Mountain Man MRE Bag
Jerky, pemmican, parched corn, and dried blueberries. No stove, no water, no bowl.
- calories
- 820
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 137
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- Snack
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Day hike
- Winter / snow
- Bikepacking
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Beef jerky | 2 oz | dried hard, not the soft grocery kind |
|---|---|---|
| Pemmican | 2 oz | rendered tallow bound with powdered dry meat |
| Parched corn | 1/2 cup | dried field corn toasted until it puffs slightly |
| Dried blueberries | 1/4 cup | |
| Salt | a pinch | mixed into the corn |
Method
- At home, slice lean beef against the grain and dry it low and slow, around 225 F, until a bent strip snaps rather than folds. A dehydrator, a low oven, or a rack two feet over a coal bed all work.
- Grind part of that fully dry jerky to powder and stir in an equal weight of melted rendered beef tallow. Press it flat, let it set hard, and cut into bars.
- Dry sweet or field corn, then toast it dry in a hot skillet until the kernels darken and crack. Salt it while warm.
- On the trail, open the bag and eat. Chew the jerky slowly; the pemmican goes down easier in small bites than large ones.
This is a lunch with no stove, no water, and no pot, which is the whole point. Fat and protein carry the calories, parched corn adds the carbohydrate, and the blueberries keep it from being three textures of the same thing. Everything here is preserved by drying, so nothing needs a cooler.
The part people get wrong is the jerky. If a strip bends and shows fibers, it still holds moisture, and moisture is what turns pemmican rancid in a pack. Dry it until it snaps and grinds to powder. Tallow, not oil: it sets solid at camp temperatures and stays that way in a side pocket.
Packing
Four small bags inside one. Pemmican needs the thickest bag it can get, since tallow softens in a hot pack and will find any seam. Total carry weight stays under half a pound.
Variations
- Fold dried blueberries into the pemmican itself instead of carrying them loose.
- Venison or elk makes leaner jerky and better pemmican than beef.
- Swap parched corn for toasted buckwheat groats if corn is not around.
https://survivalsherpa.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/how-i-preserve-food-modern-mountain-man-mres