meat cutting

[javajoe]

What do you guys use to cut your meat?
I usually have been freezing and cutting over and over and what a pain.
My daughter runs a Sub shop so I was thinking of having her cit mine up on the meat slicer. Will that work and do i have to slightly freeze it or not. Also, what is the best regular meat for jerky besides game of course?

 

[vulcan75001]

Top round or bottom round london broil works very nice ..which ever is on sale..top round is more tender....freeze enough to get it real stiff, and it will slice REAL EASY with a sharp knife...

 

[javajoe]

You think a slicer would work? It seems that I have to keep refreezing because once the frozen part is sliced the rest wiggles too bad to cut

 

[vulcan75001]

If it keeps wiggling on ya.. then ya don't have it stiff enough to start with...can usually do a 3# london broil in one shot...

 

[beerdawg]

A slicer will work just fine, I bought a cheap one that I use for jerky, I still freeze it to get it stiff, it's easier but not mandatory.

 

[mossymo]

Best meat in that I have personally used for jerky is tenderloins. I am sure many will disagree, but in all honesty it has been the best.

Some will say this is a waste of tenderloin, I will say it is the best jerky, ever. Tender is not a question for tenderloin and taste is exceptional.

If you think it is a waste all I can say is shoot more whitetail does, majority of the US has an over abundance of them and the rest of the venison makes into great sausage.

 

[deejaydebi]

I use a slicer now a days! A good slicers worth it's weight in gold! Freeze the meat until it's stiff and makes crackly noises when you try to bend it but not frozen solid.

 

[javajoe]

Sounds like a plan! Thanks guys!

 

[deejaydebi]

This is the one I got along with several others here ... Works great!

http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=145756

this was the best price I saw tonight - search online

 

[mossymo]

I used an old Rival meat slicer I picked up at a garage sale for $4 for quite a few years, it did the job well but I have been looking to pick up a used professional model but they seem to be holding their value for an amout I was not looking to spend.

A month or so ago my wife came home with a Chef's Choice model 610 that she found on sale at our local FleetFarm for $70 which seems like a fair price. It seems to have all the features I was looking for and it will also cut a slice a little over 9 1/2" long; our Rival will only slice 6 1/2" long with the meat guide in place. This part was important to me, a 6 1/2" long peice of bacon just seems too short.
http://www.chefschoice.com/page2e.html

 

[az_redneck]

Well, the Health Department might get their drawers in a wad if they find out raw meat was cut on a cooked meat slicer. When I make jerky, once in a blue moon, the butcher (if he's in a good mood) will throw it on his slicer for you. More and more supermarkets won't do that for you anymore so I had to hone my meat cutting skills with a knife. Sometimes I "chunk" it and make kind of like Kippered Beef chunks. They take longer to dry, but they're good!

 

[zapper]

12" Fleetwood slicer here. (Got lucky one time in my life, so yes I am braggin!) Semi froze seems to be the perferred method even though I am sure that I have read several times in manuals that it is not good for the machine. The problem with semi frozen is that it is only a guess and you don't want it as hard as ice that much is for certian!


Set a budget and buy the best/most that you can afford and then be happy with your toy.


As for the best stuff to make jerky out of? What do you have? Actually I like the idea of using possibly freezer burned stuff or end of the year freezer meat. I may have heard that idea on this site. But at any rate I would say that the better the cut, the better the jerky and the worse the cut, the better to jerky.