Jerky

[Carbon 6]

If you make a plain smoked or just dried jerky you can eat it as a snack or for a meal, make it in to a good soup, make it in to pemmican, and eat that plain or as a soup.

Good point.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Now I'm drooling again. I guess I'll steal a piece of jerky from my daughters stash.

 

[blackhorse]

I have made jerky with beef and elk salt and little else. Used a dehydrator and this jerky has set on my counter top in open glass jars and have been kept dry for over a year. hard as a rock but still edible, has to be rehydrated, but my understanding is that it was the way to preserve meat for long term storage. I have also experimented with biltong, a South African way of preserving meat using vinegar and some spices then drying the heck out of it. I have some in my cupboard just sitting on a plate, hard as a rock and used rehydrated.

 

[blackhorse]

I've always wondered about natives making jerky, They didn't usually have salt did they?

There was salt all over in natural slat licks all over the country, whether the natives used salt or not, I do not know.

 

[45man]

I am 82 and every day someone else passes on. I lost a good neighbor last week and this week my best shooting friend died at 54 from cancer. I blame some on clean living and as soon as you get cut open, cancer spreads fast.
I drink a lot and love fats, tons of butter, cheese and sour cream along with whipped cream and I won't let Carol buy fat free beef. She trims pork too much. I love smoked meat and fish. Days flash by like lightening.
I agree with all of you to enjoy what short time we have. When I worked time was different and dragged so we watched the clock all day but now I only wear a watch to tell when to get out of the deer stand and pick up friends. My little dog, Pekinese that it was yesterday when she fit my hand scares the hell out of me since she is 10 or 11 now. God did a bad thing making a dog's life too short. Now I made plain jerky for her, just dry meat but she gets the poops and can't have anything from the table like burger or venison.
My friend Joe up town feeds his dog a steak with a bone and a salmon steak every week. I told him no bones but he says still a wolf and says they ate bones but they just cracked them for marrow. He gave him raw deer liver and he sprayed the whole inside of the wife's car. I can't convince him the wild is bred out.

 

[Stony Broke]

The only real problem with eating jerky is having to pick it all out of your teeth when you're done. I guy could do all kinds of stuff with jerky if the need was to arise. I know some guys that actually make jerky out of feral hogs, but not me....those buggers need to be cooked !

 

[Kansas Jake]

I agree on the cooking of pork and bear. On wild pig especially.

 

[Carbon 6]

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a disease
known as “English sweat”or “sudor anglicus”was widely
spread throughout England and Ireland. Its manifestations
were described as “of a violent inflammatory fever, which,
after a short time, caused great prostration of strength.
There were also present oppression at the stomach and
violent headache.”The disease bears many characteristics
in common with trichinellosis.

In 1788, epidemics
described as “slight influenza, stinging pain in the jaws
and limbs, soreness of the muscles of the neck, attended
with severe fever”were noticed in the American continent,
which also could have been caused by trichinellosis.

During the year 1827, in the West Indies (Saint
Thomas Island) “…a singular malady, a sort of a rheumatic
fever, occasioning great agony, broke out…and affected
almost every one of a population.


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is believed to have died from trichinosis at age 35 in 1791.

 

[tenngun]

I don’t know if tric survives being dried. However a lot of bad little bugs can survive being dried for years. So I wouldn’t take the chance.
Breaking up the meat of dried hog or bear and adding to a soup might make it safe, but salting should for sure.
Turkey foot traders sells a cooked beef that is shredded and then dried, and cooks quickly and keeps well. I wonder how that would work for bear or hog ( or **** or rabbits) as the tric bug would be killed before drying.
I’ve seen three people with tric over the last twenty five years.... it’s awfully ugly.

 

[Carbon 6]

I don’t know if tric survives being dried. However a lot of bad little bugs can survive being dried for years. So I wouldn’t take the chance.

Curing (salting), drying, smoking, or microwaving meat alone does not consistently kill infective worms; homemade jerky and sausage were the cause of many cases of trichinellosis reported to CDC in recent years.

 

[GregLaRoche]

I’ve eaten a lot of bear meat, but always well cooked. I had a friend who made great black bear sausage. He never got sick, but it is a well known fact that bears are very similar to pigs and can have trichinoses. I like my bear in a stew, well done.

 

[tenngun]

‘Well done’:thumbs up:

 

[Tb54]

I drink a lot and love fats, tons of butter, cheese and sour cream along with whipped cream and I won't let Carol buy fat free beef

They’re finding out now the food pyramid we all learned in school is upside down. It’s sugar and carbs that cause obesity, and many cancers, and guess what we live on in America. High fat, protein, and complex carbs as the small portion on the plate is the most healthy, w/ real butter etc. not an easy thing for someone raised on meat and potatoes to swallow. It’s getting easier though...pass the meat again...

 

[Stony Broke]

They’re finding out now the food pyramid we all learned in school is upside down. It’s sugar and carbs that cause obesity, and many cancers, and guess what we live on in America. High fat, protein, and complex carbs as the small portion on the plate is the most healthy, w/ real butter etc. not an easy thing for someone raised on meat and potatoes to swallow. It’s getting easier though...pass the meat again...

Sounds like a Keto diet approach ! Pass the mounds of bacon and don't worry about having a stroke when your veins get all clogged up !

 

[45man]

Bacon, did you say bacon? If Carol makes bacon I don't stop until at least 1/2#. I hate to go out to get breakfast with 2 strips of over cooked bacon. Old eggs are not good either. They need the cackle left. Carol will not eat an egg unless a hockey puck. I want over easy with the white done. In the old days it was not the food that killed, they just plain worked themselves to death.
My brother in law raised pigs and we paid for one, organic and butchered by Amish. I cured and smoked hams and bacon to die for. Cold smoked for days with apple wood.

 

[tenngun]

Sounds like a Keto diet approach ! Pass the mounds of bacon and don't worry about having a stroke when your veins get all clogged up !

High protein low carb diet can be very hard on ones kidneys, high fat can stress the liver, but it lowers blood cholesterol, especially bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol. Ones chance of MI or stroke goes down. Chance of kidney stones, renal insufficiency and gallbladder problems goes up, but one arteries stays clearer, and efficiently of your heart goes up, as cardiac muscle works better using ketones for fuel over glucose.
It does get incredibly boring.

 

[Ames]

We are all going to end up in the "Beyond the Great Divide" page someday. I, for one, wont spend a minute worrying about it at all. Now pass me a beer.

 

[Tb54]

Ditto! I’ll bet every one of us comes into contact every day with one of the most sinister substances known... dihydrogenmonoxide. Everyone that comes in contact with it dies...eventually.

 

[tenngun]

It’s a poison that can suck the essential minerals out of your body, if it gets in you lungs it prevents oxygen absorption, it dissolves almost all metals except gold and such, and can dissolve and hold in suspension all manner of other deadly compounds. Nasty stuff
Although mixing it in a 60-40 solution with most whiskey can reduce all its ill effects.

 

[TNGhost]

I took 2 days to make a batch. Store bought mix. it has a cure and seasonings but says it is good for only 2 weeks in the fridge. Seems to me it should last forever. Indians dried meat in the sun or over a smoky fire and now we stuff with chemicals. They ground the meat and added fat and berries to make pemmican. It would take them across the country.
What is your experience with shelf life?
Mine is sure good and I can't go past without some and I dried some plain for the dog and she runs to the fridge first thing. If I give her cooked venison or beef she will get the trots but dried agrees with her. I had to find a package of ground to thaw and make her more. You should see her eyes!
I ground 6# of last years deer roasts for the jerky shooter. My dehydrator only holds 2# at a time so I need larger.
I would appreciate any tips or recipes.

In answer to your question on how long it lasts, there are a lot of different recipes and kinds of jerky. It was originally made to be a long term storage victual. There are two things in making jerky that control storage life, how much salt it contains and how dry it is. Many "modern" recipes are more concentrated on pleasing flavor and tenderness(thus less salt and less dry), which were never considerations when beef was ****** as a survival/storage ration.

Old timers, for the most part used to soak their jerky in water to remove salt and soften it before adding it to soups, stews, etc. It was considered less of a snack food and more of an ingredient.

That said here is one recipe that I use that lasts:

I use whatever cut I can get cheap, the part of the round they make "London Broil" can usually be found for under $3 a pound around here, does not have a lot of fat and works well. I trim what fat it has on it and cut it into 1 inch thick slabs, then brine it in this:

1 gallon water
1 lb. pickling salt
3 oz sugar
1/2 teaspoon saltpeter
a few tablespoons of chopped garlic (I use the kind from a jar)
2 ounces pickling spices

I brine it for 7-10 days in the refrigerator, giving it a good mixing every couple of days. (I use one of those white plastic 2 gallon buckets from Lowes with the lid and just roll it around to mix it)

After brining I take it out give it a quick rinse then put it on racks in the freezer, just to stiffen it a little for slicing into thin slices/pieces. I then dust it with a dry rub of 5 parts salt to 1 part cane sugar and a pinch of saltpeter, adding garlic powder and onion powder. You can add whatever dried seasoning you prefer, cayenne if you like it hot, etc. You can also add soy or Worcestershire sauce to the brine, but keep in mind you are adding salt and adjust accordingly.

I then put it in the smoker(at this point in time I am using a cheap electric model) at as low a temp as you can get and have good smoke, definitely under 100 degrees, lower if your smoker can manage it. Length of time in the smoker can vary depending on the size of your slices and the ambient humidity, but what you are going for is getting it to the point where it is dry enough that it snaps when bent.

It may take as long as a couple of days but 24 hours or so usually does it if it isn't raining or humid. On an electric smoker, don't worry if you miss putting in chips as the drying is still going on, and it will only affect the amount of smoke flavor. Less smoke flavor may even be desirable depending on your tastes. Jerky processed like this will last virtually forever at room temperature in a container that allows air to circulate.

You can use less salt, make it less dry, smoke/dry it warmer and faster, and add other flavoring ingredients, but all of that will affect storage. It just depends on what the end product you are aiming for is.