Jerky Questions

[Mr Walleye]

I've done alot of searching on the forum for information on Jerky but I haven't found what I was looking for. Years ago I used to do jerky in a home built dryer. I mainly did whole muscle meat. With the BS I've done both whole muscle and ground but mainly ground. I use a jerky cannon and I have several 1.5 lb tubes for it. This way I can fill them all once and have enough to fill 8 racks. It has turned out good, but not excellent. I was looking for recipes and thoughts or ideas on a couple of issues. When I used to make it in the dryer I never used Morton TQ but I have been using it in the ground meat. I'm not sure if this is the reason I'm not getting the taste I'm looking for or not. What is your experience with using TQ? Or, do you guys not use it and just use salt instead? From the various posts it appears alot use commercial seasoning and cures. I was interested in ideas for recipes and ingredients. Any thoughts...

Mike

[Smudge]

Good question. Here's my take on it.

Jerky is not a smoked and cured product. It is a dried product only. I'll allow that smoking it is perfectly acceptable, as many recipes include liquid smoke to replace the natural procedure. But cure? Absolutely not.

Introducing cure into the equation makes it more of a kippered jerky, which significantly alters the taste and texture of the meat. Going for that unique taste is one thing, but to simply add cure is unnecessary and unwanted. I want a natural tasting, chewy piece of meat when I think of jerky.

If you've still got your dehydrator, I would suggest breaking it out and making some jerky with it.

Here's my recipe I've used for years.

Good for one pound meat prior to drying. (I make three pounds at a time since it fits perfectly on the available racks I have.)

4 TBSP Lee & Perrin's Worchestershire
4 TBSP Kikkomen Soy Sauce
1 TBSP catsup
1 TBSP liquid smoke
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients well, pour over sliced meat and knead to distribute evenly. Store in plastic bag in refrigerator three days, kneading twice daily.

Place on dehydrator racks and dry until white appears when bending a piece. Keeps well in refrigerator.

Enjoy! I'm aware that liquid smoke is considered evil on this forum, but the end result is worth it. Certainly, this recipe could easily be adapted to the BS for the purists.   
 

[marxbrew]

Haven't tried jerky in the BS yet, but make it all the time using a dehydrator. I do 4-5 lbs meat at a time, and it nets about 4 quart size ziplocs of jerky. Here's my recipe:
----------------------------------------------------------
Beef Jerky Marinade
This recipe is enough to marinate 5 lbs. of meat.

5 oz. Soy sauce         1 Tbs. Garlic powder
5 oz. Worcestershire sauce      1 Tbs. Coarse ground black pepper
5 oz. Teriyaki Sauce      1 Tbs. Onion powder
½ to 1 tsp. Tabasco sauce      1 Tbs. Smoke salt

Use bottom round, brisket, London broil or any meat that is not marbled with fat. Trim all fat away and cut meat into thin slices (about 1/8" thick or less). Mix all ingredients and marinate meat strips for at least 24 hours in fridge (more time is better... I usually try for 2 days). Mix meat strips up twice a day to ensure that all strips get soaked in marinade. Dry in dehydrator or on oven racks with heat set very low.... Takes 8-14 hours to dry.
---------------------------------------------------------------
One of these days, I'm gonna try it in the BS, tho.... Probably won't need the smoked salt! :)

[MallardWacker]

Where is WHITE...gosh I wish he would make a "Time and Temps" thing for jerky and get it to be sticky...I would love to see it and I know a lot of folks would sincerely appreciate it....WHER ARE YOU WTF.

[whitetailfan]

Walleye,
I am interested in your recipe, as yes I do use commercial product.  Its not that expensive in my mind, as spices add up quickly also.  I'm a supporter of Hi-Mtn, I love that stuff.

I disagree with Smudge.  If you are building your own mix from scratch, I would absolutely use TQ.  I prefer to have that nice red color in the meat from the cure, and I use cure in most of my Bradley stuff for safety reasons.  I'm hesitant to simply dry out the meat with no cure at low temps.  Especially if you dont want the jerky to be like leather, if you want it nice and chewy, that means that the moisture levels are higher.

In order to get a product with good shelf life you need to take the water content way down.

Cure allows me to know that the gribblys are all dead, and feel safe eating and sharing.

My 2 cents.

[Mr Walleye]

Thanks guys

I'm at work right now but I will post what my recipe was for the last batch I did once I'm home. The one thing I've found is when using ground meat you have to step up the amount of spices for some reason. This may have been some of my problem.

Mike

[Mr Walleye]

WTF

I wouldn't mind paying for HM spice packs but they are not available where I live. I can get them from out of town but it just makes it inconvienent. Anyway here is my latest attempt.

7 lbs lean ground beef

1 cup soya sauce
1 cup water
10.5 Tsp Tender Quick
7 Tsp Garlic Pepper
4 Tsp Mustard Seed
2 Tsp Sea Salt
2 Tsp Cayenne
2 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes

I started at 200 with the vent wide open, then down to 180 with vent half open. Smoked for 2 hours with Hickory. I think the overall time was about 8 or 9 hours because of the full load and no warm up. I finally got some decent pepper flavor to it this time. I also left out the Worcester Sauce this time but I will add this back in next time. I may also try a Teryaki version. This was definitely the best batch I've made so far. As I had indicated in my other post I have found in using ground meat is that my first number of batches were very bland, ground meat requires more seasoning. This is also the first batch I've done since adding the circulation fan. It made a big difference as far only having to rotate the racks once.

Let me know what you think.

Mike

[iceman]

Have to agree with White tail. If you don't get the brine over 180 along with the meat briefly you could get in trouble. This is were the insta cure comes in. I won't go into details but it does keep the bad varmits out of the meat. The salt in the soy and spices does act as a cure but because of the low level can't always make a safe product. Most of the co ops will tell you now that if you don't do the hot bath soak then you should use a cure. I.E remove the meat from the brine, heat the brine to at least 180 then dip the meat back in it then smoke it. Just my thoughts. This is why High Mountain has included the cure packs along with the jerky spices. :)
I can send you publications from the co op extention if you want to read them Walleye or you can down load them from the web. BTW your brine sounds good. I'll have to try it soon. ;)

[agent provocateur]

i live for jerky...

[headgames]

Full agreement on the CURE.......  I try and cure everything I create . I even add cure to my brine for poultry . ( no measurements, in Canada for Christmas"  adds that nice  bright color to the meat.  In my jerky I perfer adding cure and salt by themselves instead of just through Morton Tender Quick,  that way I control the  saltiness flavor in the jerky.

Just one WARNING .  read all you can about cure . it is a POISON when over used. use with CAUTION. ;D

[Smudge]

There's a misconception about dehydrating meat that I wish to clear up on this informative thread about jerky.

Modern dehydrators use heat and air circulation to efficiently remove the moisture from the product. In this particular case the jerky is fully cooked therefore, with safe internal temperatures being attained.

I know of no dehydrator that simply moves unheated air. It would be a very inefficient system to say the least.   

It is my opinion, and my humble opinion only, that traditional jerky is not cured. Of course, if you've grown up with cured (kippered) jerky, then your tradition is different than mine. I'm simply of the opinion that uncured jerky has a more natural taste and texture, of the satisfying chewy variety.

I hope you give my recipe a try. Let it be the judge.

[Gizmo]

Alton Brown did a show on beef jerky and demonstrated the anchient techniques of drying meat.  Apparently, the more original version was hung in a tree in a cool airid climate.  Wind also helped the drying.  He then demonstrated a new version using a household fan (square type) and air filters used for heating and air conditioning.  The meat was held between the air filters and then strapped to the fan.  Don't recall the specifics of safe food handling and all but suspect the curing/marinating process should be keeping the critters out.

[sherlock]

Walleye

The recipe you posted above says you did not include Worchestershire sauce. Is the Worchestershire in addition to the soya? How much Worchestershire?

It sounds like I can make jerky without a dehydrator. Is that right?

Thanks
Nathan

[Mr Walleye]

Hi Nathan

Some time ago I started using a product from a local supplier called JB Sausage Maker. Their product is very similar to the High Mountain products. The only thing I add to it is additional Pepper. I also started running my temps around 170 degrees and I now only use 1 hour 20 minutes of hickory. Once the smoke is complete I will do a rack rotation, front to back and top to bottom. Here is a link of a recent discussion:

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5954.0

Mike

[Mr Walleye]

Nathan

Here are a couple more Jerky links:

http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/Downloads_files//DeejaysJerkyRecipes.pdf

http://www.bbq-porch.org/recipes/html/C19.htm

Mike