Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Liz's (In)Famous Pemmican

Pemmican is a traditional food of North American native people.
Traditional recipes call for thin sliced lean meat dried over a fire, pounded into a powder, and mixed with rendered fat.  Sometimes dried berries were also mixed in, but general opinion seems to be that the berries were added to accommodate the tastes of Europeans.

My recipe is NOT traditional.
Most pemmican recipes have a 1:1:1 ratio of meat, berries and fat….but some are by weight and some are by volume.
I chose to measure by volume, figuring I can add more meat or fat if needed.  I wasn’t at all sure about the fattiness of the 1:1:1 ratio, so I added an extra ½ c. of meat.

My apologies for my not being exact on some of the ingredient weights/ measures – I was making the pemmican while overhauling part of my bike’s wiring, so my brain was more focused on relays and waterproof connectors than keeping good cooking records.

Meat prep – I made jerky using a marinade recipe my husband ketofied for me.
1.       3 lbs. lean meat (I used top round) sliced no thicker than ¼ inch
a.       You want the meat to be as lean as possible to stave off spoilage, so cut as much fat as possible off the meat
2.       1 c. Worcestershire sauce
3.       1 c. soy sauce
4.       Garlic to taste
a.       If you can get the purple-striped garlic, it is SO much better than regular white garlic
5.       Throw all the ingredients into a bowl or gallon size zip top bag, and let marinate at least overnight
a.       Shake the bowl or turn the bag halfway through the marinade time
6.       Dehydrate the meat for 12-18 hours
a.       You want the meat dry enough that you can break it into pieces – you do not want it to be chewy like jerky

Fruit prep – I used raspberries, you can substitute whatever fruit you like.
1.       1 c. dried raspberries
a.       Since I already had the dehydrator running, I just dried my own berries – I discovered that a 12 oz. container of raspberries made exactly 1 cup of dried berries

Fat prep – The fat needs to be rendered so it will not spoil.  There are a few ways to do this, I used the crock pot method.
1.       Call around to a few butchers to see if one can sell you 4-5 lbs of beef fat
2.       If meat scraps are present, remove them and chop the beef fat into ½” x ½” pieces, then run it through a food processor
3.       Put the chopped fat into a crockpot, turn on low and let the fat melt down
a.       I believe it took 24 hours for the fat to cook down
b.       You know the fat is done when it is all melted, and you see brown bits (cracklins) floating around in the crock pot
4.       Strain the fat through a fine metal mesh strainer to remove the cracklins
5.       Line the strainer with cheesecloth, and strain a second time

Assembly
1.       Powder the meat – you want about 1.5 cups
a.       Break the dried meat into smaller pieces and run it through a blender
2.       Powder the raspberries
3.       Mix the powdered meat and raspberries in a large metal or glass bowl
4.       Add 1 c. of the rendered beef tallow and thoroughly mix
a.       The mixture should be dry enough to hold it’s shape when pressed against the side of the bowl, but wet enough that it is not crumbly
5.       Press the mixture into an 8x8x8 pan lined with plastic wrap, cover and put in the fridge overnight.

I tried the pemmican that night and wasn’t thrilled – the flavor definitely improved after being on the bike for a day or two.
Temps during my trip were in the mid 80’s to mid 90’s.  The pemmican was in my motorcycle’s luggage for 8 days.  It got soft, but held together well and had no signs of spoilage.






Monday, July 17, 2017

Last day at KetoFest

Goodbye Liz.  I'll see you next year at Chincoteague. Say hi to Sam for me.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

We have arrived. Success.

Arrived near New London Connecticut at Carl Franklin's house, after riding for hours in the driving rain.
Poured water out of my boots.
Still had fun in the twisties and steep hills!! LOVED IT!!

We were cold, wet and tired. Glad to be with our friends.
I'll add a photo to this tomorrow. Richard Morris took one when we rode up, I need to get it from him.

Downpour in Connecticut

Waiting out a bit of a downpour with lightning (lovely) just South of Great Barrington Massachusetts.
But only for a bit. Looks like it's not gonna let up our last 100 miles.
Test of endurance FTW.

ADVENTURE DAMMIT

(I did get a few shots of espresso. I couldn't handle not having it anymore!!!)

Makes me have to stop more often, so I've been going without coffee/espresso for DAYS.
SORRY NOT SORRY LIZ

Toiletries

Liz brought pemmican (that melted a bit), I fill my camel back with water and ACV. I laughed my ass off when I realized what it looked like.
Bladder of pee.
Bag of poo

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

ADVENTURE!

We decided not to post this particular ADVENTURE until we were safe, and in New York. We had it handled, and didn't want to worry anyone :)

My rear tire went flat on a highway entrance ramp on the way to the Cleveland area yesterday, Tuesday. Luckily I felt my tire go soft BEFORE I got on the highway. With the communicators, I was able to tell Liz what was happening (she was in front) and we pulled over immediately. We were very fortunate there was a very wide shoulder at a manageable angle as its hard to put the bike on the kickstand with a flat rear tire (my KLR weighs over 500 pounds with all its gear and after market parts!). We were also in the shade. It was 86* and very humid yesterday. FOUR different people stopped to offer help. Ohio is a good place. ❤


Adventure.

We could find no damage in the tire, but it was too hot to touch! and completely flat. My fairly new Shinko 705 was ruined. Right when we stopped, the center tread was surprisingly shiny and slick, with the tread gone. As it cooled it's look changed. Weirdest thing ever. We figured I rode over something or I had a slow leak and was riding on it as it slowly deflated. And basically melted off. The rubber was ruined. I couldn't just replace a tube (Liz carries one with all the tools to change it), I needed a new tire itself!
Liz knew how to prioritize. My first instinct was to call AAA. Her more experienced self knew we needed to find a tire FIRST. She called several local dealerships and no one had a fit. Then she called a BMW motorcycle dealership. She'd had luck in the past with their stores carrying a wider inventory.  The nearest one was 82 miles away. And they had a tire.

Adventure.

 I called and reserved a motel room near the dealership and called AAA. Waited two hours because AAA couldn't figure out our location, even though we had our exact location with the GPS on our smart phones and described exactly where we were!
AAA dispatch finally called the right local tow driver, Ethan. What a guy. He was there in 15 minutes. I rode the KLR up the lowered flat bed much to Liz and Nathan's surprise! Lol.


Adventure!

 Liz rode behind us on her bike in the growing dusk for 1.5 hours!
I talked Nathan's ear off about keto for 1.5 hours and ended up giving him my card, the KetoFest website address, and our blog. Lol.

.... I left my KLR at the maw of a BMW dealership....
SACRILEGE! D:

...This is akin to leaving a Viking on a Packers doorstep, their is a KLR/BMW rivalry that is very much alive in the dualsport world.


Adventure.....

First thing this morning I was waiting when they unlocked their door. I took an UBER for the first time.

Adventure!

We showed up before they opened to get first service.
Turns out the tire went flat because the tube was folded!!


It was folded by a mechanic when I bought new tires last year, at a Kawasaki service center!! They installed it wrong! A hole eventually wore through. My Kawi service department will be hearing about this!

By the way, we had just stopped to fill up with gas 34 miles before this happened and I had noticed no issues then.


$350 poorer with a Metzler, we got back on the road at noon today. We arrived in Rome, New York (Liz's home) at 7:30 pm. 400 + miles of travel. Well. That was just today. Lol


Adventure at its finest....

We leave for New London, Connecticut and www.KetoFest.com tomorrow.

Adventure 💚

Liz's House, Rome New York!

Liz's house,
Rome, New York 730 pm Wednesday.
Connecticut tomorrow

Liz's (In)Famous Pemmican

Pemmican is a traditional food of North American native people. Traditional recipes call for thin sliced lean meat dried over a fire, poun...