Pemmican is basically very dry jerkey in powdered form mixed one to one with fat. I have had some made with bear grease, and quite frankly, your pemmican stash will be quite safe if you do it this way and I am not refering to its storage properties. It would come in very handy for feeding freeloaders you want to get rid of.

You can get powdered beef and pork in China town if you want to try making a bit for experimental reasons without a lot of work.

I have made pemmican and have tried a couple of different recipes. Nice lean beef and rendered beef fat is ok. It is better if you add in some dried blueberries. You can also use honey instead of beef fat. Bison is supposed to be good to but I haven't tried it yet. Beef and beef fat from grass fed animals is better. Having eaten bear on more than one occasion I can fully understand why it sight stay on the shelf for a long time if you used bear fat!

Pemmican was invented by the North American Plains Indians. Pemmican is a complete food and can be eaten for months or years as the only food , no nutritional deficiencies will develop. One thing to bear in mind is that the meat should be dehydrated at a temperature lower than your dehydrator instructions will suggest. Temperatures above 120 deg F. will “cook” the meat and will severely compromise the nutritional value of the pemmican. Most legislation and local health codes pertaining to cooked meat will require a temperature of above 150 deg F. Dehydrating meat products does not reduce the health risks associated with meat contaminated with Salmonella and/or E. coli O157H7. So there are some considerations that you must take into account.

As a complete food that will last many years without refrigeration if stored correctly is something that I think preppers should consider.

ICRCC,
yet another good post, thanks

I think I have to agree with OddDuck. I've made pemmican before, using both traditional and non traditional methods and additions. It is a true survival food. It lasts a long time, has a very high calorie count, and like any true survival food, it is eaten only as an item of last resort. It is not a food designed to be tasty, just efficient.

5lbsof lean roast
2 lb of beef fat/trimmings.

(optional) a handful or two of whatever fruit you want, dried to the point it breaks easily.

slice the roast as thin as you can, and dehydrate the meat, either in the oven on its lowest setting or the lowest setting of your dehydrator until it's crispy. When you flex a piece, it should break, not bend. 5 pounds of meat should get you about 1 pound of dried meat.

You can use a mortar and pestle to break the meat up into powder, but the food processor also does an excellent job with alot less effort. pile the meat into the processor, and pulse it until it's powder. Set aside and repeat for the dried fruit.

Render the beef fat on low heat, stirring so it doesn't burn. Once the fat has been fully rendered, strain it to remove the crispy bits that are left over.

Mix the fat with the meat powder a little at a time. The finished ratio should be about 1:1, but you don't want to add too much or it will be a sticky mess. Fold the fruit powder into the mix during the process as well.

Traditionally, pemmican is stored in rawhide pouches, but plastic bags work just fine. Another storage method I found that works wonderfully are sausage skins. Mix up a batch of pemmican sausages, and hang somewhere cool and dry just like you would with a regular sausage.