The Métis people had lots of different types of food.
Some of them were:
Pemmican (made from dried buffalo meat)
Bannock (bread)
Fried Bread
Métis soups
Meatballs
Les Tourtières (meat pies)
Pea Soup
Steamed pudding
Custard
Pemmican was made with buffalo meat. When a hunting party hunted
they needed to find a way to preserve the meat. They did this by
drying it out. They made Jerky and Pemmican to take with them on
their hunts because it was Ground into a powder and mixed with hot
fat of the buffalo and berries to add flavour. They would pour this
into a sack and sew it shut and it would last for years.
Pemmican recipe
Ingredients:
2 lbs of buffalo meat
1/4 cup of berries (blueberries or saskatoon berries)
5 tablespoons of animal fat
Steps:
Cut meat into long strips
Hang meat in the sun to dry
When dry, pound strips into flakes
Mix together flakes and dried berries in hide bag (or bowl)
Add melted fat (hot)
Add berries (optional)
Bannock
The Métis ate a lot of ‘bannock’. Bannock was a
combination of Scottish bread and Indian fry bread that could be
baked in an oven, cooked in a skillet over a fire, or fried. The
benefit of bannock was that it was easy to make and transport.
It also lasted a long time without spoiling, and was quite
filling.The Métis harvested wild turnips, peeled and dried them,
and then pounded them into flour for use in the bannock. The Métis
also traded with the HBC and NWC for flour.