Jerky for the troops

[tomolu5]

A big thank to the guys that helped to steer me in the right direction regarding shipping in my other thread "shipping jerky to Afghanistan". As those of you who have followed that thread know, I have finished about half of the jerky. well tonight i got the second eye of round roast cut up and into the marinade. I thought i would give a quick once over of my process, suggestions/comments are welcome.

lets begin

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• tomolu5
• Feb 27, 2013

This is fresh out of the package

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• tomolu5
• Feb 27, 2013

Here it is all trimmed up, and ready for slicing, I may save the fat for snack sticks

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• tomolu5
• Feb 27, 2013

A shot part way through slicing, cutting across the grain for more tender jerky

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• tomolu5
• Feb 27, 2013

Okay, she tips the scale at 4lbs9oz, which is equal to 4.56lbs

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• tomolu5
• Feb 27, 2013

Solving for required amount of seasoning(AC Leggs jerky mix #131) left side of equation means that I need 13oz. of spice for 25 lbs of meat. Right side shows that I have 4.56lbs of meat, and have to solve for seasoning amount(A). This is the part where I eat crow about telling all those teachers I would never used algebra. I determined that I need 2.37 oz. seasoning, and a slightly heavy Tsp. of #1 cure(really need to step up my game with a small metric scale).

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• tomolu5
• Feb 27, 2013

Just for kicks this time I added a dash of ground mustard, and red pepper

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• tomolu5
• Feb 27, 2013

I simply place my zip lock full of meat and marinade(remove as much air as possible) into a casserole dish in case of leaks and refrigerate for 24 hours. I will turn the bag over and mix it every time i go into the fridge.

 

[kathrynn]

Looking good so far....IMHO! keep us posted! The guys are going to love it I am sure! Thumbs Up

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Are you going to smoke it in a smoker or use a dehydrator or both?

 

[tomolu5]

Thanks Katherine!

Dirt sailor, I plan to cold smoke it with pit master, and Amnps - on six hour-off six - than on for six. I will get home from work tomorrow around the end of that. This is when I will turn the smoker up to 120, no smoke, and let the drying begin. At the risk of starting a full blown war, I think I will run water in the pan, theory being that the outside will stay more tender.

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[dirtsailor2003]

Sounds like a great plan, the smoking and the sending it to the troops! Looking forward to hearing how it turn out.

 

[pakinak]

I couple of things I do. I freeze the meat, or fish first.I then wait for the meat/fish to thaw to the point where I can slice through it easily. This allows for even slices and consistent sizing of product. This makes all the pieces mariade, absorb smoke and dry at roughly the same rate. I have found slicing the meat/fish cross grained make for faster drying and a rougher surface while slicing with the grain makes longer smoother strips. I prefer to smoke about 4hrs with a thick cold smoke. I also filter my smoke to remove the heavy tar particles from the smoke and off the product(at least thats my theory).

pete
 

 

[squirrel]

What a nice thing you are doing! I'm sure the folks over there are going to really appreciate it!! 

 

[frosty]

Thanks for thinking of the troops!  Looks great, and I bet it won't last long upon arrival a destination! 

 

[tomolu5]

Okay, finally got a minute to post up here...

So here I just patted these pieces dry with paper towels, and put a little fresh ground black pepper on the surface
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And this is how I cheat when flipping it over to season the other side

And, just for kicks, I had a little bit of Jeff's rub leftover, not really enough to do much, but I figured what the heck, Jeff puts this stuff on everything...(I don't even think cakes are safe from it), and I put it on a few pieces just to see how it comes out. In my mind it tastes good!!! The whole garage smelled delight full at 5 this morning when I went to refill the Amnps, forgot to snap a picture before the TBS was rolling though, more qview after work...thanks for lookin

 

[tomolu5]

Just got home, man the garage smells good! Take a look at the great color on there. Just turned the heat on to start drying it out, hopefully it doesn't keep me up to god awful late!

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[tomolu5]

Almost hate to say, but that jerky with Jeff's rub is incredible! I wanna make cologne with that stuff.

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[dirtsailor2003]

Looks great!!!

 

[tomolu5]

Okay here is the last few pictures I snapped before shipping it off. His birthday is the tenth, so if I'm real lucky, that's when he will receive it.

This amounts to about 4.5lbs assorted beef jerky, 1 pound venison summer sausage, and one cube of Cheddar that I smoked two weeks ago.

Wrote him a little note, and passed along the thanks from you guys.

And here I copied NEPAS idea and put air popped pop corn as packing. Hopefully all the treats in there don't set off the drug dogs! A small tid bit of info that I didn't previously know, if shipping to a soldier over seas, when they have a APO address, it doesn't cost you very much to ship things, the post office ships to that all address which is stateside, and then the military/federal takes it from there. My box was a little under 6 lbs, and it was 13 bucks to send!!:)

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