The Ultimate Protein-Rich Survival Food

Want to know what the ultimate survival food is? Pemmican is highly nutritious and protein-rich, so learn more about why this is the ideal emergency food you must have on your next wilderness trip.

Survival Food | High Nutritious Food That Will Last a Long Time

Compact and Nutrition-Rich

Apart from being light, dried foods are compact, saving space in your bug out bag for other essential survival supplies. Choosing the kind of long-term food supply is critical when bugging out, as you need something that can sustain you for an extended period of time.

Invented by the natives of North America, pemmican was used by Indian scouts as well as early western explorers. These people spent a great deal of time on the go and depended on having portable, high-energy, highly nutritious, and filling foods that would last for long periods of time.

Pemmican was light, compact, high in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and if can last anywhere from a few years (decades) up to a lifetime without refrigeration. Pemmican consists of lean, dried meat which is crushed to a powder and mixed with hot, rendered fat. Back in the early days, the natives made it with elk, bison, or deer, but these days it is usually made with beef. Crushed and dried berries is a fine addition too.

A man can subsist entirely on pemmican, drawing on the fat for energy, the protein for strength and vitamins for health. There are a few cases in history of people living for months (in good health) only out of pemmican. So, it’s easy to understand why I choose pemmican as the ultimate survival-superfood.

People really should avert their gaze from the modern survival thinking. Try also to look at how the guys who wandered the west 130 or so years ago did it. As I’ve said it in a recent article (30 Lost Ways of Survival from 1880) the “SHTF” we all prep for is what folks 150 years ago called “daily life.” There are no electrical power, no refrigerators, no Internet, no computers, no TV, no hyper-active law enforcement, and no Safeway or Walmart.

How to Make Pemmican

You’ll need:

• 4 cups lean meat or a pound (deer, beef, caribou or moose)
• 3 cups blueberries (or other dried fruits)
• 2 cups rendered fat (or 1/2 pounds)
• Optional – about 1 shot of honey (you can add nuts but they will lower the shelf life)

Click here for the full recipe.

The Popularity of Survival Food

Superfoods have been around for a long time, but most of them only rose in popularity when people realized the benefits of having a good number of nutrients from just one food source. Most survivalists are familiar with the rule of threes: you can't go without air for more than three minutes, shelter for more than three hours, water for more than three days, and food for more than three weeks.

It may seem like food is the least important, but each one of these items is necessary for survival. You may be able to last longer without food than other essentials, but starvation will get you there in the end. When you carry the proper survival food, you can be sure you'll meet your nutritional requirements.

Here's a video by Townsends about the ultimate survival food, Pemmican:

Finding food sources when bugging out can be difficult, and you don't want this worry added to your plate. Stocking up on survival food will help you mitigate disaster and ensure your survival. The reality is when you are away from home, it is not easy to find food sources. There are many instances where the survivalist is losing so much weight because of the deprivation. Even if you are a good hunter or forager, food is not as readily available as when you are close to civilization.

What other survival food do you know of and have in your list? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

Up Next: Instant Mashed Potatoes: Awesome Survival Food?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2015 and has been updated for quality and relevancy.