Question QUESTION: How do i make beef jerky?
Im using a deer meat...from the leg.
How do i make the jerky sause to give it flavor
and how do i cook it using a smoker?
ANSWER: Alex:
First you have to marinade it to season it. An important part of the jerking process is drawing moisture out of the meat and replacing it with things that retard bacterial development:sugar and salt.
A lot of what you purchase to day is not jerky. It is meat processed that must be kept refrigerated or have so much chemical stuff that it does not have to be truly dried to maintain shelf life.
So determine what you want it to taste like. I usually start with BBQ sauce or something like that. Then I add soy sauce (for the salt), mollasses (sugar), brown sugar, louisianne hot sauce, some powdered garlic, powdered onion etc. I mix it up and taste it along the way. You will need about a quart. You can start from scratch if you like using ketchup or tomato paste then add the other ingredients. You can experiment, try apple juice or orange juice. dry or prepared mustard, a little vinegar. Just add a little at a time and adjust the seasonings. Just remember it should be salty and sweet.
It should have a strong flavor, because when the meat is added moisture will be drawn out of the meat diluting the marinade and seasonings will be drawn into the meat flavoring it as nature tries to equalize the two different concentrations. So the stronger the marinade, the stronger the flavor in the meat. This is also a function of how long you let it marinade.
After the marinade is finished, cut the meat into strips no thicker than 1/4 inch. The length does not matter. The longer the better since it is easier to handle. Now put the meat in the marinade for a couple of days in the refrigerator. Put it in a plastic container or bowl and cover. Stir it twice a day to make sure all the meat comes in contact with the marinade.
Now comes the messy part. If you do not have a dehydrator, you can use you oven. lay foil in the bottom, under the burner coil. Take out the shelves and spray them with PAM or cooking oil.
Replace them. Now lay the meat on the shelves leaving about 1 inch between strips. Shake off the excess marinade. Turn the oven on to the lowest setting. Prop the door open using a large cooking spoon or other metal object you want the oven to vent so the door should be open about 1- 1-12 inches. Now wait. It usually take a day and a night. The meat should look black when finished. The test is the green stick test. The meat should crack and bend, but not break, like a green stick. Turn the oven off and let the meat cool entirely. Or remove the meat and let it lay out a day to cool, moisture is till being given off, so you do not want to put it in a container yet. Once it is cool, it can be placed in a plastic air tight container and should be good for years at room temperature. I have some that is a year old now, and just as good as when I made it.
For stronger flavor, you can brush marinade on to the meat while it is drying in the oven, it lengthens the process, but adds more flavor to the meat.
Keith
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: How can i make it with out soy sause? or louisianne hot sauce
Some thing thats works but with out those 2...I dont have them and i dont want to buy it
And im going to smoke it...got any tips
Answer Instead of soy, use table salt and black pepper can add zing in place of louisianne hot sauce, even tobasco sauce or cayenne pepper will do. Just be careful not to over do the heat unless you like it.
Smoking is fine, just keep the heat down. You do not want to actually cook the meat, just dry it out. Also be selective in the type of wood. A strong flavored wood will make the jerky too smoky, remember a large cut can handle a lot of smoke since the expose surface area is small compared to the total weight. In jerky that is not the case, lots of surface area and little weight so a little bit will go a very very long way.
Alternatively a little liquid smoke can be added to the marinade to give the meat a smoky flavor.
