Comments on: Charcuterie at Home: Beef Jerky

By: club penguin

club penguin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I own Charcuterie and was thinking this would be an item on my list soon. Do you have a preference as to whether the meat should be sliced with or against the grain of the meat?

By: Beef Jerky

Beef Jerky — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Great photo!

A couple of tips:

Slightly freeze the meat for 30 mins to an hour. This will make the meat easier to cut/slice up.

Or…

Have your butcher cut it up for you when you purchase it. You’d be surprised at how much of the work they will do for you!

By: Beefy Jerk

Beefy Jerk — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Thank you so much! You have inspired me to finally make my own jerky!

By: Virtual Pets

Virtual Pets — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I would love to make my own jerky, if only I could find the time! Thanks for the recipe.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Well, the dehydration process was a success. The flavors became more concentrated in the food and the temperature of the column crept up all day towards the original reading of 160 deg sans any veggies or meats. Very powerful method of preparing ready to eat snacks and emergency food. This I like very very much. Veggies that are not in use and normally would be tossed in time can now be prepared in this wonderful method. Do I need to refrigerate a dried food and vacuum packed to boot? Anybody? My guess is not!.
The dried apple chips taste delicious, the dried sausage(precooked) tastes out of this world and the dried zuchinni needs a little something something….but it’s great too.
The foodsaver has a vacum marinator which I can use to impart flavor to foods prior to tossing them in the dehydrator. Man the variations and permutations with this new toy are wide open. Useful and Fun!.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I have made this jerky about 4 times now. Pretty similar recipe but add a little more heat to it by grinding up dried chipotle, pasilla, ancho peppers. I have done it by cutting it cross grain, slightly wider, thinner etc. and each time its spectacular. I really don’t think it matters wich way you slice the meat to begin with. With a variation each piece is slightly different. I also did the same basic recipe with Salmon and it turned out just as good. I didn’t let it marinate for as long as the beef though…only about 8 hours instead of 24. Luckily my Kitchenaid has a “bread proof” setting which gives me 100 degrees which seems to work perfectly!!!!

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Michael, just loaded the Ronco up with zuchinni, apples and Kielbasa… just what I hand on hand. The temp in the column dropped to 100 deg which is expected but.. perhaps the moist load will cool the stack down to ~ 90 to a 100 deg and that would make sense… and jive with your number. Time will tell now. Either way it’s a gas to dry stuff up like our ancenstors…etc… cheers.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Michael, I went to Target today and couldn’t resist a Ronco Dehydrator. I am a sucker for a new technique I guess.
So, I have my Taylor analog on it for a couple of hrs now and it seems she will do 160 F in the middle of the stack. One the one hand I am conforted by the temperature which is set to thwart rampaging bacteria from getting too confortable and on the other hand you called for 90 degrees if I read you right.
So basically I am off drying stuff and playing around with more food… but on the other hand I am wondering about your 90 deg reference?
Confused here in Sofl… as usual….I find it hard to believe your honking gas fired oven does 90 deg?. Any way if it wasn’t for your blog I wouldn’t be playing around with jerky or dehydrated food…. so thanks for the intro. Another lesson taught and another patch of learning chasing it…. Comment if you like.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I do a lot of jerky. Last batch was two 3-4 pound arm roasts.

Lasted 2 weeks.

Something I did on this last batch that I’m going to work on refining was to slice the meat thin (1/16″) across the grain, leaving me with round or oval pieces. Marinated them for 30 minutes or so and tossed them in the dehydrator. After 18 hours, they were dried, but with a supple texture like fruit leather.

In fact, you could quite easily bite into it and tear it with your teeth without the usual ‘tough as shoe leather’ feeling. I’m not sure if it was the thickness or the way I sliced it, or what… but it was waaaay awesome.

By: Metaxa

Metaxa — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Pemmican.

Take your jerky and pound it to dust, mix with fine chopped then pounded dried berries (blueberries, cranberries, whatever you have on hand…dried tho) and enough beef lard to be able to shape it. Some batches that will be 20% lard, some it will approach 50%.
I lay (spread) mine out on a large sheet of metal plate and sandwich it with another metal plate and weigh the whole down with cinder blocks. Slice into servings with a pizza wheel.
Different every time due to always changing ingredients but delicious every time.

With a bit of bread or a cracker you have three of your food groups right there. Four if you count the lard.

By: kboler

kboler — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

The son loves it.

While my oven won’t set below 170 degrees, just turning the interior oven light on kept it at about 95 degrees.

By: jerry

jerry — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I AM FROM CHINA, BUT I LIKE THE WESTEN FOOD. THIS FOOD LOOKS VERY NICE, BUT I THINK IT IS DIFFICULT FOR ME. IN CHINA, IT SI POPULAR TO EAT PORK AND NOT BEEF.

BUT THANKS, MAYBE I WILL TRY.

By: Chris Huck

Chris Huck — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

My wife did the prep following the recipe exactly then put it into our Kitchenaid oven on “proofing” mode which is 100 degrees.

I watched it from about 19-22 hours and finally – perfection! Great recipe.

Will do over and over again!

By: Brad West

Brad West — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Now for the Jerky, I have built probably 15 different smokers in my life, from Block buildings to a little wooden box with a hot plate. I have never bought on, probably spent more building some of them than I could have bought them for.

Here you have again got me stoked I have smoked beef, venison, elk, my favorite of all time is salmon jerky, did allot of that when we lived on the Dungeness river in Washington
Thanks
Brad West ~ onomoney

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Given how difficult it can be to have great dried, cured meat at home, this intrigues me greatly. And the photo is positively lovely.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Natalie…here is a hint: When you think you are crossing that line… You are.
Here are tha ratios:
4 servings of fruits and vegetables
to
3 servings of Protein
to
2 servings of whole grains
to
1 serving of naugthy stuff….
ref… biggest loser show food pyramid reference.
When it comes to protein I am pretty sure they mean you to choose from animal, vegetal and low fat dairy. So from the looks of it they want you to do animal protein One out every three days.
Hey I am learning new stuff every day too….and this plan is just starting to take root with me.

By: Russ H

Russ H — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I love beef jerky and have been making it for a while now… glad to see it finally getting it’s due!

By: laura

laura — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Gorgeous! Nothing beats homemade jerky.

By: Spelling Whiz

Spelling Whiz — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Chiptole = Chipotle
temperatur = temperature

You’ve been whizzed!

By: Bob delGrosso

Bob delGrosso — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

You ought to try biltong.