Give me your favorite jerky cure or marinade!

[Downhill Trucker]

I got a jerky gun so I'm going to try some ground beef jerky as well as some flank steak sliced jerky. Looking for some new cures...

[Rain Man]

Timely thread! I just bought a "food dehydrator and jerky maker" yesterday. I'm ready to start experimenting! But know nuthin'!

Rain:sunMan

.

[The Old Boot]

Find an old meat grinder as well! I managed to resurrect my grandmothers' that was being used as a kitchen ornament at the cottage. My SIL was happy to see it go...silly girl!!

It's either that or you'll need to pay butcher shop prices for ground meat so that you can get it put through the grinder twice. With the meat grinder I can buy ground meat on sale and toss it in the deep freeze until I'm ready to make jerky.

I'm still playing with recipes but then I just googled stuff like 'ground chicken jerky recipe' and went through them until I found ones that appealed to me. I did a batch of ground turkey and one of ground chicken...one was really good, the other not so much.

I'd like to try some of the pre-packed jerky mixes but so far I've only found them in mixed packages (1 beef, 1 deer, 1 chicken etc).

The one bit of advice that I CAN give you is to use parchment paper instead of the plastic 'roll-up trays' that came with the dehydrator. I found the drying time much faster with the parchment paper and both sides of the jerky dried more evenly.

The jerky gun was great fun to use...but then I'm easily amused..ROFL.

[BigRing]

McCormicks grill Mates Brown Sugar Bourban marinade, and 1 cup of brown sugar.

[Downhill Trucker]

Find an old meat grinder as well! I managed to resurrect my grandmothers' that was being used as a kitchen ornament at the cottage. My SIL was happy to see it go...silly girl!!

It's either that or you'll need to pay butcher shop prices for ground meat so that you can get it put through the grinder twice. With the meat grinder I can buy ground meat on sale and toss it in the deep freeze until I'm ready to make jerky.

I'm still playing with recipes but then I just googled stuff like 'ground chicken jerky recipe' and went through them until I found ones that appealed to me. I did a batch of ground turkey and one of ground chicken...one was really good, the other not so much.

I'd like to try some of the pre-packed jerky mixes but so far I've only found them in mixed packages (1 beef, 1 deer, 1 chicken etc).

The one bit of advice that I CAN give you is to use parchment paper instead of the plastic 'roll-up trays' that came with the dehydrator. I found the drying time much faster with the parchment paper and both sides of the jerky dried more evenly.

The jerky gun was great fun to use...but then I'm easily amused..ROFL.

So you regrind the ground beef?

Whats the idea behind this?

And thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!

[Jim Adams]

soak in soy sauce and liquid smoke. marinate overnight and then dry.

geek

[Wise Old Owl]

Jim he is using ground beef with a squeese gun...soy will make a mess.

the packets that came with the equipment are small squares of Nitrate and must be used with the directions. Follow the directions and there is no overnight stuff. Grab the best BBQ flavors with as little Kero or Corn surup as this makes the mess sticky --- Ok as an exampel Guy Fiero's Burbon sauce would be good or cheaper would be Bulls Eye because you are just starting out... Get a few under your belt then move up and figure out what you really like to do with it.

[Jim Adams]

Jim he is using ground beef with a squeese gun...soy will make a mess.

the packets that came with the equipment are small squares of Nitrate and must be used with the directions. Follow the directions and there is no overnight stuff. Grab the best BBQ flavors with as little Kero or Corn surup as this makes the mess sticky --- Ok as an exampel Guy Fiero's Burbon sauce would be good or cheaper would be Bulls Eye because you are just starting out... Get a few under your belt then move up and figure out what you really like to do with it.

...he also said that he is using flank steak. I used ground beef once...didn't like it. Now I use nothing but round steak or roast.

geek

[The Old Boot]

So you regrind the ground beef?

Whats the idea behind this?

And thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!

All the recipes that I found for ground meat jerky said to have the butcher grind the meat twice and I found out why when I was working with it.

If you look at ground meat in the package from the grocery store it looks kinda stringy. This mostly goes away of course when you cook it so it doesn't matter much for standard household use.

The act of putting the meat through the grinder the second time gives it a really fine texture. I guess you could do it with a fork if you had to, but it would be a @#$%load of work.

When I used the meat grinder to do the 'second grind', the jerky came out of the jerky gun really easily and the strips were a nice texture.

A meat grinder of your own also allows you to pick up stuff like whole turkey breasts when they're on sale and grind your own meat. It would also give you the option to use venison, duck or whatever when it's available to you.

[The Old Boot]

Jim he is using ground beef with a squeese gun...soy will make a mess.

the packets that came with the equipment are small squares of Nitrate and must be used with the directions. Follow the directions and there is no overnight stuff. Grab the best BBQ flavors with as little Kero or Corn surup as this makes the mess sticky --- Ok as an exampel Guy Fiero's Burbon sauce would be good or cheaper would be Bulls Eye because you are just starting out... Get a few under your belt then move up and figure out what you really like to do with it.

All the ground meat jerky recipes I've found use a limited amount of liquid - the Turkey Jerky recipe I used last had almost 8 tbsps of liquid for 1 lb of ground meat.

As to starting out inventing your own recipes...mehhh, I'd rather get comfortable making good tasting jerky from a recipe that someone else has already put the work in on, than start out from scratch. To me it's rather like trying to re-invent the wheel.

Now, once I got really good at making jerky and had a recipe that was good but not great...then's the time to start experimenting with it.

[One Half]

I just started my first batch in years last night!


Here's my marinade (not yet sure how it will come out but I will report later) and what I did:

3.75 lbs top round for london broil (was the leanest cut I could find)
partially froze it so I could slice it easier into 1/4" thick slices


2 cup soy sauce (organic shoyu by San J)
1/2 cup Worcestershire Sauce (original style by Lea & Perrins)
2 tsp Liquid Smoke (Colgin brand)


used a mortar and pestal to finely grind the following ingredients:
4 tsp minced onion
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp 'crushed' red pepper


mixed wet and dry ingredients and poured the marinade over the sliced beef in a glass dish. refrigerated overnight to marinate, stirred it up a bit after the Pats victory last night and before going to bed :)


This morning I popped it into the dehydrator. The house smells great!


Here is a link I found to answer all your jerky questions:
http://www.jerkyfaq.com (http://www.jerkyfaq.com/)

[One Half]

Forgot to mention that I have one of those Deni brand meat tenderizers. I used this on the strips before marinating. I didn't go nuts on it as I did not want it to fall apart but i wanted it to come apart easily when I eat it on the trail.

[One Half]

Oh NO! I just tasted it and its AWESOME! No way this stuff makes it past Wednesday!

[Ironbelly]

Why anyone would use a ground meat to make jerky is beyond me, i find it gross and much prefer regular sliced meat for jerky. The recipie i use is:
Take your flank steak, or eye round, or other meat of choice and trim off any excess fat, then place it in the freezer for 2 hours or so. Take it out of the freezer and immediately slice it, it is generally a good idea to slice it as thin as possible. Then place the sliced meat in a large container and put the following ingredients in and mix well. Cover and put in refridgerator for 6-12 hours.
1 1/2 to 2 pounds flank steak
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
For safety reasons you need to let it CURE for at least 6 hours, however i normally let mine cure for 8-10hrs. The longer you let it cure the more flavor the cure/marinade will impart into the meat. You don't 'have' to put the meat in the freezer, but it really makes it much easier to slice it very thin as it is more rigid from being partially frozen. After your meat is cured place in a dehydrator on high for 8-12 hours(mine is usually ready around 10hrs). This is also possible to do on a box fan, which i used to do when growing up on a farm often. Here is the basic recipie i use , but the above is the same with a few minor changes i made. This link also shows the box fan method. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/beef-jerky-recipe/index.html
I have tried alot of jerky recipies and this is by far my favorite.

[One Half]

So after just 5 hours in the dehydrator my jerky is done. Maybe a bit dry but not brittle dry. Kind of like crisp bacon dry. Husband says too dry. He liked it when we tasted it 1.5 hours ago better. Maybe next time I will dry it less or cut it thicker. taste is good. A bit uneven on the marinade. I think next time I will use a plastic ziploc so it mixes better. I also think I woul like a little more bite of hot.