In our article we want to talk about one of the methods that the Indians used in everyday life. As a result, they received a life-giving product called pemmican. Recipes for its preparation have been developed over centuries and carefully protected, since the product was vital.

What is pemmican?

What is pemmican and how to prepare it? Surely not many people have heard of such a product. Pemmican is a meat sublimate in the Indian style. It was used by the indigenous people of North America during hiking and hunting.

In addition, the product was actively used by polar explorers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Pemmican (sublimate meat) is an easily digestible substance that is incredibly nutritious with very little weight and volume. The product is still used by fishermen, tourists and other people who need to travel serious routes.

Classic pemminkan

True Indian pemmican consisted of jerky or dried ground meat from an animal such as bison. It also contained lard and dried berries or their juice. Sometimes spices were added. As a result, the Indians received very nutritious food that was very light in weight, which was convenient for long hikes.

A little history...

At the end of the nineteenth century, the versatile product attracted the attention of travelers. It is no secret that at that time the active conquest of Antarctica and the Arctic was underway. By the beginning of the twentieth century, pemmican was firmly included in the list of provisions for travelers. In fact, it became the main meat product of polar explorers.

But Siberian hunters had their own universal product. It was prepared from crushed crackers, lard and salt. The ingredients were rolled into a ball and dried. Such food can be stored for years. The food is suitable even if the lard becomes bitter.

The European version of pemmican consisted of forty percent ground meat and sixty percent fat. For cooking, as a rule, beef was used, and less often lamb and pork were used. Pemmican was widely used for sled dogs. Only to prepare the product for animals were used the cheapest types of meat - whale, seal and others. Such food was packaged in sealed cans, paper or cloth.

It is known that Amundsen used pemmican mixed with dried vegetables and oatmeal. By the mid-twentieth century, transport communications with polar expeditions had reached a new level, so the need to use pemmican gradually disappeared. Moreover, it was found that eating such a product for a long time is extremely harmful to the digestive tract, and such nutrition cannot be called complete.

Simple pemmican recipe

It is worth noting that pemmican recipes remain in demand today. Perhaps the product is not used as actively as in the old days, but still it has not been forgotten. used by tourists going on difficult and long hikes, as well as rock climbers. In our article we want to give some recipes for making pemmican. Of course, at present, sublimate differs significantly from the Indian version, but the general principles of preparation remain the same.

For cooking, you need to take meat and lard in a ratio of 2:1. Cut the lard into very small cubes and heat it in a frying pan. Pour the resulting fat and greaves into a container for further cooking. Crumble small pieces of meat there. Place the pan on the fire and boil the meat for six hours (do not add water). The whole process takes place on the slowest fire. The essence of cooking is that all the liquid is removed from the meat and replaced with fat. The finished sublimate can be heavily salted to ensure that the product does not disappear. Red pepper is also usually added. As you can see, the pemmican recipe is quite simple, but it requires a lot of patience and a lot of time.

Recipe with dried fruits

The second pemmican recipe involves a completely different preparation scheme. It is necessary to take only fresh meat. Moreover, it’s better to pay attention to the tenderloin. The meat should not have veins or films. It must be passed through a meat grinder. Next, the meat is laid out on a baking sheet in a thin layer and dried. The finished semi-finished product must be ground into powder. This is only the first component of pemmican.

To prepare the second, you need to take dried fruits - prunes, dried apricots, raisins, etc. The fruits also need to be ground until smooth. The last component is lard, which needs to be melted. Next, all ingredients - meat, fat and fruit are thoroughly mixed in a ratio of 4:1:2. You can add salt and spices to the mass, which help the product to be stored.

When the sublimate is ready, all that remains is to compress it. To do this, place the mixture on a baking sheet. The thickness of the layer should not exceed two centimeters. Cover the top of the product with a lid and put pressure on it. In this state, pemmican should remain for several days at a temperature of +60 degrees. During this time, excess fat will appear from under the lid, and the product itself will become drier. Next, cut the pemmican into cubes and pack in foil. This product can be chewed on the go, or can be used as a base for soup.

In a bottle

To prepare pemmican, you need to take lean meat and lard in a 2:1 ratio. For four kilograms of the finished product, you need to prepare six kilograms of veal and three kilograms of lard. As with any other recipe, the lard must be finely chopped and heated in a frying pan. As a result, we will get cracklings and liquid fat. We pour all this into a container and add small pieces of meat. Next, cook the whole mass for at least six hours on the lowest heat without adding water. The mass will gradually acquire amber transparency. The pieces of meat themselves will become more like crackers. The essence of this method is that all moisture must be completely removed from the product, and fat will take its place. Salt and pepper are added as additional ingredients. This allows you to increase the shelf life of pemican. The DIY recipe is quite simple, but takes a lot of time. The finished product must be properly packaged. For packaging we use half liter bottles. We pour the mass into them. The contents of one such container are enough for one meal for ten people. This packaging option is quite convenient. There is no need to divide the product. And hermetically sealed storage is very important for fatty masses.

Of course, pouring the mass into bottles is not very easy. For convenience, you should use a funnel. Pieces of meat can be pushed through using a knife. Each container must be filled to the very top. The product is easy to use; you just need to cut the bottle to remove it from the container. If food is being prepared for a smaller group, then 0.3 liter containers can be used.

Recipe based on boiling meat

The classic pemmican recipe is not too different from the options we offer, except that the Indians used a different type of meat.

To prepare pemmican, take slightly frozen meat. Cut it into small pieces and put it in a pan. Next, prepare the rendered fat. To do this, we pass the lard through a meat grinder and heat it in a frying pan. Drain the fat into a separate container through a strainer. Mix the prepared ingredients in a 3:1 ratio (meat and lard). Next add salt. You should expect that you need to put two teaspoons per kilogram of meat.

Fill the meat with melted fat and place the container on the stove. Evaporate the mass for five to six hours. Cooking must be done over very low heat. The mixture must be stirred periodically to prevent the food from burning. At the beginning of cooking, the broth will be completely cloudy, but gradually it will become more transparent and dark. At the very end of the process, the surface of the mass will be covered with foam. In general, during cooking, only a quarter of the original mass of meat remains.

Transfer the finished product into a container. For storage, use only airtight containers filled to the top with fat. In this form, pemmican will remain suitable for consumption for a long time.

Oven recipe

The main feature of pemmican recipes is that a strict set of products is used for preparation. No unnecessary components are used.

Melt lard into fat. Take the beef, cut it into small pieces and place it on a baking sheet. Pour melted fat on top of everything. Place the baking sheet in the oven. The meat should be stewed in the oven for about six to seven hours. During this time, the liquid evaporates and is replaced by fat. The meat is salted and minced in a meat grinder. You can add dry currants (black), red and black pepper and even honey to it. By the way, instead of currants, you can take any berries. The main thing is that they are dried.

The finished mass is packaged in very small pieces, the size of a matchbox. Each sachet is designed for one meal. It can be immersed in a mug of boiling water for three to four minutes, after which it can be consumed as a full meal.

Recipe based on pork and beef

To prepare pemmican, take fatty pork and beef in a ratio of 1:10. We pass all the meat through a meat grinder, add a little salt and put the mass on a baking sheet. Next, put the meat in the oven. The mixture must be stirred periodically to prevent it from burning. Gradually the meat should dry out, and it should crumble and break easily. When cooking, it is important to understand that the product should not be baked, but rather dried. As a result, we end up with meat that looks like a semi-finished product. Place the finished product in a canvas bag. Meat must be protected from moisture and at the same time it cannot be stored in airtight packaging, since pemmican can acquire an unpleasant odor. Since the product is very hygroscopic, it must be stored in a dry place when camping.

Using the semi-finished product is very simple. A handful is thrown into porridge or soup and boiled with other products. During this cooking process, the meat swells a little, but still remains tough. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to eat it.

Pemmican Indians

Of course, the Indian pemmican recipe differed to some extent from modern prototypes. Different peoples had their own options for preparing such a nutritious mixture. However, scientists recognize that Indian pemmican is a balanced product that allowed hunters to receive adequate nutrition on a hike. The sublimate contained not only nutritious bison meat and lard, but also dried fruits, and this reliably protected against scurvy. It’s not for nothing that Antarctica has adopted such a product for travel. It is no secret that many sailors and polar explorers suffered from scurvy during long journeys. The product has deservedly taken a strong position in the nutrition of travelers for some time.

Instead of an afterword

Currently, home-made freeze-dried food is used by tourists, since meat is the most nutritious substance. In conditions of heavy physical exertion, such food gives the body the necessary strength. What plant and other products cannot provide.

Man is an omnivorous animal. Therefore, meat takes up a very decent share in his diet. No, you can, of course, live on all sorts of falafel, hummus, pea cutlets and soy, but this can only be done in conditions of a stable economy and relatively little physical activity. When BP comes, the number of vegans, if not completely disappear. Because it will be much easier for a person to eat something cheap, widespread and meaty than to show off his taste preferences.

But let's get back to the meat. There are many methods for processing and storing it, for example, the legendary stew. But today we will not talk about them, but about the traditional method of the American Indians, which results in a product called pemmican.

Let's start with terminology. Under classic pemmican This means a mixture of chopped dried meat, lard, spices and dried fruits. The only way. Not just dried meat, not homemade stew, not baked minced meat with internal fat. All this is the fantasy of modern culinary survivalists “on the topic”. Yes, some of this can really be taken on a hike, but most of it won’t last even a month. And the real one pemmican Can be stored for up to six months.

Actually, it was the long shelf life that became the reason that pemmican became widespread. The fact is that most of the Indian tribes led a nomadic lifestyle, which means they were directly dependent on hunting and fishing. There is prey - there is dinner. No prey - no dinner. As soon as an opportunity arose, for example, a global hunt for bison during the rut, the meat was stored for future use for as long as possible. That is why pemmican can be stored for a long time at above-zero temperatures - well, the Indians didn’t have portable freezers, so they had to improvise.

Europeans who arrived on the continent very quickly appreciated all the charm pemmican, so they adopted the recipe and began to actively use it. For example, many northern expeditions stocked up not on corned beef, the taste of which is very specific, but pemmican, which can be eaten without additional processing. Of course, it does not contain the entire spectrum of vitamins and minerals, but it is much better than nothing.

And all because, in addition to the huge shelf life, pemmican It also has an impressive calorie content, light weight and a good, although very peculiar, taste. It is best consumed as an additive to soups and broths, but the mixture can also be simply eaten.

I myself learned about pemmicans from the works of Fenimore Cooper, who very accurately conveyed some aspects of the life of the Indians of that time. In his novel The Last of the Mohicans, partly based on real events, the red population actively ate pemmican, although they had it in the form of powder, and not dense briquettes. But these are just cooking features.

This unique thing is prepared as follows:

• We take meat, preferably beef (distant relatives of bison), remove fat, films and other connective tissue, pass it through a meat grinder or finely chop it with a knife.
• The resulting minced meat is placed on a baking sheet and dried thoroughly (an electric dryer is also suitable).
• Next, grind it in a coffee grinder until smooth. Or we pound it in a mortar, as the Indians actually did.
• We take dried fruits (raisins, dried apricots, anything, and it doesn’t matter that the Indians might not have had it), grind them thoroughly or pass them through a meat grinder.
• We take lard and melt it. Preferably pork. but any other is possible. In the future we will use only the liquid fraction.
• Mix the components in the proportions of 4 parts powder, 2 parts dried fruits and one part fat.
• Stir until smooth, add salt and spices to your heart's content.
• The mixture is laid out on a baking sheet and placed under pressure for several days at a temperature of 60 degrees.
• Cut the resulting substance into portions and pack them in foil.

The result is a hard meat concentrate, in which there is practically no water and ordinary fat left. That is why pemmican can be stored at room temperature. And the foil is needed to block the access of moisture. This thing can be chewed on the go, or can be used as “broth cubes”.

The very idea of ​​preserving meat in melted fat is very common among the peoples of the world, so there are other recipes for preparing meat for future use. But we'll talk about them next time.

One of the popular methods of processing meat was invented by the ancient Indians. The modern DIY pemmican recipe has come to us in a slightly modified form, but has not lost its relevance. And this is not surprising - the consumption of meat products has always been famous for the variety of its preparation in everyday life. In the field, special tricks for its storage and processing were required, so do-it-yourself pemmican became a real discovery. It gives the body the necessary strength during heavy physical activity, and is considered one of the most nutritious nutrients.

Currently, this home sublimate is actively used by hunters and tourists. Many housewives will also be glad to learn how to prepare pemmican, especially since it is not so difficult to do.

Pemmican - DIY recipe

Freeze-dried meat is considered one of the national dishes of the indigenous peoples of North America (Figure 1). Pemmican - DIY recipe is very simple. To get 4 kg of finished product you need to take 6 kg of beef and 3 kg of lard, respectively.

Beef can be replaced with any other low-fat variety, maintaining the proportion of 2:1.

All ingredients should be boiled in a saucepan, pouring the hot mixture into half-liter bottles. This container is enough to organize a meal for a group of 10 people; its contents can be used for cereals and soups.

Do-it-yourself pemmican, compared to the stew we are used to, has a lot of advantages:

1. It is highly nutritious and quickly digestible.
2. It is light in weight and small in volume, easy to transport.
3. Retains its qualities for a long time and does not require special storage conditions.

Figure 1. Pemmican is a traditional Indian dish.

Many avid travelers prepare for trips in advance, trying to stock up on provisions and necessary equipment.

They will be happy to share their experience on how to prepare pemmican at home:

1. Fats and dietary fiber are always taken in a 2:1 ratio.
2. The lard is thoroughly rendered in a saucepan until the fat mass boils.
3. Finely chopped meat cubes are added to it.
4. This mixture is boiled for 6 hours without adding water.
5. The shot dish is carefully salted to increase its shelf life.

Classic pemmican

The traditional method is not very different from the option proposed above, if you do not take into account the fact that the Indians used buffalo meat (Figure 2).

How to prepare pemmican according to the classic recipe:

1. We take frozen meat, cut it into small pieces and put them in a pan.
2. Separately, prepare the rendered fat - pass the lard through a meat grinder and heat it in a frying pan.
3. Drain the fatty concentrate through a strainer into a separate container.
4. Mix the prepared ingredients, cubes and fat 3:1, respectively.
5. Add salt at the rate of two teaspoons per kilogram of cold cuts.
6. Pour the mixture with melted fat and evaporate the mixture on the stove for 5-6 hours.
7. Cook everything over very low heat, stirring occasionally so that the product does not burn.

Figure 2. Stages of preparing classic freeze-dried meat

As it cooks, the broth will go from being completely cloudy to clear and dark. At the end of the process, the surface will be covered with foam, 1/4 of the initial mass will remain. Transfer the dish to an airtight container, filling it to the top with fat. This way the sublimate will be suitable for use for a long time.

Pemmican recipe with dried fruits

The cooking method below is very different from its classic version. Moreover, this DIY pemmican recipe is prepared with the addition of dried fruits (Figure 3).

The dish is prepared like this:

1. We take fresh meat without veins and films, grind it twice with a meat grinder.
2. Dry the resulting minced meat in the oven for 6-7 hours at temperatures up to 100˚C.
3. Grind the finished dry mixture into powder and prepare the dried fruits.
4. Grind dried apricots, raisins and prunes, other berries as desired, into a homogeneous mass.
5. Mix both ingredients and send them to pre-rendered lard.
6. At the same time, we maintain the proportion of all products 4: 1: 2, respectively.
7. We compress the semi-finished product - place it on a baking sheet and put it under the press for a couple of days.

Figure 3. This is what pemmican with dried fruits looks like

We maintain a special temperature regime of +60˚С during the process. After this, the product will be ready for use.

Pemmican recipe for the oven

The main feature of the recipe is the presence of a strict set of ingredients, which cannot be said about the cooking method. One of them, how to prepare pemmican at home, involves using an oven (Figure 4).

Figure 4. This meat preparation can also be prepared in a conventional oven.

Melt the pork lard into fat in advance, and chop the beef and place it in small portions on a baking sheet. Fill the still life with melted fat and put it in the oven for 6-7 hours.

It is important to consider that the dish should not be baked, but only dried.

In order for the moisture to leave and be replaced by fat, the temperature should be set to less than 100˚C. The finished sublimate is carefully salted and placed in an airtight container for storage. It can also be packaged in matchbox-sized portions for brewing soups and broths.

Pemmican based on pork and beef

The modern version of the recipe has been improved for the benefit of housewives, allowing them to prepare Indian stew from several types of meat (Figure 5).

We will also learn how to prepare pemmican from pork and beef:

1. Let's take fatty pig and beef tenderloin in a ratio of 1:10.
2. Let's mince the ingredients and generously add pepper and salt to them.
3. Place the mixture on a baking sheet and place in the oven, stirring occasionally.
4. We set the temperature to allow the dish to dry, but not bake.
5. If everything is correct, the final sublimate will crumble and break easily.
6. We transfer the camp preparation into a canvas bag and protect it from moisture.

Figure 5. To prepare the dish, you can use traditional types of meat: pork and beef

Pemmican - Indian recipe

According to most scientists, the invention of the Indians is a complete, balanced food product that provides the body with all the necessary vitamins and substances. Of course, pemmican, the Indian recipe, has changed a lot over time. Different peoples had their own cooking options (Figure 6).

pemmican(inf.), in the language of the Cree Indians “pimi-okan” - “a kind of fat”) - meat food concentrate. It was used by the Indians of North America in military campaigns and hunting expeditions, as well as by polar explorers of the 19th - first half of the 20th centuries. It is characterized by easy digestibility and high nutritional value with low volume and weight. Currently used by tourists on serious routes.

Pemmican of the Indians included dried or dried chopped bison meat, as well as lard, crushed dried berries or berry juice, and sometimes spices. The result was highly nutritious food with low weight and volume, making it easier to transport. At the end of the 19th century, the compactness and versatility of pemmican attracted the attention of travelers, primarily explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic. By the beginning of the 20th century, pemmican became the main meat product of polar travelers.

Siberian hunters had their own version: a mixture of crushed crackers, salt and lard was rolled into a tight ball and dried. Such a ball could be stored in a backpack for years like NZ and was edible, even if the lard was gone.

European pemmican consisted of 40% ground meat and 60% fat. Beef was usually used to make pemmican, and less often other types of meat. Pemmican for sled dogs was also widely used, in the production of which cheap types of meat were used - seal, whale, etc. Pemmican was packaged either in hermetically sealed tin cans, or in bars packed in fabric and paper. Amundsen used Norwegian army pemmican mixed with oatmeal and dried vegetables. By the middle of the 20th century, in connection with the improvement of transport means for polar expeditions, the use of pemmican was gradually abandoned, since it was found that it still cannot be considered a complete nutrition, and a long-term pemmican diet has a harmful effect on the digestive organs and metabolism.

Cooking recipes

1. Take raw lard and meat in a 1:2 ratio, cut the lard into small cubes and heat it in a frying pan. Liquid fat and greaves are poured into a pan, and the meat is crumbled into small cubes (no larger than a fingernail). The meat is cooked in lard without adding water for 6 hours (no less) over very low heat. As a result, all the moisture from the meat is evaporated and replaced with fat. Just in case, you can play it safe and add a lot of salt to the finished pemmican. Red pepper is added at the end.
2. Take fresh meat (tenderloin without fat, veins and films), grind it through a meat grinder, dry it in a thin layer on a baking sheet, and grind it into a fine powder (for example, in a coffee grinder). It is the first of the three main components of pemmican. The second component is dried fruits ground until smooth (raisins, dried apricots, prunes, etc., you can combine what you like). The third component is melted lard (not internal fat, but subcutaneous lard). Meat powder, pureed dried fruits and melted fat are thoroughly mixed in a ratio of 4:2:1. Spices and salt are added to taste, but the resulting mixture should be strongly salted and spicy. The last stage is pressing. The finished mass is laid out in a frying pan or baking sheet in a layer of 1.5-2 cm, covered with a flat lid and placed under heavy pressure for several days at a temperature of about 60 degrees. During this time, excess fat is squeezed out along the edges of the lid, and the product itself acquires the consistency of “rhino skin.” The lid is removed, the finished product is chopped into cubes, and the cubes are packed in foil. This product is intended to be chewed on the go, but can also be used as a soup base.

Synonyms

Synonyms - charqui And vifda. In English the pemmican style- concise style, concisely expressed thought.

Notes

see also

Links

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Synonyms:

• Babsk
• Cydonia (Mars)

See what "Pemmican" is in other dictionaries:

pemmican- A concentrated nutritious food product that is light in weight and volume with a maximum content of nutrients. Consists of sun-dried, cured deer or bison meat, ground into powder and mixed... Culinary dictionary

PEMMICAN- Dried and then powdered bison meat, serving as food for hunters and travelers in the far north of America. Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with the meaning of their roots. Mikhelson A.D., 1865.… … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

pemmican- noun, number of synonyms: 2 food (183) meat (135) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary

PEMMICAN Ethnographic Dictionary

pemmican- pemmican, a type of canned food among the Indians of North America hardened paste from sun-dried and powdered deer or bison meat, mixed with melted fat and crushed berries... Encyclopedia "Peoples and Religions of the World"

PEMMICAN- A concentrated nutritious food product that is light in weight and volume with a maximum content of nutrients. Consists of sun-dried, cured deer or bison meat, ground into powder and... ... Great Encyclopedia of Culinary Arts

Pemmican- a type of canned food among the Indians of North America, a hardened paste made from sun-dried and powdered deer or bison meat, mixed with melted fat and crushed berries... Ethnographic Dictionary

Pemmican- (English pemmican, borrowed from the languages ​​of the Algonquin Indians) briquettes of dried and powdered deer or bison meat mixed with fat and juice of sour berries. Invented by the Indians of the North of North America, who kept P. in... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Pemmican- canned meat prepared from venison using a method borrowed from the Indians of North America. Used on expeditions in the Arctic Ocean (Nansen) ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

PEMMICAN- a type of canned food among the Indians of North America, a hardened paste made from sun-dried and powdered deer or bison meat, mixed with melted fat and crushed berries... Dictionary of ethnographic terms

There are probably a couple hundred recipes for pemmican. Some people think that it is just dried meat, others that it is a mixture of fat, meat and sour berries, etc.

In general, the recipe for pemmican goes back to the Indians; this is how they stored meat for the winter. The result was food with an approximate balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Those. it was possible to live on pemmican, and the addition of dried fruits served as a prevention of vitamin deficiency, and in particular scurvy.

Having sifted through quite a large amount of information on the Internet, I settled on a recipe that included meat, dried fruits and fat in approximately equal shares. Now I will tell you what came of all this.

I used chicken as meat. To make pemmican, it must be dried.

I chopped the chicken breast into mince

I put it in the dryer and dried it overnight at 70 degrees.

The resulting dry meat

I ground it in a coffee grinder to a powder.

Dried fruits (and I had dried apricots and prunes) turned in a meat grinder

Thoroughly mixed the meat powder with dried fruits and again passed through a meat grinder for homogeneity.

And crushed it with a coffee grinder. Add salt and pepper mixture to the resulting mixture

He was drowned on low heat

And I poured fat into the mixture (I probably made a mistake here, I poured hot fat, maybe I should have let it cool).

The resulting “dough” was thoroughly mixed

I lightly compressed it and put it in the refrigerator under pressure.

I took it out in the morning and cut it into pieces

The result was food with a rich, unique, but quite pleasant taste.
Pemmican can be consumed like this, or it can be added to soups and porridges (the gluttony of this same empty porridge or pasta will increase significantly).
Pemmican can be stored for six months.

Bon appetit.!