Made my first Jerky today!!!

Ok, I LOVE jerky. I used to buy Beef Jerky whenever I had access to it. (Which wasn't very often living in the EU let me tell you.)

And then the other day someone on a forum started talking about making your own jerky.

And I though:"That's an option?!!!!?????.....Offcourse that's an option why didn't I ever think of that before!:gth I'll have to go and try that :y

So I did. I used chicken for the meat (cheap and the first time is a bit of an experiment so I didn't want to spend too much money on it.) and made a sauce out of Soy sauce, Pepper, Chilli Pepper, Olive oil, Salt, Garlic and Ginger root.

I sliced the chicken, let it sit in the sauce for an hour or 2 and hung the strips in my oven at 80 Celsius with the oven door open. I let it hang in there for a few hours (say around 6) and tasted the result this morning.

It's EXCELLENT! (A seems I went a little overboard on the garlic but hey...you live and learn).

I'll be doing this more often from now on.

Anyone make their own jerky? What do you use in the flavouring?

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Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

Anyone make their own jerky?

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I'm a jerky lover "trapped" in the EU too :( Imported jerky is outrageously expensive!
Last time I went to the US I got me one of these : http://www.leeners.com/jerkyequipment.html

Jerky out of ground beef huh....hmm....makes a guy think.

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Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

Jerky out of ground beef huh....hmm....makes a guy think.

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It's big "over there", and personally I love it! I use beef and venison (when I have available) as meat.

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Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

Jerky out of ground beef huh....hmm....makes a guy think.

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It's big "over there", and personally I love it! I use beef and venison (when I have available) as meat.

My next batch might be made out of ground beef then. Any good recipes?

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Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

My next batch might be made out of ground beef then. Any good recipes?

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I usually use seasonings from the US, but one I did myself was

Garlic powder
Paprika powder
Black pepper powder
Worcestershire sauce

Salt and white vinegar (2 tblsp each per kg meat) as "cure"

Cure in fridge over night (it will turn greyish from the cure), make strips then dehydrate in oven as you did with your jerked chicken.

EDIT:
From a leaflet that came with one of my seasonings:

To make jerky strips without a Jerky Gun:
Lay the seasoned meat between 2 large sheets of wax paper. Roll meat with rolling pin into a large rectagular patty, approx 1/4" thick. Cut into 1" strips with wet table knife, remove from wax paper and place in oven (or smoker/dehydrator) on top rack at 200F for 1 hr, 20 min more if you like dryer jerky.

(I have a dehydrator and dehydrate over night)

If you're willing to do the legwork, you can find good game jerky recipes on various hunting forums. The forum I used to frequent was at www.huntingpa.com. They have a recipe section which I'm sure has jerky recipes in there.

I've had and made my own jerky from venison before. It's HIGHLY dependent upon the spices you use.

But above all else, promise me, PROMISE me, you'll never ever ever use chicken again. Steak, ground beef (shudder), venison, goose, duck....anything but chicken.

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Originally Posted by kasperitis

anything but chicken.

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Yeah, I didn't want to bring it up, but chicken is generally adviced against, and IF you use chicken, it's usually adviced to cook it before jerking... Can be loads of nasty stuff in chicken (salmonella and e. coli just to mention two).

My uncle makes amazing jerky out of beef. I just love it. I only get it around Christmas, though, unfortunately.

It's usually flavoured with hickory or apple, and they are salted to perfection. That is to say there's a lot of salt. Great flavours in the meat, too. Trying store-bought stuff after his jerky makes you realize how crappy the over the counter stuff is.

yeah, i make my own jerky. i use a jerky gun from cabela's (meat+guns, where else would you buy it?) and a dehydrator as well. for the cure, i use whatever the chemical jerky cure is, can't remember off the top of my head, potassium-something i think, i'll look it up.

as for spices, i have tried damn near everything. below are a few combinations that have worked for me. i use the leanest ground beef i can find, usually 97/3 if i can get it.

a. blackening seasoning
b. jalapeno + limes + garlic (sounds awful, but is good)
c. italian seasoning + garlic + allspice
d. salt + cayenne pepper + black pepper + dehydrated jalapenos (this one will kick your ass!)
e. kc masterpiece bbq sauce + tabasco (have to leave this in the dehydrator longer to keep it from being too soft)
f. kikkoman spicy miso teriyaki sauce + sesame seeds (my favorite)

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Originally Posted by jockeys

b. jalapeno + limes + garlic (sounds awful, but is good)
...
d. salt + cayenne pepper + black pepper + dehydrated jalapenos (this one will kick your ass!)

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Those are now on my list! The lime one doesn't sound awful, it sounds great!

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Originally Posted by jockeys

i use a jerky gun from cabela's

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I can't remember if I got my jerky gun from Cabela's or Gander Mtn. Loved Cabela's.. wish we had outdoor stores like that here! 12 million fishing rods, 2.5 million guns and rifles, 18 000 different GPS:s... Well, I exaggerate a little, but almost ;)

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Originally Posted by kasperitis

But above all else, promise me, PROMISE me, you'll never ever ever use chicken again. Steak, ground beef (shudder), venison, goose, duck....anything but chicken.

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There's nothing wrong with chicken as long as it's thouroughly dried. Just like there's nothing wrong with well cooked chicken.

The only reason I used chicken in the first place is because it's a lot cheaper than lean beef and I didn't want to be out a whole lot of cash if the experiment didn't work.

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Originally Posted by jockeys

yeah, i make my own jerky. i use a jerky gun from cabela's (meat+guns, where else would you buy it?) and a dehydrator as well. for the cure, i use whatever the chemical jerky cure is, can't remember off the top of my head, potassium-something i think, i'll look it up.

as for spices, i have tried damn near everything. below are a few combinations that have worked for me. i use the leanest ground beef i can find, usually 97/3 if i can get it.

a. blackening seasoning Don't know if they have that over here.
b. jalapeno + limes + garlic (sounds awful, but is good) That sounds interesting at least
c. italian seasoning + garlic + allspice That's a good idea! Don't know what Allspice is though.
d. salt + cayenne pepper + black pepper + dehydrated jalapenos (this one will kick your ass!) I bet it will. Sounds like a beast of a jerky.
e. kc masterpiece bbq sauce + tabasco (have to leave this in the dehydrator longer to keep it from being too soft) Sounds good. I was thinking about doing something BBQ next time as well.
f. kikkoman spicy miso teriyaki sauce + sesame seeds (my favorite)Hmm...I'll have to look around for some Teriyaki sauce but I'm sure I'll be able to find some.

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Excellent suggestions. I'll have another go at it this weekend I think.

I made jerky a few times. It's really great. My recipe used onions but I think it is better without. I would like to build a smoker for it sometime. That would be good. My last experiment was to make it using a meat slcier for wafer thin strips which dried faster and was easier to bite!

My favorite recipe:

1 cup of soy sauce
1 cup of honey
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1/2 tsp of fresh lemon juice

I chill the meat in the freezer until it is starting to freeze. Then I slice it very thin. The thinner the better for this process.

When the meat is sliced I will place it in a small glass bowl with the sauce. I let it marinate for a few days. I then place the meat on a cookie rack which is on a cookie sheet. I place the cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven. The oven is at 220°. I leave the door slightly open and let dry over night.

After cooling and if any of the jerky is left. I will store it in a Zip-lock bag in the refrigerator. I've used this recipe and method for better then 20 years.

I use beef, whatever is the cheapest that I find at the market and looks like it can be sliced thin enough for the purpose. Put meat in freezer until almost frozen and then take out and slice about 1/8" strips of it off.

I use a marinade of: worchister and soy sauce with fresh ground pepper mixed into it. Marinade over a night or two.

Take it out and brush a mixture of honey and ground pepper onto it. Just take a small bowl and fill with about a cup or so of honey and add the pepper and stir it up...it'll make a sort of paste. After that, I take a dinner plate and cover the bottom with coarse sea salt and and just sort of dredge the strips a little on each side.

Next, fire up the smoker! I have a bbq/smoker that has a tall smoke box on the side of the grill for indirect smoking/cooking. I load up the grill part with and bag of charcoal and then place in some oak. Inside of the smoker area I hang all of the meat by small hooks that I make out of metal wire. I fill up as much of the box as I can and then simply close off the dampeners and let it go. I usually start this around 4 or 5 in the evening...at around 8 or so I go back out and put in a few more chunks of oak and maybe a few of hickory and just make sure that it's all set and let the whole thing go over night. In the morning time...presto jerky!

-Pary

LX:

Make sure you use lean ground beef and cook it till really dry. I've used ground beef before and stopped to soon, greasy, greasy stuff.


Anyone who has a weber can use it as a smoker for smaller amounts of food, up to a whole chicken if you want to. You can get indirect heat and smoke by having the coals on one side and the meat on the other. This works best if you are smoke cooking over water though, and not just drying things.


Now I'm thinking about summer BBQ and next years deer already. It's only March darn it.

I did steak the other day. Turned out really well.

My next batch will probably be ground beef.

Being an avid hunter I have made Jerky way to many times and I have 4 words to say in this order Antelope, Elk, Moose, Venison....
In the event that these four meats are not available a really good jerky cut is a London Broil cut into 1/4 inch thick strips, after that I guess I could use Ground beef :)
There are thousands of Jerky recipes out there so look at the ingredients and decide which you like best and go for it....
I do however recommend an actual dehydrator over an oven....
Oh yes after you finish just PM me and I send you my address so I can sample your jerky recipe :D

My uncle used to make deer jerky that was out of this world good(mouth watering). if anyone out there needs a taste tester for there jerky let me know:)

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

Oh yes after you finish just PM me and I send you my address so I can sample your jerky recipe :D

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Unfortunately it's illegal to send meat products from EU to the US, and vice versa!

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Originally Posted by Kenrup

My favorite recipe:

1 cup of soy sauce
1 cup of honey
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1/2 tsp of fresh lemon juice

I chill the meat in the freezer until it is starting to freeze. Then I slice it very thin. The thinner the better for this process.

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I use almost the exact recipe, its been popular for years and there is a definite reason why... its delicious!

For the BEST jerky you simply have to use smoke. I have a smoke shack of sorts but you can make a perfectly serviceable smoker out of a cardboard box, a hotplate an old pan and some BBQ skewers. I prefer alder wood, with cherry as a close second but hickory, apple, mesquite, and many other hardwoods are excellent smoking woods.

The importance of trimming all fat from the meat cannot be overstated in my opinion and, as has been reported over and over here already, slice it as thin as is practical. The advice to chill it to near freezing is excellent.

As far as meats to smoke/jerk I prefer elk, venison, beef, moose, pronghorn, goat, lamb and fowl (duck/pheasant/chuckar/grouse) and finally fish (salmon and trout, bass and the other whitefish I have not had good results with). Pork seems so fatty that I have never tried it (as a jerky... is smokes as a cure extremely well) nor have I tried chicken or mutton.

Here is a link to a cardboard box smoker. This guy is smoking big pieces of meat in it... rather than doing that just use the skewers to drape you thin sliced and marinated jerky over.