Let's talk jerky....

[sureshotbob]

I make the best jerky in the world. No brag, just fact.

Making great jerky is all about the cure. Sure, having a quality cut of meat is important, but it's the cure that makes the difference. I've tried all of the store bought cures (some are okay, some aren't) and I've tried dozens of recipe's trying to find just the right one. Eventually through trial and error and ruining the meat of about four good cows in my attempts, I have developed my own dry jerky cure and it works great on lean beef and venison, but my favorite is turkey jerky.

I have four RonCo Food Dehydrators and I only make a few batches a year, but when I do I like to make a big batch that'll last a few months. By popular demand I usually make a big batch to pass out to family and co-workers for Christmas.

Oh, and my cure is a secret recipe, I have it written down and locked up in my gun vault.

And I thought you were a nice guy

 

[bill2000]

Guess I'll start with a london broil and do it up in teriyaki. Plan to stick it in the freezer for a short while to allow for an easy thin 1/8" cut.

Instructions say high for 3 hours then medium till dry. they give a wide time range 6-15 hrs. that seems weird.

They also recommend periodic dabbing up juices released while drying. Does any of this seem out of whack to you experts?

 

[Nevada Ed]

Time to dry out the meat depends on the thickness,
type of meat used and how cut per the grain of tissue
plus the humidity in your area along with the surrounding temperature.

Lots of little things that go into smoking meats, just right.

My elec. smoker can do two 25 pound turkey breast........
plus ribs, if I run out of wild game.

 

[shouldazagged]

My son, a serious hunter of Pennsylvania deer and geese, recently acquired a dehydrator. He's made a lot of venison jerky, and plans to try making it with goose as well. But he also does something I would never have thought of. He makes pork jerky with a hot lemon curry marinade. Sounds weird to me, but he and his family like it.

 

[JayFramer]

You could make pemmican like the natives. Get some hardtack and some coffee and that's a good mountain meals right there!!

 

[JayFramer]

You could make pemmican like the natives. Get some hardtack and some coffee and that's a good mountain meals right there!!

 

[Texas Star]

Can anyone distinguish between American jerky and the South African biltong? Both are dried meat with spices.

I've had only bad jerky and no biltong.

Biltong is a trail food, not something that you'd find at a braai, like a BBQ. I've read that the best is relatively soft and has a pink center. The Dutch-descended Afrikaaners/Boers have made it for hundreds of years, mostly from wild game meat.

And someone who knows what he's doing is welcome to discuss pemmican, too.

 

[johngalt]

Alton Brown had a recipe on Good Eats, which was dried using a big exhaust fan and a stack of paper furnace filters - no heat. I have never tried it, but is on the TODO list sometime.

He had an explanation of why you should not use heat to dry the meat, but I don't remember what it was.