Monday

Beef Jerky Recipe

2 # ground lean beef or venison
1 # ground chicken, turkey, or duck
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

You can certainly use all beef or venison.  I mix it really well with my hands.  Fill the jerky gun, and use the "ribbon" fitting.  Fill the dehydrator trays.  (Three lbs. of ground meat fills the four trays of my dehydrator.) 

(Where's the "cure" you ask?  If that's the main reason you haven't been making jerky, well, come on down!  I hate sodium nitrite.  Imagine my surprise when at my Master Food Preserver Class, Barbara Ingham, Wisconsin's Extension food scientist and our teacher, said I didn't have to use it!  There was a catch.  Without cure in it, you will store it in the refrigerator.  If you are going on a camping trip, etc., it will keep for 2 weeks out of the refrigerator, but not indefinitely.  This more than covers me for a day long shopping trip, or Rick for a day of pheasant hunting.)


After filling the dehydrator, set it at 145 - 155 degrees for at least 4 hours.  Then place the dried strips on a baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated 275 degree oven for 10 minutes.  This last step makes sure that bugs such as Salmonella and E. coli are killed.  Jerky should not end up "crispy".  When you bend it, it shouldn't snap in half -- that is the kind of jerky you chew, and chew, and chew.



Done jerky will have fibers that still hold together when you bend it.
If it snaps -- overdone.
You now have a traveling piece of protein!

 Linked To: Homestead Barn Hop


.....jean

7 comments:

Kim said...

I'll have to try this when we get our beef back from the butcher! My boys like jerky when they go hunting but I don't like the paragraph of ingredients in the store-bought. Thanks for the recipe! :)

Michaele said...

Can't wait to try this once the tomatoes are done using the dehydrator.

Leigh said...

Thank you for this! I avoid the nitrates and nitrites like the plague too, so I'm delighted with your tutorial. Lately I've been finding meats with "cultured" celery juice, which I realized was from lacto-fermentation! Not sure how to add that, but this recipe looks like it will work just fine.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

We made jerky this way too! There's a mix you can buy as well, I believe different seasonings. It's pretty good and could be used for those emergency meals.

dr momi said...

Kim....when you get your beef back, make sure you are only using really lean cuts for the jerky. If you make it with too much fat it will go rancid faster.

Michaele....you still have tomatoes? Mine have been done for a good month and a half already!

Leigh....cultured celery juice I bet would be good in jerky. You'd have to find the just right recipe. But I bet it could be added in somewhere.

Kathy....there is a mix you can buy. We love the Nesco Original Jerky mix. BUT, and it's a big BUT, it's loaded with sodium nitrite/nitrate. Not a good thing to be eating on a regular basis. Jerky is definitely an emergency food staple!

Candy C. said...

I like that you don't use the "cure" in your jerky!

Donna Marie Honneger said...

Try adding a little spiciness to your beef jerky by adding some Tabasco or grind fresh red chili pepper. It adds up to my appetite. beef jerky Australia