The History of Minnesota and Tales of the FrontierFlandrau, Charles E. (Charles Eugene)
History
The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier
Flandrau, Charles E. (Charles Eugene)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota; Minnesota -- History
One of the principal sources of subsistence of these frontier people in
their long journeys through uninhabited regions was pemmican. This food
was especially adapted to extreme northern countries, where in the
winter it was sometimes impossible to make fires to cook with, and the
means of transportation was by dog-trains, as it was equally good for
man and beast. It was invented among the Hudson Bay people, many years
ago, and undoubtedly from necessity. It was made in this way: The meat
of the buffalo, without the fat, was thoroughly boiled, and then picked
into shreds or very small pieces. A sack was made of buffalo skin, with
the hair on the outside, which would hold about ninety pounds of meat. A
hole was then dug in the ground of sufficient size to hold the sack. It
was filled with the meat thus prepared, which was packed and pounded
until it was as hard as it could be made. A kettle of boiling hot
buffalo fat, in a fluid state, was then poured into it, until it was
thoroughly permeated, every interstice from center to circumference
being filled, until it became a solid mass, perfectly impervious to the
air, and as well preserved against decomposition as if it had been
enclosed in an hermetically sealed glass jar. Here you had a most
nutritious preparation of animal food, all ready for use for both man
and dog. An analysis of this compound proved it to possess more
nutriment to the pound weight than any other substance ever
manufactured, and with a winter camp appetite, it was a very palatable
dish. Its great superiority over any other kind of food was its not
requiring preparation and its portability.
TRANSPORTATION AND EXPRESS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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