«-- Letter Re: Home Canning Your Garden Produce and Meat | Main | Letter Re: Thanks to Congress, Ethanol and Biofuel Mandates Cause Food Prices to Soar --»
Letter Re: Grandpappy's Pemmican Recipe - A Native American Indian Survival Food
Sir,
I must say that I do not recommend the gentleman's pemmican recipe. Unless
he adds sodium nitrite and brines the meat, sickness can occur.
From the USDA: "Salmonella not only survives drying but also becomes more
heat resistant with drying
and is more of an issue in non-fermented dried meats, such as jerky, and
whole meat cuts, such as dried hams.
Starter cultures are generally not used in the production of jerky. Microbial
hazards include Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, S. aureus, and, for beef and
venison jerky, E. coli O157:H7. If the product receives inadequate lethality
treatment and is insufficiently dried, S. aureus is a potential hazard, since
it can grow at lower water activities than most pathogens."Regards, - Jeff
JWR Replies: I agree that salt brining is appropriate before
drying meat. Otherwise, Grandpappy's recipe is correct and quite useful,
as stated. One
good brining method is described at the Walton Feed web site. FWIW, in
my opinion, nitrates and nitrites are overused in American processed foods,
and
in high
concentrations they could have some negative
long term health effects. I much prefer brining.
I just added a note to
Grandpappy's original post, recommending thorough salt brining.
