| Number |
Thumbnail |
Caption |
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| 1 |
 |
The bison suet ready for me to process. This I bought from Northstar Bison, though I don’t believe they sell it anymore. Instead they use it for other products. An alternative is to buy Beef Suet or Beef Tallow from US Wellness Meats. |
| 2 |
 |
To speed up the rendering I diced the suet this time. More work, but I feel it was worth it. |
| 3 |
 |
The diced suet ready for the rendering. That’s a 16 qt pot. |
| 4 |
 |
People suggest adding a little water to get started, so it doesn’t stick. I added a gallon. A big mistake! I had to simmer all that water out. |
| 5 |
 |
It is working its way down. It there are bubbles, they are steam bubbles, and for all the moisture to be out they should stop. |
| 6 |
 |
I ended up simmering it for 30 hours! That covered two nights, plus daytime. When simmering at night I did periodically get up and stir. But it did stick to the bottom, and it may have a slight burned smell. Actually I gave up when it was still have steam bubbles come up. I got impatient. Figured if I kept it in the refrigerator I’d be okay. |
| 7 |
 |
Here is my new chinois and its pestle. (This one I bought years ago and I don’t find it online, but here is a similar one: Reinforced Extra Fine Mesh Bouillon Strainer 8".) |
| 8 |
 |
The crud filled the chinois. Turned out the pestle was of no use. |
| 9 |
 |
Here’s the pot filled with the rendered suet. |
| 10 |
 |
I decided to break up the jerky into one inch pieces with my hands. It blended much better this way. That’s my KitchenAid 5-Speed Blender. |
| 11 |
 |
Midway in my jerky grinding task. I dried 11.5 lbs of bison. |
| 12 |
 |
The pot of suet is very hard. Even with the ice cream spade it was hard to dig out. I ended up filling the quart pan almost to the top. It was barely enough for this much ground jerky. |
| 13 |
 |
I put some in the glass Pyrex dish, which I was able to press down with the ice cream spade. Then many people recommend using muffin tins. So I tried that. I used my finger to press it down. |
| 14 |
 |
After it hardened I had to cut these into chunks. It was hard to do. I had to cut through hard bits of meat. I can see why people prefer the muffin tins. Looks like that will be what I use in the future. |
| 15 |
 |
A closeup of the finished pemmican. |
| 16 |
 |
A closer closeup. This is not as dense as my last batch, where I put in a bit too much suet. |
