Beef Jerkey..Lookin for "That" receipe!

[HOGHUNTER714]

Alright, I am searching for that "Great" home made beef jerkey receipe that actually works. I DON"T have a food dehydrator, so I will be using my oven at home. I don't have any fancy gadgets to slice the meat, so it will all be done by hand. Here's what I am looking for.

* Meat Selection (What cut works the best?)

* Marinade Selection (Wet & Dry)

* Oven Temp and time to complete the jerkey process.

I read on a cooking forum that a guy inserted a "toothpick" on the top portion of each jerkey strip and hung the meat from the rack. He then placed a foil covered backing sheet to collect the drippings. Anyone have any experience using this method?

[jdjtexas]

Well I too use my oven. Its gas operated. set it to about 170 and crack the door to let it get a bit cooler. Slow and Low for 7-8 hrs with a 1/4'' cut strip give or take. It does the trick. My wife hates beef jerky but she actually ate mine so I guess it worked alright! I use the kits they sell at cabelas for seasoning the meat but i add a little extra spice that Ive only seen at one place ever. Hint go to Penderys spices and just think spicy. not sure they have a website but they are based in my hometown of ft worth tx

[TonyS]

Talk to LtDann, he gave me some of his jerky and its the best I ever had!

[ltdann]

Thanks Tony, I appreciate the vote of confidence. There's no secret to it...something I developed over the years that kept the family happy.

It starts with a good quality meat, low in fat. I use rump roast with as little marbling as possible and cut off the fat that they always hide in the package. My dehydrator takes about 8 lbs.

Contrary to popular wisdom, I cut across the grain 1/8" thick and put it into one of those food saver vacuum container's..

Add equal parts soy and teryakki until all the meats covered, 1/2 bottle of liquid smoke, 2 tblespn of ground white pepper, 1/4 cup or so of brown sugar, teaspoon of crush garlic and a tablespoon of garlic powder.

Then I use the food saver and pull a vacuum on the container and roll it around to mix everything and let it sit on for about an hour or two, mixing occasionally.

If you don't have a foodsaver, you can just put it in a plastic container and mix and let it sit in the frig overnight.

Then its into the dehydraor, nothing fancy... http://www.nesco.com/category_449f7f..._f123f059c460/

I leave it in for around six hours on max. When its almost dry, but still a bit flexible, its done! It'll keep for about a month as long as it gets air in storage. Forever if you vacuum pack it.

Spend about $20 on meat and get around $120 worth of jerky. It's addictive.

The neat thing it, you can mix and match for any flavor you want. Want it hotter? put cayenne or crushed red pepper in.

Great snack for when your out hunting and need something to hold you over.

[Grey Taylor]

I use the toothpick/aluminum foil method in my oven. It works great.
Rather than re-write the whole thing, here is how I make jerky: Greenman Cooking Blog, Jerky 1 and Jerky 2

Guy

[BelchFire]

Ya know, the neat thing about jerky to me (or most any cooking for that matter) is kind of like reloading and muzzle loader shooting. Finding the right combination of variables is as much fun as the result. It's kind of a "journey, not the destination" thing.

I've got a jerky shooter and I use only ground meat in it. I have one kid that doesn't like hot/spicy things, so I played around and found a flavor that he likes based on a honey/mustard goal. It doesn't have honey in it, but he likes it. BUT, I'm going to try LtDann's recipe. He's known for a lot of good ideas in this neck of the woods, so it's GOT to be good.

Pick a couple of recipes and mix some of each on your first try. Of course, you'll have to cook the entire lot at one temperature, but you can change that up on your second batch if you want to. Or, you can hold some back and go for a partially filled oven and make two batches. The sky's the limit; make a couple of picks and go for it. Record your proportions so if you hit on one that everybody likes, you can duplicate it.

THEN, come back here and post up the results so we can all try it! Bottoms UP!

[slanttop357]

You could give Alton Browns recipe a try and it don,t take any heat to make it just a "fan" and a couple paper filters look it up on the food network site.

[ltdann]

I've got a jerky shooter and I use only ground meat in it. I have one kid that doesn't like hot/spicy things, so I played around and found a flavor that he likes based on a honey/mustard goal. It doesn't have honey in it, but he likes it. BUT, I'm going to try LtDann's recipe. He's known for a lot of good ideas in this neck of the woods, so it's GOT to be good.

Ahh man! Thanks for the vote of confidence! I worked on that Jerky reciped over time and it inflicted the experimental batches on the family and co-workers and the one above is the most popular. I realized I was onto something when the wife was stealing the stuff out of the dehyrator when it was mostly raw. yuck.

I use the dehydrator because a) I had one b) I don't have to hover over it to make sure it dries "perfect". The idea is to remove the most of the moisture, not cook it. The salt content in soy and teryaki inhibit bacterial growth and extend shelf-life. If you have any instacure #1, add a teaspoon to 10 lbs. That allows helps extend shelf-life and gives the jerky that rich reddish-brown color thats so appealing.

Jerky can be custom made to taste. The original jerky was plain ole dried meat carried in a parfleche or gunny sack. I've had some of that stuff and it was...edible.

The real trick is to make sure the marinade goes all the way thru the meat and thats why I put the meat under a vacuum. I started just using foodsaver bags and marinade, then went to canisters and now I use a Marivac gadget. You can still do it without the vacuum, just takes longer for the meat to soak up the marinade, maybe overnight.

You know, I've got one of those jerky guns and never could get the hang of it. I gave it up when the wife wouldn't eat the stuff.