A Little Jerky Help

By North Star



Here Is A Little Jerky Help That You Can Go By.
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The best beef cut to use in making jerky is beef top round.

Look for a freshly cut top round roast at your grocery store or butcher shop and ask the meat cutter to slice the roast 1/4 of an inch thick.

(They may charge 10 to 25 cents a pound to do this, but it is well, well worth the money!)

We'll start with some of the basics first, then get into the actual recipe.
(And I know of a least 50 different recipes for making beef jerky, so I will just give you a basic one to start with. You can add or subtract many of the ingredients as you experiment.)

1. I'll be talking about making "whole muscle" Beef jerky. This is not the same as ground and formed or hamburger type jerky.

2. If you don't have some kind of mechanical slicer, I suggest you buy one or take the deer top round to a butcher shop for slicing. Rival and Chefs' Choice are two companies who make food slicers for retail sale.

The reason why you need one? To make really good jerky, the jerky meat needs to be the same thickness throughout the meat, one-fourth of an inch thick is standard.
It is impossible to cut the top round by hand consistently at one-fourth of an inch.

Here's a good tip: freeze the top round about one hour in your freezer before slicing, this will make it easier to slice!

I personally slice the meat across the grain. I think this is about 50/50 in the real world. Half the people say to slice it with the grain, the other half against the grain.

I've done it both ways many, many times, and it seems that if you slice against the grain, the jerky is not so hard to chew when it is dried. (And for people with bad teeth, like me, that is worth trying slicing against the grain!)

3. I always use a rub for my "cure" for deer or beef jerky. Some people use some type of liquid, such as soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce, but I think the jerky tastes better without liquid. This is because you are trying to remove all of the moisture out of the meat when you make jerky, so why add extra to it.

4. As for as what seasonings to use? I basically use salt, black pepper (fresh ground), red pepper (powder and crushed) garlic salt or powder and sodium nitrite (more about sodium nitrite in #5 step). Or I use the the Traditional AC Legg packaged jerky seasoning by itself or by mixing other seasonings in to make a variety of flavors.

5. Sodium nitrite, (also called Speed Cure, Quick Cure or InstaCure), is used VERY sparingly. The recommendation from the government is 6.25%. This breaks down to 4 oz. per 100lbs, or 1 oz. per 25 lbs.

Some people don't use curing salt to make their jerky, but I HIGHLY recommend to for food safety. (A close approximation would be 1 tsp. per 5 lbs. of meat.)

6. I sprinkle the seasoning on both sides of each jerky strip. (Sorry, but I still just "eyeball" this, so I can't give you any exact measurements.)

I place the seasoned jerky strips in a plastic container, cover with a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap loosely, and place in the "refrigerator" for 20 hours.
(I don't recommend over 24 hours, I think this makes the meat mushy and less flavorful.)

7. I then lay the jerky strips on stainless steel screens in my smokehouse for 6 to 6 1/2 hours at 150 to 165 degrees. Place the slices close together, but not touching or overlapping.

You can also hang the jerky strips on bacon hangers and place them in the smokehouse. We use hickory sawdust to smoke our jerky with (except the Mesquite Flavored Jerky - with it we use mesquite chips), although other types of wood can be used to smoke jerky with.

[If you don't have a smoker or smokehouse, a close approximation to this would be place in your oven for about the same time and temp., and remember to leave the oven door slightly open.
This helps in moving air over the strips and drying the meat. You can then use a dry smoke flavor seasoning mixed in with your jerky seasoning rub to give it a smoke flavor.]

8. Dry until a piece of jerky cracks but does not break when it is bent. This is when the jerky is done. Properly dried jerky is chewy and leathery. It will be as brittle as a green stick, but won’t snap like a dry stick.

To test for the jerky for the proper dryness, remove a strip from the oven or dehydrator. Let it cool slightly, then bend the jerky; it should crack, but not break.

9. For best results, to increase shelf life and maintain best flavor and quality, freeze the jerky, vacuum package it or place in air-tight bags (not zip-loc bags) and place a packet of oxygen absorbers in the bag. (We use oxygen absorbers.) Label and date the jerky packages.
That's about it. If you make a larger batch of jerky seasoning, you can easily and safely freeze what you won't eat in the immediate future. It will last over a year easily.

another place to find a little help is at askthemeatman.com.