William wrote > The risk is of destroying enzymes, which make pemmican IMO
qualify as
> food.

Since Native Americans tended to dry their meats by a fire or in a hot sun,
I doubt that meat heated at 105 degrees would be a problem. I think that is
what Todd was getting at. My food dehydrator recommends a temperature of 155
degrees for drying meat. That's probably hotter than necessary, but that
also suggests that 105 degrees is not too hot. The idea that meat should
only be eaten raw is not Paleolithic, as has been discussed many times
before. Even 155 degrees is not considered "cooked" by most people nowadays
anyway.

> >   One reason why it tastes like candle wax is that candle wax is, in
> > fact, mainly stearic acid.  Same for crayons, a traditional
> > grade-school treat. You can buy bulk stearic acid from chemical
> supply
> > companies.  It's very cheap.  It comes in granules or flakes.
> 
> Aha! So it's something that nobody experiences as food. The fog lifts.

The stearic acid in crayons is reportedly made from palm oil, coconut oil or
beef tallow. Probably mostly palm oil or other tropical oils nowadays.

> > The more liquid a fat is, the more unsaturated it is.  Kidney fat is
> > hard at room temp because it's so saturated.  The more unsaturated a
> > fat is, the more prone to oxidation spoilage it is.  For the native
> > Americans, the whole point of pemmican was that it was a food that
> > could be made in bulk and stored for the winter or for long overland
> > travel in the warm seasons, without fear of spoiling.  If you use
> more
> > muscle fat, it might be a good idea to keep the pemmican refrigerated
> > until you eat it.
> 

Here is some more info that confirms this:

"Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is
solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended
periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition,
provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow

So the harder (more saturated), drier stores of fat in the kidney, and
perhaps liver and back, fat stores are best suited to make tallow, and
therefore pemmican. The saturated fats of wild animals contain higher
percentages of stearic acid, so Paleolithic nutrition would predict that
stearic acid would be healthier (or at least less unhealthy) than the other
saturated fats, and sure enough, most of the studies confirm that.
Subcutaneous fat contains less stearic acid than kidney fat and is softer.
So pemmican would preferably be made of wild kidney fat (and probably
back/hump and liver fat)--an exceptionally rare commodity in most areas
these days.

> > As others have pointed out, muscle fat is a symptom of obesity.  You
> > wouldn't find much of it in wild animals.  Subcutaneous fat, kidney
> > fat, hump fat, are a different story.

Yes, "marbling" (lots of visible intramuscular fat) is a characteristic of
domestic meats. I haven't seen any examples of it in wild meats yet, though
a wild animal that feeds on grain crops and/or human trash might develop it.
It amazes me how little intramuscular fat there is in bison, venison, moose,
rabbit and other game meats. Marbling may be tasty, but it's rarity in the
wild raises questions about its healthfulness.