A couple of tips:

1.  Go to a butcher to get the fat, not the grocery store.

2.  Get suet, not just beef fat.

3.  Get the butcher to grind the fat for you, it melts MUCH faster.

4.  Get suet from grass fed cows if possible.

5.  I've been pretty successful drying in my oven with just the light
on.  (Make sure you add foil or something similar on the bottom of the
oven to catch the dripped juices.)

On 4/19/05, Cas Kearse <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Mike,  I just recently ordered some.
> >I have never tried Pemmican. I do not want to order a huge lot of it. The
> >sample packages available on line seem way too expensive.
> It seemed very expensive to me too until I started figuring the cost of
> doing it myself.  It's way less expensive for me if I have to buy all the
> materials from the groceryl.  Also obtaining beef fat is next to impossible
> for most people.  When I asked the meat dept at my local grocery stores if
> there was any beef fat they could sell me- first they looked at me like I
> was crazy- then they explained that most of the meat is already precut when
> it arrives at the store.
> Since then I've been lining up a deal where I can buy a side of beef from
> local ranchers.  It takes time to make the connections necessary to line up
> something like this (for me).
> 
> >  Other than making it onesself, does anyone know of a lower-cost
> >alternative. I don't have a dehydrator and the one time I tried doing it in
> >my oven, I just wasted a lot of time, and a perfectly good roast.
> 
> It would be a lot cheaper to make it yourself if you have the beef and fat
> available in bulk.  Also realize that rendering fat is no snap to
> accomplish.  My mom rendered the fat when we butchered a hog when I was a
> kid but it is a slow process.  I have made jerky and that is quite an
> intensive piece of work too.  Most ovens would be too hot.  I do have a
> dehydrator and got it at a second hand store.  Actually I got 2 dehydrators
> but one was too hot even at the lowest setting and "cooked" the meat.  I ate
> it but it had a unpleasant burnt taste, yuk.  

-- 
Alan Jones ([log in to unmask])