It looks like I broke the Newbie barrier so I guess I'm going to have to step up my game and try to make something edible. Since nodbody tried to crack the secret recipe for the Jim Beam Pepper Jerky, I thought I'd give it a try. Here goes my first smoking jerky attempt. My ingredients are as follows:
3 lbs of Flank Steak
1 Tablespoon of Dark Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons of Kosher Salt
2 teaspoons of Cracked Black Pepper Corns
1.68 oz. of Non Fat Dry Milk
1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon of White Pepper
1 teaspoon of Celery Salt
1 teaspoon of Onion Powder
1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
1/3 Cup Worchestershire Sauce
1/3 Cup Soy Sauce
1/3 Cup Jim Beam
1/3 Cup Water
1/2 Tablespoon of Cure #1
I sliced all the meat with the grain, and am soaking it in the well mixed ingredients. I'll let it sit and soak for about 8 hours, and then will set on racks to drip dry for another 8 hours. After this I will smoke the meat in my DBS using (What you can't guess this one?) Jim Beam flavored Bisquettes at 150 degrees for about 3 hours, then cut the smoke and continue cooking until dry.
Unfortunatly nobody carries the Jim Beam Jerky by me anymore so that I could compare it. So I'll just have to see if the recipe is at least edible.
Wow that recipe sounds great....Please post some finished pics and let us know how it turns out.
SIA
That sounds real good Kevin. Make sure to keep us posted!
Ok, here's my first picture. This is quite the feat on dial up. I'm not sure if it will work, because I didn't see the option to reduce the size, but here it goes anyhow. It is a picture of my 3 lbs of Flank Steak in my Jim Beam flavored brine.
(http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/63KevinG/Bradley%20Jerky/JerkyinBrine.jpg)
Looks like you're on your way Kevin!
The ingredients sure look like a good combo to me, I bet it turns out great.
Looking forward to more pics :)
Carolyn
One thing I noticed when I used to do whole muscle jerky in a wet marinade was the black pepper does not disolve into the liquid. Therefor some pieces of meat would have more pepper and others little or none. So now I make the wet marinade without any black pepper and sprinkle it on each rack before putting it into the smoker.
Good to know, I may have to bust up some more peppers and sprinkle them on after I load the racks. I tried to taste the brine before soaking the meat, and it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but don't know if it will change after the meat is dried. I hope it gets a little more spicy. I think I probably should have used light brown instead of dark brown sugar.
Its been quite a while since I made whole muscle jerky, but I'm sure I did not put any sugar in it at all. Mainly spices. Garlic, onion, cayenne, chipotle, salt, Worcestershire. Not real sure what else, been too long since I made it. :) Back then I did not add any cure, it never lasted long enough to go bad. Now I would add cure just to make sure. I've learned a lot from this site, a great bunch of folks.
Well I took Pensrocks advice on one tray and added the spices after word, but suspect that there may be too much now. Only time will tell. Here's some more pics
Here's the Jim Beam flavored Jerky on my trays
(http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/63KevinG/Bradley%20Jerky/JerkyReadytosmoke.jpg)
Here's my smoker ready for the Jim Beam flavored Jerky
(http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/63KevinG/Bradley%20General/Bradleypresmokedheated.jpg)
And here's my Jim Beam flavored Jerky in my preheated & presmoked Bradley
(http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/63KevinG/Bradley%20Jerky/JerkyinSmoke.jpg)
The only spice I add before smoking is the black pepper, cause it does not dissolve in the liquid. I'm not sure what spice(s) you added later?
Everything looks good so far. :)
The jerky looks good so far Kevin.
Looks like you must have had rain this fall. The mountains are pretty green in the background.
Unfortunatly there's no power outlets on the mountains, so I got stuck doing this in my backyard. But I hear Lowes has a sale on extension cords. ;D
Quote from: HawkeyeSmokes on October 24, 2009, 09:40:41 AM
The jerky looks good so far Kevin.
Looks like you must have had rain this fall. The mountains are pretty green in the background.
Ok, you want a mountain scene, here's one outside my front door.
(http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/63KevinG/General/Mymountain.jpg)
Nice view!
Yea, not bad considering it's the cheap seats. Just wish I had this view looking out my back door instead.
Ditto!
All we can see are cornfields and grain elevators. And a wind turbine..
I want to thank everyone for the great comments and especially Pensrock for the great advice. The tray that I added the spices to after the brine definitely tastes better than the trays that I mixed the dry ingredients in the brine. I didn't come out tasting like the store bought, but it is absolutely edible!!!
Here is the meal fit for a king.
(http://i813.photobucket.com/albums/zz53/63KevinG/Bradley%20Jerky/MealforaKing.jpg)
Notice I kept the good stuff for drinking and not putting in the meat.
Dinner for two anyone? (Sorry no guys allowed, other than me of course!)
Looks very good KevinG, would you change anything next time?
SIA
Yea, I'm definitely going to leave the dry goods out until after I pull the meat out of the brine, big difference in taste when you do it that way. I'll probably change the sugar from dark brown to light brown, and if that doesn't work next time, I'll eliminate it altogether, it took away from the spicy taste that I like. I love the texture, it's not dry and crumbly but chewy. I'm hoping I can get a bag of the real stuff to compare it with by next time. I'm going to have to shop around.
Great looking jerky Kevin. To me the trick for making chewy jerky is to slice it with the grain. Any I've had sliced across the grain has been on the crumbly side.
Kevin, the jerky looks great. I think I would do away with the sugar next time. It may be just me but sweet and jerky just do not seem to go together. And your correct, sweetener will take away from the spicyness. (Is spicyness a word?) ;D ;D
Kevin,
Your jerky looks great and I enjoyed the pics you posted, too.
That last one makes me want a beer right now :D
Carolyn
Quote from: KevinG on October 23, 2009, 05:48:49 PM
Ok, here's my first picture. This is quite the feat on dial up. I'm not sure if it will work, because I didn't see the option to reduce the size, but here it goes anyhow. It is a picture of my 3 lbs of Flank Steak in my Jim Beam flavored brine.
Kevin get Gimp, it is a free open source image editor. Works in Windozs and Linux for sure maybe even a Mac version too. You just open the image with Gimp and right click on the image and select Image/Scale Image then pick a different size. Just make sure your viewing it at 100% so it is the real size. I usually change the biggest to 640.
JT
I'll have to try Gimp next time.
Oh, and by the way, can anyone say
Indi BURP gestion?
Wow, guess I'm getting too old to chow down on jerky & beer for dinner! Still worth the heartburn & Maalox though. I'll have to stock up for tonight. Plenty more Jerky to go.
Or Picasa 3. Strong and free photo editor and organizer. I have CS3 and used to use Picasa quite a bit before getting my Mac, and now use IPhoto and CS3.
You can also change the size and other aspects of the photo in Photobucket - if you use it as your photo sharing site.
I do use photobucket, but the instructions that were given on the bradley forum website said to use the 15" screen which is the biggest option, and I could only find that if I did an edit on the picture.
Quote from: KevinG on October 25, 2009, 01:30:53 PM
I do use photobucket, but the instructions that were given on the bradley forum website said to use the 15" screen which is the biggest option, and I could only find that if I did an edit on the picture.
Once in photobucket go to your album, click on the picture itself and it goes into an edit mode. When you put your cursor over the photo, there appears a bar that shows several editing options - one is resize. Roll up to that and it gives you several options on size that are available. If you look at my last post on the Jack Daniel's contest. That size is large - medium is smaller of course.
So the results are in. I took a batch of my Jerky to work, and set it out AFTER everyone went to lunch. Within 20 minutes, word spread like wildfire and the entire plate was empty! Guess it turned out OK. I suspect that their lunch wasn't all that appetizing.
Kudo's Kevin!
When I bring smoked food to the office, you don't want to be in the direct line from the cube farm to the lunchroom.... LOL
Very nice all around. And welcome to the jerky club ;D
nepas
ok what is cure#1
AL
oops forgot something i am going to try this next week if you get time can you update the how to again since it says you would change some things around. Juat want to make sure i do it close to what you did I am not sure if i understand about adding the dri mix after it sets for 8 hours ..
Thanks AL
Quote from: Ninjak on November 20, 2009, 08:50:53 AM
ok what is cure#1
Cure #1 consists of salt and sodium nitrite.
You can find it at a sausage supply store.
I get mine online from AlliedKenco.com
FL got you set on the cure, it's sometimes called pink salt, prague powder, tinted cure mix, T.C.M, DQ Curing Salt, Insta Cure #1 etc.. As far as the dry ingredients goes, it just seemed to be more flavorful by adding them after. It's not going to hurt anything by adding it all to the wet stuff first, I made half the batch like that and it was ok. I would probably do this:
First instead of Dark Brown Sugar, use either Light Brown Sugar or No sugar at all.
Second only mix the Jim Beam, Water, Worchestershire Sauce, Soy Sauce, Cure#1, Non Fat Dry Milk, Kosher Salt and Sugar (if you are going to use it) and soak the meat for 8 hours.
Third Pull the meat and place on racks to dry - at this step sprinkle on all the remaing ingredients, and let it drip dry for another 8 hours.
Fourth smoke for 3 hours with Jim Beam Bisquettes at 150 degrees
Fifth cut the smoke and continue to cook until dry (I like mine to be able to bend and not break, but not squeeze out any juice if pinched).
Hope this helps!
i think i am going to have to bring my smoker to work there is not enough time after to work smoke evething i want to try this next week.. i am a manager at a auto parts store in a little town so i can do that ...
Thanks Guys AL
p.s this is all i can think of right now is smoke smoke and more smoking I have about 60 pages of print out things to try ahhahahah