Beef Jerky

[kerravonsen]

It hasn't been until I've started making my own that I've realized how sweet commercial beef jerky is. (Nobby's Beef Jerky, "Original" flavour is the one I'm comparing). My most recent batch is the only one that's come close in sweetness, and that's because it was marinated in home-made tomato sauce, which presumably had sugar added.

I suppose they add the sugar to enhance the flavour, since I gather that sweet + salt enhances the salty taste because they are both detected in the same area of the tongue. Ah well, I think I'll still stick to my "no added sugar" policy for my own marinades.

My favourite marinades so far have been (a) soy & mustard (plenty of Dijon mustard, mixed with soy sauce and some water, plus a bit of garlic) and (b) the very very simple salt + pepper + garlic (2 tsp salt, 2 tsp freshly ground pepper, 1 tsp crushed garlic, 400ml water). The second one makes me feel like I'm eating yummy beef stake, only crunchy.

Comments

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Do you have an electric food dryer? Or if not, how do you dry the jerky?

[kerravonsen]

Yes, I have an electric food dryer. It's basically a set of plastic trays which stack up on top of each other, and then the cover, which in the centre of it is a fan heater, which blows hot air through the stack.

I originally got it to make home-made dried fruit, but gave up except for special occassions because it was such a pain cutting up all the fruit. With my beef jerkey I have overcome that initial hump by buying it pre-cut -- I just get stir-fry beef.

I've got it down to a production line, which I manage to do every other weekend, or sometimes every weekend. Because the way my supermarket sells the stir-fry beef, it comes in a deep plastic tray, with a plastic film over the top. So I cut off the plastic film, rinse the beef and slip out the little soak-up-the-blood pad at the bottom of the tray. Then I pour on the marinade (whatever I happen to be experimenting with that week) and cover it with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge. This is either Friday night or Saturday morning. If it's Friday night, then on Saturday morning I take out the marninated beef and use a pair of tongs and place the bits on the drying trays, and turn the dryer on. If I'd started them marinading on Saturday morning, then I put them on the trays on Saturday night. I have a little timer gizmo (like people use for turning their lights on and off) which controls the power to the dryer, so I can set it for the right amount of time (10-12 hours, usually 12 because I like my jerky extra-crispy) and it will keep on going without me having to worry about it.

The house then fills with the smell of drying beef. 8-)

I suppose I should try drying some other meats, but I don't like pork, and I'm not sure that chicken jerky would be very successful. I suppose I could try lamb sometime, see if I could dream up a minty marinade.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Ron Popeil used to advertise his electric food dryers on TV; he made turkey jerky. I remember the recipe had brown sugar and liquid smoke flavor. Unfortunately, I don't remember what the liquid was. Soy sauce, maybe. But there should be recipes on the 'net.

beef jerky

[(Anonymous)]

The best beef jerky I have found is at www.contentedshopper.com/food.htm

It is home made by wisconsin artisan butchers and they are the only company that sells it.

Re: beef jerky

[kerravonsen]

That's all very well, but beef jerky is expensive enough when bought locally -- importing it from the USA would be ridiculous.