On Tue, 22 Feb 2000, nutritionmagician wrote:

> Since you ultimately grind the dried beef into a powder, is there any
> reasonusing ground beef instead of sliced, wouldn't work as well?

Yes, it's because ground beef has fat added to it.  This is not
the same fat that is used for making pemmican.  It has a higher
content of polyunsaturates and is therefore less stable than suet
fat.  Also, there may be concerns about what may be living in
ground beef, since it's not going to be cooked but only dried.
Having said all that, I have often made jerky from the super-lean
ground beef and have had no problem.  I haven't made pemmican in
years, but I do make jerky fairly regularly.

You can always pick a chunk of lean meat and ask the butcher to
trim any visible fat and grind it for you on the spot.

Instead of pemmican, I buy Landjaegers and keep them around.
These are dried sausages about the size of cigars.  They taste
wonderful.  Each one is about 14g of protein and 22g of fat,
giving a fat:protein ratio of about 3:1, which is comparable to
pemmican.  They are 260 calories apiece.  The only additives are
some spices (no MSG), which I like, 1 gram of dextrose, which
doesn't bother me, and sodium ascorbate, which is just a form of
vitamin C.  I buy them in packs of 50 for less than 20 dollars.

Todd Moody