HOW TO MAKE PEMMICAN

It’s the start of the fur-trading season. You and the other voyageurs are preparing for another long journey to the interior of the continent. At a Métis camp near the Red River Colony in what will someday be known as Manitoba, you line up to receive the bundles of pemmican that will keep you fed and fit during the arduous months ahead.

Nutritious and high in protein as well as calories (you’ll burn at least five thousand a day), pemmican is a traditional Métis food usually made of dried bison meat, bison fat, and berries, such as saskatoons, chokecherries, or blueberries.

The women who make the pemmican also sew bags made of bison hide to contain it. When stored properly, pemmican will keep for years without spoiling.

1. Cut bison meat into long, thin strips. Dry over an open fire or in the sun.

2. Pound dried strips between rocks until flaky. Put the flakes in a bag made of bison hide.

3. Pour hot bison fat over the flakes.

4. Add dried berries and stir.

5. Sew the bags shut and let them cool.