Making Deer Jerkey, Need Help...

[Maroon Blade]

Some buddies and I are getting together and maiking all the rest of our meat from last year into deer jerkey this weekend. We were gonna do summer sausage but the price was a little too steep. We're gonna be doing it in a smoker. Does anybody have any particular way they do it, any recipes or techniques?

A big thanks in advance!!!

[Dale Moser]

To my knowledge TexCattleman, aka Trey Powers, is the TBH jerky king......and a hell of a fellow to boot!

I believe his recipe and technique was layed out in the Recipe section before the big crash. I expect this thread may draw him out of the shadows......

[tipitina]

I make my jerky with a strict dry seasoning mix. Cut into 1/2-3/4 inch strips and let sit in the fridge in ziploc bags with seasoning for at LEAST 1 day. I try to go for 2-3 days when possible. Use the proper amount of salt, and it alone will cure the meat for the most part in 1-3 days. Then, on a nice cold day, smoke it realllllll slllloooowww. Mainly, just letting it completely dry out on the smoker. A great starter seasoning is Fiesta Jerky Seasoning from H-E-B. Once you start playing with that, you can start morphing your own seasoning creation. That's the way I make it, and have NEVER had a complaint. A 4-5 lb. bag of my jerky will usually last about 5 minutes!

[tipitina]

P.S. Next batch I make, I will post my exact seasonings....

[Tex_Cattleman]

You're a peachy lad yourself, Dale Moser.

The recipe section of TBH-old did have my finely tuned jerky marinade - that which took me about 15 years to perfect. However, like the change of the green screen, so does the Cattleman. I will never marinade jerky in liquid again. Dry seasonings are where it's at! It cuts down on the dry time by over half AND it seems to season better.

Mr. Tipitina knows the super duper top secret seasoning. That's right folks - Fiesta Brand Jerky Seasoning is where it's at. If you use it straight, go with 1.5 tablespoons/pound of meat. If you alter the recipe as I do, go with 1 tablespoon and then add whatever makes it yours. I add cayenne, a dash of liquid smoke and course ground black pepper.

In my dehydrator (cabelas 80 liter), it takes 4-6 hours. In fact, I did 14 pounds last night.

I'm not one to argue with the traditionalists that use smokers. However, for the trouble it is, I do not believe you are gaining in taste. If you don't have a good dehyrator, the oven on the lowest setting with the door ajar works just fine.

Regurgitation of previously posted pixels...

[wilded]

The Best Jerky you ever made!
TEXAS STYLE

Cut lean strips of venison, beef, chicken or turkey. The pieces should be no more than ¾ inch thick at the most but as large as you want them. Trim off all fat as it will turn rancid as the meat dries.

Fill a large mixing bowl with water and stir in equal amounts of Brown Sugar and Salt until it starts to fall out, kind of like a glass of tea with to much sugar in it.
Stir in 1 Teaspoon of Garlic powder,
½ Teaspoon of Allspice
¼ Teaspoon of ground Cloves.

Add meat and soak in the brine for 24 hours in a refrigerator.
Remove meat from brine and rinse in cold water.
Roll or shake on coarse ground black pepper to taste.
Do not use table ground black pepper or it will have to strong a pepper taste. Remember course ground adds flavor fine ground adds heat.

Arrange meat on a smoker and slow smoke with your favorite wood keeping the heat under 180 degrees until fully smoked. I smoke mine overnight. I use very dry or seasoned mesquite with no green left in the wood.

If you do not have a smoker you can do this in your oven, just add liquid smoke to the original brine and dry on your ovens lowest setting or warm setting. Place a wood spoon in the oven door so moisture can escape and dry meat to the texture and hardness desired. You can then place jerky in a bowl in the refrigerator for up to a week to finish dehydrating. It never lasts that long at my place. Place any extra in a bag in the freezer and take out about 2 hours before you intend to eat it.

Enjoy. Ed Thomas

[stevesflyshop]

Dang you guys make my mouth water. Here I was going to do all these good things this weekend and instead all I'm thinking about is trying the new recipe that I just got here today from this thread. The leaves aren't going to get raked up again!

[bboswell]

To me the most important step to making good jerky is in slicing the meat.

I am very careful to cut across the grain of the meat versus with the grain like most jerky is, this way it is much more tender so that you get all the jerky flavor with out the jerky tooth ache.

[Crash Co9]

could you smoke for a couple of hours and finish in oven?

[wilded]

Sure, it just will not taste as smoked so you may want to use some liquid smoke.

[Michael]

Last year my girls and I, after watching an episode of Good Eats on the Food Network, made jerkey using a box fan as illustrated on the show. I posted it here, but alas it was lost in the crash.

I'll post some of our photos here.

Mixing the ingredients (I like the idea of using only dry ingredients, as posted above!)

Everybody participates!

The Hardware!

Household Box Fan

Layin' it Out

Stackin em Up

Ain't They Cute?


It turned out great. Here are some quotes from the transcript...

W: Regardless of design, all food dehydrators are basically the same. The pieces of food are arranged on drawers or stackable stages that are lined with plastic or silicon mesh. A fan in the back or bottom of the enclosure circulates hot air through the food, thus drying it out.
AB: Well, that certainly looks like a desert to me.
W: That's the problem. Food dehydrators are like deserts.
AB: And that's a bad thing?
W: Yes.
AB: I'm not following you.
W: Why does that not surprise me? All right, look. [opens the flap of the tent] You stumble around out there for a few days, you're not going to dry up and die, you're going to cook ... literally.
AB: Eww.
W: Since dehydrators can't move enough air to quickly dry out the food, they have to depend on heat, sometimes up to 140 degrees.
AB: Ahhh, but wouldn't that result in the food in question having a completely different flavor and texture?
W: Bingo.
AB: Ahh, don't you mean, "Bingo, master"? Heh heh.
W: If you really want to dry something out, you need a totally different landscape.
AB: Like what?
W: [shoves AB outside, the landscape is now mountainous, and the environment is now freezing] Like the very arid, very windy, and very, very, very cold Peruvian highlands.
AB: Okay, I get it. Cool, dry air that's really moving is better for drying things out than the more humid, warm air. Yeah, okay, I got it. Now how do we get out of here?

So, if we want to mummify meat, we will need an arid, relatively cool, and very windy environment. Can we make that in our kitchen? No problem. Simply lay out your strips of drained and dried meat on top of the ridges of standard home furnace filters available at your local friendly hardware store for, I don't know, something like 99 cents. Then break out your – BLOWHARD 4000! [a box fan descends from above]

Great show! Great jerky!

Michael

[Michael]

On a side note...I miss my kitchen!

[Maroon Blade]

Michael,

That's pretty interesting. How long did it take for the process to work like that? I appreciate everybody's info and can't wait to try some of these out....

[Michael]

I don't recall exactly what mine took, but it was in excess of 12 hours. The episode suggested to start at 8 and go up to 12.

Michael