3 Jerky Types With Sure Cure Added - First Time With Cure #1

[OldHoss]

I took a little over 10 pounds of Sirloin Tip Angus Beef and removed about 1 pound of fat and ligament.  I then added a little over 1.5 tsp of Sure Cure to some garlic pepper I made up.  I then combined this with the Sure Cure and sprinkled it as evenly as I could over both sides of the beef.  I let it rest in a glass baking dish in the fridge for an hour or so then got my 3 brines going.  I have a Indian Candy brine going with H20, Maple Syrup, Honey, Salt, Garlic and Brown Sugar in it.  I also have a Jerk recipie with Jamaican spices and a Grace Jerk Marinade for wetness.  The last type uses Kikomen Spicy Miso Teryaki - I could not locate the Say Vay product so many of you guys like so much.  I have added nothing to the Kikomen as it seems to need nothing.

Have I used enough of the Sure Cure here or too much?  I was afraid of using too much.  This is my first time using the cure #1.  My Indian Candy brine has meat at the top that is turning a off gray colour here and I am a little concerned.  I have used the Indian Candy recipie I have for Salmon but never for beef and it did not do anything strange to the salmon.  I will know more tommorrow morning as far as how this product looks.

How long should I be brineing this beef for?  I was going to take the Indian Candy out after 16 hours and air dry it for 24 hours before smoking and dehydrating.....leaving the rest of the jerky to marinade for a total of 36 hours.  What are your thoughts folks?

I have 6 chickens sitting in Jerk spices I will be smoking tommorrow.  By the time they hit the smoker those chickens will have a little over 36 in the dry rub (allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, garlic, onion, clove, salt, pepper, chipolte powder and peprika).  I will be using Hickory bisqettes.

[Habanero Smoker]

As for the way you used the Sure Cure, you could have gone up to 2 teaspoons for 10 pounds of meat. Adding a little salt to your cure mix would help with the curing action, also making it easier to spread; but you don't want to add too much salt, since you will marinade it; which will add additional salts. If you had cut the meat into strips prior to curing, then an hour should be long enough, if you placed the meat in a bowl so that it was piled up, just stir the meat two or three times during that hour.

If the meat was not cut up then the curing time would depend on the thickness of the meat. I should mention I don't use a cure when making whole muscle jerky, so keep that in minded when you read the following. If the meat was not sliced up and you only cured for one hour, the meat is not fully cured. To me that doesn't matter in this case, since you will be slicing it and marinating it in a marinade that looks to have plenty of salt.

The gray surface of meat is common if the meat has been exposed to the air for a period of time. Though when I make jerky I try to use meat that is as fresh as I can get it.

The jerk chicken sounds good. If you ever see it, try Walkerswood Jerk sauce.

[OldHoss]

I sliced the meat up into Jerky sized pieces before sprinkling with the perpper/garlic/cure mix.  I then let it sit for about an hour before adding to the respective brines.  The meat looked fine before I added the sprinkling and looked fine in the two brines.  It was in the Indian Candy brine the the stuff on top looked a little "funny".  No worries though as all looks fine now in the morning.  And yes - each of the 3 brines contains more salt.

I still am not sure about how long I should be marinating this stuff.  It is still about 24 hours till I smoke this jerky.   I am gonna take out the Indian Candy and air dry it in a cool room with a couple fans on high.....probably in a few hours.  The other 2 batches I am unsure as to what to do.

Thanks for the feedback Habanero Smoker.   I appreciate all advice.

[Habanero Smoker]

For the marinade step, I usually will go 3 - 5 hours. Your recipes sound good.

[OldHoss]

Well the Indian Candy went 16 hours and has been air curing in a cool room with 2 large fans on it close and high.  It has been going now for about 4 hours and the jerky has dried up pretty good and is starting to look good.  I have done this with salmon in the past and though air curing any meat at room temp is scary it is essential to this recipie I believe.  I never used any Sure Cure or anything but salt when I did that salmon....and no issues were had.  This is beef but I have used cure #1 in the form of the Sure Cure.  The smell of the combined stuff I used on the beef......maple syrup, brown sugar, honey, pepper and garlic......with that beef in the cold room with fans.....smelled NOT good....it smelled like PISS!!!!  That has now passed thank you very much.  I have noticed a deep sugary smell with the salmon in the first few hours before and it too passed.  I take this as good sign and coupled with the fact that the beef "looks" good means I am letting the step go it's course.  Which in this case means leaving that stuff till it turns slighly translucent!!!  This stuff should rock boys.....never done it with beef but my Indian Candy salmon has made grown men swear uncontrollably it has it has.

The other 2 Jerky recipies have been in their marinades for 19 hours.  I hope it is not too much time.   Thing is I have too much meat for 1 go in the 4 rack smoker I have.  I am gonna have to so 2 smokes here.....I do not think I can cram in all this meat.  10 pounds cut up is too much.  Maybe I will pull the Teryaki and Jamaican Jerk stuff out of their marinades and put them on racks in the fridge overnight???  Could this be an option to buy me some time before I can process this stuff???  It is 8PM where I am and to begin a session now would be crazy.

[OldHoss]

I know it is not really the right spot for all of these but since I started talking about the Jerk Chicken here I will post pics as well.

After 2 days in the dry rub:



The Chicken and the rub parts:



After a few hours in the smoker:





My Indian Candy Beef Jerky after 16 hours in brine and 4 hours into a air cure:

[JZ]

That is one heck of a big load of jerk chicken and it looks real good. I see you have really gotten into the Jamaican theme with the "Red Stripe". 8) Was that for the chicken or the chef. ::)

[OldHoss]

That is one heck of a big load of jerk chicken and it looks real good. I see you have really gotten into the Jamaican theme with the "Red Stripe". 8) Was that for the chicken or the chef. ::)

Six whole chickens to be exact - they had a buy one get one free deal at the Metro.  And the chicken was very good thanks....got a good selection of Grace scotch bonnet sauces and something new-to-me called Tiger Sauce (this last one was quite good).  I use the Red Stripe to pass the time and to mop the chicken.  I have used other beer in the past but it never tastes as good as the proper Jamaican stuff.

I went to Jamaica in June and started smoking chicken and other foods within a week or so of returning.  It was the Jerk food in Jamaica that got me into this whole thing.   I was telling the kids about the Jerk pits and the sumptuous chicken and pork....one of them said, "oh no we will be eating this type of food soon".  I had already been pondering the problem when she said that.  My Jerk chicken stands up to what I had in Jamaica - sadly the pork they do there is something I have not even come close to replicating.  It very much saddens me as it was the pork not the chicken that I was most impressed with.

This:



is VERY good though.

EDIT:  I have the 2 remaining Jerk batches air curing with the Indian Candy.

The ingredients for what I have underway.....







The full load of jerky in my bedroom.....the wife is NOT impressed.....but this is not the first time curing has taken place in the room.....ha!



The Terkyaki is on the left and the Jamaican Jerk is on the right....



I dusted the Jamaican Jerky with fresh ground Allspice:



And the Teriyaki with the Szechuan Pepper....



I tried to get a shot showing the Indian Candy becoming translucent......



I will get a shot tommorrow of this same piece and see if I can get the difference to show in one of these shots.

[Habanero Smoker]

You stating you detected the smell of "Piss" early during the dehydration has me concerned.

Tiger Sauce is pretty good. It is a very mild/sweet chili sauce. A lot of BBQ competitors use that stuff on their ribs, it a Johnny Trigg trick. I have yet to try it on my ribs, but I like it on about every thing.

The Jerk Chicken looks good. I now have a craving to make some. What type of bisquette did you use. I use pecan when I'm making Jerk Chicken in the Bradley.

[OldHoss]

You stating you detected the smell of "Piss" early during the dehydration has me concerned.

I am not.  Like I said there was also a odd smell when I air cure the salmon when done this same way.  I attribute it to the mix of dark maple syrup, dark honey and the Rodgers Demura brown surgar I use.  In the salmon I always add cracked black pepper and garlic cloves.  This is the first time I have done beef Indian Candy style so I used more garlic and pepper as well as leaving the garlic cloves in the brine longer.  I normally leave the garlic in the brine with the salmon 6 hours or so.  When I was pulling the beef from the brine, sticking them with tooth picks and loading the racks I detected no off smell....it was only after a half hour or so under those fans that the smell arrived.  I thought one of the dogs had pissed in the room.  That smell is now long gone though - I have checked for it again and again as it too concerned me.  With the salmon the smell was more earthy-sweet and lasted 3-5 hours at the start of air curing.

Tiger Sauce is pretty good. It is a very mild/sweet chili sauce. A lot of BBQ competitors use that stuff on their ribs, it a Johnny Trigg trick. I have yet to try it on my ribs, but I like it on about every thing.

Yes this stuff is mild as well as sweet....and sour too.   I could see myself using a whole whack of it....as a rib sauce would be outstanding I am sure.  The only problem is the price and the amount I get for that price.  Too high and not enough.........four dollars for a small bottle.

The Jerk Chicken looks good. I now have a craving to make some. What type of bisquette did you use. I use pecan when I'm making Jerk Chicken in the Bradley.

I used Hickory.....I have used Hickory since starting to make Jerk Chicken a few months ago....I'd have used a little Cherry too but I cannot source the pucks of that where I live.   I have a box of Pecan and thought to use it as I tried it on some chicken last week and it was AMAZING.  Thing is 3 of the 6 chickens I did up yesterday are for friends....they bought the food and I did it up.  Those guys are used to the taste of what I normally do so that is what I did.  The other reason is Hickory and Pecan are so close....Pecan being somewhat milder.....and with all that spice I use on the chicken.....would I really be able to tell the difference between the two???  I know I alone must go forth and find this out....I am looking forward to it with a salivating mouth.

EDIT:

Got the batch in the unit and Hickory is being applied:



The Indian Candy:



and up close:



I lost track of the piece I took a shot of last night.....and the shot is a little jittery but you should get the idea.  That to me seems mighty see-through.  It is looking very tastey right now I tell yall.  I am finding difficult to eat some right now.  Having this little board here is helping keep me away from the product at the present time.

[OldHoss]

The process is almost done....just a few of the thicker Indian Candy pieces left.  It has been almost 13 hours in the smoker with 2.4 hours of smoke and the rest just heat - set between 120f and 140f.  Low and slow.

The money shots:

Batch 1 Spicy Miso Teriyaki :



Batch 2 Jamaican Jerk:



Batch 3 Indian Candy:



closer:



a single without backlight:



and with backlight:



closer with backlight:



This last one is magic to my eyes and mouth.   I applied a dusting of garlic and pepper I did up in the mortar and pestle.....it took this Indian Candy to a whole new level.   The other 2 batches are good but this stuff is the bomb as the kids say.

[Habanero Smoker]

Your jerky looks good.

As for the Tiger Sauce, the competitors I have seen use it don't use it in the sauce. If you take a look at how Sparky does his ribs, the step that he applies mustard, those that use Tiger Sauce will use it in place of the mustard. Then layer additional flavors on.