Pemmican!

Pemmican!

Look at that picture!  Campsite cooking at its best!

Pemmican is an ancient Native American meal.  Made with dried meat, rendered fat, and various dried berries and such, pemmican is an extremely energy-dense meal.  There was actually a war fought over pemmican.  I entered a pemmican dish in a recent Arts and Sciences contest and came in first place in the Food and Beverages category with an average score of 4.1/5.  And here's the recipe!

Historical Accuracy:  Pemmican was traditionally made out of a variety of meat.  Due to cost constraints, I used beef.  Aside from that, this is an accurate wedding pemmican dish.  Call it 8/10 for accuracy, or 10/10 should you source venison, moose, elk, etc.  Please note:  Pemmican is Native American and thus not "period" for a European feast.  That said, it is period, albeit just in an odd location.

How's It Taste?  Apparently good enough to win a cooking contest!  Pemmican tastes like beef jerky mixed with fat, with just a little bit of sweetness added.  It's definitely not something you want to eat in large quantities--along with everything else, it's way too energy-dense.  But when fried up with onions and potatoes (see below), it's darned tasty.

Difficulty:  Difficult here is a function of equipment.  If you have a food dehydrator and food processor, it's ridiculously easy.  Without, things get a little tricky, but you're still looking at (at most) a 4/10.

Recipe:

1,75 pounds lean beef

1 pound beef fat

1 pound blueberries

4 ounces dried cranberries

4 tbsp. honey

salt and pepper to taste

To start off, we're going to dry everything.  Slice the beef thin.  Like super-thin.  Season it heavily with salt and pepper, then transfer it and the berries to the food dehydrator.  Should you not have one, you can dry the ingredients in an oven set to 150-200 with the lid slightly open.  Dry the meat and berries until they are crispy and extremely dry.  Render the fat--basically, heat it on low until you get a nice, clear liquid, then filter it through cheesecloth or a paper towel or similar to remove solids.

Place the beef and berries in a food processor and powder everything.  Transfer this into a bowl and add the rendered fat a bit at a time until you have a dense, wet pulp.  Add the honey, a little more salt and pepper, and place into a pan.  Cut into bars and wrap in waxed paper.  Kept dry, pemmican will last for 2-3 years.  Seriously.

Fried Pemmican with Onions and Potatoes (Rechaud)

Here's how I served the pemmican.  Unfortunately, I don't have a decent picture of it.  Maybe later!

Take a large handful of the pemmican and fry in a pan in its own fat.  Treat it like you're browning ground beef.  It will smell like burning as the honey caramelizes.  Throw in about 1/2 of a large white onion (chopped) and 1/2 pound of boiled baby yellow potatoes (quartered).  Mix everything and cook until the onions are slightly caramelized.  Serve hot.

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