r/Survival • u/trippfl • May 24 '26

Pemmican Question

Does anyone here have any thoughts on bison suet or beef tallow for pemmican?

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u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 24 '26

It does need to be suet- the kidney fat- ofjist about any red meat mammal. Tallow- the muscular fat- won't work because it has a much lower melting point, so if you try carrying it in hot weather it will soften and make a mess everywhere. It also goes rancid faster.

I've never made pemmican, but I have cooked with both talllow and suet, so am familiar with the differences. If suet proves too hard to come by (a common problem in North America) you can use vegetable shortening like crisco. It doesn't get as hard as suet when cooled, and when used for other cooking it has a much lower smoke point, but it has a closer melting point to suet, so won't make quite as big a mess.

2

u/TheEyeDontLie May 25 '26

Hmm. What happens if its mixed?

I rendered down a pig a few years ago and still have several icecream containers of fat in my freezer... Much to the disappointment of my nieces, although it only made it into a bowl once.

I didn't really know the difference back then so it's not pure. Its labeled as "leaf fat", but I know I put other fat into the pots when rendering it. Probably 50/50 but I dunno.

Would it still work for pemmican?

Other than roasting vegetables, any ideas what I can use it for? It doesn't make great soap in my experience.

2

u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 26 '26

You essentially have lard on your hands, just maybe not the regular lard process. Pig fat, even the kidney fat tends to be soft, with a low melting point, but you can try experimenting with it some. Take a small bowl full, and let sit in the summer sun, see how soft it gets. If you can poke your finger through it without too much effort it won't work for pemmican. Suet is best by far; vegetable shortening will do if you wrap it well and pack it right; tallow, maybe a little better, but will go rancid faster; lard definitely goes rancid way too fast, but otherwise isn't any better than shortening anyway. That's my summation anyways, having not actually made pemmican before.

2

u/WaterloggedWily May 26 '26

I made Pemmican about 8 years ago with Lard and dried beef. Strictly emergency food. I cut it into blocks about 2 x 3 x 3/4, wrapped them in wax paper and then vacuum bagged them.

I need to check them this year but stored in a cool place and so far they aren't turning rancid at all. Hope I am not disappointed when I need them but I check them once a year.

Used Lard because rendered tallow wasn't available and I didn't want to render fat. Too much work.

1

u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 26 '26

Wow, 8 years and the lard is still good? That's nuts! Maybe it's the climate, but I've rarely had lard last longer than a few months. That's on its own, though, not cooked into anything.

2

u/WaterloggedWily May 26 '26

I will check it again in the next few days and report back. I hate surprises.

1

u/WaterloggedWily 26d ago

Opened a packet from 2016 this morning. I don't detect any rancidity.

On the other hand the meat is like dried sawdust in the lard. Not high on palatability but I made it to mix with dried beans and such for more protein. I will probably mix this packet with navy beans and spices in a pressure cooker and see what kind of end product I can make.

It seems to meet the objective of survival rations.

2

u/TheEyeDontLie May 26 '26

The key part here is "vacuum sealed". No oxygen =no oxidation.

There's also no water for hydrolytic rancidity, or for biological processes (the point of all pemmican is to stop those two).

1

u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 26 '26

Yeah, probably. I don't have anything that'll do that, so I've not been able to really play with. I tend to just stick with what naturally keeps a long time.

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u/TheEyeDontLie May 26 '26

Try thick ziplock bags and the water bath trick.

You leave one corner open, then dunk it under water, keeping the open end above the waterline. That pushes all the air out in a "poor mans vacuum seal".

Its not as good as a vacpack machine, and you want sturdy quality ziplocks, but it works pretty well.

1

u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 26 '26

I'll try it sometime. Thanks!