The food shopping list: what to buy, how much, shelf life
Pemmican is dried meat pounded to a powder and bound with rendered fat. It's one of the oldest trail foods there is, and it packs more calories into less space than almost anything you can make at home. This is the version I make: equal weights of beef powder, apple powder and tallow, with a little honey, salt and apple pie spice. It tastes like a dense apple bar, not like a mouthful of fat.
Plus a little honey, salt and apple pie spice.
- Calories
- About 215 per bar, about 2,450 per pound
- A day's food
- 9 to 10 bars covers 2,000 calories, about 13 ounces
- Protein
- About 9 g per bar
- Best storage
- Vacuum sealed in the freezer, 2 to 3 years
- Biggest risks
- Beef that isn't cooked to 160°F before drying, and powders that aren't bone dry
Ingredients
Weigh and measure
What you'll need
- Dehydrator
- Food processor
- Kitchen scale
- Skillet
- Meat thermometer
- A bar mold sized for 40 g bars
- A large mixing bowl
Steps
Tap a step's number when it's done to keep your place.
Pick the right beef
Use a lean cut you'd use for jerky, like eye of round or top round. Trim off every bit of visible fat and slice it 1/4 inch thick. Ground beef works, but it doesn't powder as well. Expect to start with about 3 pounds of raw lean beef to end up with 1 pound of powder.
1/4 inch slices3 lb raw makes 1 lb powder
The step that makes this safe
Cook it to 160°F first
Pan fry the strips until the thickest piece reads 160°F on a thermometer. A dehydrator doesn't get meat hot enough to kill E. coli, and once meat is dry, bacteria get much harder to kill. Cooking first is the step that makes this safe.
160°F
Rinse off the fat
Rinse the cooked strips under hot water to wash off the surface fat, then pat them dry. Fat left on the meat goes rancid long before anything else in the bar.
Dry until it snaps
Dehydrate at 145 to 160°F for about 6 hours, or overnight. For pemmican, the meat needs to go past jerky: it should break with a snap, not bend. Any flex means moisture is still in it.
145 to 160°FAbout 6 hours
Powder the beef
Let it cool, then run it through the food processor until it's a fine powder. Weigh out 1 pound.
1 lb
Powder the apples
Run the dehydrated apple slices through the food processor until they're a fine powder. Use crunchy slices straight from a freshly opened can. If the can has been open a while and the slices have gone soft, dry them in the dehydrator at 135°F until they snap again.
135°F if the slices are soft
Warm the tallow
Melt it, then let it cool until it's warm and still fully liquid. Stir in the honey.
Mix
In a large bowl, combine the beef powder, apple powder, salt and apple pie spice. Pour in the tallow and honey and mix until every bit of powder is coated and the mix holds together when you squeeze it.
Press the bars
Pack the mix firmly into the bar mold, 40 g per bar. Press out any air pockets.
40 g per bar
Set and unmold
Chill in the fridge until hard, about an hour, then pop them out.
About 1 hour
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Nutrition
Nutrition estimate
Serving: 1 bar (40 g) · 36 per batch
| Nutrient | Per bar (40 g) | Whole batch (36 bars) |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 215 | 7,750 |
| Fat | 14 g | 510 g |
| Saturated fat | 7 g | 250 g |
| Protein | 9 g | 325 g |
| Carbohydrates | 14 g | 500 g |
| Sugars | 12 g | 435 g |
| Fiber | 1.5 g | 55 g |
| Sodium | about 60 mg | about 2,100 mg |
These are estimates based on USDA values for tallow, honey and dried lean beef, and the label on dehydrated apple slices. Your numbers will shift with how lean the beef is and how much fat the rinse takes off.
How long it keeps
Traditional pemmican is just meat and fat, and it's known for keeping a long time. The apple and honey bring sugar and a little moisture, so these estimates are more conservative. Keep it below 70°F, out of light, and away from air.
- Zip bag, counterabout 1 month
- Zip bag, fridge3 to 6 months
- Vacuum sealed, cool and dark6 to 12 months
- Mylar with an oxygen absorber, cool and darkup to 1 year
- Vacuum sealed, fridge1 to 2 years
- Vacuum sealed, freezerBest2 to 3 years
Best practice
Wrap bars in parchment, vacuum seal them in packs of 5 to 10 (a day's food), label with the date, and freeze them. Keep one pack in the fridge or the bag for eating.
Signs it's gone bad
Toss it either way.
Questions this answers
Tap a question for the short answer.
How do I make pemmican?
Cook lean beef to 160°F, rinse off the fat, dry it until it snaps, powder it, then mix equal weights of beef powder, apple powder and melted tallow with a little honey, salt and spice, and press into bars.
What is the ratio of meat to fat in pemmican?
Equal weights of dried meat powder and rendered fat. This recipe adds an equal weight of apple powder: 1 lb each.
How long does pemmican last?
About a month in a bag on the counter, 6 to 12 months vacuum sealed in a cool dark place, and 2 to 3 years vacuum sealed in the freezer.
How many calories are in pemmican?
About 215 in a 40 g bar, about 2,450 per pound. Nine to ten bars cover 2,000 calories.
Do I need to cook meat before drying it for pemmican?
Yes. Heat it to 160°F first. A dehydrator does not get meat hot enough to kill E. coli, and dried meat is much harder to make safe afterward.
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