Traditional and Modern Pemmican
Rediscovering an Historic Native American Food
Invented by Native Americans, pemmican is a mixture of lean game, rendered fat and berries. During the 19th and early 20TH centuries it was the preferred survival ration of soldiers, fur traders and polar explorers.
Traditional Recipe
Traditionally, the meat used to make Pemmican was lean game such as buffalo, deer or elk. The meat was cut into thin slices and hung up to dry in the sun or over a slow fire. When completely dry, it was pounded into powder, then mixed with hot fat and dried berries or raisins.
The mixture was usually stored in rawhide bags called parfleches. They were sewn shut and the seams coated with grease to seal out air and moisture. Properly prepared and stored, Pemmican could remain edible for years.
Fuel For Marching and Sledging
Traditional pemmican is a 50-50 mix of meat and fat that averages 150 calories per ounce. An active adult with no other food supply can survive on three-quarters to two pounds of pemmican per day. It can be eaten directly from the container with no preparation, or mixed with hot water and vegetables to make a stew sometimes called “hoosh.”
Calorie-dense, non-perishable and easy to transport, pemmican became the standard ration for wilderness travel in North America. The Hudson’s Bay Company purchased pemmican produced by Native Americans for its fur traders. Polar expeditions during the Heroic Age of exploration relied on pemmican as an emergency foodstuff; Admiral Peary was said to prefer pemmican made with raisins. A special version of pemmican was even developed to feed sledging dogs. During the second Boer War, British troops were issued four ounces of pemmican each; it was said that a man could march for 36 hours on this amount.
Modern Pemmican
Recent years have seen a renewed interest in pemmican. It has been recommended as a snack for those following low carbohydrate diets such as Atkins or Neaderthin. Campers and hikers have rediscovered pemmican as a quick and easy meal on the trail. Weightlifters have added pemmican to their training diets. There is even a ‘vegetarian’ version of pemmican substituting ingredients such as peanut butter and honey for meat.
Pemmican can be made at home by anyone with access to an oven or a food dehydrator; recipes abound on the Internet. For those unwilling to dry meat and render fat themselves, however, there are modern commercial producers of pemmican such as U.S. Wellness Meats and Native American Natural Foods.
More in History
Latest Articles