18th century jerky

[Pierre du Plessis]

How did the folks in the 18th century make their jerky? I have read about them hanging the strips of meat over a smoky fire, but was there any salting of the meat prior to that?

Thanks!

 

[Claude Mathis]

It can be as simple as hanging and letting it dry. (Cut away as much fat as you can first)

Today, people do all kinds of things to it prior to putting it in a dehydrator.

Since I enjoy the taste of the meat, I never put anything on it.

 

[necchi]

Tuff call,
"Folks in the 18th century" paints with a broad brush.
I'd bet the Germans did it different than the Irish, that did it different than,,,,,

 

[Pierre du Plessis]

Sorry, you're right - I should have been more specific...

I was thinking of along the eastern frontier and the "Middle Ground".

 

[George]

Here's one description which might qualify. It's from the journal of John Joseph Henry with Benedict Arnold's army on the march to Quebec, somewhere in Maine, fall of 1775.

They killed a moose and he wrote...."It was immediately concluded to preserve our provisions by jerking. This operation is done by slicing the meat into thin strips. Then driving four forks into the earth, in a square position, at the required distance perpendicularly, and laying poles from fork to fork, and poles athwart from pole to pole. A rack is thus made, about four feet high, on which the sliced meat is laid, and smoke-fires are made underneath."

From the Shane interview with Col. John Graves, speaking of the northern Kentucky frontier about 1786:

"We were all minutemen ex-officio. A little parched corn kept in a little bag & some jerked venison in another (venison cut in thin slices and cured over the fire) and a horse standing in the stable. When you seen a man coming all you wanted to know was where you were marching."

Spencer Records 1784

". . . we skinned the bull (buffalo), and cut off all the meat in broad thin pieces, which we laid on the hide, and sprinkled salt thereon, letting it lay till we made a long (burning) fire. We then put a row of forks on each side of the fire, and placed poles on the forks. Small sticks were then laid on them, and the meat laid on the sticks over the fire, where it remained until half cooked; it was then turned over and left to lay till morning, for by this time it was in the night . . . In the morning, we put
the meat in bags and carried it home."

From Nicholas Cresswell's journal, on the Ohio river headed for Kentucky, 1775:

"All hands employed in curing our Buffalo meat, which is done in a peculiar manner. The meat is first cut from the bones in thin slices like beefsteaks, then four forked sticks are stuck in the ground in a square form, and small sticks laid on these forks in the form of a gridiron about three feet from the ground. The meat is laid on this and a slow fire put under it, and turned until it is done. This is called jerking the meat. I believe it is an Indian method of preserving meat. It answers very well, where salt is not to be had, and will keep a long time if it be secured from the wet."

Peter Henry, 1780:

"The Indians killed a bear and two does that day . . . they brought the meat of all to the camp that evening, and some of them was busily engaged in cutting the meat off the bones and drying it on a little rod or stick over the fire to make what the Indians call Jerk--dried meat to carry with them."
". . . one of the Indians . . . attended . . . continually throughout the night to drying their meat, making Jerk of it so as to carry it with them."


Spence

 

[Claude Mathis]

Making jerky is simply drying (jerking) meat.

Every individual in the world may add something different to that process (smoke, spices, etc.). In any given area, people may have done things quite differently from person to person. Trying to pin down how it was done "regionally" may be impossible. IMO

 

[crockett]

I think you are looking for the historically correct method. Wild game didn't have much fat but if it is beef you need to cut off all the fat. You can render the fat if you want and save that for pemmican. On the jerky, today the meat is cut across the grain- that may let it dry faster and cutting across the grain makes the stuff easier to eat. Historically the meat was cut with the grain so it would not break and fall into the smoke fires. I always cut with the grain.
Historically, at least in the more arid West, the strips were a 1/2" or less thick. If you make your own and use an oven, I'd make it maybe 1/8" thick if you can cut that thin.
The smoke kept flies off the meat. THAT WAS THE THEORY, my Father told me when he was a child they went down to Frontier Days in Cheyenne and some Sioux were making jerky from a cow and had the fires but there were flies all over the meat.
In any event the smoke also added a smoky flavor.
No salt, the salt may draw out moisture but then you might want to rub it off as in a humid climate it might attract moisture if left on the meat. I never use salt. In the west salt was not used, just slice the meat.
If you cut across the grain, and cut very thin, the dried meat will be rather brittle. You can break it up and some strong food processers will turn it into "Jerky sawdust" that can be saved as is- I've had some as long as five years that stayed okay without any refrigeration. You can add back the rendered fat and make pemmican. I recently read that at least one Indian tribe, I think on the southern plains (Ute?) kept the fat and jerky separate and only made the pemmican shortly before wanting to eat some- and they rolled it into little "pemmican balls"- that was new to me but I am told pemmican has a shelf life, (doesn't keep as long) especially if you add dried fruit. In a cold weather environment it would have a longer shelf life.

 

[Claude Mathis]

Historically, at least in the more arid West, the strips were a 1/2" or less thick.

You know that this was standardized how? :wink:

Photos of the plains tribes hanging meat shows some quite large, thick pieces.

 

[Claude Mathis]

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, the universal method of jerking meat seems to have been cutting it into strips and hanging it to dry. Once dried - you have "jerky".

Each individual could have done any number of things to the meat prior or post drying.

If you're looking for how it was done in a specific time and place, written documentation is called for.

 

[Pierre du Plessis]

Thanks - this all helps quite a bit! Last year I made biltong (thick pieces of jerky that's cold-dried), but was curious as to how to make some that would be historically accurate to my persona (Virginia longhunter from French descent in the 1770s). I'll experiment some this fall when hunting season rolls around...

 

[Claude Mathis]

Not that I'm compulsive-obsessive or anything, but... :haha:

The basic method may not have changed over the centuries.

More recent images

 

[Loyalist Dave]

The battle is with moisture... the bacteria that will spoil the meat needs moisture and heat... well in winter maybe you also lose the heat, but for summer all you can do is remove the moisture...however, salt does more than removing moisture... a high salt environment also ******* baterial growth, which is why you can store salt pork WET in brine in a sealed cask, and it doesn't spoil.

Out West where the humidity is dry, you can get away with no salt drying...out East, east of the Appalachians, where we have days with humidity so high that the atmosphere gets "super saturated", you better add some salt or have a tight container.

Some places around the world there is high humidity and they don't use salt and you find that they have some pretty tight containers, i.e. greased leather, or sealed wooden containers, and such which help keep the meet from spoiling.

You can dry fish, without salt, or you can also make salt-cod, which was very popular back in colonial times... but word to the wise, don't do this at home as the fish does get "fishy" while drying.

LD

 

[Claude Mathis]

Somewhere, I have a reference to an East Coast tribe placing the meat on racks, over a small fire, to expedite the drying (not cooking) and the smoke kept the bugs away.

 

[Billnpatti]

I had a friend who read up on old time jerky making methods. He cut his meat into strips and put them in a shallow pan and covered them with salt to pull out the moisture. He then hung the salt dried meat in a cage made of screen wire to keep off the insects. He set it in the sun to finish drying. Personally, I didn't care for the taste. It tasted just like what it was....dried raw meat. He didn't care that much for it eather but it did make pretty good stew. Next he tried smoking the meat after salt drying it. He then hung the smoked meat in the sun inside his cage to completely dry. This tasted a bit better but was best suited for cooking rather than eating out of hand. The old ways seemed best suited to preserving meat for cooking. My more modern taste seems to require meat that has been cooked and dried. This is best achieved by seasoning the meat and then drying/cooking in a low oven (about 225 deg.) The finished product looks very much like the meat dried the old fashioned way but, for eating like it is, I find it preferable to the meat treated in the old way. But, that's just me.

 

Big difference in cooked meat and jerky. Cooked meat will spoil much, much sooner. Dried meat will last for years.

 

[wpjson]

I have been eating jerky for over 50 years and it just occured to me, real jerky is not cooked, is it? Just dried meat.

 

[Claude Mathis]

I have been eating jerky for over 50 years and it just occured to me, real jerky is not cooked, is it? Just dried meat.

Correct. Cooked meat is, well, something different. :wink:

Unadulterated jerked meat will taste a lot like raw meat, because it is. Commercial "jerky" has led people to believe that it should taste like salt or teriyaki, or any number of other things, because that's what the modern palate prefers. IMO

 

[coloradoclyde]

This day and age few people know what "REAL" food tastes like.

 

[tenngun]

I'm a thinkinging our word jerk comes out of caribian indian for spiced or smoked as opposed to just dryed. Smoked was done on wooden grills...bar ba qouns. The name came to mean just dried in the same way that tomahawk ...ball headed war club, came to mean hand ax. Drying and drying with smoke and salting was done by most people. The inca even made tater jerky. :haha: Most hams and bacon of the time were smoked until almost as dry as jerky.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

"jerky" comes from a South American Indian word "ch'arki"...according to some sources. Different regions have different names, and some use salt, some don't, and the smoke from the fire always helps keep the insects at bay... not using salt simply means a possible faster spoilage...OK so you have to eat April's jerky by November instead of keeping it 18 months or more. It also seems that IF it was known to Europeans, it was forgotten, for they wasted several centuries using salted meat in brine to preserve meat, when they could've dried it, or salt cured it dry... and been fine, and could've saved all that weight and stored more in a smaller space....thinking about ships especially....

LD