Pemmican is a survival food used by native people and is probably the predecessor of the granola bar. The pemmican was made into bite size morsels for quick, on the trail consumption. Since people didn’t have refrigerators or microwaves it was made to be shelf stable. The main ingredients were dried meat and fat but many other ingredients were added such as dried fruits, nuts, grains, and dried herbs. I prefer my granola bars to be made of oats and chocolate so I’m glad to live in the modern age. The pemmican ingredients contained all the necessary fuel for long journeys where fats, calories, proteins, and sugars fueled the body. Unlike our current granola bar, flavor was not the main priority. If you are curious about what this fuel source tastes like, you can make some out of ingredients easily found in the back 40. If you do make this recipe, let me know how it went. I don’t hunt so I haven’t given it a try. I have heard it is not something that is easy to develop a taste for.
Pemmican recipe:
Obtain 4 cups of lean deer meat, double ground. Spread it out very thin on a cookie sheet and dry at 180 degrees F for at least 8 hours or until sinewy and crispy. Pound the meat into a nearly powder consistency using a blender or other tool. Dry 3 cups of buckbrush and hackberries. Grind the dried fruit but leave a little bit lumpy for fun texture. Heat 2 cups of rendered deer fat on your stove at medium until liquid. Add liquid fat to dried meat and dried fruit, mix in 1 cup walnuts and a spoon of honey. Mix everything by hand. Let cool and store. Pemmican can keep and be consumed for several years.
Comentarios