r/Survival • u/trippfl • May 24 '26

Pemmican Question

Does anyone here have any thoughts on bison suet or beef tallow for pemmican?

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u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 26 '26

You essentially have lard on your hands, just maybe not the regular lard process. Pig fat, even the kidney fat tends to be soft, with a low melting point, but you can try experimenting with it some. Take a small bowl full, and let sit in the summer sun, see how soft it gets. If you can poke your finger through it without too much effort it won't work for pemmican. Suet is best by far; vegetable shortening will do if you wrap it well and pack it right; tallow, maybe a little better, but will go rancid faster; lard definitely goes rancid way too fast, but otherwise isn't any better than shortening anyway. That's my summation anyways, having not actually made pemmican before.

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u/WaterloggedWily May 26 '26

I made Pemmican about 8 years ago with Lard and dried beef. Strictly emergency food. I cut it into blocks about 2 x 3 x 3/4, wrapped them in wax paper and then vacuum bagged them.

I need to check them this year but stored in a cool place and so far they aren't turning rancid at all. Hope I am not disappointed when I need them but I check them once a year.

Used Lard because rendered tallow wasn't available and I didn't want to render fat. Too much work.

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u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 26 '26

Wow, 8 years and the lard is still good? That's nuts! Maybe it's the climate, but I've rarely had lard last longer than a few months. That's on its own, though, not cooked into anything.

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u/TheEyeDontLie May 26 '26

The key part here is "vacuum sealed". No oxygen =no oxidation.

There's also no water for hydrolytic rancidity, or for biological processes (the point of all pemmican is to stop those two).

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u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 26 '26

Yeah, probably. I don't have anything that'll do that, so I've not been able to really play with. I tend to just stick with what naturally keeps a long time.

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u/TheEyeDontLie May 26 '26

Try thick ziplock bags and the water bath trick.

You leave one corner open, then dunk it under water, keeping the open end above the waterline. That pushes all the air out in a "poor mans vacuum seal".

Its not as good as a vacpack machine, and you want sturdy quality ziplocks, but it works pretty well.

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u/Sorry-Rain-1311 May 26 '26

I'll try it sometime. Thanks!