Pemmican

Powdered Dehydrated Beef

Pseudopemmican

A simplified modern version of the historical cold-weather survival food.

• very long room temperature shelf life
• air-free & water-free: maximize nutrition, waste no volume or mass
• still soft enough to chew if eaten when frozen
• carb-free
• plant-free

• 3 parts powdered dehydrated 96%/4% beef
• 2 parts beef tallow

Ratios are by mass. The yield from 100g total mass is the size of a large candy bar.

• food scale (recommended)
• non-stick pan
• mold (tupperware, silicone candy bar mold, etc)
• mixing bowl + spoon or other stirring implement

1. On low heat, melt the tallow in the non-stick pan.
2. Put the powdered beef in the mixing bowl.
3. When the tallow is fully liquified and clear, pour it into the beef powder and mix it until no dry beef powder remains.
4. Pour the mixture into the mold.
5. Let it cool and solidify, or freeze it (frozen bars may maintain their shape better during vacuum sealing).

100g pemmican bar: 660 kcals, 50g protein

• The 3:2 ratio was chosen to homogenize the mixture based on the granularity of powdered beef I tend to make: adding more than 40% tallow may result in a top layer of pure tallow after the pemmican mixture cools and solidifies. Generally, powdering the beef to finer granularity should increase the amount of tallow it will homogenize with.
• This procedure can be pretty inefficient the first few times, and working with tallow can be messy (after all, it is pure solid fat). In practice, I tend to use two approaches:
  1. I mix 600g of pemmican mixture in a mixing bowl, then use a multi-bar silicone mold and make batches of 10x ~60g bars. These are roughly candy bar sized, have ~380kcals, and are suitable for giving to people to try or for vacuum sealing with many in one bag.
  2. I use rectangular ziploc food containers as molds and mix the beef and tallow right in them, making 200g super-bars. These bars have 1320kcals and 101g protein: two of them make a very efficient full-day ration.
• This recipe intentionally does not add salt. I find that pouring salt (or other seasonings) on the pemmican as I eat it tastes better than mixing it in, and allows the individual consumer of the pemmican to decide how much sodium they want. If desired, salt and/or spices could be added to this recipe.

For pemmican and pseudopemmican, I use a FoodSaver vacuum sealer. After vacuum sealing, I store them at room temperature and I've never noticed any variation in taste or quality over many months of storage. I've never seen them go bad, so I'm not sure what the shelf life is, but it's probably measured in years.

• 96% lean / 4% fat ground beef

• food thermometer (recommended)
• a way to cook ground beef:
  • stove + pan + etc
  • oven + baking sheet + etc
• a way to dehydrate cooked ground beef:
  • oven + baking sheet + etc
  • food dehydrator
• a way to powder the dehydrated beef
  • a blender

1. Cook the ground beef, making sure the internal temperature exceeds 165F.
   • stovetop (use high heat): a 10-inch pan can fit 2lbs of raw ground beef
   • oven (400F, ~35min): a standard half sheet pan can fit 4lbs of raw ground beef
2. Dehydrate the ground beef:
   1. If you have a dehydrator: run at 160F for 10-15hrs, until the largest chunks are powder-dry in the center.
   2. If you don't have a dehydrator, you can use an oven at 160F (or higher, mine only goes down to 170F) with the oven door slightly ajar. Bake until the largest chunks are powder-dry in the center; this may take 5-10 hours, depending on the amount of beef.
3. Powder the beef: put it in the blender on its highest setting and blend until powdered.

• While/after cooking, breaking the beef up into small/thin pieces may help with dehydration.
• Dehydrated beef pieces make a pretty good popcorn-like snack, and the powder can be added to other foods.
• Once dehydrated, the beef can be stored for a while before powdering and/or use in making pemmican. I store dehydrated beef in the refrigerator, but it's probably shelf stable for weeks (at least) without refrigeration.
• I recommend only using an oven for dehydration as an initial test: if you decide you want to make lots of this, getting a dehydrator is a good idea. Running an oven with its door open for hours probably uses a huge amount of power and will heat your kitchen up. I use a NESCO FD-75A dehydrator: it was $65, and a 12-hour run at 160F only uses about 4 KWH of power.

A whey protein powder -based variant of pemmican

Like pemmican:

• very long room temperature shelf life
• air-free & water-free: maximize nutrition, waste no volume or mass

But different:

• thick bars are harder to chew if eaten when frozen
• contains small amounts of carbs and plant products
• lots of different delicious flavors
• almost like ice cream when eaten cold

• 1 part whey protein powder
• 1 part beef tallow

Ratios are by mass. The yield from 100g total mass is the size of a large candy bar.

• food scale (recommended)
• non-stick pan
• mold (tupperware, silicone candy bar mold, etc)
• mixing bowl + spoon or other stirring implement

1. On low heat, melt the tallow in the non-stick pan.
2. Put the whey protein powder in the mixing bowl.
3. When the tallow is fully liquified and clear, pour it into the whey protein powder and mix it until no dry powder remains.
4. Pour the mixture into the mold.
5. Let it cool and solidify, or freeze it (frozen bars may maintain their shape better during vacuum sealing).

100g pseudopemmican bar: 645 kcals, 39g protein (varies slightly with protein powder type/brand)

• The 1:1 ratio was chosen to homogenize the mixture based on the granularity of typical whey protein powder: adding more than 50% tallow may result in a top layer of pure tallow after the pemmican mixture cools and solidifies. The specific brand and flavor of whey protein powder may affect the texture and consistency of the pseudopemmican: I have had good results with Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey.
• Pseudopemmican was an experiment that I only intended to try once, but it turned out so well that I now make it as often as pemmican.
• I generally choose whey protein powder flavors that would also be good ice cream flavors. Some brands and flavors don't taste particularly good, have a strange texture, or end up crumbly and hard to eat. Buying a small sample pack before committing to a giant tub of protein powder you've never used before is a good idea.
• In practice, pseudopemmican is easier, faster, and less expensive to make than pemmican. If you find flavors that you like, pseudopemmican may be the superior choice.