Jerky

[bud in pa]

I usually use salt and cayenne pepper and put it in the oven on the warm setting with the door cracked for at least 12 hrs. Lasts forever.

 

[Stophel]

I should make up some more beef jerky. I haven't done it in a long while. My kitchen facilities here are not exactly spacious, so it's kinda awkward cutting up all that meat, so I've avoided doing it. (plus, it takes a LOT of meat to make a little jerky!)

 

[Oldbear63]

Since companies have to list the major ingredients in the food they produce and saying, "Wood smoke" doesn't fit the governments idea of listing what is in the food, they have to show the chemical compounds using chemical terms for them.

Wood smoke can contain,
" Aldehydes found in wood smoke include formaldehyde, acrolein, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, acetaldehyde, and furfural. Alkyl benzenes found in wood smoke include toluene. Oxygenated monoaromatics include guaiacol, phenol, syringol and catechol. Numerous PAHs or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found in smoke. Many trace elements are released." https://www.thoughtco.com/smoke-chemistry-607309

Then, if they have added anything to keep the food from spoiling they must list them too.

Of course, something like jerky can't be good for you. It's a modern proven fact, anything that tastes good will be harmful to the human body. The better it tastes, the worse it is. That's why "health food" tastes like cardboard or worse.

In the meantime, remember, no one gets out of this life alive so, go ahead and eat those good tasting foods and enjoy them. You'll be glad you did.

(Assuming you believe in deep time and evolution) Humans have been cooking food over fires for perhaps 3 million years, so we have been well exposed to these chemicals for a looooong time. Any animals that might be used for testing (for carcinogens) haven't been cooking food over campfires for very long (if at all). So, all the nasty sounding chemicals that we expose ourselves to from cooking (and BBQ, and hickory smoke flavoring, and tobacco smoke, and marshmallow roasting, and anything flavored with caramel, and anything baked in an oven until brown, and coffee.... etc.... ) contains chemicals that humans are well adapted to.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

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.

Hey 45,
I use a simple brine recipe of teriyaki, soy sauce, sea salt, Italian spices, brown sugar.
It gives it a candy like flavor.
Experiment with quantities
3 hours in a new wave table top infrared cooker then into vacuum bags and into the freezer for good measure.
The great kids clean me out every year.

SM

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

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.

Tennegun,love your listed quote. Is it yours or a quote from someone who was famous in history?
Sm

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

I guess I was kind of comparing the difference between smoking without using salt , and the more modern marinading. Marinades are usually salt laden.

Just gets my wheels turning, that's all.

I believe the use of salt helps to draw moisture out of the meat.


Sm

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

I think the internal dispositions of folks back then were very used to what they consumed daily.

SM

 

[azmntman]

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.

One of my best dogs, Jane, a German Shepherd, once grabbed an entire whole elk liver out of a pot of water on the stove. Took us HOURS to determine had happened to it. Never thought she could do it (not a drop of blood anywhere) let alone eat the entire liver in a single sitting. Found out that evening as wife sat on couch where the blood spot was. She did eat her regular dinner too. (the dog, wife too grossed out).

My dogs have never got sick from wild meat but table scraps can cause tummy trouble

 

[Brokennock]

Great topic. Does anyone have a brine recipe that enhances or strengthens the flavor of the beef? I get tired of all the soy sauce, teriyaki, and candy like flavors. I'd like to make some jerky that just tastes like a good roast beef or steak, that imparts a good beef flavor when used in a soup, or at least doesn't impart other flavors. Smoke I like, beef I like, the rest,,,,,,,

 

[tenngun]

The mushroom sauce/ketchup on the Townsend cooking vids on you tube brings out a rich beefy flavor. I’ve marinaded meat before cooking in it and a bit of Chianti wine and olive oil.
Made in to roast beef but I’ve not tried it with jerky but I bet it would work.

 

[tenngun]

Tennegun,love your listed quote. Is it yours or a quote from someone who was famous in history?
Sm

Not sure which one your referencing. I use quotes, and paraphrase them and make up one or two myself....after all I’m a legend in my own mind.

 

[renegadehunter]

I make jerky quite a bit, but with a smoker. A lot of the time I make hamburger jerky with a jerky shooter since my 5 year old can eat it better that way. No matter the brine, I always add a bit of cure salt to the brine. Cure salt I thought supposedly kills any bacteria present? Doesn't take much of it, I do about a 1/4 teaspoon per pound. Depending on the brine it will sit for 12-24 hours, in a stainless bowl with a lid in the fridge. The meat always turns from the raw red color to a light brown color with the cure salt added. I don't refrigerate it once smoked and it has always been fine, but it only takes us about two weeks to eat it. Smoker gets to about 165° and it takes about 12 hours depending on ambient temperature. I do two pans of chips right at the very beginning when it accepts smoke the best.
Before I had a smoker I used a dehydrator and always kept that stuff in the fridge, but just because in my mind it wasn't smoked and I thought it needed to be. I believe the brine was water, liquid smoke, Morten's smoke flavored salt, a bit of Worchester, and some brown sugar. Only had to sit in the brine about 12 minutes, brine was pretty concentrated. I don't recall any of that ever going bad in the fridge, but again it only lasted a couple weeks at most.

 

[tenngun]

Salt will kill bacteria but has to be pretty high. Bacon sold in refrigerated section doesn’t have enough salt to kill bad little guys.
Salt pork or fish you lay an layer of salt pack in the meat and repeat. Lots of salt. Brine solutions are salty enough to float an egg.
Salt levels are why the Dead Sea is dead.
But if you have salt levels high enough to kill bugs you can’t eat it without soaking. And that makes poor jerky.

 

[Ames]

Great topic. Does anyone have a brine recipe that enhances or strengthens the flavor of the beef? I get tired of all the soy sauce, teriyaki, and candy like flavors. I'd like to make some jerky that just tastes like a good roast beef or steak, that imparts a good beef flavor when used in a soup, or at least doesn't impart other flavors. Smoke I like, beef I like, the rest,,,,,,,

Try adding onion powder. Or toasted granulated onion. Powdered mushroom too. And don't overlook a red wine reduction addition to the brine. Many avenues here.

 

[Stony Broke]

I think making jerky with hamburger might scare me a little, as I would think the fat content would probably end up rancid before long. I try to remove even tiny spots of fat from the meat before I process it.

 

[tenngun]

A little fat in your jerky can go rancid and mold.... the only cure is to eat it before it happens

 

[smo]

I use equal amounts of Dales or Moore’s Marinades ( Moore’s is less salty too the taste) Soy sauce & 1/2 the amount of Liquid Smoke.

16 ozs Dales,16 ozs Soy & 8 ozs of Liquid Smoke for an example.

Slice beef , deer or your choice of meat , soak in the solution over night in the fridge.

Place meat on dehydrator trays , apply salt , pepper too taste.

I use very little salt at this point, pepper can be red or black depends on your taste preference.

I’ve used Cajun seasoning mixes too add a little different taste....

Usually about 7-8 hours on the dehydrator get er’ dun.

Don’t let your tongue slap your brains out gnawin’ on it!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

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.

Ah, but it's also well documented that the disease would hit areas almost simultaneously, which even if every person at the table ate undercooked hog..., the symptoms would not be expected to present in that manner. England in the 15th Century was also not a large consumer of swine, and the death toll outstrips the swine consumption, not to mention that about 10,000 cases of trichinella are diagnosed world wide today on an annual basis, and it is not nearly as fatal as "the sweating sickness" was, even in areas where there is little if any treatment. It is suspected either a mutated form of influenza, or another virus that simply burnt itself out by destroying it's host population too fast, is the culprit.

LD

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Great topic. Does anyone have a brine recipe that enhances or strengthens the flavor of the beef?

Yeah, mix up the saltwater solution for prepping your beef for the dehydrator, and dissolve into that salt water solution a cube of beef bouillon, or try some "better than bouillon" product in the solution, and nothing else.



LD

 

[45man]

A little fat in your jerky can go rancid and mold.... the only cure is to eat it before it happens

True and I use venison that has all removed. Deer fat is the worst thing ever.
Now my little one, Pekinese, can't take any red meat at all. I made plain dried jerky for her and she loves it but gets the runs. Even a few tiny pieces of burger from the table affects her. But pieces of a hot dog do not. My daughter makes chicken jerky for her dogs and gave me a bag that is OK. She bought a meat slicer for it but I will not use mine because of contamination. She dries at 160 degrees for 4 hours, then bakes in the oven at 285 degrees for 25 minutes. Kills nasties. Mai-Ling loves it and if I go to the fridge she is right there.