Pemmican

I’m in the midst of my research reading on the militant Metis leader Gabriel Dumont. The Metis of the Canadian prairies lived an epic life following the buffalo herds in massive annual hunts. That’s where Dumont became a leader. The Captain of the Hunt was a tactical leader no less than a war chief.

Besides robes, the buffalo provided the Metis with a primary trade item: Pemmican. This mixture of meat, berries and fat was the critical winter survival and trail food of the era, and the Metis made a surplus for trade.

Lots of protein and a high calorie count in an easily transportable form with a long trail life — perfect for Indians, fur trappers, explorers.

Making pemmican was a tedious but vital task.

Lo and behold, the Web site Inn at the Crossroads has a tutorial on pemmican. The site (which is beautifully laid out and an amazing labor of love) is dedicated to the foods of Westeros, the fictional realm at the center of George RR Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire,” and HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” The authors asked on Twitter and Facebook for historical foods that would have a place at Castle Black, located in the frozen north of the Seven Kingdoms — and pemmican, quite appropriately, came up.

It’s an interesting read — and I hope I can convince my wife to let me fool around in the kitchen with it. A nice winter’s supply of pemmican sounds like a good idea…

Hope you et yer pemmican, boy…