Pemmican- The Original Spam

The bread of the Wilderness. The Super Food. Pemmican. Pemmican is a 1:1 mixture of powdered jerky and animal fat. That’s it at least for a true recipe. Eventually, dried berries were added. From there a little honey and salt.
Pemmican was used by American Indians and European explorers to sustain health during long excursions and in times of famine. A bison, for example, was killed. The meat was dried and powdered. It was important to remove all the water. The animal’s hide was prepared and formed into pillow case sized storage bags (for lack of a better word). The powdered meat was placed into the bag. The fat of the animal was melted and poured onto the jerky. The two were mixed until the fat was no longer liquid. Each bag weighed approximately 90 lbs.

Since all of the water has been removed from the lean meat, the original recipe could be stored for up to 20 years without refrigeration. This made it excellent to use for long expeditions or to store for a time of need. You can sustain on a pemmican only diet without developing any type of condition caused by malnourishment or vitamin deficiency. It’s extremely calorie dense with about 70% of calories from fat. Don’t run screaming. Remember fat is your friend especially pastured animal fat.
I buy Pemmican from Wellness Meats (http://www.grasslandbeef.com). They have a version with honey and dried cherries, and one without. You can buy both versions with or without salt. Their pemmican bars contain 45% tallow and 55% dried jerky. An entire 3.2 oz bar contains about 380-400 calories with 20 grams of protein. The cherry/honey version contains 4 grams of carbohydrate for you carb counters.

Wellness Meats has a pemmican blog (http://blog.grasslandbeef.com/bid/40499/Pemmican). They explain that their pemmican does have a shelf life:
“We are using a Cherokee recipe but the reason we have limited shelf life is our processor is unable to grind air dry pemmican with his equipment. The processor is leaving more moisture than the Native Americans in order to grind the jerky without damage to the grinding equipment. The Native Americans removed all the moisture and their product was shelf stable. We have a test batch dated October 10, 2009 and it is still ok in December 2010. Many have asked for shelf stable pemmican, and we have encouraged our processor to update to a better grinder soon.”
Pemmican isn’t something that I can eat a lot of quickly. For me it’s a nibble food. Some people eat it with fruit. Others use it to cook their eggs. I can see melting it over veggies or a sweet potato. Time to experiment! Remy took some plain pemmican and added cinnamon. I added a dot of honey to her cinnamon, and I was eating heaven!

We'll miss you, Troy!! Come back to visit!

Pemmican is my household’s new go to snack. My husband takes a bar to work each day. My daughter and I share about half of a bar daily. It doesn’t take a lot to fill you up. We love this stuff! There is no sugar high, and no insulin spike. Your blood sugar, hormones and mood stay even keel. Your body knows what to do with almost every morsel. It will nourish, fill and satisfy you.
I recently purchased a bulk pack of the plain version and the cherry/honey version. Let me know if you want to try a bar. I have a few at the gym for sale. Nom-nom-nom!

Workout of the Day 12/13/2011

B. 5 Rounds:
45s. Power Snatches (95/65), 15s. Rest
45s. Row for Calories (If a rower is not available, sub 1 burpee/10m rowing), 15s. Rest
45s. Wall Balls (20/16), 15s. Rest

Advanced:
3 Rounds of above

Fundamentals 12/13/2011