Food That Time Forgot: Pemmican, The Ultimate Survival Food
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ต.ค. 2023
- Pemmican is and has always been the ultimate survival food. Pemmican revolutionized trade in the 18th century by giving travelers a new compact source for energy. Originally used as a food to help Native Americans make it though harsh winters, pemmican turned into an entire industry by the late 1700s.
Thanks to Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve: wild.windsbu...
Pemmican playlist with videos from 2014 • Pemmican
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I first heard of pemmican in Rimworld, later seeing its ingredients in a museum made the characters reluctance to eat it make a lot more sense
Haha I was waiting for a rimworld comment
@@axis5519 They're talking about finding it in a real life museum
@@axis5519I guess it's up to you to make a mod.
A reference only a soft doughy manchild could make
@@axis5519You have bad reading comprehension.
Him seeing the ingredients irl explained the reason why the characters in game are reluctant to eat it. It explains their 'Reluctance'.
I once read a 19th century traveler's description of pemmican being used by the fur traders. To paraphrase: The poorer quality looked like it had twigs and stones in it. The better quality pemmican would probably taste better if it had twigs and stones in it.
Salt chips and pine needles
🤣🤣🤣🤣
A big oof if I've ever read it.
Hahahaha omg
Funny, from our perspective.
My grandfather was an early 20th century cowboy. He was apart of the last overland herd movements from Oklahoma to Phoenix Arizona. He spoke about what they would eat anytime he took us camping to sleep under the stars with nothing but a fire and a bed roll.
Basically it was a stew. A perpetual stew. They would add whatever game animal or root vegetable or even cactus to it. They would season it with what ever they brought or found.
The key for preserving it for the next days ride was the fat layer. He would describe it as an inch thick. It would get removed before reheating then it would get added back after everyone was served and reheated, and cooled again until it created an plug. They would use a tall narrow pot with a lid that could be bound on with no gasket. The trick was to keep it upright, reheat daily, add new products after the fat was removed.
Apparently fowl or fish needed to be cooked separate and not in the stew, I'm not sure why. Perhaps they wanted these fats to mix in the least compared to mammal fats.
When you see a pot swinging upright from a wagon. It has stew in it.
Interesting! Such a great comment!
Parasites and bacteria is why you separate certain meats
interesting
Cooking fish and fowl separately was probably due to salmonella and other bacteria
@@katherine6326 not to mention the fish taste would probably never leave the stew
As a bison myself, it’s nice to hear our culinary history being shared among humans. Keep it up
M. Bison enters the chat.
No.....thank YOU, it's a real pleasure to see you on my plate
You and your people are delicious. Thank you for existing and letting us make burgers from you.
You're full of bull :-p
@@BoBSmith-jz5dm you ever try to milk a bull? Takes a minute.....
An interesting anecdote I've heard about Native American jerky/pemmican making is this:
Pictures of natives hanging meat over a smokey fire would probably cause one to assume that the food was being cooked/dried with the heat of the fire. This isn't the case, as the smoke/fire was almost always exclusively to drive away insects from the meat while it was drying in the sun.
Probably "smoked" the meat a bit and also the "fires" seem to be low compared to others.
It's funny as whites making it would have just allowed the insects all over it. And people claim eating bugs is a new thing 😂
As a Red River Metis myself, that was one use of the flame. The other was to impart flavor into some of the smoked meats, like pansawan (drymeat) Not often, but sometimes we use aspen to add flavor. Pemmican made with drymeat that has been touched by aspen smoke is delicious!
@@motherofsneks486 Are there any other woods you would use for the process? The continent certainly doesn't lack for flavorful trees.
@abydosianchulac2 where I grew up, we used aspen, maple and cherry wood. I know there are a lot of different types of trees but thats what I am used to using. Pine tastes terrible as a smoke.
I've eaten pemmican when I would hike with my buddies years ago. Don't hike as much now, but I remember how good pemmican tasted when you were out in the wilderness, or up in the mountain range. When you got hungry, the pemmican was right there with you the entire time. It's like eating beef jerky in a way, but with better fat and calorie content. I loved it. I didn't make the pemmican. One of my friends did. He used beef and deer meat for it, and added spices to the mix.
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
@@dizo-jp2td thank you for the verse, amen
My mother would love this. She loves beef jerky.
@@dizo-jp2tdLeck mich im arsche- Mozart
When your running on empty and desperate for anything I bet this would taste amazing
You're a good narrator. I wasn't planning on listening to 8 mins on a survival food source, but I was drawn along until suddenly it was over. Good job.
Every Townsends video ends suddenly regardless of run time
So true! This was really enjoyable.
Same, would never be interested in a survival video normally but this is interesting 🤔😺
Just got an advert saying "Pemmican is more than a bike, you can exercise with others etc. sign up for Pemmican today " can't believe they still sell it and under a subscription model 😂
Dude looks 65 and has the voice of a 30yr old still lol
My Great Grandparents and my Grand parents and my parents and now my family. We all made/make real pemican. Buffalo meat, bear fat, Juniper berries, Salt. Beat it all together into a paste. Lay it out into rounds (like ritz crackers), and dry it out. If we are on a trek we totally dry it hard to preserve it. For general use we dry it like soft leather. It can also include ground sassafras root. I am Creek American
Jesus that sounds disgusting.
@@24POWERSyou’re disgusting
How were the juniper berries incorporated if you don't mind me asking?
I know juniper berries are used for flavouring but they're not particularly edible either, right?
@@Dewkeeperif its anything like the times ive cooked venison with juniper berries usually theyre dried and ground into a seasoning and rubbed on the meat
@@Dewkeeperit’s a seasoning, like sage. You just use a little
This video reminded me that I still have a couple bars of pemmican sitting around from last year that I forgot about, so obviously I had to go get it and take a bite to see how it held up. It tastes exactly the same as it did last year and it’s actually really good, the meat and fat came from a deer I harvested and I also added wild black cherries which i foraged from the woods. The black cherries really took it up a notch, both in flavor and texture.
I'm kind of curious how you harvested those Wild Cherries
Marry me.
@@scherryvalentine9673 men who can harvest berries are top tier
@@uarbor70I need to learn the cherry harvesting ways
@@uarbor70 Well, I suspect he picked them with his hands, like anyone else.
Came for the food. Stayed for the history lesson (as always).
Greetings from Germany
Came for the history, stayed for the food! If you want to visit another great channel, check out Tasting History, with Max Miller. Hello Germany from Minnesota, US.
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
Shut up German
@@dizo-jp2td Sounds like Bloody Mary.
Or Beetlejuice.
Townsends is from Indiana!
For those who have pemmican in their ancestral culture, we never forgot it. It takes a bit of time to make, so it's only worth making in large batches. It may be an acquired taste, but I love eating it.
Rimworld brought me to Pemmican, Pemmican brought me to your channel, been a fan for years and happy to see the return of Pemmican! I love your channel!
Rimworld… sounds like a forum for anal loving enthusiasts…😂
As a Metis It's great to watch this And see how the fore fathers lived And some of the things we today still forage and hunt/fish Thanks ! We were like the modern day Truckers of Canada via lakes and rivers back then
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
@@dizo-jp2td Begone, foul bot! Thou shall not profane the holy pemmican brick!
@@dizo-jp2td begone, machine abomination! You are an afront to the Omnissiah!
@@winterFox2r Insha'allah
Hey how are ya
Hey how are ya
Hey how are ya
Hey how are ya
I can't be the only one who thinks all this historical food looks delicious
we have been robbed by the machine
Pemmican isn’t delicious. It’s survival food that was needed at the time.
@@elijahoconnellI am happy for my refrigerator and fear the day they don’t work because we were foolish enough create an environment they don’t work. ie war
I mean it's human kibble, I wouldn't call it delicious. Its extremely utilitarian, however.
I’ve had it once, it was very bland…. There is a company producing and selling pemican sticks tho, I’ve been curious what theirs tastes like
I am Métis from Manitoba up in Canada, you should include dried currants in your recipe to make it more traditional. It is said that you could have a complete diet eating nothing but pemmican made from fat, meat and berries.
I wonder how those bowel movements are!
@@BMoore556 As bad as that "food", probably
You dont need the berries at all. Eating peemican with only meat and fat puts you basically into a carnivore diet. Your body will age quicker mixing fats and carbs. It only needs peotein and fats. Please dont talk about a "complete diet" as if you needed some carbs in there.
@@BMoore556as people on carnivore diets, bowel movement is better than ever.
thats basically all of the bases of the human omnivore diet. Same diet of a bear or wolf.
It probably over 5k cal /day.
I paddled 1400+ Km over 7 weeks and planned for 4500 calories/day and I lost weight and felt hungry often. It was quality food. The voyageurs certainly worked harder than I had. Carrying their canoes and goods over the same portages I used.
Love the video. Thanks
In boy scouts we hunted deer and made pemmican out of it, we had to add beef tallow as the deer is too lean. We would add raspberries that were dried out also though. We also made ships biscuits and other period foods of that era and did a few weekend camping trips only eating the food we prepared.
Best troop ever (or troop leaders).
We studied pemmican in school in studies about Native Americans. It was 1967 in American History class in Savannah, Ga. The original survivalist food!
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
@@dizo-jp2td Matthew 21:17
@@dizo-jp2td🤮
Savannah Georgia awesome
it was still being taught when we were learning about the natives when i was young! middle school, 2007-2008, in washington state.
I first met pemmican in Jules Verne's books. Whenever characters planned their expedition and Verne was writing thorough numbers for resources needed, pemmican was always packed. Nice to see it "in colour and motion".
We have one similar as field ration in our military called R.S.P. I think the acronym means Remains of Spent Personell. It makes you lay amazingly solid bricks.
Corpse starch
Ah, military humor. There are so many jokes about military rations and what they are made of, even more when there is a funeral home or a morgue in a region with a lot of veterans near where the rations are made, or just near the base. We would always joke that the meat at the chow hall was actually Soylent Green and that the local funeral home or morgue was the supplier. Would explain how tough and full of gristle the meat often was. And it was made for people, by people, from people.
I have heard of farmers in Saskatchewan, Canada, who found pemmican in their fields, that was really old and was still edible. Pemmican has complete nutrition in it. I have had pemmican at a food festival, and it was from Cree native vendors. It was really good. Cheers!
It can be quite enjoyable if it has dried fruit in it, but the pemmican with dried fruit has a much shorter "shelf life" and more difficult to make. You have to gather the fruit, dry it completely, then mix it with the meat and the fat. It's more labor intensive and that is one of the reasons they left out the fruit when they turned it into an industry. The other reason is if it tastes good it gets eaten much faster because people are eating it for enjoyment and not just as fuel.
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
growing up in Alberta I experienced this food as part of my education. We had a native teacher come in and teach us about native culture.
The first nations vendors at fairs and whatnot usually combine the pemmican with a side of bannock to give you the full 1800s experience.
Far from a complete food, it lacks many essential vitamins and minerals.
Pemmikan was used by the Norwegian polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen. They used different variants of pemmican on their expeditions. Some variants included vegetables for extra vitamins and spices for taste.
Pemmican seems like a reverse of our traditional food called serunding. It started first as a curry stew (meat, poultry or fish) and the leftovers cooked over time becomes dryer and dryer until it's just like pemmican lasting months or even a year. Dessicated curry...delicious.
I was thinking it resembles Chinese meat floss. It was one of my favourite snacks as a kid
My great grandmother use to make it and fry bread a lot as comfort food. My grandmother, siblings, and mother lived in rural Kentucky. Their shack looked like something from the movie deliverance and had no power, gas, or water.
Now my grandmother lives most of the time playing with an iPad in her air-conditioned house surrounded by things she grew up just fine without. It's interesting 🤣
What a fascinating food item. It's really great that they used pretty much the entire animal to make it and transport it. There is a certain beauty in this kind of efficiency and effectiveness. This stuff seems to have been a real gamechanger back then. It's a shame that it's so unknown nowadays.
You say that; but if you had to actually eat it you'd end yp begging for our grossly-inefficient modern cooking methods before too long.
@@chesterstevens8870 That's true. But that's also because we can afford that kind of lifestyle. If we were in a survival situation however, this would still be one of the best foodstuffs to have.
@@chesterstevens8870 Every now and then? Not likely. Every day, and every meal? Oh yes, I would be begging for a McDonalds burger (and I am not too fond of those) within a week. It's called meal fatigue, which is more a problem these days due to the sheer variety of choices in foods, ingredients, and spices we are used to, rather than any sense of primacy that modern foods have.
what do you mean? We do exactly the same thing today, hell we even use more of the animal, as we actually use the whole animal, but for some reason people do not like food made from machine separated cuts cause "it is made from scraps"
@@JM-mh1ppRight, we use the entire animal nowadays for making just about everything that is possible to make from animal parts. Not just for food and fur anymore, but people like to suggest that we are more wasteful in every way compared to before, at least when it comes to animals and livestock it is the opposite.
Fascinating exploration of this historic energy bar! Thank you for the remarkable amount of research you have all invested in this incredible culinary project. Of its many forms, the rousseau stew (particularly with the wild onions) sounds especially good. Cheers!
kinda reminds me of Biltong from South Africa. the meat is dried using salt and vinegar to draw out moisture and then it's hung up to dry in the air. If you do it right you have a delicious stick of dried meat that lasts a long time. (the vinegar evaporates so you don't taste it its just a little salty)
I first found out about pemican when researching "forever foods" like hardtack, honey, and other such foods that could last indefinitely in proper conditions. I love that there is an experimental experimentation with food science that has yielded such amazing foods
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
@@dizo-jp2tdnobody cares, go "save" yourself and shut uo
@@dizo-jp2td cope and seethe
Nah bruh, what about people who can't speak or stutter
@@etherealhawkevery knee will bow
The pemmican episode was my introduction to this channel 6 years ago. It's been a wonderful experience to watch as this channel has grown and evolved! Thank you for all of your hard work!
I believe that was my first Townsends video as well. Then I learned I lived in the same state and I was hooked.
Same!
I'm so glad you're covering pemmican. My people are known for making it, and generally they used berries called "saskatoons" and bison meat/fat. There's a local company that makes it, and it's pretty great, but it's different, and I could see how someone wouldn't like it.
Maybe you should look into it? If you have access to old recipies you could be sitting on oil here, I am sure it could be quite a hit, you know, locally made, according to old traditions etc.
Here in Michigan, they are called Juneberries, and it was my understanding that they were essential to the pemmican as they provided the acidity that helped preserve the meat. We have several on our property and I always thought they were ornamental until I saw a coon climb into the tree and chow down.
I pick them now. They taste like blueberries with a touch of apple.
I first came across pemmican as a child in the 70's reading Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. Admittedly I didn't know what it was exactly until a Ray Mears survival programme on the BBC, probably in the 90's.
I'd still like to try it one day. 😊❤😊
Rimworld really introduced a lotta fellas to it and the videos proliferate on youtube: it ain't quite forgotten
I super appreciate the love for the indigenous Americans here, John. Thank you.
We learned about pemmican in school up here in Canada alot, we even made it!
Glad to see that people are still using it as the superfood it is...
What does it taste like? I ate bison jerky before. Is it like that?
@@OverRule1 Its like a mix between bacon/jerky and lard... But a bit more "gamey"... Depends on who's making and the ratio of meat/fat/berries...
"superfood" but adding tons of fat to a lean protein source. ok buddy 🤣🤣
@@Ashley_Schaeffer Oh okay. Wish I could try a high quality version of it. I bet it's delicious
@@keagenmccartha7412it’s a different brand of “super”
You can add honey or maple syrup and dried fruit and nuts to it, it's shelf life is reduced by adding dried fruit and nuts but it still keeps for a good long time. You can also use cocoa butter instead of tallow if you prefer, it'll keep for a while but not as long as tallow.
yeah any hard waxy fat will do the trick, but beyond cocoa butter and tallow there aren't that many to choose from. Honey would probably not bother the shelf life much IF you could keep it perfectly sealed. Honey's so hygroscopic that it kills microbes, it's just that if exposed to air long enough, it will absorb enough moisture to ruin the preservation.
What I wonder is, just how good were those soups, if they were basically a lot of finely-powdered beef jerky and melted-down fat? wouldn't that be like just chugging oil? Like obviously you add water, but... that fat's just going to float on top. probably give it a weirdly bland, greasy flavor if you didn't have, like, peppers to add.
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
@@KairuHakubi You might be able to hide that with some sort of starch or carb. Still probably not too great though. Wonder if you could make it into a sort of gravy. If you melt it down in a pan, then add bread crumbs and flour to fry into a roux, then add water and other stuff? In hindsight might be where the stew came from.
@@quichwe1096 ooooh yeah that'd do the trick! a tallow roux.. luxuriant.
@@quichwe1096He made mention of corn meal; that could have enough starch to thicken the soup up, but I don't know if it could help with the roux aspect.
Now this is something I have made! And it lasts at room temp for years if you don't eat it all first. Used a simple 100w bulb in a drying box for strips of beef 'eye of round. When they were so dry you could snap em like old sticks I ran em through an old meat grinder. Used rendered beef tallow from suet and sandwich zip locks too keep the air out. Had em in a closet for hunting trips. And when you render the suet the crackling that's left over will make your dog go ape. It will remember where it's stored for the rest of it's life in the hope of getting more.
If you had rendered those fat clumps down till they were just hard and dark like well cooked bacon, they are known as cracklin. They are tasty, but dogs go bonkers for them.
the dog wouldn't be getting my crackling
Only thing worse than pemmican is eating without a table.
Or in a dirty room. Need a statue or something
I’ve been fascinated with pemmican since I was a kid. Glad to hear that other people are starting to get excited about it too these days.
As a Canadian, I always love seeing when you guys throw a bit of Canadian history into your tellings of the early days of North America. Keep it up guys.
That's because you're such influential people. 😂😂😂😂
Because there were no borders as we know them pre colonization
@@mogyui2902 There are really no borders now. Have you seen Canada? It's basically Asia and the Middle East, and it only took 20 years.
@grandtheftavocado can you read? I said "there were no borders as we know it precolonization"
Which mean the borders we have now are nothing like back then
@@mogyui2902 You misunderstood me. Canada has reverted to having no borders since they've been allowing millions of foreigners to swarm the previously nice country.
So very interesting, smacks of jerky which can be made with almost any kind of proteins . Wild boar abounds where I am currently residing. Deer , wild turkey 🦃 which abounds in my home state of Connecticut, bison all make for a great protein winter staple . I also adore anything smoked and had the privilege of having a smoked turkey sausage with cranberry while visiting British Columbia in Canada. Also at certain times of the year the indigenous folk in Canada will post signs selling their smoked fish in remote little towns in Canada , chewy,salty but tasty😊 I come from a long line of hunter/ gathers in the Appalachian mountains and having lived there can really appreciate this video. I truly believe that there is coming a time where getting back to barder and trade may be the salvation of us all .
Thank you for sharing ❤
I want to live there! So jealous. It sounds like heaven.
100%
Thank you so much. We grow corn and sorghum and various tropical fruits. Our meats are pork, goat, chicken plus Turkey and fish.
Been following your content for over a decade. Amused at how both of us have gone greyer and greyer. TY for some new pemmican love!
I have read a few books on Lewis and Clark , the amount of caloric intake a day on their voyage to the Pacific shore was incredible. I think it was like something on average that each man consumed about 9 lbs of meat a day.
And here I thought I was so special eating 9 lbs of meat per week.
There was a Quebec TV show in the early 2000's (Destination Nor'Ouest) where some civilians recreated a Montreal-Winnipeg canoe trip. A big guy almost didn't make the selection because he was too fat and had high cholesterol. Having high moral however, he suceeded and lost 50 pounds in that trip.
So yeah. You use a lot of energy.
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
@@dizo-jp2tdThe Truth.
@@dizo-jp2td prob the last thing the people who created pemmican heard before they were set on fire : P
its wild to think ive been watching you and your channel since i was 16, and now im 24. The pemmican video was the first i saw too. xD and here i am all those years later planning a weeks camping trip with only survival food like pemmican and hard tack just to see what it was like.
I wouldnt have my interest and drive for history fueled if it wasnt for channels like yours. I cant thank ya enough.
James, Ireland
Use bannock instead it tastes so much better.
I like how you think of 8 years as "all those years" later. I think I'm old.
@@LadyBovineit’s in relation to his age, of course
@@Doxsein Yes, it makes perfect sense from his perspective. Just funny how time perspectives change with age.
I can't believe I've been watching your videos for a decade now. Saw the new pemmican video. The last one was well done but who doesn't love pemmican?
It looks like ancient canned corned beef but without the can.
I enjoyed your video. As a 30 year bison rancher here in Alberta, Canada I have consumed a lot of bison and I have tried pemmican a few times. Most of the pemmican that was used in this era came from what are now the Canadian prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to service the fur trade in what was then known as Rupert's Land. Berries were often added to the pemmican and the very most often used here was the "Saskatoon Berry' (Amelanchier alnifolia). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier_alnifolia These berries are abundant, especially along the rivers of the northern plains and were a staple of the first nations and still are a popular treat in mid summer when they ripen. Most of these berries are now consumed in pies rather than in pemmican.
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
No.@@dizo-jp2td
I remember the Saskatoon berry bushes on my dad's farm in Alberta. They were so good. We also had ditch strawberries, a hazelnut bush, and wild mushrooms. My dad and his brothers were good at foraging for wild mushrooms, and they were very tasty, when they were cooked up. One of my siblings found a Cree native arrowhead in a field on the farm. My dad said that long ago, he and his brothers found tomahawk stones by a slough on the farm. I had bison before, and I like it. Cheers! ✌️🇨🇦
Thanks for this info. Fascinating stuff
@@dwaynewladyka577😅
I recently backpacked the Grand Canyon for five days eating homemade pemmican. We’ve been making it out of deer, elk and beef for five years. Mark Sisson has a good recipe on his website.
How did it sit with your tum tum? Any troubles?
@@linwill1720 tum tum?
I'm sure Jon knows exactly when interest in pemmican undergoes a resurgence, because that's when views for that old video surge again. I feel like it happens every couple of years.
Every time the American government tries to get us into another war (in this case WW3), when the government lies about "a pandemic", when they start the gun grab spiel, every time the Dems make a policy that increases inflation yet again. That's when I see more pemmican videos pop up and other people talking about it. It's not hunters or backpackers, it's preppers.
Would be interesting to see the views per month on a long time period.
This is one of the coolest videos I've ever seen and anyone who thinks about food security and/or self-reliance should look at it and think about it and, in my opinion, practice it.
I think it's amazing you did this and I'm not ready to make any myself right now but I'm excited by the idea at the very least.
Normally I skip the commentary to watch the cooking on these types of videos, but yours always draw me right in. Keep up the fine work, Nutmeg man.
😂 This is an old dish in my country and it still exists today It is seasonal, and during Eid al-Fitr, the meat continues to be preserved for months Greetings to you from Jazan, southern Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦
SubhanAllah, so they use the lamb?
وش هالاكله عندنا؟ وش اسمها؟ الصدق ما اذكر اني قد اكلت شي زي كذا
Oh man. The first pemmican video is what brought me to Townsends all those years ago.
In Belmore Browne's book "The Conquest of Mt McKinley," he writes about his group's sudden inability to digest it when they were at high altitude, during one of the first expeditions into the Alaska Range in the early 1900s. Apparently bodies can't digest food with. high fat content at high altitude. Without being able to digest their primary source of calories (which they'd been carrying through the wilderness for months...), they weren't able to make the summit.
Thank you, Townsends, for many years of beautiful and tasty recipes, as well as history lessons!
Let us not forget the fact that pemican is one of the olney affordable modern superfoods. Not available in stores make it yourself.
The military has had an emergency ration since the civil war.
I'm curious about connection between Pemmican and Inuit Akutaq or Siberian Tolkusha. Seems like the concept of mixing fat, dried meat (or fish) and various fillers (berries, bulbs of wild plants etc) is somewhat of an universal concept in cold wilderness.
It might’ve been developed independently, probably because it’s all they have. Up north vegetables and fruit are few are far between. However killing large animals is going to leave you with a lot of fat. Most northern mammals are full of fat. Fat has been used a preservative all over the world so they probably just mixed the few things they had together and experimented until it worked best.
It is a universal idea and being such is more a question of how we (as a species) came up with the idea of things encased in fat equals preserves. Cuz since there’s been pottery we’ve used as a storage usually with fat or cheese cloth, waxed cloth or jus wax on top as a cap. Makes sense before pottery to use hides.
Cultures all over the world have developed the same kinds of foods independently and often have national dishes that are very similar to the traditional national dishes of countries clear on the opposite side of the globe. Everyone seems to have a meat or fish stew with vegetables, for one example. The only difference seems to be what seasonings they put in the dish. Many cultures also have a way to wrap meat/fish and some sort of veggie into some sort of ground grain bread wrapping for a portable lunch-pasties and burritos for example. Make it at home, then wrap it in a cloth, put it into your pocket, take it to work, and eat it for lunch.
I love Eskimo ice cream, I think people have understood basic nutrition forever. Fat is good for you especially when you need to make your body warm.
I'm not so sure about fat substitutes like Crisco or vegetable oils.
Pemmican is a plains thing. You both cant make it at all during the Inuit winter (no sun and no firewood) and dont have to because everything freezes and nothing goes bad
As someone that worked with the Metis for about 10 years in Ontario, I appreciate this video. I can tell it was well researched. Also great to see you wearing a Metis sash. There can be a whole video on the history and the utility of the sash
I love this channel.
It's the definition of wholesome.
I like making a modern pemmican using freeze dried meat, fruit, veggies and different fats that don't go rancid (coconut oil and clarified butter). I also add things like nutritional yeast, spirulina and Chlorella. Freeze dried foods powderise easily in the food processor and you can experiment with different fruits and veggies. I use full spectrum nutrition as a rule of thumb including every color of food (have my greens, reds, blues, and orange).
how long does it keep?
@@272arshan this is a great question. I've lived off the grid without a fridge for 9 1/2 years without a fridge. In a dry location food lasts longer. In humidity even freeze dried food goes stale. Honestly, I eat my food preserves so I know they don't stand up as well as the labels claim. They might be edible. That doesn't mean they'll taste very good. Also remember you can eat almost any food that's been cooked at a high enough temperature for long enough time.
My thought process was the more color the more nutrition and I think you can go by that rule.
@@Rickt2445Food dyes kind of throw a wrench in that. Colour is kind of a silly way to judge nutrition though
@@mikafoxx2717 not at all, we have instincts to look for certain colors that suggest certain nutrients. Yeah dye ruins the reliability there, but the dye is added in the first place because of its inherent appeal. a nice red is a good ripe fruit full of vitamins, a good strong orange is beta carotene, plenty of deep greens get you minerals and vitamin C
In Poland, we have smalec, pork lard with fried pork belly and onion, it still is our energy source especially in winter. It can last month in room temperature or couple of months in cold storage (cellar or fridge). Maybe it will not last years but it is same energy source.
I accidentally stumbled upon your channel, but I must say it was a pleasant discovery! interesting content! Greetings from Argentina
Welcome to the channel!
After a diet of pemmican and ship's biscuits over a long winter, fresh vegetables must have seemed like the food of the gods.
Rare Métis mention! We don't usually get much of a mention, thanks for that.
I love your old videos about pemmican, so I'm happy to see the remake
Much respect for your research and balanced presentation skills. Just great production quality overall! Kudos
I remember my teacher in the 90s describing pemmican as like a pioneer-era Power Bar: full of calories, fills you up, and tastes about as good as the wrapper it came in. Thanks for bringing back that funny memory! I still don't believe him and refuse to believe that it's gross until I try it.
Such a great channel. Massive respect to the creators.
As a hiker and mountain climber, I think I will try to incorporate this into my meal kits. Seems very efficient.
Thanks for all you do to bring history alive for us!
If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9
I'm a Canadian and I was taught in school....in the early 1970s, that pemmican had always been a food of Northern Native tribes. It was introduced to the fur traders in the 1700s.....but it had always been a survival food for the Natives as far back as they could remember.
Thank you again for bringing to life what most of us can only read about in books.
I'm reading "Endurance" (the famous book on the 1915 Shackleton expedition) and have been meaning to learn more about pemmican... thanks for posting! So timely ;)
It is one of the ingredients of Hoosh, a hard biscuit and snow being the other two.
I’m reading that book at the moment too. I didn’t search TH-cam for pemmican but it was an interesting watch.
As far as the book goes; I found it quite dull until they started to attempt a move north on the floes, and I’ve been gripped by it since that point. What a survival story!
Oh man, it had me on the edge of my seat! There was definitely some stage-setting to get through early, but really everything after the Endurance seizing was non-stop intensity. It's like a story with 1000 climaxes...@@soapalot
It is interesting how we manage to make such foods which while perhaps not the most tasty can ensure caloric intake as needed for long periods with easy storage.
Great narration, dude; pacing, pronunciation, and enthusiastism
Love these updated releases! Thanks Townsends Team. You bring history to life. 🥰💕❤️👍👍
You can only imagine how sustaining this would be when deep in the forest. The body must of reacted so strong to all that protein and fats
Prob gave them a straight up food high after an exhausting stretch of travel
You can live off just meat. Not only can you,I've done it and THRIVED. My mind was clearer, body felt great and actually you use the restroom less. You also require next to 0 vitamin C in the absence of carbohydrates. There's the rub, I wanna go back on it but holy cow, carbs are delicious.
You die pretty fast of colon cancer and/or cardiovascular disease though.
@@filonin2"pretty fast"
@filonin2-Are you sure about that? They want us to believe that but there’s no proof. Watch Shawn Baker and the many others that have gone carnivore. So many people have gotten off medication and gotten their health back. I’ve been carnivore for months and I feel great. It’s the standard American diet that’s making everyone sick.
You can also add dried fruit of any kind, I recommend cranberries or even grapes or some sort of berry, and nuts. I recommend cashews or alone but make sure you grind both of those items up too
In HS our American Frontier teacher was native American and made us some. Everyone hated it but I didn't mind it. He didn't say it was made into other things, I guess tribes in the midwest US only ate it cold and they only ate it when it was winter or they didn't have anything else to eat. He made it sound like if there was ANYTHING else to eat that was eaten, pemican was a storage food used when you were in dire straights.
I made pemmican about 40 years ago when I was getting involved in buckskinning. That's when i learned that DRY means DRY for the meat. No cutting corners or it won't last more than a week before even the dog doesn't want it.
Happy to hear Métis being pronounced correctly, great video update to good old Pemmican.
I use to read the Tumbleweeds comic strip when I was a kid. They joked about pemmican all the time and I never knew what the hell it was until today. Thank you, Townsends!
Thank you.I find your channel fascinating and enlightening.
We made it about 30 years ago and we put honey, dried fruit and pecans in it along with the meat and fat. It was actually pretty good that way. But I don’t know how long it would have lasted because we ate it all lol❤️🤗🐝
James!
Always like seeing a new video from you.
I make pemmican and store it in ziploc bags in the fridge for an emergency. Glad to hear the mention of ruebaroo.
I dry my meat out in the oven overnight on cold winter nights to help keep the house warm but fully intend to make a smoke dryer to add flavor.
Ill keep watching for you.
Great video thanks Townsends!
I love your channel! Many alike would hold this knowledge behind a hefty price tag and then make you pay to complete the recipe... But you have it here in the scope of Public Knowledge. For free! Hats off to you man, having this in the public sphere could save someones life or even an entire family one day. God Bless You and Happy Holidays
Interesting as always John. I really love these little scripted history lessons you do. These little details in history are always the most interesting. In history class it was always big historical figures, big dates, when it's the relatable history that makes it so you can imagine while it was like back then. Although I realize the value in the famous historical figures and famous events as well.
I made some a few weeks ago! I dried down my venison, and used dried cranberries and walnuts, I didnt have any tallow, i used coconut oil. Its not to bad! Super fun to try these old recipes.
Big fan, happy to hear you nail the pronunciation of Métis this time around 8️⃣
I love your videos Townsends. They’ve been very helpful researching for my Lovecraftian flintlock fantasy series!
Thanks for sharing this information Jon. Stay safe around there and keep up the great videos and sharing the fun you all have around there. Fred.
Awesome, I’ve made this on my channel with beef heart. I smoke it first for extra flavour. I even incorporate your 1800 spice in my newest batch. I love your channel!!!
I put that spice on everything!! It always sits right beside my stove now❤️🤗🐝
I’ve seen a lot of favorite episodes but this is near and dear to my heart and soul stomach thanks 😊
They didn't have cardiologists and lipitor back in those days.
Always such a high quality video. Interesting how Pemmican can increase paddling speed by 50% on average. Powerful food product!
If you live purely on this (assuming no dried berries or whatever is in it) you go into ketosis pretty fast. When you're in ketosis you lose your peek strength but get stupid good medium intensity endurance. Many marathon runners go into ketosis for this reason.
@@andersjjensen ketosis is very dangerous, i've almost died from it.
I really enjoyed this video! Thank you.
The quality of this channel never ceases to amaze me.
Pemmican is what Alexander MacKenzie and his companions brought with them in the 1790’s on their journey to find a land and river route through the Rockies to Canada’s west coast. Often burying a quantity underneath the fire pit at their campsites to lighten their load, and to resupply themselves on the return journey.
I learned about pemmican in my dendrology course. A common used native berry for pemmican is the downy serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) which probably wouldn't be particularly delicious but would be nutritious and easy to find and harvest.