My pemmican process

Ingredients

Ruminant meat, I used beef
Rendered fat from the same, I used suet

Method

Remove any fat from the meat. This can be done before or after drying. It's a nice snack when removed after drying
Dehydrate the meat until it is so dry it can be broken into pieces
Grind, smash, or blend the dried meat to add small as practical
Weigh the dried meat
Weigh out the same weight of rendered fat into a microwave or heat proof container
Heat the fat until it is just melted, I use a microwave 1 minute at a time, or starting with 2 minutes if I'm doing more than 1 kg
Put the dried meat in a suitably sized mixing bowl
Add the melted fat to the meat, mix well with a wooden spoon
Empty the mix into a suitable mold. I use a large casserole dish, once it has set reasonably firm, cut it into pieces. This has set completely, and two pieces are already eaten

7 comments

Most of the photos are from last time I posted this, the last photo is from my current 2.5kg batch
I said above to use the same amount of fat as meat, I find it better to make it more rich rather than more lean. The batch shown at the end was a bit more than 5% rich - 1.2kg dry beef and 1.3kg fat
You can expect to get 1.5kg dry meat out of 5kg fresh meat
The meat I'm using at the moment is topside (a whole topside is about 5kg), which my butcher cuts into 2mm steaks for easy drying. I always ask for either topside or silverside as they are very lean cuts
The dehydrator I use is a Kalahari Biltong Box, which I like because it is set up for hanging the meat and had more than enough hooks to hang half a topside cut thin
If I had a lesser budget I would have used a cardboard box heated by a 100W heat lamp, with the meat hung from dowels (ensuring there is plenty of airflow in at the bottom)
You need to mix until all the meat is wetted (or whatever the word is when the liquid is lipids), you can use any method you'd use to mix cake batter, the process reminds me of adding the wet ingredients to the flour to make a cake
These are great photos!
Step three reminds me of chinese pork floss - I had the best effect using a food processer to break up the pieces.
When you take the pemmican out for traveling, do you find it melts or keeps it shape?
- So far it has held its shape. The stress test will be February, that's when we get the highest temperatures. It would certainly melt if left in a car on a hot day
  I keep it in a zip lock bag when I'm out, in case it melts
  I find a food processor best also, I break the meat up into small pieces before it goes into the food processor
How do you dry your meat?
- I use a Kalahari Biltong Box, if I didn't have the budget for that I would have gone with a cardboard box, heat lamp, PC fan dehydrator
  I dry until it snaps rather than bends
  
  I had a nagging feeling you'd mentioned it somewhere and there it was in your comment just in this very post. Sorry, and thank you for patiently repeating it to me again.

7 comments