Beef Jerky How To?


 
B

billy hughes

New member
welllll i tried my hand at jerky, i had a few problems along the way....
1...a guy that use to make great jerky and sell it he's passed away sense...instead of cuting strips 1" 1 1/2" he would wait till it was smoked then cut it to the desired size...sounded good to me, plus i felt it would cut down on shrinkage....sooooo i marrinaded it over night in gal. size baggies....now the strips r about 3 to 4" wide from cutting....i kept moving the marinade over the meat smaching the bag....i got up ready to smoke and as i took the meat out of the bag that alot didn't get marinaded, it was so close to the other slices that it never touched it....well i went ahead anyway i'm useing the wsm, i put in about 1o hot coals took the water pan out....very hard to keeop the temp. low...it stayed around 180 to 200, most of the time....i also used those around screen looking things ya'll talked about on here for stacking ur meat....i layedf my meat out on that now the space between the boton rack and the next 1 wasn't but about 1/2"
maybe 3/4"...i kept an eye on it and the edges were getting done quicker then the rest....then i started noticeing that some of the strips were getting done before the others were, i had to keep pulling them off as they got done...ok done as in dark color...i also used 2 pieces of hickory... the question....lolll...

how do i and what do i use to marinade with? i did pat it dry...a rack r a baggie? should i have cut the strips before marinating? whats up with the jerky getting done at different times...and yes i did rotate the selves....

i'm thinking of selling jerky i have this great recipe from a friend that sold tons of it....should i go with an elec. smoker? alot less trouble....i seen one at sams a masterbuilt 40 sq " i think...300.00 i'm really tempted, alot less hassele if i intend to make it to sell....any ideas please? ty for ur future comments and help
 
Bill I made a lot of jerky up til this last year. I used an electric smoker the first time and it failed badly. Next time it wasn't so bad and the third time was the charm for getting some edible but imo was just a little to dry.
So I went an purchased a food dehydrator from Wal-Mart for $40 with a blower fan on it. Has 8 racks and I ordered 4 more. I can get a bout a pound on a rack on. So now I smoke the jerky the first hour then transfer it to the dehydrator and finish there. I found for my likeness its a bout a pound an hour dry time. I keep my slices about 1/8 inch thickness also.
I also rotate the shelves every hour on the hour. I also remove jerky as I go as not all pieces ever seem to be equal. I would say that most commercial jerky is dehydrated. As for hanging strips in a smoker you can use skewers just as well as toothpicks.
I hope I answered some of your questions. Happy Jerky makeing.
 
hi, i wanna ty both of you for some great advise...
clark ty so much for the link...
and gary i thought about a dehydrator there just not hmmmm shiney....loll..do guys really use plastic? loll....maybe i should think less about the elec. smoker....ty again guys....
 
I followed Gary's advice a while back regarding smoking the jerky first for an hour, and then transferring if to the dehydrator.

Works like a charm.
 
Man,
This all sounds great. I had a buddy who made great jerky using a dehydrator. I almost forgot about it until this discussion. It's a great time of year for this.
I guess I will be out buying one now.
While Im here. Does anyone have some marinaides?
 
Search the recipe section I posted my Apple brine recipe I made up. You can change and deviate from it as much as you like. It maybe a couple years back. If ya cant find it I will repost it in this thread for you. I have gotten lazy and switched Hi Mountain Seasons for my jerky now. But have been thinking about makeing it again. I make with and without cure. W/O cure I keep it refridgerated for upto 2 weeks what I think I can't eat in that time frame I freeze. I never had a batch go past a week as I caught my son selling it to kids at school. Thought wow he is really into it. lol
 
Here is a marinade I put together tonight for 5 lbs of beef jerky:

1/2 gallon water
100 g salt
70 g brown sugar
1 large ancho chili, stemmed and seeded
2 New Mexico hot chilies, stemmed and seeded
2 T onion powder
4 cloves garlic
2.5 teaspoons pink salt (also known as Prague Powder #1 or curing salt)
1 T dried Thyme
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
15 cranks black pepper
7 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Bring 2 cups of the water to a boil. Add salt, sugar and pink salt and whisk until the solids are completely dissolved.

Remove stems and seeds from chilies and tear into pieces. Place into a metal mixing bowl and cover with the hot water, salt and sugar mixture. Add remaining spices to this mixture. Allow chilies to soak for 20 minutes, then puree this mixture.

Add remaining 6 cups of water, then chill for at least 6 hours before adding beef strips. Alternatively, you can use about 2 cups of ice as part of the liquid--then you can add the meat right away. You must not add meat to room temperature marinade.

Allow meat to marinate in the frig for 24 to 48 hours. If the marinade is in a ziplock bag, flip and massage every 3-4 hours if possible.

With 5 pounds of meat, this marinade will have 3% salt, 2% sugar and 200 PPM of nitrite.

I smoke for 1 hour, then move to the food dryer until the meat is dry.
 
By the way, Stogie's recipe has 6 times the amount of Nitrite called for in federal guidelines. If you use his recipe, I would recommend that you cut back on the Morton Tenderquick to just 2.5 teaspoons. One-third of a cup is way too much. Nitrite is toxic in large concentrations.
 
Stogie's recipe only calls for 1T?

This is his post and recipe from the link above
Here is the recipe I used for this batch. After the lengthy discussion on Tender Quick I tried using Kosher salt and only a Tablespoon of TQ. The results were very good so will continue using Kosher salt and only small amount of TQ...

Kevi's Jerky

5 pound(s) Jerky meat
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Kosher salt
1 tablespoon Tender Quick
1/2 cup Honey
1/4 cup A1 Steak Sauce
1 tablespoon Garlic powder
2 tablespoon(s) Yum Yum Steak Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Habanero powder
Water

PREPARATION:
Combine all ingredients, add meat and add enough water to cover meat.

Marinate for 2-3 days
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by David Lohrentz:
By the way, Stogie's recipe has 6 times the amount of Nitrite called for in federal guidelines. If you use his recipe, I would recommend that you cut back on the Morton Tenderquick to just 2.5 teaspoons. One-third of a cup is way too much. Nitrite is toxic in large concentrations. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Morton says that Tenderquick should be used at a rate of 1 Tablespoon per pound of meat. For Stogie's 5 pound recipe, that's 1/3 of a cup.

Keep in mind that Tenderquick is mainly salt - not all nitrites/nitrates.

In my opinion, and Morton's, using 2.5 teaspoons for 5 pounds of meat would be way too low.
 
Mathematics of curing:

Mix once ounce of sodium nitrite with 15 ounces of salt. That's the standard cure that consists of 6.25% sodium nitrite by weight (1/16'th of the total weight of the mixture). This is called percent weight or percent composition and serves as the subject of standard learning for any first year chemistry student. LEARN THIS FORMULA should any of you get into curing.

Eccolo: CURE Article.

And another CURE article.
 
I found an error in my spreadsheet formula. I was off by a factor of ten; in Stogie's recipe, 133 grams (about half a cup) of Tenderquick would be the amount of Nitrite needed for 200 PPM, not 2.5 teaspoons.

It is too simplistic to only consider the ratio of nitrite per pound of meat, unless you are dry curing. You have to factor in the weight of the brine if you are immersion curing. All you have to do is consider the extreme case--consider 1 pound of meat brined in 10 gallons of water. You would need a lot more curing salt than one pound of meat in 4 cups of brine. Over time the cure will reach equilibrium throughout the brine and meat. It doesn't just go into the meat, leaving the brine with no cure.

Thus, I don't think Morton's recommendation of 1 T per pound of meat is particularly helpful.

The formula that I've been using is from Bertolli, Cooking by Hand.

Pounds of Nitrite = (200 X (weight of brine + weight of raw meat)) / 1,000,000

Then you divide pounds of Nitrite by .0625 for pounds of curing salt, or divide by .005 for pounds of Tenderquick.
 
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