Well with hunting season back in full swing I figured I'd show the process I use to make jerky. Bear in mind that I am using beef as I didn't have enough venison just yet. But you can substitute in venison for this. But for beef I use an eye of the round roast, well two actually. Here are the starting weights on the two I did up last night.

Now when you get your roasts, whatever they may be, the key is to get off all the fat possible as jerky is intended to be a healthy alternative to that rabbit food bs that hippies eat while hiking. So after you trim the excess fat off it should look like this.

In this picture I have already cut the roasts into more manageable sizes for my slicer. The slicer I use is a relatively cheap one I got at lowes.

Now comes the obvious and most important step of making the jerky. I realize it is easier for me to be consistent as far as thickness with the meat slicer, but if you really like jerky, it's worth the purchase of the slicer. It can be used for many other things which I'll post later. But back to the slices. If you like your jerky real dry and crispy, then you want to get it as thin as possible. But I like mine a little bit chewy so it won't cut your gums. Now the key is to cut it across the grain of the meat, that way when you go to tear off a piece, it comes off in smaller sections. You don't want to be chewing the whole grain of the meat as it will be extremely hard to chew. Here is a few pictures of my slices. The first shows the thickness and the second shows the size of the slices and the across the grain pattern.


Here is the finished product after slicing the two roasts up.

 

Now we are on to your choice of marinades. I like a nice spicy teriyaki marinade. So I start off with two large bottles of the regular teriyaki, two bottles of the garlic teriyaki. To this I then add one bottle of mesquite and one bottle of hickory liquid smoke. The reason I add the liquid smoke is because I don't put my jerky on a smoker. I find I'm much more consistent with my dehydrator. But to that I then add about a bottle and a half of chipotle hot sauce. I'm partial to Louisiana brand, but it's hard to find in some places. You want to get it just below the point of your heat tolerance with the hot sauce. Here is a picture of all the liquids I use.

There is one more thing to do before you add the meat in. That's to spice it up some more. I add garlic powder, onion powder, seasoning salt, Emeril's Essence, and ground black pepper. All of these are added to taste as you never know exactly how much it's going to take.

Then you take a wire whisk and beat these all together until you're concoction looks similar to this.

Then start adding the meat. Slowly add the meat into the marinade, as you do make sure you take the slices of meat apart so they don't get dry spots.

Then once you get it all in, put it in a ziploc bag and marinade for around three to four days, I've left it in for up to a week without telling much difference. That is all for now, I will have more updates tomorrow as that's when I'll be putting the meat in the dehydrator.

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dangit...I'm getting hungry just writing this.

 

good work Phil.... i might have to try this..... have you ever used a charcoal smoker doing this? how long does it normally take for this on that? you can address this question when you get onto the dehydrator.....

 

Yea I figured I'd give a few options when I got to that step. I have used a charcoal smoker to do it though. It's just a little bit trickier to get the right amount of smoke into it. The trick is low and slow.

 

i'm just thinking out loud here but what if you used the liquid smoke and didn't worry too much with the smoke in a smoker..... just making sure the water pan catches everything to eliminate flair-ups and keep the heat going w/ say a misquite flavored charchol


never tried it maybe it might work. please correct me if my brain isn't working correct....

 

When you get that finished, send me some in the mail. That looks damn good I must say. I'm gonna be homemade jerky and deer meat deprived this year it looks like

 

That makes my mouth start watering. Now I'm gonna have to make some myself. I have done it both ways and now I just put it on the smoker for a while then take it off once it's done and use the dehydrator. seems to work pretty good for me

 

That sounds like it would work, just keep the heat low.
This first batch is for my cousin, I'll see what I can do after that.

As long as it works for you then great. I'm too lazy to switch it over.

 

mmm that looks great,ill have to try that when we get our meat back from the butcher.. its ready , but it in the OKanogan, about 6 hours away.. were getting soon......made my own before with a dehydrater, same ingreds, almost.. where do you get the emerals seasoning from?

 

I got the emerils at Sams Club. They also have it at walmart. Here is the recipe if you can't find it already mixed up http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/...6-CARD,00.html

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Okay so now for the second installation of jerky making, the dehydrating. Now keep in mind I use a dehydrator, but an oven or smoker could be substituted. Here is what I ended up with last night after I put it away.


Now what you want to do is get a colander to drain the marinade off.

Then take the drying racks and spray them with pam, or some other nonstick spray. When you put the meat on the racks make sure to spread it all out. You don't want any meat to be overlapped as that will cause it not to dry thoroughly.

Here is what it all looks like when you get through.

My dehydrator has a thermostat and timer so it's for real lazy types of folk. I put the meat on 140* for 3 1/2 hours. That should dry it all, but for what doesn't I'll put that in for a little while longer. Here is a link for a way to lay the meat out in the oven. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...rack&noImage=0
I'll have the third and final install tomorrow night.