General Question

truecomedian's avatar

How do you make beef jerky?

Asked by truecomedian (3937points) November 15th, 2009

I love the stuff but it’s so dang spensive. How can I make it at home and still be edible?

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10 Answers

Psychedelic_Zebra's avatar

you’ll need a food dehydrator first. I make my jerky out of buffalo roast. If you want to use beef, make sure not to use ground beef. You need to use a good cut of meat, preferably something better than flank steak. There are two processes, depending on your chewing ability. You can cut the meat into ¼ inch thick pieces of any length, making sure to remove any fat, as it will give it a rancid flavor, and use any store bought jerky seasoning mix to coat them. Make sure to use the curing salt in the exact amounts. Too little is as bad as too much. Then, using either a dehydrator, or an oven set to about 200 degrees (temps are different in a food dryer/dehydrator), you slowly dry the meat. You have to cvheck it fairly often to get it to the proper doneness, and with beef, you will have to blot off the fat that seeps out of the meat in clear droplets. There are web sites that will give you recipes for making your own seasonings, but you need to use curing salt with whichever method you use.

I run my bison meat through an electric meat grinder, mix it with the jerky seasonings, and add lots of ground dried hot peppers, because I like jerky with a kick. Then I use a device known as a jerky gun that forms it into strips, arrange it on my dehydrator trays, and let it do its magic for about two to three hours. Grinding the meat first makes the jerky more tender, which makes it easier to chew. The people I share mine with LOVE the fact that you don’t grind your teeth down trying to eat it.

Since homemade jerky isn’t loaded with preservatives, you need to keep it refrigerated. It also freezes very well, and will keep for six months in an air tight container in the freezer.

AstroChuck's avatar

Take away their bovine epilepsy medication.

Strauss's avatar

You beat me to the punch @AstroChuck . I guess great minds think alike.

stratman37's avatar

if you don’t have a dehydrator, you can make it in the oven.

Electric works best, as gas has too hot of a “warm” setting. I like to get a good london roast or other nearly-fat-free cut of beef, cut it with the grain (or have your meat guy do it) and marinate it overnight in a tupperware container with soy sauce and just a little liquid smoke.

Place a couple of cookie sheets in the very bottom of your oven to catch the drippings, and then pull out both racks (and cookie sheets), draping your meat over the tines.

Make sure they’re not touching each other, slide the whole affair back in, crack the door open a bit with a spatula, and in a few hours you’re chompin’ down on our favorite snack!

janbb's avatar

That stuff is made??

Shegrin's avatar

If it’s a boy cow, just ask him to do something nice for you for which he won’t necessarily receive praise. Easy-peezy.

AstroChuck's avatar

@Shegrin- What exactly is a boy cow?

Strauss's avatar

@AstroChuck It’s the opposite of a girl bull!

AstroChuck's avatar

@Yetanotheruser- Ah. Of course. Thanks.

Shegrin's avatar

Euphemism.

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