Should you consider meat with a protracted shelf life, what do you consider first? I’ll guess you’re most likely considering of spam, canned tuna or hen, or another home-canned animal protein.
All good solutions, to make sure, however what you might not know is that lengthy shelf life meat is hardly a contemporary invention.
Pemmican is a Native American meals that was used for ages as a journey ration or a handy means to make use of up varied staples that native peoples had in abundance.
It’s making a comeback at present as a survival ration, used for all the identical causes because it was again then. However, simply what’s the shelf lifetime of pemmican and the way can we enhance it?
Relying on the components, pemmican will final wherever from 3 months to five years if stored properly.
Easy, drier recipes with fewer components are important for lengthy shelf life, as is an hermetic storage container saved in a cool, darkish surroundings – or using refrigeration or freezing.
You’ll hear all types of tales on the market on the web about how lengthy pemmican is meant to final.
There are some individuals who declare it by no means goes unhealthy, others say it’s going to final a decade and stay fully protected.
Neither of these is true, and historic accounts of native makers confirm that they by no means made pemmican to final fairly that lengthy… A number of weeks to some months was all they wanted from it.
Nonetheless, it will possibly final a really very long time if you understand what you’re doing. We’ll have a look at all the components and varied methods to increase the shelf lifetime of your pemmican under.
Simply What’s Pemmican Precisely?
For many who aren’t already aware of pemmican, a fast overview will most likely be useful. It isn’t the easy beef jerky such as you may be considering!
Pemmican is nothing greater than a mixture of dried meats and rendered animal fats, and generally different components – dried fruit and generally herbs.
The result’s a dense brick or patty that’s filled with energy and protein, and it may be eaten as is or ready in varied different recipes, usually fried or reconstituted into a kind of stew or broth.
Nevertheless it’s made, and there are various variations on the market, the meat used should first be dried earlier than being floor right into a high-quality powder after which mixed with the melted fats which was usually tallow, in a 50/50 combination.
Different components can be added on the identical time, if used, after which the entire combination wrapped up tightly and allowed to solidify and funky. After that, it may be portioned out and saved.
It sounds easy, and it’s, however there’s positively a trick or two to creating it and getting the longest attainable shelf life from it.
The Components Tremendously Have an effect on Shelf Life
The very first thing to know in regards to the shelf lifetime of pemmican is that the anticipated life is significantly influenced by the recipe or components.
Completely different Native American tribes used completely different variations and barely completely different strategies of preparation. Typically, these recipes have been additional modified regionally…
Owing to the shortage of sparsely written data on the precise components and strategies of preparation, there’s nonetheless a good bit we don’t fairly know at present.
However, what we do know is that pemmican would have been made at various occasions and ranging locations with crimson meat within the type of bison, deer, elk and even bear, whereas different tribes used fish.
Fats was at all times a obligatory element, however different components like berries and varied different dried fruits have been typically contentious or non-compulsory inclusions.
Right this moment, debates rage in regards to the affect of varied kinds of meat, fats, and components on the shelf life.
Some folks declare that together with any form of fruit in your pemmican is a positive option to speed up spoilage, whereas different folks level out, rightly, that fats is at all times more likely to go rancid in time whether or not or not fruit is current.
The very best recommendation I may give you is to make your pemmican with minimal components if you wish to maximize shelf life: simply meat and fats will likely be sufficient, and you may at all times mix your pemmican with different components when it’s time to eat.
Should you’re going to make use of fruit, make sure that it’s as dry as attainable once you add it- moisture is the enemy!
Components Influencing Shelf Life
Assuming all different issues are equal in the case of the precise recipe, there are a number of different components you’ll be able to management in the case of the shelf lifetime of pemmican.
Preparation
Simply because pemmican is an historical, even primitive, dish doesn’t imply you can also make it willy-nilly and count on it to final!
Since you plan on storing it for a very long time it’s much more necessary that you simply use correct process:
- make sure that your palms and your whole utensils and cookware are sanitized,
- put on gloves,
- and customarily do every little thing you’ll be able to to chop down on contamination of any sort.
As I discussed above fats is very more likely to go rancid over time, spoiling your pemmican. Letting germs get in there throughout preparation is simply going to significantly speed up that course of, and severely curtail the shelf life.
Moisture
A certain quantity of moisture is unavoidable when making pemmican since you’ll be working with liquid fats. That is simply the way in which it’s. However in any respect different occasions and regarding all different components you need to completely remove as a lot moisture as you’ll be able to.
The meat that you simply pound into powder ought to be completely dry. Likewise, any fruit or herbs you embrace ought to have as little moisture content material as attainable.
This extends to the storage location and technique additionally. Take pains to maintain pemmican in a really dry location and protected against moisture within the air.
A humid basement is way from ultimate, however a dry closet within the driest room of your own home, or a suitably dry pantry in an hermetic container, are each glorious.
Temperature
Temperature is now, as at all times, a significant factor for longevity and stability when storing meals. Should you’re going for room temperature storage, pemmican will preserve greatest when saved decidedly cool, let’s say wherever between 50° F and 60° F (between 10° C and 15° C).
Larger temps will solely serve to speed up spoilage, lowering the shelf lifetime of your pemmican from a 12 months or extra to months and even weeks.
One of many worst issues you’ll be able to let occur to it’s temperature swings: going from heat to chill and again once more, repeatedly, will spoil it very quickly.
Mild
Imagine it or not, gentle is the unhealthy man in the case of storing pemmican. Mild will increase temperatures and in addition facilitate the formation of condensation, i.e., moisture. Hold it at nighttime and, most significantly, out of direct daylight if you would like it to final.
The Finest Methods to Retailer It
If you wish to preserve pemmican for the lengthy haul, fortunately you’ve acquired a number of good strategies for doing so. Test them out under.
Hermetic Sealed Container
This ought to be your go-to technique for room-temperature storage. An hermetic sealed container will preserve your pemmican contemporary, no matter form of recipe it’s, for not less than 3 months. You may get 6 months out of it, possibly a 12 months reliably, for those who preserve it cool and completely dry whereas in storage.
Vacuum-Packed
Among the finest and most handy methods to maintain pemmican, and in addition significantly lengthen the shelf life, is by vacuum sealing it. Pulling out all the air from the container, usually a plastic bag however generally a plastic or glass jar, will remove all traces of moisture and assist stop rancidity.
Saved cool, vacuum packing it’s going to preserve it contemporary and edible for over a 12 months.
Freezing
That is the only most reliable option to preserve your pemmican edible for the longest attainable timeframe. Freezing pemmican is simple. You’ll be able to wrap it up in butcher paper or foil, put it inside a meals storage container, or, better of all, vacuum pack it like described beforehand.
Frozen, pemmican can preserve for years on finish, not less than 5, however I don’t know anybody who has frozen it for longer and tried it nevertheless it’s definitely attainable.
Can You Simply Refrigerate Pemmican?
No, you don’t need to refrigerate it. Refrigeration can nominally lengthen the shelf life, however opening and shutting the fridge door will promote the formation of moisture which is the very final thing we need to occur.
The very best factor you are able to do for cold-storing pemmican is to place it inside a devoted lengthy storage freezer that you simply open solely hardly ever.
Tom has lived and labored on farms and homesteads from the Carolinas to Kentucky and past. He’s captivated with serving to folks put together for powerful occasions by embracing life of self-sufficiency.
