As promised at the end of my Pemmican blog post, here's my first cooking experiment with my pemmican. This is rubaboo or pemmican soup. The recipe is based on a description in the book Forty Years in Canada by Col. Samuel B. Steele. It was published in the early 1900s, and of pemmican, he says,
"It was cooked in two ways in the west; one a stew of pemmican, water, flour and, if they could be secured, wild onions or preserved potatoes. This was called 'rubaboo.'"
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| Not pictured: flour and salt. |
As a one-pot meal, it's easy to make; just simmer until the veggies are tender. Toward the end I took the notion to add some chopped fresh kale leaves too.
What did we think? We liked it! Obviously, it's a very versatile recipe with endless possibilities. I think too, that this is the more prudent use of our pemmican, which is very dense in protein and calories. Rubaboo stretches out a small amount for many meals. Since pemmican is shelf-stable, it's an excellent way to preserve and store meat for hard times situations.
Simple, good food is right up my alley! How much meat flavour comes through? The fabled Sam Steele of the NW mounted police?
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if the pemmican in this case is just a hardier version of beef bouillon cubes.
ReplyDeleteThe addition of all those good home grown veggies have got to do a lot to make your (oh-so-versatile) pemmican soup nutritious and delicious! What a fine pot of soup for a winter's day.
ReplyDeleteRosalea, the amount of meat flavor is up to the cook! Add more and it will taste more like it. Use less and it will be a subtle background flavor.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's the Sam Steele! The subtitle of the book is "Reminiscences Of The Great North-West With Some Account Of His Service In South Africa By Colonel S. B. Steele, C.B., M.V.O., Late Of The N.W.M. Police And The S. African Constabulary." It's a fantastic record of the times.
Ed, yes, something like. But without the salt (and preservatives! lol). The soup itself has the flavor, but not the texture of adding meat.
Mama Pea, I agree!
I'm not much of a meat eater, but every time I serve soup (an almost daily winter lunch) Dan wants to know what meat is IN IT. Now, I can just add a little and say, "it's pemmican!"
It sounds delicious. Sure wish my husband liked that kind of soup. He gravitates towards cream based instead of broth.
ReplyDeleteDeb, you could definitely make it with a cream base! Just make your roux first, then add the the pemmican and other ingredients. Or add more flour and milk or cream to make the broth as creamy as you want it.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great in Stone Soup.
ReplyDelete( love that book).
Billybob, it would! I loved that book too. :)
ReplyDeleteThe list is endless!
ReplyDeleteSo many possible choices in so many fashions. Thank you for the inspiration and endless possibilities!
Leigh, that is a great way to extend the pemmican.
ReplyDeleteRegarding books without real "instructions": I have a book on Scottish Highland Recipes. I have cooked very few things out of it, but it is very much the sort of thing that has "general" instructions - interesting to me because it incorporates a lot of fish, wild game, and commonly available items in the Highlands (and therefore by default, not the sorts of things that are only found in stores).
Goatldi, I know! Isn't it great? Very customizable, which is perfect for my style of cooking!
ReplyDeleteTB, it seems a lot of old cookbooks and recipes were similar. It's understood that the cook knew the basics, ingredients, techniques, and terminology. Different from modern recipes.
Your recipe book sounds really interesting. I love the old cookbooks that don't rely on modern ingredients. More to the heart of the way I love and eat.
I hope you are acknowledging and remembering that both pemmican and rubbabo are Indigenous and Metis foods respectively.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, see the first link in the blog post.
ReplyDelete