Beef Jerky: The Recipe and Appreciation Thread

[sentence]

ok.. getting in to making my own cause the jerky in toronto stores sucks. it all tastes plastic and artificial yet i still eat it regularily cause of its salty, meaty deliciousness.

so today i went to the st lawrence market and picked up 4.7 lbs of top round and had it sliced appropriately (go to upper cut and see bob, he knows what to do!). i've opted for 3 styles.. first.. hot as hell jerky. 2nd.. spicy mcsavoury. 3rd.. sweet, smoky, garlic ginger.

just firing up the dehydrator now so i will let y'all the outcome by tomorrow afternoon. you can also do jerky in a regular oven. google for more info.

anyone make jerky regularily? got any tips? do's and dont's? recipes? fill me in. i'm just a virgin.

here's a rough estimate of what i've done. keep in mind that i just made all this up and i haven't tasted the finished product yet before you try this loose recipes..

1. Habanero Jerky (for approx 1.9 lbs top round beef)

1 spoonful of liquid smoke
6 habanero peppers
3 cloves garlic
1 tblspn minced ginger
2 tblspn sesame oil
1 tblspn brown sugar
2 jalapeno peppers

process it all down as much as possible. put in ziplocs with beef. leave in fridge over night. then dehydrate (time will vary based on you r chosen method)

2. Spicy McSavoury

1 tspn liquid smoke
7 jalapeno peppers
4 cloves garlic
2 tblspn garlic vinegar
3 tblspn brown sugar
1 tblspn soy sauce

process it all down as much as possible. put in ziplocs with beef. leave in fridge over night. then dehydrate (time will vary based on your chosen method)


3. Sweet Smoky Garlic Ginger

2 tblspn liquid smoke
1 Jalapwno
1 Habanero
4 tblspn Minced Ginger
8 garlic cloves
4 tblspn brown sugar
1 tblspn garlic vinegar
1 tblspn soy sauce

process it all down as much as possible. put in ziplocs with beef. leave in fridge over night. then dehydrate (time will vary based on you r chosen method)


i feel like i've forgotten stuff from those recipe's but you be the judge. anyone else got any teicks of the trade to offer??

 

[Flashy_McFlash]

One of these days I'm going to jerky myself up some goat. Then you'll see. You'll all see! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

ps - this is a great thread.

 

[d.code]

This is a great thread.

I would like to make jerky some time this summer. Maybe during one of those super long bbq sessions.

 

[MoFo]

I like the Chinese kind. The powdered beef kind is wicked for tv times.

 

[Karim]

Jerky Direct. LOL one of the ads up top when browsing this thread.

 

[Flashy_McFlash]

One of these days I'm going to try the fruit-flavoured beef jerky that they have at the candy store in Pacific Mall. I haven't mustered up the courage yet though.

 

[Preroller]

Love it!

I smoke my own...I have a little chief smoker, it's really good for either that, and even better trout, salmon and whatever other kinds of fish I can get/catch. I always look forward to the time of year, when my buddy Rob Bachuk & family use their garden shed turned into a smoker, and reap the tasty benifits of beef jerky! I'm partial to teryiaki and spicy.

 

[TaCk OnE?]

anything habenero is cool with me.


gotta try that.....I'm a spice fanatic.

 

[catilyst]

I keep it pretty simple - a bit of soya and teryaki sauce sauce for the soft sweet stuff, hot sauce and pepperflakes for the dry peppery type, plus a variation on mtl smoked meat. I've tried a lot of recipes but these are consistant winners.

 

[alexd]

In South Africa they call their dried meat biltong. Ostrich, kudu, impala are the best, but beef is also quite good too.

This recipe is from Mark Blumberg's Biltong page

WHAT YOU NEED:

an electric fan
a light
1 kg meat-many different meats can be used -if you do not have access to ostrich, game etc then try a cut of beef like eye of the round or flank(my favourite)
some vinegar
less than a table spoon of course salt (or Kosher salt)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of coriander (whole)(get it at a bulk food store)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
string

A couple other ingredients that I have never used but you may wish to use are bicarbonate of soda (apparently to prevent mold setting in) and saltpetre which acts as a preservative and gives the biltong a bright red colour.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Wash the meat.
2. Cut the meat at an angle against the grain into about one inch strips.
3. Sprinkle vinegar over the meat
4. Place the coriander in a bag and lightly crush the whole coriander so that the effect of the coriander will be greater.
5. Make the "biltong mix" by combining the course salt, brown sugar, coriander, black pepper.
6. Dip the meat into the "biltong mix" until all the mix is used up.
7. Place the meat in a tray for a few hours, or over night, in the fridge.
8. After a few hours dump any blood that has seeped out of the meat.
9. Dip the biltong quickly into a water/vinegar mixture to remove surface salt.
10. Hang the biltong by making a very small incission through the slice of meat with a knife about an inch from the end of the meat.
11. Cut the string into about 10 inch strips which are placed through the meat and tied to form a loop.
12. Hang the biltong in a place not to far from an electrical outlet by taking the loop of string and place it on the hook or nail or hangar or whatever device you have created to suspend the meat.
13. To dry the meat turn on the light(regular light bulb) and the fan and leave for about 4-7 days depending on humidity, temperature and taste.

 

[lucky1]

I love jerky.. .. so expensive to buy and full of preservatives.. I should by a dehydrator

 

[dtox]

the jerky from the healthy butcher on queen(east of bathurst) is quite a unique one:

a: organic
b: so dry its crunchy yet after copious amounts of salt fueled saliva very very tasty, tangy, and quite spicy.
c: it is stored in a candy jar, thus getting a bag feels like you are at a meat candy store in Niagara on lake
d: its weird but good


Dt

 

[solacevip]

Which guy doesn't like jerking their beef?

 

[JAR]

huge jerky fan over here. Whenever I used to see those Ronco infomercials for the dehydrator I always wanted to order it just to make jerky. sentence, when I come back to TO let's have a jerky making party!

that didn't sound gay, did it?

 

[sentence]

huge jerky fan over here. Whenever I used to see those Ronco infomercials for the dehydrator I always wanted to order it just to make jerky. sentence, when I come back to TO let's have a jerky making party!

that didn't sound gay, did it?

yes.. we'll have a jerky off!!



...in other news, my meat is almost ready to eat... i think it needs about another hour in the dehydrator. also, my condo smells like boeuf. mmmmm

 

[Funzo]

A couple years ago my friends went deer hunting and bagged a few. They turned 1 deer completely into jerky.

I love jerky, fom beef to venison to baby seal.

Keep your hands of my jerky, turkey!

 

[nawberry]

Lately I have been doing neat things with reconstituting old beef jerky back into slabs of roast beef. The texture suffers for sure by having been dehydrated for so long, but it is fun to watch the jerky expand in the bowl of warm water.

Kind of like one of those foam dinosaurs that they sell in the Science Centre gift shop, except that the final revived jerky does not necessarily look like a dinosaur after all of the water has soaked in.

 

[SUNKIST]

i used to make my own jerky all the time. i don't have one of those fanc dehydrator dealies, just used the oven and it always tasted great.

i would slice the beef super thin, rub in liquid hickory, salt, a little bit of cayenne pepper, and maybe something else, i forget, i havent made it in like 9 months. let it sit in the sauces for a few hours. lay the strips out in the oven on the racks and turn the oven until it is barely on. let the beef dry out in there for like 12 hours.
fuck beef jerky is tasty.

 

[annec]

MmM, I like this too, and Organic Butcher while tasty, is expensive. 3 strips cost me almost 6 bucks! YIKES!