So, How Long Does Pemmican Last?

Pemmican is a traditional dish prepared by native North Americans as a multi-purpose survival ration, capable of being eaten as is or incorporated into soups or other pan-fried dishes.

pemmican in glass jar
pemmican in glass jar

Settlers from Europe soon made note of pemmican and its long life characteristics, with the food being capable of persisting, completely edible, for months or even upward of a year.

This remarkable capability had long made it the choice of various tribes for long journeys and soon it was being used for the same purpose by settlers in the New World.

So what is the shelf life of pemmican?

If you prepared a batch of pemmican today, you could expect to get anywhere from half a year to 5 years’ worth of shelf life. This depends upon the exact ingredients and method of preparation.

Nailing down a precise estimation is challenging, owing to the many tribal, regional, and local variations on both ingredients and methods of preparation.

Regardless, pemmican has an extraordinary shelf life.

Pemmican remains an entirely viable and useful survival food source today, one that modern preppers would do well to acquaint themselves with. However, like all such emergency rations it does come with a few trade-offs and making the best use of it means learning its pros, cons and quirks. Keep reading to learn more.

Pemmican: What is It?

Today, pemmican is often thought to be simply beef jerky. This is not the case, though you could argue that real pemmican contains jerky as an ingredient. Traditional, real-deal pemmican is a combination of dried animal meat and melted animal fat, usually tallow, but sometimes suet.

Many recipes and variations often include a variety of dried berries in the mix. This has made pemmican an adaptable and comparatively easy-to-prepare ration since you can make it from so many different things.

Way back, well before the United States ever was, explorers from various European countries were making contact, sometimes peacefully and sometimes not, with indigenous Native Americans.

The majority of these tribes made use of pemmican and one form or another because it was extremely energy dense and would sustain them well on long journeys with virtually no worry over spoilage.

In time, these European explorers and settlers were introduced to pemmican properly, giving it a try and various preparations including soups, stews, fried pancakes or patties and even raw or unmodified.

The same qualities that made it so desirable to Native Americans made it desirable to Europeans, and it worked for them.

Today, pemmican is still made in the same way, and is even produced in its genuine form commercially. Now as then, everyone has their own idea of what true pemmican is, and what ingredients do and do not belong in it.

wrapping pemmican in aluminum foil
wrapping pemmican in aluminum foil

So How Long Can Pemmican Really Keep?

Even today, as long as pemmican has been around, people argue like the dickens on how long it will actually last.

Some folks think it is good only for as little as a few weeks or a couple of months at room temperature. Others avow that it will last for a decade if you don’t do anything else to it. Who is correct?

Is there any historical evidence we can rely on, or laboratory testing? Well, yes and no. It’s complicated.

Even though it has been around for ages, pemmican is still very much considered a niche food today, though it is still prepared by families, and even manufactured on a small commercial scale.

We have many, many historical accounts and anecdotal tales concerning pemmican and its properties, but there is precious little verifiable information regarding long-term storage.

Based on what research and verifiable testing have been conducted, we know that traditional pemmican prepared today with strict attention to quality control will last anywhere from a year to five years if it is kept at room temperature in a sealed container. That’s a very respectable right out of the gate.

Lucky for us, pemmican can also last even longer when it benefits from modern preservation methods.

The same traditional pemmican prepared in the same traditional way placed in the same sealed container that is refrigerated- or just kept in a cool, dark place- can last at least 10 years, ready to eat. This is frankly remarkable, but there’s plenty of evidence to support this as we’ll get to in a minute.

As I said, it did not take long for people to recognize pemmican’s better qualities, and in the following decades and centuries it was adapted to have a variety of mass-produced survival rations, even issued by the US military, and others, around the world.

Varieties of pemmican that were prepared as emergency issue rations were expected to last multiple decades, with pemmican prepared and then vacuum sealed into a metal container theoretically capable of remaining edible for a century.

That sounds incredible. It’s, frankly, unbelievable! But as it turns out… it’s true!

pemmican in zipper bag
pemmican in zipper bag

How Long Will Pemmican Last In Different Conditions?

The ultimate survival food that can provide a person with many calories has one fatal weakness. Moisture is the enemy for anything dehydrated or freeze-dried as reconstitution begins the process of bacteria breaking down the food.

This means that even the slightest bit of excess humidity can get the ball rolling on the grease going rancid.

Products with a lot of meat protein can spoil at room temperature very quickly as a result. The first step in protecting your pemmican is to add different layers separating it from the outside environment.

The dried fruits within the pemmican recipes break down quickly as well. The liquid fat is designed to keep the fruit from being exposed to the air.

Wrapping your pemmican in tin foil is an excellent way to add another layer of protection for a long period of time. Using this in conjunction with an air-tight container will almost guarantee good preservation as long as you can keep condensation at bay.

Using the same paper as your local butcher is another great way to store pemmican as it protects it while mitigating any condensation. They primarily use it for ground chuck from the meat grinder to stop it from spoiling as fast. Storing meat in plastic will cause it to spoil faster than it would in the paper.

Storing it in the refrigerator or freezer is a great way to store it for long periods but be mindful of the thawing process as this may cause texture and flavor issues.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how long pemmican will last in different storage conditions:

Freezer Storage20+ years
Room temperature3-5 years
Vacuum sealedUp to 50 years

Pemmican: For the LONG Haul!

Prior to the onset of World War I, emergency field rations issued by the US military consisted of pemmican, a little chocolate and a salt packet. Even way back then these rations were expected to keep soldiers in duress marching for 36 hours off of a single, small tin, and last basically indefinitely.

One such ration was recently recovered in an excellent state of preservation. In 2019, a YouTuber who has made a career of consuming these essentially ancient foodstuffs and recording the experience opened, prepared and ate a ration manufactured in 1906.

I know some of you are about to fall out of your chairs, but he recorded the entire experience and suffered absolutely no ill effects.

Truly, if there is one survival ration that will genuinely, truly go the distance it has to be pemmican. Don’t believe me? You can check this out, and see for yourself:

So There You Have It!

Pemmican is a traditional Native American food that is rightly renowned for its long shelf life, with most traditional preparations lasting anywhere from six months to one year at room temperature.

If you take some care in storing it, in a cool place and an airtight container, your pemmican could last anywhere from one to 5 years, and vacuum-sealed emergency ration prepared pemmican has been confirmed to last, completely edible, in excess of 100 years!

2 thoughts on “So, How Long Does Pemmican Last?”

  1. Can you store just dried, powdered meat, in a vacuum sealed bag, then put inside a mylar bag with an oxygen absorber?
    Would it be OK without the tallow or suet? How long would it last?

  2. An oxygen absorber would allow nitrogen, which (excluding oxygen), “could” support botulism… so please be careful. There is a reason Native Americans mixed it with beef/animal tallow and it kept, as opposed to just storing ground/dried meat

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