Indian Winter

!±8± Indian Winter

I made my teepee where the hunting is good,

It stands on ground where a great wolf stood.

Its powerful spirit will protect my home

And keep me safe when I must roam.

The season draws near when I must kill the deer;

We will prosper or die before Winter is here.

Yellow Moon lay awake as the fading stars crept across the smoke hole. False dawn lightened the eastern sky while wakening birds shattered the silence. The day's list of chores filled her mind, an occasional elusive thought keeping her from completing the tally.

There were the constant problems of finding dry wood for the fires, the filling of their three precious water jars and the endless strips of pemmican to be smoked for the winter provisions. Quietly, Yellow Moon rose from her bed of bearskin covered pine needles, left the teepee to gather a supply of beef jerky, a pouch of dried berries and nuts. The basket of food would keep Gray Wolf strong for his hunt.

Only one more full moon would pass before the snows came. Yellow Moon hated to leave this beautiful spot they called home all Spring and Summer. Soon gathering enough firewood would cost Gray Wolf a day's journey and the best hunting lay a fortnight to the North.

From his perch in a larch tree, Gray Wolf waited for a sign of deer. A light snowfall hid his scent and muffled the sounds of the forest. He began to stretch his muscles, stiff from the hours on the tree branch far above the ground.

At last, he spied a young buck and two does browsing on tree bark only ten man lengths away. Their path would take them within easy striking distance. The arrow twanged against the bowstring, bringing instant death to the buck and a promise of survival to his family. Many moons south on the shores of a wide river a special spot lay waiting for the new Blackfoot home.

As much as Yellow Moon loved their home, a sense of adventure provoked exciting thoughts of the coming journey. A comfortable space on the travois lined with rabbit fur would secure the safety of their two winter old daughter, Little Feather. The tribe's herbalist told her of the many large fish living in the river and of the rich soil for the growing of crops. The bag of precious seed in its protective wrapping would ravel in a place of honor.

As Yellow Moon spun the bow to start the new day's fire, wild stories of white men's wind ships seen sailing upstream failed to mar her vision. Only the dangers of hunger and sickness hovered in her thoughts. A burning spark in her mind kept alive her will to survive, for in her body grew the seed of the future chief of the Blackfoot tribe.

Indian Winter

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The History of Beef Jerky

!±8± The History of Beef Jerky

Jerky was first introduced by the South American (Peru) native tribe called the Quechua (part of the ancient Inca Empire) in 1550. The product (Ch'arki), was boned and defatted meat (deer, elk, or buffalo) cut into slices and rubbed with salt. This meat was rolled up in the animal's hide for 10-12 hours and then sun dried or smoked over fires.

In South America, the Native Americans ate sun-dried venison and buffalo called tassajo, which was made with strips of meat dipped in maize flour, sun and wind dried, and then tightly rolled up into balls. North American Cree Indians mixed berries and suet (fat) with pounded cooked meat and pressed into concentrated small cakes to make pemmican.

Biltong came from pioneering South African forefathers who sun dried meat while traveling across the African subcontinent. Folklore has it that African tribesmen would place strips of venison under the saddles of their horses to tenderize and spice the meat! Seasoning became a blend of vinegar, salt, sugar, coriander and other spices.

The Indians and early settlers dried meat primarily from deer, elk or buffalo using salt, whatever spices they had and sun drying. As the Spanish arrived, the name evolved to charqui. Most travelers preferred to pound the charqui between large stones and boil it in water before eating. During ocean exploration and colonization, the Spanish sailors stocked the pacific islands with goats. What couldn't be eaten would then be cut into strips and hung in their ships to air dry. When the Spanish Conquistadors invaded the Americas, they were surprised to see the natives of North America drying meat as well. Soon, the natives adopted the Spanish term, Charqui, only adding their accent; the word "jerky" first came to be.

North American Pioneers would first dry meat by hanging it on the outside of their covered wagon sun drying (2-3 days). Another method was to build a scaffold over a slow fire and smoke the strips. While the heat and smoke would complete the process in half a day, the smoking method required a stopover; it wasn't long before awareness for disease and germs became prevalent and smoking became the norm.

Today jerky is made from thin strips of virtually any meat or from ground or chopped and formed meat. Manufacturers spice and dehydrate the product; some introduce smoke or using liquid smoke for flavoring.

The History of Beef Jerky

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How to Use a Jerky Gun to Make Homemade Beef Jerky

!±8± How to Use a Jerky Gun to Make Homemade Beef Jerky

Beef jerky, pemmican or dried meat is a great, nutritious, portable snack that is favorite treat, whether at school, on the go, camping, hiking or doing just about anything! It consists of a few simple ingredients including meats like beef, chicken or turkey and seasoning mixtures that include salt, peppers, spices, marinades and other flavoring liquids. Further, it is easily made with a food dehydrator which drys the meat via the dehydrator's heat and air flow.

Jerky can be made from many different meats. Common meats that are dehydrated include beef cuts, like flank or round steak, and pork, chicken and turkey. When making dried meat in a dehydrator, it is important to use leaner cuts of meat. Too much meat fat can prolong the drying process and cause it to become rancid during storage.

A jerky gun appliance can make jerky making very easy. The gun is a kitchen appliance used to extrude raw ground meat into thin flat strips or round sticks that are suitable for dehydrating into pemmican. These appliances are made to hold ground meat. Most of the meat put into a jerky gun is ground beef like ground round or lean or extra lean ground beef. Ground pork, chicken or turkey can also be used.

Follow these easy steps to make dried meat with a jerky gun and a food dehydrator:

Mix one prepackaged spice seasoning mix per one pound of ground meat. Or alternatively use your own mixture of salt, pepper and other spices to season to your tastes. Thoroughly mix the ground meat and spices together. Fill the gun's tube with the ground meat. Jerky guns typically hold between one half to one and a half pounds of meat. Press the gun's handle or trigger to extrude the meat onto the food dehydrator's drying trays. These appliances typically have a number of different sized nozzles that can extrude meat strips with varying thickness. Dehydrate the meat between 145 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Test the dried meat to see if it is done. The dried meat should be flexible and not brittle. Jerky is done when a test piece cracks on the edges but does not break when it is bent.

How to Use a Jerky Gun to Make Homemade Beef Jerky

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