Re: help! drying blueberries (pemmican)

[Guest guest]

I have made pemmican several times. First I made it just with plain

meat and tallow. That doesn't have much taste. Then I tried making

the jerky flavored with tamari, garlic and ginger. That was better

and not bad. Then I tried it with plain meat plus an equal amount

of dried fruit, and that was sweet enough to be good. FYI, I found

it better to use more tallow than the 3/4 cup in the NT recipe. The

best proportions I found were approximately equal volume of dried,

coarse ground meat (use a blender) and dried fruit and a little less

tallow. If you don't use enough tallow it's pretty crumbly.

Currants work good for the fruit because they're already small and

don't need grinding. When you dry the meat, don't overdry or it

will be like eating wood (like a very dry piece of jerky). It

should be chewable like a good piece of jerky. Once recipe I read

says dry only until the red is gone. I also tried using ground beef

as well as Diestel ground turkey. Those worked too and the Diestel

turkey sausage gave an interesting taste.

--- In , Heidi Schuppenhauer >

> As for pemmican ... I'd advise making a small batch for starters

> to see if you like it. So far the results we've heard here

> have been rather " mixed " ... I never could get a batch good

> enough that people liked to eat it, so I switched to using

> coconut oil, nuts, raisins, cocoa powder, and coconut for making

> a high-fat snack, and kefir-soaked beef to make jerky (recipe in

> the files section) for protein.

>

> -- Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

Thanks ! I was thinking of making jerky with ground meat since i'm

going to pulverize it anyway. The Garden of Eating recipe says to grind the

dried meat to a powder. They call for 1.5 cups liquid tallow, 4.5 cups

powdered meat and 1 cup dried berries. I think i will definitely marinade

the meat in something tasty first and will add more berries like you

suggest.

Elaine

> I have made pemmican several times. First I made it just with plain

> meat and tallow. That doesn't have much taste. Then I tried making

> the jerky flavored with tamari, garlic and ginger. That was better

> and not bad. Then I tried it with plain meat plus an equal amount

> of dried fruit, and that was sweet enough to be good. FYI, I found

> it better to use more tallow than the 3/4 cup in the NT recipe. The

> best proportions I found were approximately equal volume of dried,

> coarse ground meat (use a blender) and dried fruit and a little less

> tallow. If you don't use enough tallow it's pretty crumbly.

> Currants work good for the fruit because they're already small and

> don't need grinding. When you dry the meat, don't overdry or it

> will be like eating wood (like a very dry piece of jerky). It

> should be chewable like a good piece of jerky. Once recipe I read

> says dry only until the red is gone. I also tried using ground beef

> as well as Diestel ground turkey. Those worked too and the Diestel

> turkey sausage gave an interesting taste.