Beef Jerky Instructions and Advice from 'Colonel' Jenna of SouthWind (Calontir) and Countess Mara Tudora Kolarova (East) Index Drying Methods The Meat The Marinade Instructions
Drying First, figure out how you're going to dry it. Mara's advice:
Food dryer: available at stores with a large assortment of kitchen appliances, sometimes at gardening places. This is the best solution if you're willing to pay for it. I've been very happy with an American Harvest model FD-50 for about 15 years, you can find this at www.nesco.com - the intial page is not very well designed, but if you click on one of the pictures, you'll get somewhere more useful and can chase the links to a descriptions of the 'food dehydrators'. (You will probably want to buy extra trays for this.)
Home-built dryer: buy some cake-cooling racks and a socket for a 200 watt light bulb. Build an 'exploded box' from plywood or masonite - top and bottom connected by corner posts, sides about an inch shorter than the corner posts, so that there's half an inch of space between the edge of the side walls and the top and bottom of the box. The lamp socket goes on the bottom, and the supports for the cake racks should hold them in a stack starting about 2 inches over the light bulb, and one inch apart. One side of the box needs to be a door through which you can slide out the racks. Never done this myself, description comes from a backpacker's cookbook.
Oven: Assuming you're willing to run your oven for 12 to 24 hours. Set the temperature as low as it will go, and prop the door open with a wooden spoon. I've done this, but one of the Revealed Truths of my youth is that your house will burn down if you leave or sleep while the oven is on. You'll need a package of bamboo skewers to thread the meat onto - then you lay the skewers on the oven racks so the meat slices hang down through and below the oven racks. And put a sheet of aluminum foil underneath to catch drips, or you will really regret it.
The Meat Jessa says: When making jerky, obtain the leanest meat you can get your hands on, and cut it thin – 1/42 or less. See if your butchers will slice it for you on their machine. Slightly frozen meat is easier to cut thin, if you do not have a friendly butcher. (Keep your butcher friendly – bring them samples, and tip them occasionally.) Thinner slices dry crisper and keep longer, thicker slices are chewier but harder to dry properly and keep safely. Tamara recommends brisket or flank cuts. Some use use rump roast or eye of round. For best preservation, trim off all the fat and ooky bits you can, esp. if you are taking jerky to a hot war.
Mara says: Top round or eye round is usually the easiest to work with. Your 1st batch should be small, so buy a 2 to 3 lb. roast. Look for a piece with fat in blobs that can be cut off, rather than strung through the meat in threads. I usually buy a cryovac eye round from BJs, cut it in half, roast half for dinner, and make the remaining 4lb-or-so into into 5 or so trays of jerky.
You can partially freeze the meat to make it easier to handle. I gave up on that long ago, since I usually froze it solid and had to thaw it again. Take a VERY SHARP knife and cut away every scrap of fat you can get at (fat left in the meat makes it turn rancid). Cut the meat into small slices, as thin as you can.
The Marinade Mara's tip: The cure mixture must contain salt, should probably contain pepper, can contain just about any flavor you like with beef, and can be wet or dry. Some people use commercial teriyaki sauce and like it, I think it tastes chemically after it dehydrates.
One tip from Jessa – beware of possible effects on pets and family members of the spices in the air. They can be highly irritating to eyes and lungs if the jerky is spicy.
Here are some selected marinades. Use them, or improvise!
- Sex Red Wine Jerky (Jessa)
- Yelizaveta's recipes
- Teriyaki Jerky (misc contributors)
Instructions Jessa:
Put the meat in the marinade. Cover, and refrigerate overnight. As the spices may impart a flavour to plastic, watch what container you use. You might consider a container that is used for nothing else, or use lemon juice and water to clean it out afterwards. Using paper towels or very clean cloth towels you don't mind staining, blot the bejunders out of the meat strips – the dryer it is, the quicker it will dehydrate, and the less mess in your oven or dehydrator.Lay the meat strips out on the racks, in a single layer with no overlaps.
If you use an oven, line the bottom with foil or you will be very sorry. Set the oven to 140 deg F. Turn the jerky over every 2 hours. It will take 8-12 hours total, more if it's humid.
If you have a dehydrator, you will be much happier and make better jerky, as well as avoiding heating up the kitchen. Set to 140 deg F and check every two hours. If you have an air-circulating model you will not have to turn the jerky, and it will go much faster.
The jerky is done when it turns very dark, oil beads up (on cheaper cuts), and it has a leathery flexibility that it will lose as it cools. Gently blot the oil beads with a paper towel, and let cool before putting in a sealed bag or jar. Keep out of excessive heat and light; do not refrigerate, as this will cause condensation when you take it out. It should last 6 months but no one has ever managed to keep any around long enough to find that out!
Sources Instructions for basic jerky adapted from Running A Fighter-Support Field Kitchen by Janice R. Gaulke and postings to the Carolingian and East Kingdom mailing lists.