Too Easy Jerky

[ragweed]

I know this is a "smoking" forum but this is too easy not to share.  The key is the marinade.  It's by Smokinggunjerky.com.  It's a basic hickory with all the spices for a mild jerky.  Just add your own extras, from teriyaki to cajun to honey and as much pepper as you like.  This is what I call "sorta hot".

I start with 5 lbs deer meat, ground coarse.



To 14 oz of marinade I add 2 tsp tabasco, 3 tsp black pepper and 3 tsp cayenne pepper.



Mix everything together then place in an air tight container or zip lock and frig overnight.
Ready for the bag and frig:



The next day, through the jerky blaster and into my $50 NESCO dehydrators.



After 5 - 6 hours, this is what I get.



The little sticks fit perfectly in the pocket of my hunting vest but sometimes they don't make it out of the house!

[mikecorn.1]

Do you don't add any cure to it?


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[Habanero Smoker]

I don't use a cure for whole muscle meat, but will always use a cure for ground meat jerky.

I took a look at their site, and their mixes don't seem to have sodium nitrite. Most mixes package the sodium nitrite separately, because it may become unstable when it is exposed to certain spices for any length of time; while in a dry or liquid state. Their instructions for ground meat jerky doesn't have any sodium nitrite listed in the recipe; which is not a safe practice. I would hold off eating any, and send them an email to see if there is any sodium nitrite, or any other curing agent in there mixes. Or their view in general of making ground meat jerky without a curing agent.

[ragweed]

You're right, Habs.  No Sodium Nitrite.  I talked to the owner.  He told me their marinade was developed in conjunction with the University of Nebraska.  They chose not to add Sodium Nitrite in the interest of keeping it natural.  He also told me that there are other commercial marinades that don't use Sodium Nitrite either.  So, that's the story.

I have a question though.  What makes whole muscle different than ground meat in regards to adding Sodium Nitrite?

[Keymaster]

Habs, Since he ground his own meat and it is not going in a smoker with low oxygen levels and the brine has sufficient salt base do you think he should be fine without cure? I am asking not telling as I always use cure to be safe but seems to me it would be ok :)

[devo]

What research findings exist on the safety of jerky?
"Effects of Preparation Methods on the Microbiological Safety of Home-Dried Meat Jerky" was published in the Journal of Food Protection, Vol. 67, No. 10, 2004, Pages 2337-2341. The authors are from the University of Georgia (Brian A. Nummer, Judy A. Harrison, and Elizabeth L. Andress, Department of Foods and Nutrition, and Mark A. Harrison, Department of Food Science and Technology) and from Colorado State University (Patricia Kendall, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and John N. Sofos, Department of Animal Sciences ).

Marinating meat doesn't make raw meat safe. "Marination alone did not result in significant reduction of the pathogen compared with whole beef slices that were not marinated," concluded the study.

In the jerky studies, some samples showed total bacterial destruction and other samples showed some bacterial survival — especially the jerky made with ground beef. Further experiments with lab-inoculated venison showed that pathogenic E. coli could survive drying times of up to 10 hours and temperatures of up to 145 °F.

A study by the Harrisons and Ruth Ann Rose, also with the University of Georgia, was published in the January 1998 Journal of Food Protection, Vol. 61, No. 1. The authors analyzed ground beef jerky made with a commercial beef jerky spice mixture with and without a curing mix containing salt and sodium nitrite.

Half of the ground beef was inoculated with E. coli O157:H7 before making it into jerky strips and dehydrating it. The authors found that in both the heated and unheated samples, the jerky made with the curing mix had greater destruction of bacteria than jerky made without it. The jerky made with the mix and heated before dehydrating had the highest destruction rate of bacteria.

They concluded, "For ground beef jerky prepared at home, safety concerns related to E. coli O157:H7 are minimized if the meat is precooked to 160 °F prior to drying."

What are the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's recommendations for making homemade jerky?
Research findings support what the Hotline has been recommending to callers. Additionally, safe handling and preparation methods must always be used, including:
Always wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before and after working with meat products.
Use clean equipment and utensils.
Keep meat and poultry refrigerated at 40 °F or slightly below; use or freeze ground beef and poultry within 2 days; whole red meats, within 3 to 5 days.
Defrost frozen meat in the refrigerator, not on the kitchen counter.
Marinate meat in the refrigerator. Don't save marinade to re-use. Marinades are used to tenderize and flavor the jerky before dehydrating it.
Steam or roast meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F as measured with a food thermometer before dehydrating it.
Dry meats in a food dehydrator that has an adjustable temperature dial and will maintain a temperature of at least 130 to 140 °F throughout the drying process.

[Habanero Smoker]

You're right, Habs.  No Sodium Nitrite.  I talked to the owner.  He told me their marinade was developed in conjunction with the University of Nebraska.  They chose not to add Sodium Nitrite in the interest of keeping it natural.  He also told me that there are other commercial marinades that don't use Sodium Nitrite either.  So, that's the story.

I have a question though.  What makes whole muscle different than ground meat in regards to adding Sodium Nitrite?

Thanks for the interesting reply. He is taking a big risk for his company, so I'm sure he has some studies to back it up. I wouldn't argue against his position on whole muscle meat, but ground meat makes me a little nervous, and I not yet up to taking that leap.

Habs, Since he ground his own meat and it is not going in a smoker with low oxygen levels and the brine has sufficient salt base do you think he should be fine without cure? I am asking not telling as I always use cure to be safe but seems to me it would be ok :)

For whole muscle meat this is generally the case. Even if I'm going to apply smoke, I don't use a cure for my whole muscle jerky. When you grind the meat, all the surface bacteria is mixed throughout the meat. For me that is a "game changer" .  :)

[pz]

For whole muscle meat this is generally the case. Even if I'm going to apply smoke, I don't use a cure for my whole muscle jerky. When you grind the meat, all the surface bacteria is mixed throughout the meat. For me that is a "game changer" .  :)

I know this is an old post, but I thought I'd add my two-cents worth regarding common bacterial contamination, because as Habanero Smoker indicated, it can be a "game changer".  Two relatively common food contaminants are E. Coli and Salmonella, and both are facultative anaerobes, which means that they thrive in an environment without oxygen (such as the the internal areas of ground meat) or in the presence of oxygen.  The bottom line is that they can survive in the presence or absence of oxygen.

If for instance, there was an unfortunate circumstance which led to one of these anaerobes being sequestered in the center of a piece of ground meat jerky, it could potentially develop into a colony that would not exhibit evidence on the surface of the meat - you wouldn't know it until you bit into it.  If the colony was small enough, then you might not know it at all until you experienced the gastrointestinal symptoms manifested by eating the contaminated food.

Like Habanero Smoker, I do not use cure with solid meat jerky because microbes do not significantly penetrate the surface unless there is obvious (visible) contamination.  I do not make ground meat jerky, but if I did, I would most certainly use nitrite.  In my humble opinion, using ground meat in jerky preparation without a chemical preservative such as sodium nitrite is akin to using a cutting board used for raw chicken without washing it afterward.  Although not all ground meat (nor chicken) is contaminated, I personally would not take the chance with potentially lethal microorganisms.

[Roget]

This thread brings a question to my mind.

Will 2 hours of smoke @ 160 cabinet temp be long enough to get ground meat (beef or turkey) up to the recommended temp of 160?

This is what I always do and then finish my jerky off in the dehydrator at 155 & so far so good.

[NePaSmoKer]

Anytime you make jerky add cure.

Dont care what the so called experts say.

[Saber 4]

Anytime you make jerky add cure.

Dont care what the so called experts say.

x2, cure is cheap, emergency rooms aren't

[smoke em if you got em]

Anytime you make jerky add cure.

Dont care what the so called experts say.

X3