Todd Moody wrote:
>
> Are you sure you're getting *suet*?  This is not just generic
> "beef fat"; it is the hard fat deposit from around the kidneys.
> If you just ask for beef fat, you could just end up with muscle
> fat trimmed from various steaks, chops, etc.  This fat is
> different from the tallow you get from suet in a number of ways,
> and I doubt that it is much good for making pemmican.

From your description, I realize that I'm getting generic beef fat. I
was afraid to ask for suet and get pig fat instead. So the fat I got
won't be as good. I'll try for the suet next batch. How much kidney and
loin fat can there be in a cow? Certainly not enough to turn all
jerkable meat into pemmican. Perhaps that is the reason the army didn't
take it up.


> ...           ...My dog is very keen on these rinds, possibly
> because he has already been driven to distraction by the smell of
> the rendering.

I have two dogs. One of them seems to lay around in pure agony when I
fix any meat. I want to give my dogs an all-meat diet, if that would be
good for them, but I have concerns. It has got to cost too much, for one
thing. For another, I worry about them becoming too vicious. Won't an
all/mostly meat diet cause them to become too predatory and dominant?(
in additon to constant begging )



Grant Magnuson wrote:
>
> We ask for the thinnest possible slice which usually turns out to be
> about 1/8 to 3/16 inch because we also get enough for jerky at the same
> time and we think the thinner the better, but that's our preference.
> (Also makes it easier to whiz in the blender.)

I would make the slices thinner but then the six pounds of meat won't
fit in my dehydrator. It handles 6 drying trays but the lowest tray
seems to get too hot. Would it be just as fast to dry in two batches? I
remember the first pieces of a thinnly-sliced batch being done in six
hours. With the thicker slices done in maybe 12. So maybe I should
consider having two batches.


> We leave our pemmican beef in longer than the beef for jerky.  We've
> found a nice powdery whizzed beef (real dry) to be best, easier to make
> pemmican with, but for jerky we like it a tad bit chewy (but thoroughly
> dry, just not to the cracking point.

The thought of powdery whizzed beef makes my mouth water. I used to love
chips ahoy for a driving snack food.( bet you bite a chip ) But I'm
thinking made right they're no more alluring than pemmican.


> We buy 1 pound plastic bags of SUET in the freezer section for the fat
> and go to great efforts to process it "wisely" i.e. in such a way that
> doesn't heat it too much creating tans fatty acids and to insure it is
> filtered real well.

I would hope that my time of buying suet would be as easy as getting it
out of the freezer section. I don't think whole foods even has a freezer
section of non-vegetarian products.

Are you really having to be concerned about the trans-fatty acids
created? Is suet less saturated than exterior fat? I cook mine on as low
as I can anyway.( part of Adelle Davis' influence )

,Micke