Question I regularly make jerky from elk venison in my dehydrator. I usually cut the meat from steaks with an electric knife. I wanted to use a grinder and grind the meat and then use a jerky shooter. I am unsure how to make the meat stick together enough to use the shooter to make strips, do you have any recommendations? also i have never used salt cures, but many people say you should. What do salt cures do and how important is it that i use a cure?? thanks for your help, i appreciate your time!
Kyle
Answer Kyle:
First, if you put your steaks or roasts in the freezer for a short while, it makes it easier to cut with a regular knife. You get nice uniform slices. Not sure what a jerky shooter is. But I'm guessing that it makes ground meat into something like jerky. Have you ever heard of pemmican?
The indians ground up jerky and berries together along with some fat and stored it in a leather pouch. That was their equivelent of "D" rations. Portable and nutritious. You might try that for your jerky shooter. Since venison is so lean, the neat might need more fat to help hold it together especially if the jerky shooter was designed for use with beef. Try adding dried dates or even raisins something that has a high sugar content that prevents spoilage.
I have never used a salt cure on jerky. I marinade mine in a liquid cure, bbq sauce, soy sauce, lousiana hot sauce and black pepper. It does the same thing. Salt cures draw the moisture out and the meat pulls salt in, it helps preserve it. You can even add brown sugar to the mix like they do sugar curing a ham. A membrane reaction takes place where the meat and cure try to equalize concentration across the meat cure boundary. The meat gives up water to dilute the cure and takes in salt and other ingredients all in an attempt to balance concentrations. Same thing is at work in brining a turkey or chicken. I have made jerky that has kept for years. I dry mine in the oven on racks over cookie sheets. Set the oven at 120-130 prop the door open slightly with a metal spoon and it drys over night. If you have to refrigerate your jerky to keep it from spoiling, it ain't jerky. You should be able to store it at room temperature...forever. Another thing, the marinade or cure should be strong enough to to do it's thing on the amount of meat you are curing. Then throw it away. As you will see if you use a liquid cure, it gets real watery after a few days. I cure mine in the refigerator for 3-4 days. It should be plenty salty, that is where the soy sauce comes in. you can also use molasses in place of sugar.
