I need some info on water to seasoning ratio

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Kevin Braker

Smoke Blower
Original poster
May 21, 2018
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I have this seasoning, but im not sure how much water to add with it. Im doing 10 pounds of venison, so i wasn't going to use it all.
Thanks
KB
P.S Ive sent the past hour scouring the information super highway to no avail.
 
I use Owen's BBQ Jerky seasonings. Their packets are for 5# and call for 1 cup water. Whole Muscle.
 
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I have this seasoning, but im not sure how much water to add with it. Im doing 10 pounds of venison, so i wasn't going to use it all.
Thanks
KB
P.S Ive sent the past hour scouring the information super highway to no avail.
You're making jerky... all the water you add will be evaporated. It's almost immaterial, the only question is how much seasoning will stick to meat vs just get tossed out with water.

I'd use the minimum water to allow full immersion of meat, and all spices at least a wet slurry. Whether you use 1c or 3c, only the salt/sugar that gets moved into meat via osmosis will matter. So higher concentration will transfer quicker and get more usage. Just enough water to allow mix to flow and reach all the meat slices.
 
I don't fully agree with you Dave. Too little water may result in an over seasoned batch of jerky if left too long in the brine. No nitrite per the label so everything is a simple seasoning transfer which is salt and MSG forward mix. Sugar leads the ingredients, but transfers much less than any sodium compound.

I last made a batch of ground meat venison jerky ? years ago. I used a seasoning pack that came with the dehydrator that my wife got for her employee tenure reward.
I gave away most of that jerky. Too much salt and sugar for my taste.
 
I last made a batch of ground meat venison jerky ? years ago. I used a seasoning pack that came with the dehydrator that my wife got for her employee tenure reward.
I gave away most of that jerky. Too much salt and sugar for my taste.
Which is why I do my own seasoning blends for everything I do. I then have control over the salt content, among other things. 1.5 to 1.75% is about all the salt I want in the stuff I do.
 
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Fueling Around Fueling Around ground venison with formed jerky where all the seasoning staysbin meat, is completely different from soaked whole muscle where meat has to uptake seasoning. He didn't say which he was doing, but I am assuming whole muscle.

You're right for sure, leaving anything too long in any gradient brine will oversalt. And different water will result in different salt and sugar transfer rates. But the whole thing is a complete crapshoot anyways when doing a gradient brine like that, it all depends on concentration and timing, thichness of the meat slices... without any instructions for all three of those, it's just a guess either way. He doesn't have good instructions for any if those 3, So I'd rather use less seasoning with less water, so I'm not wasting much.

Without making it several times so you can figure out your results and tastes, high concentrate gradient brines on unknown meat thickness is again just a complete shot in the dark for results, first few times. Like happened to you, you end up giving away stuff too salty, etc.

For those reasons, I am not a fan of gradient brining on anything. I do equilibrium brine on everything, calculating exactly what my final salt etc content will be, and knowing precisely what my repeatable results will be.
 
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I do equilibrium brine on everything, calculating exactly what my final salt etc content will be, and knowing precisely what my repeatable results will be.
Anything else is just a crap shoot, as you say. When I find that perfect recipe, I want one I can do over and over with mostly the same result. If salt isn't done by weight of meat plus water in a wet brine, it's a wild card and the results you got last time may not be the same as you're expecting it to be this time.
 
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