Jerky Recipes wanted

[bugflipper]

Well it's hunting time again. I've gotten to where a lot of the venison is turned into jerky and kept in the refrigerator and freezer. It makes for pretty good trail food. You can even add a little water and whatever else you happen to scrounge up and have a decent stew. All I know how to do is from trial and error from modern recipes and what tastes good to me. I would like to know what you use. Was hoping for some old recipes with few ingredients, but feel free to list your modern recipes as well. Could give some ideas on how to improve upon a current recipe.
Thanks

[freedom475]

I am like you and have always combined a huge list of products to my meat and it is usually hit-or-miss on how it turned out......Then when you read that many of these comercial "cure" ingredients are actually poisonus to our bodys, I don't even want my kids eating it.

Well for several year now I have been using an old recipe for my jerky...it is awsome flavor and easy to do. I don't really have a actual recipe because I have been doing it long enough that I just know about how much to use. (it is hard to mess it up.

Recipe ingredients...Meat, Brown Sugar (and/or honey), and Salt...that is it!..no posionous chemicals! and no complex mixtures of liquid crap.

Take some meat..it can be cut thin as you like, if it is thick (1/2") then I will cut it square 1/2"x1/2"x6" I usually make about 8 or 10 lbs (raw weight) at a time.

In a large bowl of meat strips, mix a 1 or 2 cups of brown sugar or honey ( usually mix the two) and a 1/4-1/2 cup of icecream rock salt. Mix these together and let it set in the fridge for about an hour. Mix a couple times during the hour to assure that you get good coverage. Heavy on the suger, light on the salt!!..It doesn't seem possible to use too much sugar..but it can sure be too salty!! It seems like a lot of sugar, but don't worry, the meat doesn't seem to take on sweetness, like it does salty.

The longer that is sets in the brine, the saltier it will get so go easy... and don't let it set for more than an hour, until you have done a few batches.

It take the strips from the  brine, and give a little shake to remove any big salt pieces and place them on the racks of my smoker.(I have a "Big Cheif" smoker) I do three big pans of wood chips and then let it cure in the smoker for about 9-13 hours, until pretty dry...if you wait until it feels don in the smoker, it will be OVER-DONE. I smoke on my deck and when the three pans of chips have been smoked., I will bring my smoker in on the porch...this really speed the drying time.

Hope you all enjoy your jerky!






.

[Bulldog lady]

   very interesting   I have always used the tender quick and etc and done it in the dehydrator, winds here in the canyon are hard to keep smoker up to temp.  I found that freezing will  increase the amt of  saltness vs just keeping in the fridge.  I have this thing about leaving it out for days on end, my boys used to take it on their over road truck hauls but it never lasted that long from what they said.  See if can find some good beef to try it on as venison is a luxury don't have. 

[Red Badger]

Only because any deer on our property she sees gets named and She has a standing rule I have to live by: No shooting named critters.... 

[trapperxx]

I am like you and have always combined a huge list of products to my meat and it is usually hit-or-miss on how it turned out......Then when you read that many of these comercial "cure" ingredients are actually poisonus to our bodys, I don't even want my kids eating it.

Well for several year now I have been using an old recipe for my jerky...it is awsome flavor and easy to do. I don't really have a actual recipe because I have been doing it long enough that I just know about how much to use. (it is hard to mess it up.

Recipe ingredients...Meat, Brown Sugar (and/or honey), and Salt...that is it!..no posionous chemicals! and no complex mixtures of liquid crap.

Take some meat..it can be cut thin as you like, if it is thick (1/2") then I will cut it square 1/2"x1/2"x6" I usually make about 8 or 10 lbs (raw weight) at a time.

In a large bowl of meat strips, mix a 1 or 2 cups of brown sugar or honey ( usually mix the two) and a 1/4-1/2 cup of icecream rock salt. Mix these together and let it set in the fridge for about an hour. Mix a couple times during the hour to assure that you get good coverage. Heavy on the suger, light on the salt!!..It doesn't seem possible to use too much sugar..but it can sure be too salty!! It seems like a lot of sugar, but don't worry, the meat doesn't seem to take on sweetness, like it does salty.

The longer that is sets in the brine, the saltier it will get so go easy... and don't let it set for more than an hour, until you have done a few batches.

It take the strips from the  brine, and give a little shake to remove any big salt pieces and place them on the racks of my smoker.(I have a "Big Cheif" smoker) I do three big pans of wood chips and then let it cure in the smoker for about 9-13 hours, until pretty dry...if you wait until it feels don in the smoker, it will be OVER-DONE. I smoke on my deck and when the three pans of chips have been smoked., I will bring my smoker in on the porch...this really speed the drying time.

Hope you all enjoy your jerky!.

Thanks for the recipe. I will try it. Right now I have been using the high mountain flavoring and dehydrating. It comes out great but I'd rather do it from scratch, so to speak.  I need a smoker.

[sweed]

I once made some in a dehydrator that I cut into 1/2" cubes before drying. (Put it in the freezer a little while before slicing) You come out with little 1/4" cubes that are easy on old teeth, and cook up quickly. A handfull in a PC plastic bag goes a long way. 

sweed

[bugflipper]

Lately I've been running them through a hand grinder. For 50 lbs of meat I throw in about 1/4 a can of salt, a tin of pepper and 2 big hand fulls of cayenne peppers. It goes in what they call a jerky shooter, something that looks like a caulking gun and I put it on 1/8" stainless hardware cloth. Run hickory in the smokehouse for about 10 hours to flavor it a bit over night. Then remove the wall facing the wind to let it dry out. I used to hang strips from debarbed fish hooks under a lean too but got tired of slicing meat for half a day. I still do fish that way though since it's the right size after you fillet and skin most of the time.

[trapperxx]

I'll tell ya I got one of those jerky slicers from Cabellas. The strips all come out exact same thickness. I'll never go back to hand slicing again.
It can be a PITA to clean though.

[Red Badger]

Trapper are you talking about the meat slicer?  I have not seen a Jerky slicer...

I want a nice slicer that will do meat and cheese but have not found any I like, so far bought three returned three ...

[trapperxx]

Red Badger, It is a Jerky slicer, look on the Cabellas web site to see it.   Mine is a hand crank but they have the same one that attaches to the cabellas meat grinders as well.
Slices jerky all the same thickness so it drys all the same. Works very nice. 

[DandJofAZ]

Best ol' jerky was at deer camp as kid...
Hot during season--110 or hotter daily and very dry--hunted early mornings and all butchering done by noon...scrap sliced, rolled in pan of salted pepper and hung on barbed wire around hilltop under the oaks camp.  ready to start sampling within about 6hrs...sundown not till late so much consumed same day as shot.. nice fresh meat...  none of it ever saw a plastic bag...

Doug

[mspaci]

I use a soy sauce based marinade, garlic s&p, hot sauce. Mike

[Rev]

Add an equal amount of Worcestershire...