The Nourisher - Editor’s Blog

One of the similarities Weston Price discovered between all the primitive cultures he investigated was that they each included some raw animal food in their diet. Raw or dried meat (dried below 65 deg C) has many nutrients intact - B6, B12, Coenzyme Q10, enzymes to name a few. North American Native people use this recipe for their hunting expeditions. They carry it in leather bags on their waist, picking out fingerfuls for a quick snack on the run. Pemmican is a great way to get nourshiment into kids at school.
Its also a good way to avoid rubbish food when you’re out and about with only chips and bread in the shops to abate your hunger. Just keep a bag of Pemmican in your car. It keeps for years out of the fridge.
You need

• 4 cups dried meat - Depending on how lean it is, it can take 1 - 2 lbs. per cup. Use only beef, (deer, moose or caribou are traditional). We are warned not to use pork or bear (if you can find a bear that is). Buy the meat as lean as possible and double ground from your butcher or grind yourself. Spread it out very thinly in cookie sheets and dry at or below 65 deg C to keep enzymes intact, overnight or until crispy and sinewy. Regrind or somehow break it into almost a powder.
• 2 cups rendered fat - use only beef fat. To make rendered fat cut into chunks and heat over the stove over medium heat. Tallow is the liquid and can be strained off. Cool it before combining with other ingredients or you will cook the meat. Authentic Pemmican is made from the fat around the kidney of the buffalo called suet. It has amazing regenerating properties.
• OPTIONAL: 3 cups dried fruit - cranberries are traditional but any fruit is ok. Grind some and leave some lumpy for texture. This is not necessary for the recipe and should not be added if you have carbohydrate assimilation issues eg. diabetes.
• OPTIONAL: Unsalted crispy nuts to taste and a shot of honey or maple syrup.

Combine in a bowl and hand mix. Double bag into four portions. The mixture will last for quite a while without refrigeration. Without fruit and nuts it will last for years.

About the Author...

Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).