Your "Super" High Energy Trail Snack Suggestion

Native American pemmican! Millions of Indians couldn't have been wrong. Pemmican was the original super-nutritious "trail bar."

This is my favorite deviation from the traditional meat/melted fat/berries pemmican, yet it still contains meat, fat (in the form of peanut butter and other nuts), and fruit (in the form of raisins).

Pemmican with Honey and Peanut Butter

Some people prefer peanut butter to fat; some like a blend of honey and peanut butter. Here is a recipe that helps provide calories without meat fat (I find this lasts longer without going rancid as quickly as fat from meat tends to do)

1/2 pound of jerky, pulverized to a powder, or nearly to a powder
1/2 pound of raisins
1/2 pound of nuts (peanuts, pecans. etc)
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons peanut butter

Warm the honey and mix with the peanut butter together until well blended.
Add all ingredients together. Store in a plastic bag in a cool, dry place.

To eat pemmican Native American style, pop a little bit into your mouth and chew it just about forever, sort of like chewing gum. That way you entertain your mouth and extract every bit of goodness from the dehydrated meat, berries/fruit, and nuts. It is surprisingly filling when eaten this way. Even though the food is low-volume, it packs power because it is highly concentrated and loaded with protein.

There are different schools of thought regarding the shelf life of pemmican. Some say it will last for only a month or two; others say it will last for years. It depends upon the temperature and humidity of the environment, the quality of ingredients, and how it is stored. At any rate, the fat content will also determine shelf life. After the fat goes rancid from age, it will taste bad and should be thrown out. The cooler the storage temperatures are, the longer the fat will stay fresh.

To help extend shelf life, I like to store pemmican in the freezer. If the electricity should ever go out long enough to affect the contents of the freezer, I will take the pemmican out of the freezer, and after making sure that it is perfectly dry, store it in a glass jar or plastic bag in a dark cool place. (Watch for mold, in case it was not perfectly dry.)

For even longer-term storage, I sometimes use raisins in place of fat in the traditional recipe.

My favorite fat-free way to make pemmican:

In a blender, whizz together equal parts of pulverized-almost-to-a-powder jerky, ground dried berries, and chopped nuts of your choice. Add enough raisins so that the smashed up raisins hold everything together nicely. Then you can form marble-sized balls or whatever. No blender handy? Chop with a knife, then pound the foodstuff to a pulp with a rock.

This stores a lot longer than the traditional version with fat. But then, during really high caloric demanding situations such as hiking, working, or coping with a disaster, you'd be wishing for that little extra fat, because it supplies a majority of the calories in pemmican.

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Your "Super" High Energy Trail Snack Suggestion