Pemmican

Preparing for 50 days of Pemmican

by Jarell Friesen

I have embarked on a personal journey to test my body’s ability to subsist entirely on the traditional first nation food, pemmican. The experiment will take place during a five week period starting Feb. 1st - March 18th 2014 during a 100+ mile snowshoe expedition through the Boundary waters of northern Minnesota.

A Brief History of Pemmican: Pemmican is a concentrated nutritionally complete food created by the North American Plains Indians. It was originally made during the summer months from dried lean Buffalo meat and rendered fat as a way to preserve and store the meat for use when traveling and as a primary food source during the lean winter months. As long as it was kept away from moisture, heat, and direct sunlight, it would last for many years with no refrigeration or other method of preservation.

Pemmican Composition: Traditionally there are a few methods of preparing pemmican. The more authentic pemmican is simply desiccated and pulverized bison/elk/deer/etc. meat mixed with an equal amount of rendered animal fat (...more fat was added in the winter months). The other version incorporates dried berries along with the meat and the fat. The addition of berries was a response by the first nations to increase the palatability of pemmican for caucasian hunters and trappers when it was in high demand by the Hudson’s Bay Company. However the addition of berries increases the chance of spoilage and detracts from the functionality of the food.

Nutrition of Pemmican: Pemmican is a nutritionally complete food. There are many reports of individuals living solely off of pemmican for years!

Macronutrients These are the main calorie supplying nutrients: Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins. They respectively supply 4, 4, and 9 calories per gram.

1 days supply of pemmican (~1.2 lb) supplies ~ - 0 calories from carbohydrates (0g) - 4050 calories from fat (450G) - 384 calories from protein (96g)

Total calories = 4434

Carbohydrates: You might be wondering, what about carbohydrates? Don’t we need those? Fascinatingly no! In fact the human body can undergo a metabolic shift and switch from using carbohydrates to using fats as a primary fuel! This state of metabolism is called ketosis. More on this later...

Fats: During the trip we will be quite physically active and a caloric need into the 4,000’s isn’t unheard of. As you can see fats are almost twice as calorically dense as proteins or carbohydrates. This makes fats a supreme source for energy with just short of a pound supplying almost all of the days calories. An amount of potatoes supplying the same amount of calories would weigh almost 10lbs!

The type of fat used in pemmican is also of great importance. The tallow or fat of grassing animals is composed of ~50% saturated fat, 42% monounsaturated fat, and 8% polyunsaturated fat. Saturated fat, living up to it’s name, is ‘saturated’ meaning that the fatty acid chains fit nicely together creating a denser fat which is solid at room temperature. The more saturated the fat the more easily it resists rancidity through oxidation.

There is also a major difference in the fatty acid profile of grain-fed vs grass-fed animals. The grass fed animal fat is between 25 and 50 percent healthy Omega 3 fatty acids. The grain fed animal’s fat is only 2 to 3 percent Omega 3. Omega 3 fatty acids are one of the three essential fatty acid groups contained in tallow and they are critical to the development and maintenance of our brain and nerve tissue.

Protein:

Protein is comprised of amino acids which the body uses to repair and build new tissues. The RDI, or recommend daily intake, of protein ranges from 0.6 - 1.0 g/lb lean body mass. The protein needs vary between each individual and even in the same individual depending on levels of physical and emotional stresses.

In my case, due to my metabolic shift into the ketotic state, over-consuming protein will have negative effects that could impact my ability to properly assimilate the nutritional value of pemmican. So protein will be kept at a ‘just enough’ level.

In my particular case:

Body weight is 178 lbs Body fat % is 10.0

So Lean body mass (total mass - ~ fat mass): 178 - (178 x 0.10) = ~160 lbs

At 160 lbs lean body mass my protein requirements should be:

160 lb x 0.6g protein / lean lb body weight = 96g protein

Micronutrients: The nutrients which act as the coenzymes and activators for different enzymatic processes in the body.

Raw meat contains every nutrient required for human life in varying amounts. Concerns regarding vitamin C have commonly been raised, however if the temperature at which the meat is dehydrated stays below 120 degrees then the vitamin c naturally in the meat tissue remains intact.

Metabolic Ketosis

When dietary carbohydrates are restricted to <50g/day for a period of 6-8 weeks something miraculous happens. The body shifts it’s entire enzymatic system that had previously been based on metabolizing carbohydrates into a state where it efficiently metabolizes fatty acids. This state is called ketosis.

What this means in the context of the trip: When one is in a state of carbohydrate metabolism their bodies are unable to quickly and efficiently access the vast reservoir of stored calories in stored body fat. A skipped meal or over-exertion can leave one feeling faint and chilled. This is potentially deadly in cold temperatures as low blood sugar will cause the body to decrease it’s metabolism. This decreases the activity of what is called ‘brown fat’, a heat producing fat tissue in the body. In contrast while in ketosis one can access their internal stores of body fat immediately and meal time simply becomes an opportunity to fill up the tank to full capacity. It is a truth that reminds me of the adage ‘eat fat to burn fat’ and in reality that is exactly how it works.

My Transition Period: For a 6 week period before the beginning of trip I began the process of weening my body out of carbohydrate metabolism. Though it was an easy enough process, it is not something that I would like to do in the bush. The beginning transition period can leave one feeling flue like symptoms as the body struggles to readily oxidize fats as its primary fuel. After a few days however the sluggishness disappears and steady energy replaces it.

There is a device called blood ketone meter, which is similar to a blood glucose meter. It measures the level of ketones in one’s blood to help them asses their personal level of ketosis. This is a snapshot of my ketone level on Jan. 18th 2014. It shows a level of 3.1 which is quite high. As the chart below shows an optimal ketone bandwidth is from ~1.5mml to 3.0 mml. Over 3.0 mml one begins to get into starvation ketosis and this is a state achieved during fasting; this is not something we are after if we want to maintain our strength and body mass.

The Process:

Step 1: Render the Tallow!

Cut the tallow into pieces about an inch squared. This allows a greater surface area for the heat to extract the fat. Place the un-rendered tallow into a crock pot on low heat and let simmer for 10 hours. When fat is done rendering strain off the crackling and store until step

Step 2: Prepare the Meat!

Remove all fat from the cut of meat

Step 3: Slice the Meat! Use a slicer or a sharp knife and slice the meat as thin as possible. It helps if the meat is slightly frozen as it is easier to position and hold onto.

Step 4: Dehydrate the Meat!

Place the meat into a dehydrator for a minimum of 48 hours to ensure all moisture is removed. The slices should crumble not bend when touched. One could could also add an additional step of smoking the meat for 2-4 hours before the drying process. This actually helps the longevity of the meat as the anti-bacterial & anti-fungal essential oils in the wood smoke are imparted into the meat. It’s critical in both cases however to maintain a temperature of ~ 120 degrees or less. Higher temperatures degrade the nutritional value of the meat.

Step 5: Grind the Meat!

Traditionally this was done by hand with a mortar and pestle, but the vita-mix does a hell-of-a job!

Step 6: Mix Ingredients!

When meat is dehydrated is actually loses about 4/5th of it’s weight. Much of this is water and when meat is fully dehydrated it’s almost completely pure protein! As I mentioned before, my daily recommended amount of protein, based on my lean body mass, is 96 grams. So:

96g dried x 5 = 480g of fresh meat or about 1 lb.

This means for the trip of ~ 46 days, ~ 46 lb of meat was dehydrated to only ~ 10 lb!

Each 96 gram portion of meat is mixed with 450 grams of rendered tallow. This equates to about 4050 calories.

At 450 g / day for 46 days, this equates to about 45 pounds of tallow!

It’s incredible how nutrient dense pemmican is when you really crunch the numbers!

Step 7: Prepare into Blocks

Set the homogenized meat & tallow mixture into bread pans with a tin foil coating and let cool. As the mixture cools it will harden and when it has hardened enough to remove from the mold in one piece it is time to cut into blocks. Weigh out each molded block and cut into sections of 450-530g each.