The pemmican pouch

Trying to get a little bit traditional

A black, white, dark brown, and rawhide yellow pemmican pouch on a wooden table.

The striped section of the front, and the top flap above, still as uncut scraps sewn together, sitting on top of Kabutroid's Engineering calculus textbook.

The front, with stripes runnign black, white, brown, from topleft to bottomright, with the jagged front flap folded down, the shoulder strap twirled about above, sitting on a wooden table.

The front flap open, showing the full stripes, it almost looks like the bag is cheering.

The back of the pouch, with vertical running white, dark brown, and white stripes, and a tiny K . T . in the bottom left of the dark brown section.

So, as I've said in other places, I am drawn to indigenous culture, and their way of life. So, around early 2020, when I had gotten a pile of scrap pieces of leather, I started making all kinds of... well, leather pouches, because I have a pile of scraps to sew together :D, and wanted a pile of pouches for various things.

The first pouch that came was the seed pouch, which was followed quickly by the tobacco pouch, and then my first attempt at a pemmican pouch which turned out too small to hold much. Then came this guy, which has yes, been used to carry pemmican ^_^

I have to say, I thought the grease would soak through or something, since pemmican is basically held together and preserved by the lard it's mixed with. Nope... gotta say leather is an incredible material. It hasn't soaked through, despite several tests of 'leaving it in there as long as possible', more or less until some pemmican balls dried out entirely. Barely a fleck on the inside of the pouch, and easily scrubbed back to normal. The fat has not stained through, and I am pleased ^_^

My recipe (I dunno, I wanna be tribal or something):

Meat, smashed to dust
Berries, smashed to dust
Lard, mix

Don't worry, I talked to the Ancestors, They're fine with this, if not a little bemused.

So anyways, my pemmican pouch. They are *incredible* little balls of energy, tasty! The flavour of the berries in there, and this dense chewable ball of flavour. It's awesome stuff.

February 2020

A package of Stork baking block, a vegetable based fat spread, basically vegan lard, sitting in a beige plate

The three meat packages, squeaky steak, la vie bacon, and beyond burger, standing up behind a baking sheet with pemmican made from the steak, bacon, and burger.

Two dehydrator racks with pieces of parchment paper on them, with flattened bits of beyond burger on the paper, after having been dried, with the bag of rosehips standing behind them.

A plate containing a mix of burger powder, rosehip powder, and a few spoonfuls of baking block, and seen behind it is a coffee mug saying to practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty.

Most of the pemmican having been rolled into balls, counting seventeen arranged on a parchment paper while making them.

Eighteen beyond burger pemmican balls sitting in the plate, cleaned between mixing and photographing of course. They're speckly from the rosehips and look delicious.

And then we made... vegan pemmican! Having since 2020 gone vegan (technically almost entirely around 2015, but that's mainly due to poverty ((bean soup yo!)), and the active choice came after), I longed for pemmican. It was majestic, it was incredible, and every so often (more often than you'd think), I'd think about it. And about making a vegan pemmican.

Now, there's online recipes, but those are like... complicated. Carrot? Oats? What is this, there should be like 3 ingredients by my reckoning. At which point... I did a test. From Asda, a common supermarket here, I picked up one of each of the three readily available vegan meats; steak, bacon, and hamburger (and also vegan lard). The results:

Squeaky Steak: Not bad, very steaky.
La Vie Bacon: Eeeeuch, would not recommend.
Beyond Burger: OMFG YES!

Now, a bit of an asterisk on that burger, I think the flavour was kinda... damaged by having had a pile of steak pemmican first. On trying it the day of making it, I thought it mediocre at best. However, the several that I kept "just in case", were absolutely PHENOMENAL the next day! And, having made it with the other Beyond Burger patty on the 21st, it was phenomenal then, so I would recommend only making one type and not both. And make it with Beyond Burger. At which point...

My recipe (a little more specifically):

Beyond Burger patty, smashed to dust
Dried rosehip berries, smashed to dust
Stork baking block, mix

Pinch apart the patty and flatten, then place into a food dehydrator, or an oven set to the lowest temperature possible, cracking the door open a bit if possible. Cook/dehydrate until crisp and crumbly. Rosehips can be bought already dried. Use a mortar and pestle or coffee bean grinder to grind them seperately into a powder, so that you can measure out having a 50/50 mix of burger to berry powder. Mix them together thoroughly, and add just enough baking block to be capable of rolling them into balls, just a few teaspoons per patty. Refrigerate for later (the baking block needs to be refrigerated, regular pemmican should be shelf stable) or enjoy it immediately!

The Ancestors were watching me veganize this, They're fine with this, and again a little bemused.

And it is incredible. I have a new treat to make, my dehydrator (bought specifically to make this, but has also been making banana chips already) was a purchase well made, and the rosehips that I bought online came in... an absolutely ludicrously large dried 1kg bag, so there's plenty more to go.

Make, enjoy, and become vegan all!

Tested July 3, finalized July 21, 2026