Have you had bison meat before? I recently tried it for the first time when I learned how to make bison pemmican.

What Is Pemmican?

Pemmican is a Native American survival food that is high-energy, high-calorie, but low-volume. Native Americans used a variety of meat to make pemmican including bison, deer, moose, elk, and salmon. For the Plains Indians who lived on the vast grasslands between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains in today’s United States and Canada, bison was a primary source of meat.

How Native Americans Made Pemmican

To make pemmican, Native Americans ground dried meat into powder and mixed it with rendered animal fat and bone marrow. Occasionally, dried berries like Saskatoon berries and cranberries were added. The natives packed the pemmican tightly into bags made of bison hide for use when hunting or traveling. The fat helps preserve the food by sealing the meat from the air. Because of the sealing qualities of the melted marrow and fat, pemmican stays fresh for long periods of time.

What Does “Pemmican” Mean?

The word “pemmican” comes from the indigenous language Cree name for the food “pimihkaan” which literally means make grease. Not all native American tribes refer to it as pemmican. For example, the Lakota people of the Dakotas call it “wasna.”

Native American Women’s Role in Pemmican-making.

Native American women played a significant role in pemmican making. While men were likely the major labor in bison hunting, women were responsible for preparing meats, fats, and cutting up bison skin for making pemmican bags. Women offered butchery skills to slice meat into thin strips and spread the meat out on wooden racks to be smoked or dried by the sun. They also helped to collect choke, saskatoon, and other berries in season to add to pemmican.

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Pemmican was a very versatile survival food. Voyageurs sometimes ate it raw like an energy bar when cooking was difficult. When the condition allows, they cooked up pemmican into a soup or stew called rubaboo. 

Pemmican Recipe Based on Paul Kane’s Journal

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My pemmican recipe is based on the historical account of Paul Kane, who was an Irish-Canadian artist. Kane travelled through the Canadian northwest twice in the 1840s. On both trips, he painted the landscape of the Canadian northwest and the lives of indigenous people. In 1859 he had his travel journals published in the book Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America From Canada to Vancouver’s Island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. In the book, he describes the process of making what he called “pimmi-kon,”

“The thin slices of dried meat are pounded between two stones until the fibers separate; about 50lbs. of this are put into a bag of buffalo skin with about 40lbs. of melted fat, and mixed together while hot, and sewed up, forming a hard and compact mass; hence its name in the Cree language, pimmi signifying meat, and kon, fat. Each cart brings home ten of these bags, and all that the half-breeds do not require for themselves is eagerly bought by the Company, for the purpose of sending to the more distant posts, where food is scarce. One pound of this is considered equal to four pounds of ordinary meat, and the pimmi-kon keeps for years perfectly good exposed to any weather.”

How the Métis’ Made and Use Pemmican

According to Kane’s description, the “half-breeds” made the pemmican and sold what they didn’t need to a fur trade company. “Half-breeds” here refer to the decedents of European fur traders and indigenous women. They self-identify as the métis which in French meaning people of mixed ancestry.

The metis’ pemmican recipe calls for lean meat and fat. The ratio was 50lbs lean meat to 40lbs melted fat. They melted the fat and poured it into a bag made of bison hide along with the ground meat.

How To Make My Bison Pemmican Recipe?

Ingredients

• Services: 5-8 People
• Prep Time: 2 days
• Cook Time: 3 hours

Ingredients

• 1 lb bison meat
• 4 oz beef tallow

Instructions

1. slice bison meat into thin strips.
2. Dehydrate the meat until brittle. Place meat slices on the dehydrator trays and dry at 160 degree F for 12 hours.
3. Add the dried meat to a blender and blend the meat until it’s a powder. Transfer the ground meat into a large mixing bowl.
4. Scoop out 4 ounces of beef tallow. Add the tallow to a sauce pot over low heat. Stir gently until the fat melts and becomes translucent.
5. Add the melted fat into the ground meat. Mix until the meat and fat are well combined.
6. Pour the mixture into a baking pan and pat it down.
7. Wait until it cools down before you cut it into chunks.