Over at the ZIOH forum a member by the name of Ken, whom I'm lucky enough to have comment here, brought up the idea of dry aging meat for a more robust taste.

From Ken and the other forum members, I learned that when dry aging beef we want to accomplish two things; evaporate the moisture from the muscle (creating a greater concentration of flavor) and instigate enzyme break down, leading to more tender beef.

Things get very interesting several pages in the thread when Delfuego chimes in. Before I start putting words in their mouths, lets read the exchange.

Delfuego To Ken - "Thanks so much for all the info on dry-aging! Tried it with pemmican and have been very impressed with the results! Right after your first few posts on the process I thawed out 3 large primal rounds and set them on racks in our frig. I watched as the outsides of the roasts dried out - so far so good, after all I was going to eventually dry the meat for pemmican!

My main interest was toward the inside of the round - was it breaking down enough? I was hoping for lots of enzyme action and a noticeable effect on the muscle tissue. I wasn't disappointed! After the roasts had sat for three weeks, I sliced up 2 of the rounds and to my utter delight the meat was absolutely breaking down - so much so, that the thinner slices weren't able to hang from the wooden skewers I use in my pemmican light box dehydrator! This once tough, heavily muscled, thickly fibered roast had deteriorated to next to nothing!

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I'm not sure there's a day that goes by that I don't tackle the question of how to improve upon my pemmican production. Considering most viewers of this site are interested in the same topic (here and here), I thought it would be beneficial to share some more tips that I've gathered over time.

Dehydrating The Meat

I believe the dehydration process to be the biggest factor affecting the outcome of the taste of pemmican. I've found that higher temperatures (115F-120F) cause pemmican to have a "jerky-like bite". Daredevil friends of mine that have taste tested this type of pemmican find it to be a lot more agreeable than pemmican dehydrated at lower temperatures. I would guess that the "jerky-like bite" adds a salty taste that is missing from meat dehydrated at lower temperatures.

Meat dehydrated at lower temperatures (95-110F) has what I would describe to be a mellow, more subtle taste. After much experimentation, I've found that I favor lower temperatures for producing pemmican. It takes a few more days to finish the drying process, but I find the mellow taste to be easier to eat; bypassing the sometimes harsh taste of pemmican dehydrated at higher temperatures.

Keep in mind this is purely a taste issue! Try both and see what you prefer. Above all else, make sure the meat is dry enough to snap in half and contains no moisture.

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The only other pemmican I've ever had the luxury of trying was Lex Rooker's. Lex's pemmican is unbelievably good. I would describe the taste and consistency as bold and hearty. Unlike most other pemmican enthusiasts, Lex doesn't grind the meat too fine, there are often large chunks of dried jerky in the finished product. Lex also prefers to use straight suet, which holds up well under different temperatures, and pleases me since I dig the candle wax texture.

Just recently Delfuego, a gentleman that has been eating an all pemmican diet for the last 7 years, announced that he would be selling off a stockpile that he had laying around. When I read this on the ZIOH forum I immediately rushed over to a computer so I could take advantage of Delfuego's offer.

Delfuego shipped out the pemmican almost immediately and it came a few days later. Delfuego's pemmican is excellent. I won't lie, It took a little getting used to, but at about the third day I was consuming ~18 ounces per day. His pemmican differs from Lex's and mine by the dry meat being pulverized into dust. This gives the pemmican an almost candy bar like chew, it's quite good.

In keeping with my commitment to being a good weblogger, I took pictures when Delfuego's shipment arrived. Enjoy, thanks again Delfuego!

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A couple of members of the ZIOH message board have asked me how to exact proper fat to lean ratios for pemmican making. If you're into this kind of thing, I have attached a "pemmican calculator" spreadsheet that will easily help you find the proper amounts of fat to lean to make your desired ratio. I use this handy tool every time I make a batch. Hopefully it's as helpful to you as it is to me.

Pemmicancalculator.xls (Excel, Numbers)

Next up is Charles Washington's new ZIOH video on why exercise is not the answer for weight loss. Check it out and tell him and others what you think.

*I would have posted the video here, but I seem to be having some trouble with the format. Follow the link above.

Let me start by forewarning my valued reader that the goal of this post is to compare suet and muscle fat from under a nutritional lens. I will not campaign at the conclusion that one shouldn't be eaten since there are many accounts of healthy people surviving on either with excellent health. I will invoke my personal experience in the matter with my metabolically challenged, carbohydrate damaged, 24 year old body.

The shaky foundation of this post rests with the information from Nutritiondata.com. I can find no other internet source that specifies the vitamin, mineral and EFA (essential fatty acid) content in each fat. Another problem with the comparison is evaluating rendered muscular fat and un-rendered raw suet. We can also assume that the nutrition facts reflect the vitamin, mineral and EFA status of a grain fed cow, not a grass fed cow, which would be richer in all categories.

With all this in mind, it should still be a fun post. I've switched between the two fats for pemmican making and have had moderate experience with both of them. My feeling on each fat is purely anecdotal and hopefully some information can be extrapolated by the reader.

Suet & Muscle Fat

Suet and muscle fat are both forms of animal fat that can be rendered - a process that separarates the fats from other organic materials. When rendered, both fats adopt the name "tallow". Suet, a harder fat, comes from the kidneys and the loins of the animal whereas muscular fat, a softer fat, comes from in-between the muscles. Both forms of fat are extremely stable, due to their high saturation and low levels of polyunsaturated fats.

Tallow and saturated animal fats in general have been mal-aligned with poor health for the last half decade. Due to some unscrupulous research, the term "artery-clogging saturated fat" has become ubiquitous with the publics perception of poor health. Luckily my readers and those seeking honest answers don't always accept conventional dietary wisdom. By examining our own bodies, we find that our body fat is saturated. How could mother nature take such a wrong turn? Head over to Mark's Daily Apple if you're interested in a great overview behind the saturated fat myth.

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When Lex Rooker offered me the chance to rebuild his older motorized meat grinder, I nearly passed out with enthusiasm. The thought of not having to spend time stuffing my VitaMix with jerky and then subsequently shaking it to get the jam out, would be useful in my goal to produce pemmican more efficiently. My excitement came to fruition after two days of hardwork and a newfound appreciation of the art form known as milling.

The first day was completely consumed by measuring and milling a solid steel riser that sits under the motor. The risers job was to align the motor with the Chop Rite meat grinder. Milling the steel was not only messy and loud, but it took a lot of patience and precision. All in all, it took about six straight hours of work.

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I was inspired once again to chronicle my experience of making pemmican from start to finish. Why? Because I was trying out Slanker's Grass Fed Meat. The last time I tried this combo of eye of round and suet I was left licking my fingers because of how good it was. Lex, having shown me exactly how he makes his pemmican, made me want to see if I could emulate the recipe and taste. I have learned quite a few things since my first pemmican adventure.

In case you are not familiar with Pemmican, here is an excerpt from Ray Audette's Neanderthin.

Many aboriginal North Americans and European explorers ate an exclusive raw meat diet in the form of pemmican. This high energy food is produced by mixing extremely dried and powdered raw lean meat and hard animal fat in a one to one ratio. *Eighty-five percent of the calories in pemmican are derived from fat, making it the closest nutritional equivalent to human mother's milk. Pemmican will keep for decades without refrigeration and sustain a person without vitamin deficiency (scurvy, beriber, etc.) indefinitely. It provides those who eat it with very high energy from very little consumption (1/2 to 1 1/2 pounds per day if eaten exclusively). Because pemmican is almost entirely absorbed by the body (without the assistance from intestinal bacteria), very little waste results from digestion (one sixth normal solid waste). The benefits of pemmican and other native foods so impressed the polar explorer Vilhjamur Stefansson that he adopted the Inuit diet in his early twenties and kept to it nearly his entire life (he died at age eighty-three).

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Updated on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 10:24PM by Danny Roddy

Pemmican is a concentrated mixture of fat and protein used throughout history as a nutritious foodstuff.It was invented by the native peoples of North America. It was widely adopted as a high-energy food by Europeans involved in the fur trade and later by Arctic and Antarctic explorers.

It is different from beef jerky by adding a ratio of approximately 50% dried meat and 50% melted fat. Like jerky, pemmican can be stored for really long periods of time.

My pemmican adventure started after seeing a post on the Charles Washington's Zero Carb Forum. It also helped that Grant got me a dehydrator for Christmas. After all the pieces fell into place, I really didn't have a reason not to.

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