Keith Thomas wrote:

> What do you find objectionable about the fat you have been using?
> 
> I know it's hard to describe taste, but please have a go. I think
> you and I are among the most regular pemmican makers and eaters
> here and we have to stick together!
> 
> My son makes pemmican totally by hand (he lives off the grid
> without solar panels) and eats quite a bit of it. As he and his wife 
> have a child he experiments with all sorts of flavour additives: 
> dried fruit, salt, spices, honey and the nipper (she's 2) loves it all!
> 

  While the meat is from grass finished "mature" oxen, There's not 
enough fat on them, so the farmer asks for fat from the butcher who has 
the abattoir. That fat is from animals that have been finished on 
commercial fodder, which contains DPW (dried poultry waste) - I can tell 
first by the smell when rendering. The butcher has been selecting back 
fat recently, so there is little DPW taste, but still there's old saying 
"you are what you eat", and we read that pollutants in the fodder are 
concentrated in the fat of animals. There are small masses -from pea 
size to large grape size - of a very soft purplish-brown stuff which 
always go in the garbage. I usually wake with a headache behind the 
right ear, which is cured by organic coffee.
  The one time I got grass finished suet from around the kidneys it made 
delicious pemmican, and the smell while rendering was same as good roast 
beef, but very difficult to mix at <104F.

  Lucky son! Off the grid is a dream to me. I tried salting the pemmican 
at first, but could not stand the taste, and adding any carbs is not for me.

Regards,

William