This is a first for us, normally we would buy jerky premade and packaged. But we decided to give it a try this time and see how it came out. Well id say it was an 80/100 or a solid B+. We dehydrated it for 3 hours at 160°F, but the really thin pieces are a tad overcooked and hard to chew. The texture still isn't exactly like jerky, but they're soft and tender and still pretty good. The flavor is really good too. Just a little bit tangy, not too spicy.
Having jerky on hand is great for when your traveling, we are storing ours in the fridge but with proper preparation you can keep these in baggies and eat them whenever and wherever. A good road food, and knowing its made with quality ingredients and meat its worth the effort making.
It was a good experience making some, and we had fun while doing it. A project @lovely.logic and I did together. We sourced some meat from our local farm store where we get quality meat. Probably better meat than what you would find in pre-packaged jerky.
We start off gathering our ingredients for the sauce. Using a mix of garlic powder, pink salt, onion powder, a lemon, coconut aminos, gochujang sauce and kimchi hot sauce. All of this should give it a sweet but spicy flavor and really be a good addition to the recipe.
It all gets mixed in a measuring cup. And then we will pour it into a plastic storage bag to let it soak.
Here is our cut of beef that we will use for our jerky.
Slightly freezing it makes it easier to cut and holds up better for thin slices.
We cut it in half so it does not take up so much room on our little cutting board. Handling the cold meat was getting hard near the end as it makes your hands real cold. And theres really no way to hold them otherwise.
Cutting as thin as possible while still keeping a good shape for the jerky, we cut across the grain.
A pile starts forming, and soon they will be marinated in the sauce.
The dog wanted some of what we had thats for sure.. haha she got some fatty scraps later on.
All bagged up its ready for the sauce mix to be added.
It will soak for about six hours, partially cooking the meat.
Afterwards it goes into the dehydrator for many hours to finish the cooking process.
All the of slices are lined up on different levels of the dehydrator. Time to cook them.
And after many hours of drying they are ready for consumption.
Looks just like what you get in a package! I would not be able to tell the difference.
We store them in glass dishes so we can enjoy them at our leisure. For a first time it came out great, looking forward to making jerky with extra meat in the future from different kinds of animals. For now we just tried beef but I think pork and maybe lamb would be tasty too. But for now we will enjoy what we made, will probably last a week or so. And then maybe we will give it a try again with some other meat.
I love jerky and have considered getting myself a dehydrator. The most "exotic" jerky I've ever had was salmon jerky. Not too bad.
They are pretty cool, we have dried out many fruits like strawberries, bananas, oranges and other things. This was our first time using it for meat though..
Hah cool! I have yet to try fish jerky :-D
So basically, the dyhdrator does the main job of actually making the meat into the jerky? Funny thing is, we have a version of ours and it's called kilishi. I think the marination is what gives it the flavor, ours can last for weeks, how long does it take for the jerky to be healthy for consumption?
@josediccus
Partially yes, the marinade cooks it about half way and then the dyhdrator does the rest.
Oh cool I looked up kilishi sounds yummy!
Oh great, I basically knew the dyhdrator would do a lot of taking away the moisture and the drying too.
Kilishi is almost your version of jerky, just the difference is the marinading process.
sausages can be eaten after 2 weeks of drying. While the sun can dry for 2 years if weather conditions allow. in essence, the more it dries, the better
So no spoilage provided it keeps drying?
this only applies to jerks. and sausages and bones must be removed after 2 months and placed in a container
@mrki-car I saw your post on drying them up in an attic. Thats great you can naturally dry them like that. What takes you 2 weeks can be done in a hydrator within a few hours. But theres no rush so enjoy your method too.
Hello..!
@solominer
I have always wanted to try making my own Jerky....!!
Is it cheaper to make rather then buy?. The Store bought is so expensive.
It would be awesome to get locally grown healthy meat.
Looks like quite the process to make but I have no doubt it's worth it..🤗..rewarding.
Oh cool well you should give it a try. You can use a dehydrator like mine or use an oven something to allow good airflow between the slices.
Its probably cheaper to buy store jerky, but the meat quality is sub par and usually filled with soy and other junk to add weight when store bought.
By making your own you know the quality of the meat and ingredients. May cost more but you would get better quality making your own.
🌞
I'm definitely inspired..!
@solominer
🌞I'm hoping there's a solar dehydrator that's simple and not too pricey.I don't have electricity. Off-grid.
Perhaps I can find information on making one myself.
Many times over very disappointed with store bought and having wasted my money😖.
I'm all for healthy and nutritious ingredients and meat. I can make it the way I like. Would be awesome to find a recipe that Jerky would be softer to eat. Not terribly tough.
🤗
Well hope you can find something that works for you off grid. So we ended up calculating the cost if we bought it.. would have cost 3x more for low quality meat. So not only we saved 3x our money but the meat used is much better.
🤗
Thank You
@solominer!
I really hope I can find or make something that will work..🤞🤞
I so want to be able to make my own Jerky.
Thank you for the information and inspiration.
:-)
I've been meaning to take the time to try out a few jerky recipes on my pellet smoker, but just haven't made the time to do it. I have a few ideas for some crazy flavor combinations to try out.
Oh cool, I think we are going to try to smoke them next time. Well hope to see your jerky posts when you do make some with tasty flavors.
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I love jerky!!!
We do too, going to make some with that Deer butt soon.
So jummy
yeah buddy