How Lengthy Does Pemmican Actually Final?

Typically touted as a “survival superfood”, pemmican has a deep historical past in North America because it has sustained populations for hundreds of years.

It’s at the moment used as survival meals or for preppers desperate to bolster their reserves. It may be shaped into bars or strips to be eaten as is or utilized in a wide range of recipes for vitamin and taste.

In our age of comfort and abundance, you don’t hear a lot about pemmican in mainstream instructional retailers.

Packed filled with vitamins, proteins, and fat you possibly can simply meet your calorie and vitamin necessities with this indigenous custom.

It has been adopted by fashionable civilizations as a solution to put together for conditions the place meals will come by. Pemmican shops extraordinarily effectively should you take the time to protect it correctly.

However how lengthy can it final?

Pemmican has a excessive shelf lifetime of wherever between 3 years to five years if ready and saved correctly. The variability in how lengthy it shops for lies within the meat high quality, preparation technique, and storage course of.

Native cultures in North America have been utilizing pemmican for hundreds of years which was then acquired by the primary settlers.

It was a tradeable commodity and used as each a survival food in lean occasions in addition to a particular deal with throughout occasions of celebration or holidays.

Pemmican is so versatile that it’s been utilized in rations throughout occasions of struggle. Let’s have a look at what makes this survival meals so versatile and splendid for long-term storage.

What Is Pemmican Made Of?

Pemmican consists of dried meat, animal fats, and dried fruit. Beef jerky is a well-liked dried meat to make use of as a result of it already has a protracted shelf life and may add flavoring.

The dried meat is then mixed with rendered animal fats (suet is in style) and dried berries. You possibly can substitute the suet for tallow if that’s extra handy for you.

It may be made with any sort of meat, so long as it may be dried and pulverized right into a flour-like texture.

Historically, greater animals comparable to moose, deer, and elk are used as they make a wonderful jerky.

Whereas you should utilize animals comparable to fish, rabbits, and squirrels, they don’t have the fats content material that you just need to have when forming your pemmican.

The meat could be drier than typical jerky as a result of you’re going to find yourself smashing it into a rough combination and doesn’t must be chewy.

Some folks choose chewy pemmican however the extra moisture you have got the much less shelf life it’ll have.

The following step in making pemmican is to render your supply of fats. You need to carry the fats as much as temperature after which prepare dinner it for a number of hours.

You’ll discover bubbles forming on the highest of the combination which is a sign to maintain cooking. It wants to remain at a low temperature and could be taken off when the bubbles cease forming.

Afterward, pressure your fats to do away with any particulate matter and set it apart for a couple of minutes. Combine your beef shred with any further extras like your berries.

You will need to be aware that any further objects you add to your pemmican will cut back the shelf life.

Combine your clear fats with the meat combination and proceed mixing till totally distributed. You possibly can kind it right into a small pan and go away it till it’s firmly arrange.

Scooping it into balls or slicing it into squares is the final step earlier than you set it in an hermetic container or plastic bag for storage.

It’s a easy idea that has a whole lot of variation that you may unlock by way of trial and error. Some elements will retailer higher than others, however you’ll nonetheless have a shelf-stable product that’ll be consumed shortly.

Shelf Life Relies upon On Storage Situations

When you have tin foil readily available it’s suggested that you just wrap the pemmican in that earlier than storing it in plastic baggage. That is an added layer to protect in opposition to moisture getting on the pemmican.

Any time you’re coping with dried or dehydrated merchandise, any introduction of moisture will trigger micro organism to start out digesting the meals which causes spoilage.

Refrigerating your pemmican is an efficient solution to protect the ultimate product, nonetheless, any condensation or moisture stepping into your storage will begin the decomposition course of.

Make sure that you retain it in a moisture-proof container and wrap it with tin foil.

Wrapping your pemmican in butcher’s paper is a wonderful selection should you can’t get tin foil. It retains moisture out whereas stopping freezer burn.

Some folks pour them into muffin tins for a extra transportable possibility. This is a wonderful possibility for hikers or backcountry campers who want a nutritious snack on their journeys.

There have been stories of individuals storing pemmican in a means that it survived 50 years with none spoilage.

When that meat is mixed with the recent fats it encases it with salt which successfully preserves it. It’s by way of the elimination of all moisture that it achieves this unimaginable shelf life.

Some pemmican recipes will counsel you permit a bit little bit of moisture in your closing product.

For folks wanting so as to add a bit extra meat and fats to their weight-reduction plan, you can even have a extra chewy, bar-like pemmican that can have a lowered shelf life however not have the powerful chew {that a} extra preserved pemmican may need.

The Final Superfood For Any Prepper

Sadly, pemmican isn’t used extra in fashionable society.

The balanced vitamin and purity of the elements would make it a wonderful addition to anybody’s weight-reduction plan, particularly these searching for a keto or paleo weight-reduction plan.

Pemmican has been gaining traction in recent times as folks want to inventory their pantries within the case of potential downtime throughout the grid.

Having the flexibility to combine and match the meat, fats, and additions could make pemmican adaptable to each native assets and preferences.

This ought to be a recipe in everybody’s kitchen with a batch readily available to get you thru the day.