Pemmican:

The Indigenous Sausage

(Rough draft, incomplete)

            The Native People of the temperate and northern regions of America developed a high-energy fast food that is easily transportable and long-storing. We know it as pemmican, or pimikan in the Algonquin languages. The term is derived from pimii, the Cree-Chippewa word for fat. This is quite appropriate labeling, because fat, a concentrated energy source, is the most important ingredient.

            We are all generally familiar with pemmican already, as it is basically sausage. It is a mixture of dried shredded or pounded meat, usually ungulate (Bison, Elk, Deer), and lard (solid rendered fat), usually ungulate also, which is combined and compressed into cakes.

            Pemmican is made by first separating the fat and meat from each other so that they can be processed individually. Meat is best preserved by drying, and fat by rendering. If there is fat in the meat, or vice versa, either could spoil. However, once each is prepared they can be mixed together and the resulting product will have good keeping quality. For travel it is tightly packed in sealed containers (similar to stuffing sausage in casing) so that it will not rancidify.

            The popular understanding is that pemmican contains fruit. This is a misconception that may have arisen from the practice of some Natives of making a treat for their children by mixing together fruit and dry meat. Historically, a small amount of dried fruit (such as juneberries) was on occasion added, more for flavor than for its nutritional contribution. Indications are that sweet pemmican was probably no more popular than was sweet sausage in the Euro-American tradition. The practice of adding fruit to pemmican became commonplace with nonnatives, who in my estimation were probably accommodating their acculturated taste for flavor additives in their sausages.

            Fat is the primary ingredient in pemmican because fat has nearly 2 ½ times the energy of complex carbohydrates (which are starch, as found in grains and tubers), sugars or meat. This is important in travel and cold weather because a lot of energy is needed without overloading the system with bulky foods. Another benefit of fat is that it digests slowly, providing steady energy over a long period of time. Sugars break down rapidly, giving a quick energy peak, then a valley. Carbohydrates fare a bit better, yet nowhere near fat. Meat in excess of what is needed to rebuild muscle is broken down and converted to energy, however it requires more water than other energy foods and may carry health risks (see sidebar).

            Fat is more necessary than meat in northern diet. As a traditional North Country travel and winter ration, pemmican needed to sustain life and provide energy, sometimes on its own. Northern greenhorn explorers have died trying to live on lean meat. Some Inuit Peoples’ winter diets consist of almost half fat. Recently a woman crossed the continent of Antarctica on foot, consuming pure olive oil (a liquid fat) for energy.

Make Your Own

            In making pemmican, we are basically disassembling and reassembling the meat. Fresh meat rots quickly; once the flesh and fat are separated and processed, each in the way that works best for it, they can be reassembled and will remain preserved for an extended period. Pemmican is quite easy to make and a variety of ingredients can be used. Following is my step-by-step preferred method; feel free to substitute meats and fat sources. In doing so the most important guidelines to keep in mind are to be sure your meat is lean and completely dry, and to use rendered fat that will not melt (such as the fat of ungulates) while the pemmican is being stored and used.

1. Dry the meat. Choose a warm, dry, sunny period and start early in the day to take full advantage of available drying time. I prefer large chunks (like thigh and shoulder -- see Photo1) of meat that are already quite lean, like summer venison. If such is not available, clean all visible fat and connective tissue from the meat, then slice as thinly as possible, preferably across the grain (dries faster that way), as in Photo 2, and place on a drying rack in full sunlight(see Photo 3). If yours is a warm dry climate, you may be able to keep your slices 1/4 inch thick and get them dry in a day. If your area is humid, slice as thinly as possible.

            It’s best to get the meat dry in one day, to lessen the chance of spoilage. Test for dryness by bending each piece, particularly where thick. Those needing more drying time will be rubbery; those dry enough will be brittle and crack. Take them indoors so they do not reabsorb moisture overnight. They are best kept refrigerated.

            If conditions are not ideal for drying, use a supplemental fire, has shown in Photo 4.             What you are creating here is jerky, which can be stored and consumed as-is, but it is not a complete food because it does not contain fat. Do not try to live on it! Natives will either use jerky as an ingredient in a complete meal, or will use it to make pemmican.

2. Grind the meat Use a commercial grinder, or pulverize, as Natives would.

3. Render the fat Follow guidelines in Rendering chapter.

4. Combine meat and fat, in a ratio of about two parts meat to one part fat.

5. Pack in airtight containers Cleaned intestine, bark, glass or plastic containers can be used.

6. Store in a cool, dry, dark place

Sidebar 

            A word of caution: Pemmican is a concentrated food that is best consumed sparingly, when you are active, and not for an extended period of time. Consumption of hard fat can be unhealthy for sedentary people, and protein overconsumption can overload the body with uric acid (which may lead to gout) and calcium oxalate (the mineral which forms kidney stones). Ketones may also build up in the system, causing kidney damage. (A sign of protein overconsumption is ketone breath, which smells like nail polish or overripe pineapple.) Digestion of protein also

Fish Pemmican

            Nokahigan is the Ojibwe term for pemmican made from dry, smoked fish (which they call nameteg). In the North Country where I live, nameteg is often made from Suckers, though Whitefish are preferred.

            When the fish is cleaned to be dried, the bellies are cut out, because they are fatty and will go rancid and spoil the nokahigan. Also, fat – a precious commodity – is processed separately (see fat chapter).

First step: Prepare and smoke

1. Gut and behead.

2. Cut inside of fish, along spine, so that it will lay flat.

3. Pierce through tail section with sharp stick.

4. Hang over smudge fire, side-by-side like clothing on hangers. Leave enough room between the fish so that the smoke can circulate around them.

5. Lay a bark sheet over the top of the fish to retain the smoke.

Second step: Fry and process

1. When adequately smoked (check by breaking one open in thickest part to see if smoke has penetrated all the way through), heat in frying pan to drive out remaining moisture.

2. Break up and pick out bones.

3. Flake meat.

4. Pack tightly in containers and seal.

5. Store in a cool, dark, dry place.

Photo Captions

Photo 1. The shoulder and thigh have large, easy- to- slice muscles.

Photo 2. Filet from the bones and, with a sharp knife, slice into thin steaks, across the grain.

Then slice steaks into two- finger wide strips. Partially frozen meat slices more easily.

Photo 3. Hang to dry in a warm, dry, breezy location. Avoid low areas (possible humidity

pocket).

Photo 4. Radiant heat is more desirable than flame, so let the fire burn down to coals before

placing the rack over it. Keep the fire only large enough to provide warmth and air movement, as we do not want to cook the meat. Traditionally, the goal was to dry rather than smoke the meat. Smoky meat reflected upon the skill of the fire tender.