rgconner

Disclaimer: This is what works for me. For informational purposes only. Your mileage may vary. Void where Prohibited.

For those of us on a "Paleo" style diet, food on the bike is a real PITA. There simply are not very many good options and those that do exist are high in carbs and low density, like the Larabar. Not to mention pricy, I can eat 4 of them and that is around $5 and less than 800 calories. I burn over a thousand an hour, so for long rides it is not a working solution...

Besides which, more than one or two on a ride and I risk imitating Greg Lemond in the 1986 TDF... and not the winning parts.

Enter Pemmican.

Pemmican is a horrible concoction of dried beef ground into a powder and beef tallow used by American Indians to store food for the winter or long treks. It is practically indestructible, super high calorie, and revolting in taste and texture... but it is a nearly perfect food for the Paleo rider.

Our systems are retrained to run on fats and protein, so we digest that fat quick and the protein slow and it turns into steady fuel. No carb crash, no intestinal bloating (or worse!) from sudden carb overload.

It is, however, pretty unpalatable. Like eating crayons or a candlestick. Almost no chewing involved as the beef is powdered and tallow melts at around body temp, so it slides right down.

I set out to make it a bit more acceptable, and ended up taking a hint from another Paleo food: Nordic nut bread.
Nordic nut bread is made of nuts bound together with eggs and baked into a loaf. Very tasty with a good mustard.
More chew, but very dry and makes you want to guzzle water. Far less dense too, but you can eat it on the go, so it has it's place.

I ended up combining the two and adding some dried fruit to help with the taste and dryness.

Recipe:
1.5 cups of no sugar added cherries, dates, or blueberries. Your call, I like the cherries.
2 cups of almonds
1 cup of walnuts
1 cup of pistachios
1 cup of Pepitas (substitute sunflower seeds if you can't get them where you are)
1 cup of flax seeds.
1.5 to 2 cups of beef tallow. see end on where to find tallow.
1 to 1.5 tablespoons of salt, to taste.
8 inch pan lined with foil.

Chop the fruits and nuts separately. The finer the grind the more dense the bar, but the less chew it has. I go for 1/4 inch chunks maximum. Blender works great. Mix the nuts and hold the fruit separately.

Melt the tallow on very low heat, added the fruit and kill the heat. Wait 5 min. This will allow the fruit to absorb some of the fat and let the tallow cool a little.

Add the nuts/seeds and stir until well mixed and coated. Pour into the lined pan and place in the freezer for several hours.

Once it is thoroughly frozen, turn it out of pan and cut into 16 squares. Each square will be around 250 calories and 1.5 oz. each.

I eat one per 20 miles or so, and sometimes one for recovery.
Body temp melts tallow, so I stow it in the saddlebag. If you put in a jersey pocket it melts.
Not a bad thing if it is one square per plastic baggy. Bite off a corner and squeeze it out like a gel!

Ick, Tallow?
Yeah, if you don't want to use tallow you could use lard, or coconut oil that is solid at room temp. They melt at lower temps than beef tallow, so they would get gooey fast on the road.

Acquiring/Making Tallow:
Tallow is not a typical solid fat you see in stores like Crisco or Lard. You can acquire it two ways:
Pre-rendered: This would be ready to use. Available, like everything, from the Internet/Amazon. I don't have an easy local source and it is pretty expensive online in my opinion. It might be available in a local specialty shop tho, so I list it. I have seen it on the shelf in the UK, but I don't live there so...

Un-Rendered: Also called Suet or Leaf Fat. This comes from around the liver/kidneys of the cow and has to be rendered to get the fat out of the cells. I heat mine in a crock pot, takes about 3 to 4 hours until the solids turn ever so slightly brown. They look a bit like chitlins at this point.
Filter the results into a jar using a fine mesh net or a cheesecloth. This removes any solids from the rendering.
I get my Suet from a local farm or the internet, usually at $3 a pound for grass fed. A pound makes 2 8x8 squares, more or less.
If you have problems knowing where your food comes from, this is not a good option... it is a bit grisly.

breadbin

Love the sound of this except for...you guessed it. Tallow? Never heard of it before but I think I'll try it with the Coconut oil. I can get that fairly handy here. I am interested in the caveman / paleo diet, and most of my meals would be just veg and meat but i'm not strict enough on myself. Can you recommend any good books for someone wishing to push themselves a bit more into it?

Yendor72

I'm not sure I'd be into pemmican or anything with straight tallow in it, but I do render my own tallow to cook with. I take my brisket trimmings and put them in a crock pot to allow to render over night. I then filter and store. Its great to cook in and I've paid for it already. Its also very easy to do.

rgconner

That is why I put the cherries in it. Covers almost all of the hint of beef in the tallow.

I personally follow "Eat Fat, Get Thin" book, easily found. Not totally Paleo, but based on the same principles.

Lost 60 lbs since last August.

The only issue with coconut oil is that it melts at 76 degrees, not 95. You would have to keep it chilled somehow on hot days.

FrenchFit 

And why not simply: Beef Jerky, and particularly Whole Food loose jerky? I agree about bars, but I've found Quest Bars to be better than most 6gFAT/(22gCARB-12gFIBER)/21gPRO and darn tasty:

BLUEBERRY MUFFIN BAR:
Calories 190 Calories from Fat 60
%Daily Value*
Total Fat 6g 9%
Saturated Fat 2.5g 13%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated fat 0g
Cholesterol 5mg 2%
Sodium 200mg 8%
Potassium 105mg 3%
Total Carbohydrate 22g 7%
Dietary Fiber 14g 56%
Sugars 2g
Erythritol 3g
Protein 21g
Calcium 20% Iron 2%
Phosphorous 15% Magnesium 6%
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

CONTAINS: Milk-Derived Ingredients and Almonds.

rgconner

Beef jerky is rough on my stomach while riding, which is part of why I don't do the pemmican.

I do make and eat a lot of it though, just off the bike.

Also, I find the tallow very satisfying, as in I eat some and I am not hungry immediately after I do... even on the bike.

NoGears

I make date balls. Dates, roasted unsweetened coconut, ground flax seed, coconut oil, coco powder, almonds, honey. Zip it in the processor and form into roughly 20g balls. Usually roll them in more roasted coconut. If I'm feeling like more sweet or like I want more calories...I'll throw in a few ounces of dark chocolate chips at the last few seconds. Not 100% Paleo but close enough for me and they work. About 100 calories per ball.

Also, when using flax seeds, are your grinding them? If not...they probably aren't digesting. I want to try the same recipe sometime with Chia seeds too. They are another good source of omega 3's.

rgconner

Way too many carbs in your recipe for me, but it sounds pretty good. I love dates too much to stop at one or two so I just avoid them.

Yes, I grind the flax seed. Really, that is what it is there for: filling in the gaps between larger chunks, so grinding helps.

NoGears

Not as much as you'd think. If my math was right each ball comes out to 11g carb, 5g fat, 1.5g protein and 95 calories. But that was my last batch and I didn't use coconut oil. So you could add more calories from fat if you wanted as well. But like dates...it's hard to eat just one or two of these things too...so before you know it you're in for 400 calories and nearly 50g of carbs.

deaninkl

As an apprentice we used tallow as a lubricant for some cutting key-ways in cylinders... taste similar to lard... but denser...

come on guys you cant eat that...have a banana instead..;o)