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Pemmican: The Indigenous "Super Food"

12/1/2019

11 Comments

 
​​By almost any account you read regarding the subsistence of the indigenous people of the prairies, it is indisputable that Pemmican was the favorite food of the Indians and the Metis.
 
Pemmican can be made from the flesh of any animal, but it was usually made from buffalo meat. The process of making it was to first cut meat into slices, then to dry the meat either by fire or in the sun. Once the meat was dried, it was then pounded into a thick flaky “fluffy” powder. Once rendered down, the meat was put into large bags made from buffalo hides. To this, rendered, melted fat melted fat was poured. The quantity of fat was nearly half the total weight of the finished product, in a portion where for every five pounds of powdered meat, four pounds of fat would be poured. The best pemmican generally saw berries and sugar mixed in for flavor. Once complete, the whole composition formed a solid block that could be cut into portions for later use.
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​Fish was also used to make pemmican. During sturgeon fishing, much of the sturgeon flesh was cured and stored for later use. This was made by drying and pounding sturgeon flesh into a powder, to which sturgeon oil and berries were added. This mixture was then packed into sturgeon skin bags, and used similar to bison pemmican.
 
A person could subsist on buffalo (or fish) Pemmican in good times and lean. Pemmican, with its high fat content, provides a high calorie source of energy that is almost unrivaled. Thus, it was an important food throughout the year, but especially in winter because it stayed “fresh” almost forever and could be stored without worry for years without spoiling.
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Pemmican could be eaten when other foods were scarce, it could be used to stretch a meal, or it could be eaten on its own just like a block of fatty jerky – a great, portable source of food energy on long hunts or while doing any task where energy was needed. When cooked, Pemmican was easily turned into rubaboo (the most popular method by far) making a delicious stew that could feed an entire camp. Another method was to serve it fried – mixed with a little flour – to create a tasty roux that could be sopped up with bannock bread for a filling meal.

So what does pemmican taste like?' The only way you can describe the taste, is that it tastes 'Like pemmican.' There is nothing else in the world that bears the slightest resemblance. In terms of its quality as a food, it is a ‘super food’. 
11 Comments
Clifford Ray
12/4/2019 09:16:10 am

I grew up the Northeast Part of Saskatchewan, on the Churchill River /Missinippi in Cree ,translation, big River , anyway , my Grandma , pepared all the wild moose / Sturgeon, sturgeon oil ,dry meat ,pemmican was always the best meal I remembered eating as a child , yes no question, in the modern world the sturgeon oil , was kept in gallon jugs,and pemmican was kept in butter boxes ,and we use to eat this food with wild berries, sugar , other species of fish was also added to are food !

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Tony link
1/5/2020 12:45:59 pm

Such great info on this food.

Thank.

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DeWayne Cord link
1/7/2020 07:25:39 am

Great tead

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Tony Natale
1/16/2020 02:32:06 pm

great stuff great story

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Lillian Henning
1/7/2020 08:50:34 am

As a youngster I visited with my father’s Ute friends who worked on his sister’s ranch and treated us to the Pemmican they learned to make from their ancestors. I al ways thought it tasted like my aunt’s Swedish meatballs.

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Rick Bellant
1/9/2020 06:56:54 am

Very interesting.

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art,hur Pierce link
1/9/2020 07:00:56 am

I would like to know more Pemmican

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Charles
1/15/2020 05:04:26 pm

Read this - https://owndoc.com/pdf/The-fat-of-the-land.pdf

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Rosie link
1/12/2020 05:26:40 pm

I make pemmican with dried deer meat. I mix it with deer fat and dried june berries or ground chokecherries

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Annet
1/14/2020 09:49:05 am

With wild game being so lean, how do you render down enough fat?

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Reg Tucker link
1/14/2020 05:56:30 pm

In 1961 , while cultivating the field on the north side of the Qu’Appelle Valley . Turned up two perfectly preserved bags of pemmican..gave them to the museum in Regina

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    Kade M. Ferris, MSc

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