I got the jerky bug last week and so planned to make some jerky this weekend. I read a few recipes on line and searched the pages here.
I started with a bottom round roast. I removed as much fat as possible from the outside then went about cutting it into strips. Started at ~ 1/4 inch thick but that seemed too thick so cut it back a tad. Some slices ran a little over 1/4 inch. In my search for curing salt I came up empty. Since I had not seen curing on any recipe except the ones I read here I felt I would take a chance and throw caution to the wind. I knew from the readings here I would be smoking at a higher heat on my MES so I was confident that I would hit 140 in less than 4 hours.
While I was making the marinade I placed the meat slices in a zip bag with a good dose of cider vinegar. The marinade was made off the cuff. I'm bad when it comes to measuring things like that. What went in there was regular soy sauce, cider vinegar, Chinese black vinegar, salt, pepper, ground coriander, onion powder, garlic powder, some hot sacue, a good dose of brown sugar and a little water. 4 cups in all.
I drained off the cider vinegar that the meat was curing in. I figured this will help kill of most surface bacteria and added the full 4 cups of marinade and off it went into the fridge for about a 16 hr soak.
Early this morning I placed the slices onto a rack over a sheet pan and put it back into the fridge to dry. About noon I pulled it out and found it was somewhat dry but still wet. I used some paper towels and squeezed excess liquid from the slices and place them on the MES racks. I was only able to do a half batch because I didn't have enough room in the fridge.
Any hoo I started it off at about 170 to get the smoke going and get the meat to come up to temp. It has been on the smoker for about 7+ hours at 150 and is now dry, dark but not hard like regular jerky. Tender but firm and certainly well done.
The taste is better than expected. I was only sorry I couldn't get the whole batch done in one session but the rest of the meat is drying in the fridge at this moment and will be until tomorrow morning. I plan to give this a little rub before going into the smoker.
Here is the first batch just out of the smoker. Might not be technically jerky and I didn't follow the very low drying protocol but the results were tasty. Will just call them beef treat sticks. Anyway thanks for looking
I started with a bottom round roast. I removed as much fat as possible from the outside then went about cutting it into strips. Started at ~ 1/4 inch thick but that seemed too thick so cut it back a tad. Some slices ran a little over 1/4 inch. In my search for curing salt I came up empty. Since I had not seen curing on any recipe except the ones I read here I felt I would take a chance and throw caution to the wind. I knew from the readings here I would be smoking at a higher heat on my MES so I was confident that I would hit 140 in less than 4 hours.
While I was making the marinade I placed the meat slices in a zip bag with a good dose of cider vinegar. The marinade was made off the cuff. I'm bad when it comes to measuring things like that. What went in there was regular soy sauce, cider vinegar, Chinese black vinegar, salt, pepper, ground coriander, onion powder, garlic powder, some hot sacue, a good dose of brown sugar and a little water. 4 cups in all.
I drained off the cider vinegar that the meat was curing in. I figured this will help kill of most surface bacteria and added the full 4 cups of marinade and off it went into the fridge for about a 16 hr soak.
Early this morning I placed the slices onto a rack over a sheet pan and put it back into the fridge to dry. About noon I pulled it out and found it was somewhat dry but still wet. I used some paper towels and squeezed excess liquid from the slices and place them on the MES racks. I was only able to do a half batch because I didn't have enough room in the fridge.
Any hoo I started it off at about 170 to get the smoke going and get the meat to come up to temp. It has been on the smoker for about 7+ hours at 150 and is now dry, dark but not hard like regular jerky. Tender but firm and certainly well done.
The taste is better than expected. I was only sorry I couldn't get the whole batch done in one session but the rest of the meat is drying in the fridge at this moment and will be until tomorrow morning. I plan to give this a little rub before going into the smoker.
Here is the first batch just out of the smoker. Might not be technically jerky and I didn't follow the very low drying protocol but the results were tasty. Will just call them beef treat sticks. Anyway thanks for looking
