Jerky: The Topic

[DerekW]

Hi Toni

While we've used the oven on occasion, my usual method is to put it into the food deyhdrator. I turn the trays every few hours [or when I remember] and after half a day I start picking out the smaller thinner pieces, which of course dry faster. The end result sits out on racks until it cools. I'm fairly sure the temperature in the dehydrator is going to be less than 155, but I don't know exactly what it might be. Also, there's a very pronounced temperature gradient from the lowest, warmest tray to the highest in the stack.

cheers

Derek

[toni]

I thank you for your input.

As always,

Toni

[jupe]

I've been research recipes for beef jerky today, and I must say I am very amused. Virtually every recipe has instructions on how to slice the tasty hunk of cow, but they are all wildly different. In the last hour, I've seen advocates of:

* Slice as thinly as possible with the grain

* Slice 1/2" thick against the grain

* Slice 1/4" on the bias

* Don't cut your meat, use Oscar Meyer bologna (I'm not kidding!)

I am a proponent of lots of ideas, but I just don't see the advantage of not cutting with the grain of the meat. In my mind, jerky is supposed to be chewy and not brittle, not paper thin, and definitely not against the grain--cause then it just isn't chewy enough

What do you guys think?

[WHT]

  * Slice 1/4" on the bias

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Or a little thicker if you do a long slow process.

[Doodad]

I usually buy a london broil and cut it like I was serving it as steak. Marinade overnight or all day and then at least 12 hours in the dehydrator on low. Comes out great. If a round steak, I just cut long strips regardless and cook on high.

But, you left out one option. Those who puree the beef with spices and liquid and then pour in molds/containers and dry. Mostly commercial, but the best green chile jerky I ever had was this way.

[andiesenji]

I like to slice on a long bias so the meat fibers are plus or minus an inch long.

This works well for people who don't want to use the stuff for flossing.

Of course, this depends on the type of meat you are using and how far you will take the drying.

Other people in my informal barbecue group, (we often buy large portions of meat as a group and divvy it up, such as the entire round, top & bottom) like to slice the meat (more like a slab than a slice) with the grain but they twist and pound it (difficult to describe the technique exactly) to weaken some of the linear strands and it seems to work quite well.

After removing the outer membrane and most of the fat, they slice off about a 1 inch slab, hook one end of it on a spike and twists the slab until it looks like a thick hose. It is then pounded with a iron rod (actually a fireplace poker with the hook sawed off the end) then twisted the other direction and pounded again. When laid flat, it gets a bit more pounding, along with applying a seasoned rub, with a meat tenderizer club or a batticarne. The one guy that regularly does this has one with a handle that looks rather like a mini griddle and the business end is about four or five inches in diameter.

Found one at Amazon: it's like this one, not quite as pretty.

The meat ends up less than 1/2 inch thick by the time it goes into the dehydrator (or smoker, which is what several folks use).

Edited October 11, 2007 by andiesenji (log)

[Genny]

There are so many factors that go into making jerky:

1) the type of meat

2) how you cut the meat

3) the marinade/ seasoning

4) drying method

5) degree of dehydration desired/ achieved

My husband has been experimenting for years and has developed an amazing sweet/hot jerky that is chewey and complex. He uses flank steak and cuts it about 1/2 to 1" thick against the grain and marinates it for 3 days in a teriyaki sauce that has chili oil and other spices added to it. Once the marinade process is done, he pats each piece dry and pops it into the dehydrator which is put either in the garage or on the back patio (never left in the house, too fragrant!). He takes paper towels and pats off the excess oils and moisture that develops every 12 hours or so. We use an electric dehydrator, the circular kind that has stacked trays. The trickiest part is to dry the meat enough, we have found that it may seem dry at one point but if you seal it up (food saver) it may have too much moisture. It should seem just a little crispy at the edges and it seems to soften up just a bit once it hits room temperature.

This stuff is so good that my brother-in-law traded a pound of it for a mixed case of very fine wines!

[jupe]

There are so many factors that go into making jerky:

1) the type of meat

2) how you cut the meat

3) the marinade/ seasoning

4) drying method

5) degree of dehydration desired/ achieved

My husband has been experimenting for years and has developed an amazing sweet/hot jerky that is chewey and complex.  He uses flank steak and cuts it about 1/2 to 1" thick against the grain and marinates it for 3 days in a teriyaki sauce that has chili oil and other spices added to it.  Once the marinade process is done, he pats each piece dry and pops it into the dehydrator which is put either in the garage or on the back patio (never left in the house, too fragrant!).  He takes paper towels and pats off the excess oils and moisture that develops every 12 hours or so. We use an electric dehydrator, the circular kind that has stacked trays.  The trickiest part is to dry the meat enough, we have found that it may seem dry at one point but if you seal it up (food saver) it may have too much moisture.  It should seem just a little crispy at the edges and it seems to soften up just a bit once it hits room temperature. 

This stuff is so good that my brother-in-law traded a pound of it for a mixed case of very fine wines!

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considering it takes three days plus a heck of a lot of work and beast to make a pound, i would expect no less.

with the 1" pieces, what is the final thickness?

[Genny]

considering it takes three days plus a heck of a lot of work and beast to make a pound, i would expect no less.

with the 1" pieces, what is the final thickness?

The funny thing is it all really depends on the moisture content of the meat. Generally the final pieces are between 1/4" and 1/2" I would suppose. Being a "girl" about measurements though, I could be off a bit. The final pieces are meaty and chewey- not leathery or coarse. You can feel the strands of muscle providing a very satisfying texture and chew. The flavor hits you with the sweet of the teriyaki at first and as you continue to chew the heat develops. By the time you are on your third bite you have a satisfying warmth but keep adding the sweet to it. The jerkey really is amazing Hmmm, I think I need to go buy some flank steak now and pursuade him to start a new batch. 10 pounds of meat yields 1-2 pounds of jerkey.

[Okbrewer]

Where I buy my meat for jerky they slice it for me! They slice it as thin as possible and cross-grain, kinda like how you slice a brisket. Shorter fibers are easier to chew than the long, with-the-grain fibers.

I always pound the slices a little thinner after it has marinated.

Bob R in OKC

[Patapsco Mike]

Something else worth trying that's great is to take a tenderloin and tease it apart into long strands. Marinated and smoked, it makes amazingly succulent (if a bit extravagant) jerky.

I do this with venison from deer I kill each year, and it's spectacular. Starts off chewy and firm, then just melts in your mouth. Very, very tough not to eat the whole bag the day you make it.

[Anna Friedman Herlihy]

I encountered the same thing the first time I decided to make jerky, so I did an experiment. I used two pieces and cut one with the grain and one against the grain (at about 1/4"). I far preferred the against the grain version (the with the grain was just too chewy and hard to tear a chunk off of with your teeth). But you might prefer the more chewy. I would try both (or all three, including on the bias) and see which you like better.

[Soup]

My kids and I love Jerky. Especially the salmon and beef jerky. I was wondering is there a good book or website that would help us make jerky safely?

Soup

[scubadoo97]

Soup, here is a post of my first jerky attempt over at the smoking meats forum.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/sh...219&postcount=1

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/sh...550&postcount=8

The uses of a cure like sodium nitrite is good if you plan on not refridgerating your jerky or plan to keep it for longer than a week or two. Most recipes I found on the web didn't use sodium nitrite. I didn't use it because I couldn't find it. The jerky was cooked at temperatures of 170 to start and get the meat out of the danger zone then the temp was dropped to further dry the meat.

Edited July 22, 2009 by scubadoo97 (log)

[jeremyn]

When people refer to london broil, in most parts of the country it is top round. Top round is, without question, the best cut I've tried for making beef jerky.

[Paul Bacino]

Working on a recipe----> that in the first test batch wasnt to bad!!

75g Fresh Pineapple

75g Korean Drk Soy

25g Water

1 Clove sliced garlic

1 scallion diced

dash of molassas

1/2 dried scorpian pepper

Now again this is a test batch

1/2-3/4 # of sliced wet age 2 weeks and dry aged beef knuckle meat sliced 1/4 thick, i'll marinade 2-3 days and dry in my de-hydrator

[Paul Bacino]

The cut I'm using is pictured here-- far right!! This is a complete dissected beef knuckle

http://vitcofoods.com/Beef-Foodservice-Cuts/beef-round-knuckle-imps-namp-167

Edited February 5, 2014 by Paul Bacino (log)

[FeChef]

I have a recipe for Sriracha jerky written on paper somewhere in my spice cabinet.

I do not like jerky recipes that call for soy sauce and/or worcestershire. I find their flavors too overpowering to the meat. I mix salt + water to equal the volume of soy sauce in a recipe and caculate the amount of sodium in mg. Worcestershire i will omit all together unless it is a main source of liquid in a recipe, in that case i will sub water, or other liquid used in that recipe.

[TylerK]

Agreed about the soy. Unless I'm making an asian flavoured jerky I leave it out. My favourite spice mix is below:

Grind in spice grinder:

5 chipotles

2 ancho chillies.

1 tsp peppercorns

1 tsp allspice berries

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 inch cinnamon stick

Add:

1tsp onion powder

1tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp smoked paprika

2 tbsp brown sugar

I coat the meat in this and then add enough salt to make up about 1% of the weight of the meat and let it cure for a couple days before dehydrating..

[ElsieD]

I was flipping through the pages of Modernist Cuisine at Home when I came across a recipe for Microwaved Beef Jerky. Has anyone tried making jerky using this technique?

[Deryn]

Elsie - I have not tried the microwave method but this guy http://jetcitygastrophysics.com/2012/07/05/modernist-cuisine-at-home-microwaved-beef-jerky/ apparently has. Has pics and comments about, I think, the very recipe you may want to try. And he also tried it in a dehydrator as well - says it was superior (and in the pic those pieces definitely looked 'drier') but I don't think he hated the microwaved version either.

[Anna N]

This might also be of interest.

[ElsieD]

Thank you both. I have read both articles and so I will split the batch and dry half in the microwave and the other half in the oven. It would seem that the MC method and the MC@H methods differ in several aspects according to the article Deryn linked to. MC says to cut with the grain 5 mm thick. MC@H says to cut against the grain, 12 mm thick. The MC@H also calls for the following additions to the marinade: maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce and cayenne pepper. I wonder if the difference in thickness is related to whether the meat is cut with or across the grain? I know when I was cutting it I wondered if it wasn't too thick, but then, I have never tried making jerky before, so what do I know? One comment I found interesting in the oven dried article - someone suggested pinning the strips to the oven racks with clothing pins. Might be a cleaner way to dry this stuff, especially if you line the oven floor. I am thinking of trying this although my pins are plastic so am not altogether sure that's a good idea. In any event, I will post the results here in case someone else comes along and is interested in following this particular recipe. It sure is expensive to buy the stuff already prepared.

[dcarch]

Lot's of information on solar oven jerky making.

 

dcarch

[ElsieD]

Not having a solar oven, I used the microwave to do the initial 4 pieces. They took forever, and was a serious hands on operation what with the turning, blotting, etc. DH said it was tasty but "very chewy". Today I did the rest in the oven at 185F with a spoon stuck in the door so moisture could escape. Picture below, missing are the microwave ones which I did not include as they look the same. DH said it was really good but "not jerky". He thinks, and I agree, that it should be thinner. So I will try this again but I will stick the meat in the freezer first to really firm it up, and then slice it thinly on the electric slicer to something shy of 1/4" unless someone tells me otherwise. I am thinking I might try eye of round. I realize it is not as "beefy" tasting but I think it would make nice thin slices. I will use the oven again (205 F with the spoon stuck in the door brought it to about 185 F) and we shall see how that goes. If it turns out really well, I may spring for a dehydrator. Hard to believe this was 1 1/2 pounds of flank steak.