Pemmican
Pemmican (from the Cree language pimikan , to pimii "fat") is a nutritious and long-lasting mixture of crushed jerky meat and fat that the Indians of North America carried with them as travel provisions and emergency rations.
Pemmican is made in the traditional way from bison - or other dark meat , which is first cut into thin slices and completely dried and then roasted and crushed. Then it is kneaded with sebum and bone marrow fat in a ratio of about three to one to form a paste that can be stored for a long time. As a variant, dried berries are mixed in , especially as mocha with the tribes of the east coast , such as the Iroquois .
Pemmican weighs around a fifth of the fresh meat used in its production. It can be consumed directly or, if fire, water and other ingredients are available, can be used as the basis for dishes. With boiling water, like modern instant products , it made a nutritious soup in a short time.
Because of its high nutritional content and shelf life, it has long been used internationally as provisions for expeditions and is now industrially produced, often with the addition of dried fruit and grain. Pemmican became a strategically important logistics item for the military, and it was also an indispensable source of energy when exploring the polar regions and the high mountains (see also Hoosh ). It is still widely used on longer outdoor tours.
The main component of pemmican, powder from crushed meat, was known to nomads in West Africa and Central Asia in addition to the Native Americans . In Mongolia as Borts and among the shepherds in Tibet it was just as well known as in Europe among the Celts .