The Magic Bus Trip

Sol

I received my order today for pemmican and jerky from US Wellness and I'm impressed with the taste of both and with the ingredients - no MSG or other chemicals. And, I didn't find the pemmican to be too salty as, I believe, Lex did.

Plus, the order was shipped FedEx overnight for just a $7.50 "handling" fee. That was a good deal for 10 pounds of stuff. I do notice, though, that they don't ship every day, so if you order later in the week they don't ship till Monday.

Check them out:

http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Cate...2C+Sausage%2C+Bacon++%26+Pemmican

Sol

lex_rooker · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:39 pm Post subject:

I may need to try them again Sol. I tried their pemmican when they first introduced it several years ago so I don't have any recent experience with it. I now see they offer a couple of different "flavors" which weren't available before. I expect they've improved it some if you find it acceptable.

Does it still come in the little plastic "Cheese N Crackers" containers or are the bars now packaged more like a candy bar. The ones I got the pemmican was not very solid and was more like cheese spread.

Lex
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Raw (95%) or rare (5%) meat as my only food since April 2005. Zero carbs.

Sol · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:46 pm Post subject:

lex_rooker · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:17 pm Post subject:

When I make my own, the rendered fat is almost like candle wax - rather hard. This makes my pemmican more the consistency of a snickers bar.
Very easy to carry.

Lex
_________________
Raw (95%) or rare (5%) meat as my only food since April 2005. Zero carbs.

Tracy · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 3:25 pm Post subject:

I just poked around their website and wow, I'm impressed. If shipping to Canada isn't too spendy, I'll order some pemmican and maybe some of their organ sausage.

With the pemmican in the pail - could one form it into bars for easy transport? I'm spending a lot of time out of the house and the bars would be really easy to bring with me.
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Kristelle · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject:

Last summer, I called them and asked if they delivered to Canada. I live in Montreal. They said they couldn't because they didn't know how long the meat would take to get to my place and by then, the meat could be very rotten. Something about customs too.

In any case, if things are different now and they found a way to ship faster, please let me know. Thanks.
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"When you give up your dream, you die"

Sol · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 7:00 pm Post subject:

Lex and Tracy commented/asked about the consistency of the pemmican. Unfortunately, it is like a spread at room temperature. I keep mine in the freezer or fridge.

Sol

Tracy · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 3:18 am Post subject:

The website mentioned that they deliver to Canada. If it's courier, might be pretty spendy.

Spreadable - yuck. I like the idea of portable bars or pucks. I'll prolly just make my own, now that I read Lex's awesome jerky-maker instructions!

Is it better to stick with meat/fat from the same animal? Meaning for beef, use tallow rather than lard, etc?
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Dean · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 5:22 am Post subject:

Tracy, as Lex said, tallow is hard, even at room temps, whereas lard is much softer. I've got both in mason jars sitting out in my kitchen all the time. Candle wax is what the tallow looks like. That's what candles used to be made out of. If you stuck a wick in there while it was solidifying, you'd have a candle. I have the meat in my freezer that I pulverized a long time ago. I'm gonna make some pemmican tomorrow. I've never done it before. Cool

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix

Every day you'll see the dust
Never get off the Bus!

Tracy · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject:

I want to hear all about it!

So sounds like tallow is the winner here for portability purposes. I'll have to find me some - my usual farmer doesn't have it, for some reason, but I'm sure my butcher could get it. He always has organic lard and duck fat.
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Badger · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 10:55 pm Post subject:

Thanks for reporting back, Sol. Happy

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Me? I just want to know everything about somethings, something about everything and nothing about the rest of it.

Sol · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:16 am Post subject:

Dean · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:37 am Post subject:

A lot of grocery store meat counters will give away fat. If you check with regular meat processors, they might give it away as well, and, if they do sell it, they won't ask much for it. I can get pork fat that is already chopped up and ready to render for $0.99/lb. Rendering fat is SO FUN! Grin

_________________
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix

Every day you'll see the dust
Never get off the Bus!

Sol · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:41 am Post subject:

Dean,

You can buy beef suet from Slankers for $1.48/pound plus shipping. It'll be from 100% grassfeed cows. I like to buy as much grassfed stuff as I can.

Also, the two times I got free fat from local markets there was lots of crud in it that wasn't fat. I've not tried rendering the Slankers suet but, from what Chris told me when she was taking my order, the suet should be fairly clean.

Sol

Dean · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:53 am Post subject:

Sol,

I know exactly what you mean about all the crud in the fat. I had to spend quite a bit of time cutting off the meat to get just the fat. When I got a quarter of black angus beef, I got a huge amount of pure fat. Big chunks of fat that I was able to dice up and render. It was feedlot beef, and the fat was chalk white. In the past, I've purchased bison meat, and gotten bison fat, which is much more yellowish in color.

I am going to look into getting back to bison when my freezer is empty. These bison are raised totally naturally. It's the best meat. I've eaten it raw, both the meat and the fat, and had no issues. I also am going to look into the pastured pork. I used to buy that. Thanks for the suggestion on getting Slanker's stuff. There are lots of farms around where I live that naturally raise animals. Some of the stuff is pretty pricey, only, but, some of it isn't too bad.
_________________
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix

Every day you'll see the dust
Never get off the Bus!

Sol · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 1:14 am Post subject:

Dean,

I found a recipe for rendering fat that doesn't require you to separate the meat from the fat. That recipe saved me lots of time when I rendered some fat last week. You might try it.

You first boil some water, then you add your fat/beef blob to the boiling water, then you simmer for 1/2 hour. There'll still be some water left when you're done. Then, you cool off and refrigerate the pot (water, blob and all) for a few hours. You'll find that the fat floats to the top and the rest (beef, connective tissue ...) will be in the water part of the pot. The fat is then easy to remove, pat dry with a paper towel, and put into jars.

Regarding Slankers: I've ordered from Slankers several times over the years. Their meat is very high quality and their ethics are outstanding. And, they are real passionate about grassfed not meaning that the cow once ate a blade of grass.

Also, Slankers prices are the best I've ever seen. You can buy 1/4 cow, 100 pounds of beef, for $5.78 a pound and that includes shipping. It'll include some pricey cuts along with the cheaper cuts. It's a great deal!

Plus, what Slankers does which few others do, is that they ship by UPS ground. That saves tons on shipping. I got my recent order in 2 days and the shipping costs something like 35 cents a pound because I ordered 70 pounds of stuff. Your mileage may vary. And, the meat was frozen solid, even though it's getting warm in New Mexico.

Sol

Dean · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 1:24 am Post subject:

Sounds great. Of course, for the several years I was eating naturally raised animals, I was trying to buy as local as possible. There are so many different farms around here that I have no problem finding places to get meat. I can get deer really dirt cheap. It's left over from the hunters who never picked up their orders. The bison I was getting came out to be about $3.30/lb after all the costs were figured in. That included an entire half or quarter bison, so I got all the good cuts, and was able to specify with the local processor exactly how I wanted it cut. I've purchased free-range chickens from another farm, and raw dairy, and lamb and pork. I was really gettin' into it. Should probably get back into it. Yup

_________________
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix

Every day you'll see the dust
Never get off the Bus!

Sol · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 3:43 am Post subject:

Dean,

I'm delighted for you that you have such good local sources of quality meat.

Sol

lex_rooker · Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 1:12 am Post subject:

I order suet from slanker often. It renders out beatuifully and due to the omega 3 content it is butter yellow. It does taste quite different but if someone didn't know and saw it on the counter they would assume it was butter.

My rendering process is a bit longer as I like to get as much of the fat as possible without over heating it. I start as Sol suggested by boiling in a good bit of water until the fat is soft. I then process in a food processor until it is mush and return it to the water to boil for another hour or so. I then let it cool as Sol says and skim off the fat in the morning. I then boil the original mixture again to get the last bit of fat using the same process as before.

With the stuff I scraped off, I heat in a separate pan with a thermometer until it reaches about 225 deg F. I keep stiring until all small bubbles stop forming and then pour the fat off of the dregs in the bottom of the pan. This assures that all the water has been removed from the fat.

The next day I do the same with the leftovers from the day before. The entire process allows me to get over one lb of fat for every 2 lbs of suet. I think the last time I did this I got over 4 lbs of clean tallow from about 7 lbs of suet.

Lex
_________________
Raw (95%) or rare (5%) meat as my only food since April 2005. Zero carbs.

Badger · Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 3:52 am Post subject:

Welcome back Lex, I hope you had a good trip.

Have you ever compared the tallow that you render from Slanker's suet to the tallow that they sell themselves?
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Me? I just want to know everything about somethings, something about everything and nothing about the rest of it.

Dean · Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 3:58 am Post subject:

This is how I do it:

http://magicbus.myfreeforum.org/about122.html

Check the pics in that thread.

I will usually render fat for a very long time, up to 24 hours sometimes. Once it's all liquid, I will go to bed and have the flame on the stove so low it looks like it's going to go out. The longer you render, the cleaner it is. The tallow I have is so kitchen clean, it would probably last for several hundred years.

I've never done it the way you guys describe. I just use a very large stainless steel pot and put the diced up fat chunks in, with NO water. The thing about rendering is to remove all the water you can. So, I'm a little confused about this adding water thing. Can someone explain that? I've never heard of that before. Once the fat chunks start to liquefy, it gets more and more liquidly as you go.

The way I do it, there is very little waste. I don't have to skim anything off. I just end up with a huge pot of liquid gold. I strain the crap out of it, often straining it through many layers of cheese cloth inside a fine mesh strainer, pouring it into another pot, then cleaning out the other pot, then straining it back again, to render for several more hours. You really can't render it too much. I use the absolute lowest temp I can on the stove from start to finish.

The end product is very clear looking liquid gold, which solidifies to very pure lard or tallow. Check the pics. I've done bison fat before and it is yellow in the end. Check out how white this stuff was in the pic. That was feedlot black angus fat. It was chalk white when I started, and chalk white in the mason jars.
_________________
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix

Every day you'll see the dust
Never get off the Bus!

Nicola · Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 9:56 am Post subject:

Badger · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 2:59 am Post subject:

You may be right. I just saw the post from him and assumed that he was back.
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Me? I just want to know everything about somethings, something about everything and nothing about the rest of it.

Tracy · Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 4:44 am Post subject:

Augh! Just discovered that US Wellness isn't shipping to Canada anymore due to a customs issue. I mean, I mailed my poop to Texas - I can't get pemmican Fed Exed? The only other pemmican I've found online so far really, really sucks. Bear Creek or something - cocoa carob pemmican. WTF?

Might be building a jerky box a la Lex and doing it myself, once I find some tallow and a cat-proof barrier.
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Kristelle · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 4:01 am Post subject:

sometimes, being a Canadian sucks.
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"When you give up your dream, you die"

Tracy · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject:

Tell me about it. And you'd think there'd be a zillion sources of pemmican here, but noooooo. Was hoping to bring some to the zoo with me this weekend (we always bring our own food.)
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Kristelle · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:25 pm Post subject:

I loooove the zoo. Have fun! Happy

_________________
"When you give up your dream, you die"