweet potatoes or plantains. So I’m planning on having pemmican bars with a handful of dried plantain chips for all my early starts on this next trip!

Native roots… and fat… and berries

Pemmican is a traditional Native American food, and the word comes from the Cree language. Traditional pemmican is made from dried ground meat and melted fat, pressed into hard bars or balls. Sometimes dried, ground berries are added in. Pemmican keeps well for long periods of time, stored properly. Not necessarily a gourmet delicacy, but it’s a compact package of powerful nutrition that has provided people with balanced sustenance for many, many years. Oh, and pemmican is AIP and Paleo by nature!

The first time I had a bite of my home-made pemmican, I swear my body got an instant rush of powerful energy. It was a ROAR kind of feeling. Whoah. But hey, we are what we eat, and pemmican is 100% awesome intense nutrition! A secret: I still get that high-powered feeling when I eat it. Can’t wait to down some of it on my way up a peak!

For my pemmican, I decided to use coconut oil for the fat, as I’m still getting into the whole beef thing… I still can’t stand the taste of ground beef, and the rancher I buy my meat from says it’s likely the fat content that doesn’t appeal. So I didn’t want to use beef tallow, for risk of wasting a whole batch. I decided on coconut oil for my fat, and even though it tends to melt more easily than tallow, the places I tend to go aren’t super-hot, so I’m ready to risk it.

What should you expect? Depends on your ingredients. You can see from the pics that it’s a bit grainy – that comes from the ground meat. I added some sweet factors (dried fruit, and a bit of honey) to mellow out the meatiness, and it worked really well. The flavor of the blueberries, apricots and cherries is nicely balanced with the meat, and the salt adds a savory flare. Some people report that their first bite of pemmican is sort of, “Oh my. Not sure about that…” but then their body says, “Go ahead, have another bite…” and the love affair has begun. The same thing happened to me.

Okay. I really am packing up this morning to take off and galavant around the mountains with some buddies, but I wanted to share this recipe because I’m so excited about it, and I’m painfully aware I don’t have a lot yet in the way of dinner/protein type snacks and meals on the blog yet (more coming when I get back.. reallies). Since pemmican sort-of sits in a realm of its own, I consider it an anytime food – breaky, lunch or dinner. It’s amazing!

So here’s the recipe I’m going with today. I tried three iterations – one with only blueberries and apricots, one with the same fruit plus the dried kale and nettles, and the last one came out best: I added dried local cherries!

7/1/15 EDIT: I took this pemmican on a 5-day backpack trip at the end of June. They tasted great on the trail, and served well for my alpine-start breakfasts. Because the coconut oil is not as binding as tallow would be, they did crumble a bit in my pack after a few days. I’m not gentle with my food bag, and did nothing special to package them (tossed them in ziplocs). Next time I might take better care to package them so they don’t get so knocked around in my pack, such as keeping them in my cook pot as I hike (I typically keep my spice kit in there). All in all, the pieces that crumbled didn’t bother me – I just re-shaped them with my fingers and chowed down!

Pemmican with Dried Fruit and Greens

Makes three to four servings:

i like to leave some of the fruity chunks – they make nice flavor bombs!

Ingredients:
1 cup dried ground meat (see below)
1/4 cup crumbled dried kale (ie: measure it crumbled, not whole)
1/4 cup dried nettles
12 dried apricots, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup dried blueberries (freeze-dried works best. if you dry your own, make sure they are very dry!)
2 dates, pitted and chopped
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbs honey
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs coconut oil, melted (you might use more)

Instructions:

Drying the Meat:

1. Choose a lean cut, preferably a shoulder roast.
2. Put the meat in the freezer just long enough to firm it up – this makes it easier to slice thinly and evenly.
3. Slice the meat thinly – about 1/8 inch if you have the knife-wielding skills.
4. If you want to put salt or herbs on before drying, do so. You can also add them to the mix later.
5. Dehydrate the meat in your oven or dehydrator at 165°F until it is DRY. Crunchy dry. Way past chewy jerky dry. It should crack when you break it apart. Your dog will love to quality test it for you, too. If you’re not sure it’s dry enough, dry it more. This may take anywhere between 5 and 10 hours, depending on the moisture level in the meat, relative humidity, and the efficiency of your dehydrator.
6. Allow the meat to cool thoroughly (careful, flies love it!).
7. Crumble the pieces up and grind in your blender or food processor. It may take a while – you want it to be as powdery as possible.

Mixing it Up:

the mix before final grinding

1. Melt the coconut oil

2. Mix all the ingredients together, stirring with a spoon.

3. Place in a food processor, and mix well, making sure the dried fruit breaks into small pieces. This will produce a smoother consistency than the next option:

OR, if you want some yummy chewy chunks like you see in the first photo, mix well by hand, making sure the moist ingredients get well-dispersed. For this method, make sure your dried fruits are chopped really small, and they aren’t grouped in clumps after mixing. It’s helpful to drizzle the honey on carefully, so it gets spread out nicely.

4. Place the mix into a glass baking or storage dish, sized so it will be about ¾ inch thick when pressed firmly. I used a square glass pyrex storage container.

5. Press the mix firmly, taking time to make sure all air pockets are gone, the mix is super firm, and the edges are well-consolidated against the edge of the dish.

6. Pop it in the fridge to firm up the coconut oil.

7. Store covered, in a cool dry place until use. Coconut oil will go rancid way before tallow, so I recommend storing this pemmican in the fridge until use.

NOTES:
If you think you’ll like pemmican but don’t know about the flavors yet, I’d recommend drying more than one pound of meat, and storing the extra aside while you make your first batch with just one pound, as written in this recipe. That way you don’t have to repeat the freeze/slice/dehydrate process as frequently.

If you use this recipe and it comes out too dry for you, you can add the mix back into the food processor and add as much oil as you see fit. Remember that coconut oil does get melty at a lower temperature than tallow, so if you are taking it on the trail, have it well-packaged and stored away from the outside of the pack, keeping it cool.

Play with your flavors. If you prefer to use tallow, go for it – though I’d recommend googling up the exact amount to use. In my online searches, I noticed that it’s a bit different. Try different fruits, edible wild greens, spices and herbs, as well as omitting or adding sweeteners. There are lots of variations on how you can make pemmican!

I’d love to hear what you come up with! Feel free to share it in the comments!