Paleo Phil wrote:
>
>
> 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.
>
>   
Looks like we need a definition of suet; is it only fat around the 
innards, or can it also be that fat found under the hide?
Then there should be a study on the relative healthyness of tallow made 
from each kind of fat.

Lacking such, we need postulate that pemmican was made in the fall when 
hide fat was present in older animals, especially bear, so that hunters 
could avoid the risks of winter travel.

I'm inclined to think that paleoman used sense of taste to define what 
is or is not food, and then pemmican made from hide fat wins.

My subject line was wrong, should have been "Kidney fat vs hide fat", 
since intramuscular fat is strictly neolithic.

William