One of the benefits of Pemmican is that it can be made quickly and with limited equipment, even in a survival situation.

Because it is a complete meal in and of itself, in a survival situation, where storage is at a premium, Pemmican can serve as a lightweight life-saver; here is how to make it.

Basic Ingredients:

1 Cup of Dried Meat

1 Cup of Dried Fruit or Berries

1 Cup of Melted Animal Fat

Meat: Use deer, moose, caribou, or beef, but not pork. It takes between one to two pounds of fresh meat to make one cup of dried meat. The meat should be as lean as possible. Trim off all the fat. If possible, grind the fresh meat twice. If you don’t have a meat grinder, then cut the fresh meat into wafer thin slices about 1/4 inch thick or a little thinner. Or you can spread the meat evenly and separately on aluminum foil on a cookie sheet and dry the sliced meat at 180 degrees F for between 6 to 8 hours, or until it is crisp and chewy. Turn the meat strips over after two hours so they will dry evenly on both sides. You do not want to cook the meat. You only want to dry it. If the meat snaps or cracks when bent it is done. If it bends it still contains too much moisture. It it crumbles it is too dry but it can still be used. Grind or crush the dried meat almost into a powder.

If you have an electric blender then blend the meat into a fine pulp.

Fruit or Berries: Use one or two types of fruit or berries, such as blueberries, huckleberries, currants, raisins, apples, apricots, or cherries. Cut the fruit into thin slices or pieces and allow them to dry in the sun. Or dry them in the oven at the same time you dry your meat jerky. Or use an electric food dehydrator. Grind the dried fruit into a powder but leave some of it a little lumpy to provide for extra texture and taste. Mix the dried meat powder and the dried fruit powder together in a bowl. If you have an electric blender then add the dried fruit to the dried meat in the blender and mix them together.

Optional Salt: Add a little salt to the mixture to enhance its flavor. Salt will also increase the shelf life of the pemmican.

Other Optional Ingredients: Add a little honey. Or add some minced dried onion for flavor. Or add a few crushed nuts. However, keep on mind that nuts contain oil and that because oil goes rancid, the nuts will shorten the shelf life of your pemmican. When adding these optional ingredients you should begin with a very small batch of pemmican. This will permit you to experiment and determine if the results are agreeable to your family’s taste requirements without ruining a huge batch of pemmican.

Storage: If possible, wrap the pemmican in plastic wrap or store it in Ziploc bags or in plastic storage containers with a tight fitting lid. Pemmican can be safely stored for 8 months. If you can keep the temperature between 40 to 75 degrees then pemmican can be stored for several years.

Pemmican is a “super-food” that is easy to make, store and is both nutritious and great tasting.

Native Americans used it for centuries during long treks, hunting expeditions and as a regular dietary component year round.

You can add different ingredients into Pemmican as long as you dry them properly; to learn more about Pemmican, please visit the Survival Blog.