Sunday, January 23, 2011

Super Easy Home Made Jerky



Poppabear loves himself some Jerky!  
 But, the gas station mix sold in gas stations across the country leaves much to be desired.  (High sodium, questionable ingredients... etc.)  What’s a primal meat loving man to do?

Make your own.

It is super simple.

The cut of meat is the most important.  You want lean, lean, lean.  Cut that fat off.  We are looking at being able to store this for a period of time (3 Weeks in the fridge, longer in the freezer.)  The fat will turn rancid and we don’t want that.  So take your favorite working knife and trim it off.  As much as you can.

 This is my new favorite knife.  Ceramic Yoshi Blade my wife Jenn gave me for Xmas.  It is sharp sharp sharp!!!

For this batch we are using a grass fed/finished sirloin steak cut into strips ¼ inch thick.


Here is the marinade I used:
Marinade for a 2 pound cut of meat:
¼ cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. liquid smoke (or half to taste)
3 minced garlic cloves
2 ½ tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. hot chili powder
1 tsp. each of salt and black pepper
1tbsp honey (for a bit of sweetness)
Put everything in a gallon zip lock bag and store in fridge for 24 hours.  I stored mine for 48 on this batch as I was out of town.

There is a hot method where you boil the marinade and put your meat strips into it for a few minuets before putting them in the dehydrator or oven.

I picked up an Oster food dehydrator at my local Wal-Mart. 


There are many better ones on the market.  I picked this one up so I wouldn’t tie up the oven for 12 hours, and have the wife angry.

Place the strips on the tray, not touching each other.  We want good air flow.
Put the trays on the unit and click it on.  Now go away.  Don’t hover, it won’t make it go any faster.  Go take a walk or shovel snow, feed your chickens or some other such chore.
I rotated the trays every hour to let everything dry evenly.  I don’t know if this actually makes a difference, but it made me feel like I was doing something productive.
Also dab the meat with a paper towel to soak up the fat that is seeping through the meat.  Less fat means longer storage.


This batch ran 7.5 hours from start to end.  We took it out and laid it between paper towels for another hour to soak up more seepage.
If you have any left after the taste test, place in a zip lock bag or vacuum bag and freeze, or place in the fridge.
Simple as that.
Thanks so much to http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-make-your-own-jerky/ for all the help!!
Poppabear.

2 comments:

  1. I promise, next time I post pics I will use a real camera, and not my Iphone!

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  2. second time I made this I added a splash of wasabi and did half the amount of liquid smoke.. will let you know how it goes.

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