I cook down the unprocessed fresh pork  bacon to get some fat for pemmican.
If I cook it for a long time, say 2 or so  hours, at 350, I get a lot of
fat. The longer I cook it down, the more fat I get. I do a lot of labor,
actually, slicing the darn stuff, heating it, harvesting the fat, etc,
cleaning, always cleaning the pan to cook more fat! If I cook it at a lower
heat, or for a shorter time, you do not get as much fat. Is it safe to use
fat that was cooked a long time and/or at high heat?

 I don't go over 350 degrees---- if you go much less, the fat does not melt out.

Yet I have read in STONE AGE and other paleo books that most HG did not cook
their meat that much. Some cooking it seems is OK, actually Voeghtlin (sp)
seems to say that meat cooked or uncooked is ok, just don't process it! with
sugar, salt etc. In other words, explorers did very well on meat diets as
long as it was not majority bacon/processed. They could tolerate some
salted/sugared meat but did best on fresh, cooked  meat.

I am wondering if there is damage to fat and if it is progressive--that is,
the longer you cook it, and the higher the heat, the more it is damaged.
Does anyone know? I need this fat to make pemmican.Thanks,  everyone!

Moira

He is getting the protein raw (dried venison, dried turkey, dried ostrich)
isn't that important?