beef jerky

[wildfire00]

When I started my website, I mentioned that I would be doing a whole bunch of different stuff. So far I have done some regular everyday meals, started the dry aging process, and threw in a couple healthy meals as well. Well in this post I will be showing and telling you how to make beef jerky. I love beef jerky and sometimes I think I could actually live off of just that. You can make jerky a few different ways; you can use an oven, a smoker, a bbq, or what I use, a dehydrator. The thing with beef jerky is that it must be done at a very low temp over many hours. I believe that it cures around 160 degrees. It usually takes me about 6-8 hours per batch.
to see th pics for this please visit my site. follow this link.
http://wildfirecooking.com/beef-jerky-so-damn-good/

So the first thing you should do is look for your meat, you want to use something very lean like an inside round or flank when it comes to beef. I haven’t tried any other meats yet except these two. You want to get a butcher to slice it about an eighth of an inch thick or maybe a little more. The thicker the piece the longer it takes, not only that you will have a chewy inside and a very very tough outside. But some people like it that way. You need something that is very lean, because the temp that the meat cures at won’t render the fat out of the meat. The fat is what will make the jerky go rancid (bad) really quickly. Another tip, if you can’t find a butcher that is willing to slice the meat for you; you can take it home and freeze it until it is semi solid or not soft. This makes it much easier to slice with your home knife. You would be very surprised how many butchers I had to go through before finding one to actually do this. Persistence pays off, and sometimes they need to be reminded that this is their job.

Marinade:
-Equal parts soy and Worcestershire sauce
-Garlic powder
-Onion powder
-Beef concentrated broth
-Liquid smoke
-Salt and pepper

The above marinade can be adjusted to how ever much meat you have. This is just a very basic one.
I take all the above ingredients and mix very well in a bowl. I have my meat, and I throw the slices in Ziploc bag. Pour the marinade over the meat and mix so everything is covered. Now there are a couple of things you can do here. I have my own vacuum sealer that comes with a vacuum dish. Basically a 8”x8” dish that has a lid and allows me to vacuum out all of the air. This really speeds up marinating time. I know not everybody has one, but if you don’t, it’s okay. Just seal the Ziploc and keep in the fridge overnight. You will just want to work the bag a couple times so everything gets the full flavor; I have done 1 hour marinades that work just as well.

Now that everything has been marinade and you a have drained any excess juices from the meat. You can just use a colander for this if you like. You can start layering it on your dehydrator racks. My dehydrator, which I have to thank my in-laws for, Thanks so much guy’s. Is the bomb. It’s not the most high end of machines, but she’s a work horse. I layer my meat on the rack, making sure I leave enough space between the meats so air can move around properly. I have 6 racks on my machine and repeat this process until they are all full. Do not overlap you meat, make sure it lies as flat as possible. Now turn that puppy on and wait about two hours, and then rotate the racks around so that the top is now on the bottom and the bottom on the top, and all the racks in between should have been moved as well. This will ensure consistent drying of the meat. I do this about every 2 hours until complete.

And there you have it. I could go into a ton of info on how to do it in a smoker, in an oven and other techniques, however, I have not tried them so I would just be passing on info that I can’t elaborate on, and well, that’s just not cool.

When done, you can put the jerky in an air tight container such as I do or vacuum seal or Ziploc. Oh ya, you should let the meat cool before you eat it. Trust me it tastes much better after sitting a bit. I know it’s so tempting, but try man try…

Take care and keep the fire hot.