> Lynnet Bannion wrote:
>   However, moving gradually onto it was
>> a piece of cake,  oops,  make that pemmican, for me.
>
> What kind of fat do you use?
>
> I ask because I have been using beef fat from around the kidneys, and
> the resulting pemmican tastes like candle wax & sawdust.
> Then I read this: http://tiny.cc/XIofv which makes me wonder as I've
> been told here that kidney fat is high in stearic acid.
>
> William

Kidney fat is indeed high in stearic acid.  That's the whole point. 
Stearic acid is quite hard at room temperatures, and extremely resistant
to oxidation.  This is why it's perfect for pemmican, since the whole
point of pemmican was to be able to create a form of meat that could be
stored on long voyages without danger of spoiling.  The use of kidney fat
yields fat high enough in stearic acid to allow the pemmican to cool into
firm cakes.  Use of other fat would result in softer pemmican that would
also spoil more easily.  Kidney fat is about 52% saturated.  A little over
half of that is stearic acid--about 28% of total fat.  For candles and
soaps, stearic acid is concentrated to almost 100%, but in actual animal
fat, that 28% is about as high as you'll find.  Note that kidney fat is
about 32% monounsaturated.  Those numbers may be a few points low, because
I looked up "suet", which also has a small amount of water and a very
small amount of protein.

Magnesium stearate is a salt made with stearic acid/

The web site you linked has this to say: "Stearic Acid is not just another
unhealthy or non-working supplement. It is a dangerous, potentially toxic
combination of hydrogenated oils infiltrating your body without your
knowledge, building up over time and breaking down the efforts you are
making to maintain your health.  It kills your cells!"

This is crazy.  Stearic acid is not a combination of hydrogenated oils. 
It is a single saturated (naturally hydrogenated, if you will) fatty acid.
 It is also a structural fat, i.e., its hardness makes it useful to
protect the kidneys against shock from impact.  It's digested more slowly
than most other fatty acids, but it's still digested.

If you don't like it, by all means don't eat it.  But don't suggest that
kidney fat is unsuitable for pemmican because it's high in stearic acid,
when it's precisely the stearic acid that made it suitable.

Todd Moody