How to Make Pemmican in RimWorld (1.6) | Caravan Food Tool
Fast answer: unlock Pemmican research unless your start already begins with it, then use a campfire, fueled stove, or electric stove to run Make pemmican or Make pemmican (bulk). Vanilla pemmican takes 0.25 meat + 0.25 plant food by nutrition for 16 output, or 1.0 + 1.0 for 64 output. Each piece gives 0.05 nutrition, weighs 0.018 kg, starts to rot after about 70 days at room temperature, and eggs and milk do not count for the recipe.
Output 16 / 64
Craft at Campfire / Stove
PSM is slightly lighter
Needs raw plants + meat
Exact Vanilla Rules
Pemmican uses equal nutrition from raw meat and raw plant food. The normal bill consumes 0.25 + 0.25 and yields 16; the bulk bill consumes 1.0 + 1.0 and yields 64. The bill cares about nutrition value, not raw item count.
Raw corn
Allowed: raw plant food
Raw fungus
Allowed: raw plant food
Milk
Blocked: animal product
Eggs
Blocked: animal product
| Workstation | Unlock / cost | Pemmican support | Relative speed notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campfire | 20 wood to place; no research gate | Simple meals + pemmican bills only | Campfire works at half table speed, so the same pemmican job is effectively about 2x slower than a normal stove before pawn skill is applied. |
| Fueled stove | 80 steel; full bill list; uses wood only when used | Pemmican, meals, survival meals | No built-in work speed penalty. Same recipe work amount as electric stove, so it is the early full-speed option if you lack power. |
| Electric stove | Electricity research, 80 steel, 2 components, 350 W | Pemmican, meals, survival meals | Also full-speed. Pick it when your kitchen already has reliable power and you want the cleanest long-run workflow. |
Use this as relative guidance: campfire is slower, both stoves are full speed, and the final time still depends on pawn skill and work speed.
Weight, Unlock Cost, and Why the Choice Changes by Stage
Pemmican is the earlier travel food. Packaged survival meals become the cleaner long-trip option later, but they need extra research and a cook with Cooking 8.
| Food | Unlock path | Recipe | Nutrition / mass | Travel takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pemmican | Pemmican research, cost 500, Neolithic. Tribal-style starts often begin with it unlocked. | 0.25 meat + 0.25 plants -> 16 |
0.05 nutrition each, 0.018 kg each, 70-day rot timer | Easy early unlock, works at campfire, no Cooking 8 gate. |
| Packaged survival meal | Packaged survival meal research, cost 500, after nutrient paste | 0.30 meat or animal products + 0.30 plants -> 1 |
0.9 nutrition, 0.3 kg, never rots | Slightly lighter per nutrition and permanent shelf life, but later tech and cook-skill gated. |
Weight math that matters
- Pemmican: 18 pieces are needed for 0.9 nutrition, which weighs 0.324 kg.
- Survival meal: 1 meal gives the same 0.9 nutrition at 0.300 kg.
- Result: survival meals are about 8% lighter for the same nutrition, but you do not get them from a campfire and you cannot cook them below Cooking 8.
Stop Feeding the Road Rations to Your Dining Room
Colonists treat pemmican as normal food, so they will eat it at home unless you separate it with stockpiles and food policies. The safest pattern is simple: keep home meals easy to reach and stash pemmican on a separate caravan shelf.
- Human planning rule: start around 32 pemmican per colonist per day.
- Animal planning: use the calculator. Husky-sized animals land around 10/day; muffalo- or horse-sized animals land around 11/day.
- Campfire advantage: on a no-power trip you can still top up pemmican on the road, unlike survival meals.
- Stove advantage: once you have a real kitchen, stoves remove the campfire's half-speed penalty.
Fast Wins That Actually Matter
- Tribal winter buffer: tribal runs should treat pemmican as the first long-shelf-life food buffer, not as a last resort.
- Bulk bill first: once ingredients are stable, use the bulk pemmican bill to reduce repeated job starts and hauling interruptions.
- Don't overvalue campfire convenience: a campfire can make pemmican early, but a real stove pays back fast if you are mass-producing.
- Use survival meals when the map tech catches up: if you already have Cooking 8 and the industrial research path, switch your longest caravans to survival meals and keep pemmican as flexible reserve food.
