Help! Did I just ruin 10lbs of jerky?!?

[basil]

(TL;DR version: 2 zip lock bags of jerky marinated, first one too salty after drying, haven't dried the second bag yet.  Question on how to fix it is last paragraph)

Hey all!  First time here, been making jerky sporadically for about a year. First in my oven, then upgraded to a 5 tray Excalibur.  Recently started getting my beef in bulk at Sam's Club, so I now make my jerky in 10lb batches, with 2 runs in the Excalibur since it can only make 5lbs at a time.  Last time my jerky turned out pretty great.  Great enough to make for some good xmas presents.  This time around... I think I may have made a big mistake, it's way too salty.  Let's compare both batches.

Batch 1:

10lbs Beef bottom round

marinade:

4 cups water

3 cups soy (low sodium store brand)

2 cups  worcestershire (store brand)

2 cups Brown Sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup honey

2T Liquid Smoke

8T Seasoning Mix (mostly a KC BBQ rub, a brown sugar bourbon rub, a bit of a spicy cajun rub and some non-salt spices)

4T Mortons Tender Quick (slightly less than the recommended 1.5t/lb)

After draining I dusted the beef with more of the seasoning mix, probably about 1.5-2T worth

Dehydrate for 6-7 hours at 155

Batch 2:

The same except:

The beef was bottom sirloin tip, the soy was not low sodium (I think this was my error, that's nearly twice the salt!), the worcestershire was Lee and Perrins (the real Mcoy... maybe it's too bold? most recipes I see don't use nearly as much worcestershire as I do), cut the brown sugar and molasses in half and used 5T of Mortons Tender Quick (so now it's the recommended 1.5t/lb).

The first run was after a 22 hour marinade, and was way too salty... I basically made salt beef and am now nearly ready for a long journey at sea once I stock up on some hard tack and plenty of citrus lol.

I haven't attempted run #2 and now seek your advice on how I can fix the remaining marinading beef so I haven't wasted the whole batch.

Can I soak it in water?  After that can I re-season/re-marinate it?  I know I'll have to do at least one of those things to reintroduce the flavor.  What about just dumping out a (large?) portion of the marinade from the bag and replacing it with water?  Will that help even though it's 36+ hours into marinating? 

Thanks all!  And Merry Christmas!

 

[basil]

Averted disaster!  I drained most of the marinade and replaced with water.  Let soak 6 hours, changing out water at 3 hours.  Gave it a quick dusting of seasoning before drying.  Probably could have done with a bit less time or maybe skipped replacing the water, as it came out a bit too light on flavor and saltiness.  Still good, but far from my best batch.  Definitely not gonna treat this as a properly cured product.  Keeping it cold and eatin' it quick!

Gonna chop up the first batch and use it for flavoring/salting soups and as a salad topper.

 

[crazymoon]

B, Your rubs probably have salt in them and I am like you as I like the low sodium soy sauce. So between the rubs and the regular soy sauce you probably increased your blood pressure a bit ! 

 Hopefully you had enough cure left in the first batch after rinsing to prevent botulism while drying.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

You could have added some Dextrose, it will counter the salts. 

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Man that's a bunch of liquid, 9 cups for 10 pounds of meat, did I read this right?

As for the salt. Your mix is sodium overloaded. If you are going to use Mortons TQ and not cure one you need to remove most of the other sodium from your rub and marinade.

The recipe that we use has 15 tablespoons (1 tablespoon shy of 1 cup) of liquid for 5 pounds of meat.

Give this a try, very simple recipe, very few ingredients. Make it as is first go, then add other flavors (not salt based) if you choose.

Note: I do add cure #1. I would not recommend TQ for this recipe.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/233270/thai-jerky

 

[hoity toit]

Man that's a bunch of liquid, 9 cups for 10 pounds of meat, did I read this right?

As for the salt. Your mix is sodium overloaded. If you are going to use Mortons TQ and not cure one you need to remove most of the other sodium from your rub and marinade.

The recipe that we use has 15 tablespoons (1 tablespoon shy of 1 cup) of liquid for 5 pounds of meat.

Give this a try, very simple recipe, very few ingredients. Make it as is first go, then add other flavors (not salt based) if you choose.

Note: I do add cure #1. I would not recommend TQ for this recipe.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/233270/thai-jerky

10-4 on the Thai jerky - THE BEST

HT