Pemmican is one of the foods my main character, Cordelia, carries with her when she runs away from home. My critique partner asked, “What is pemmican?” Since I had picked up the word from a children’s Indian guidebook I had when I was about ten years old, I had only a vague idea of it being somewhat like beef jerky.

My friend’s question sent me on an Internet search. I found an amazing site, http://www.foodtimeline.org/ . If you want to know what people ate, when they ate it, and how they prepared it, this is the site for you. Starting with water and ice as the first foods, to the beginning of agriculture in 10,000 B.C., to Kool Aid pickles in 2009, this site is a treasure trove of food information and links. There is even a link to the trending foods in 2011.

About pemmican: It turns out that it is somewhat like beef jerky. It originated with American Indians and was used by mountain men, but pioneers crossing the plains often rejected it as the food of wild men. See http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmeats.html#pemmican for more.

If you have a favorite food research site, please post it.