- Aug 14, 2017
- 2
- 11
Been smoking when I can since I was about 5 yrs old. Home made jerky they way our family has made it for over 75 years from Deer, Elk, and Fish.
Take any quantity of Deer meat cut in 1/2"-3/4" strips ( and any chunks left over) and boil in Very heavy salt solution with the spices and such you want in that batch. We liked Hot Peppers, Black Pepper, sage, thyme, and such as we felt like at the time.
Use about 3-5 pounds of meat at a time in a enamel kettle as the salt will not damage it.
We used a circular BBQ stainless steel grid for draining the excess solution off of it, back into the kettle.
We then smoked our jerky with common white oak as we really liked the flavor a lot. Alder works well too; especially for fish like Salmon.
Gave a mild but likeable taste to fishes. ( I did that with 62 Salmon for the food bank one year, whew!) Stored the iced down fish in a pair of freezers that were dead and I layed them on their backs. packed them full of fish and covered them with crushed ice.
Cut them into 6" long pieces and carried them to the smoker and got started; took 3 days of near non-stop work.
The smokehouse looked a lot like a oversized Outhouse; bottom 4 feet lined with sheet steel with a gravel bottom. had 2 shelves at about 4 ft and 5 ft levels. Removable and made with Chicken wire and hardware cloth. Large pieces on the chicken wire, smaller on the hardware cloth.
For Long Term Storage we put the jerky in gallon jars and heated in the oven at 250-300 degrees and then sealed them. Stored for 22 years on part of it I lost in the back of our old cellar built int the mountain side to a depth of 10 ft with a metal (steel) roof.
I just found some in edible condition after 17 years in storage. Likely a bit stale tasting you suppose? It was Not sealed in jars.
Take any quantity of Deer meat cut in 1/2"-3/4" strips ( and any chunks left over) and boil in Very heavy salt solution with the spices and such you want in that batch. We liked Hot Peppers, Black Pepper, sage, thyme, and such as we felt like at the time.
Use about 3-5 pounds of meat at a time in a enamel kettle as the salt will not damage it.
We used a circular BBQ stainless steel grid for draining the excess solution off of it, back into the kettle.
We then smoked our jerky with common white oak as we really liked the flavor a lot. Alder works well too; especially for fish like Salmon.
Gave a mild but likeable taste to fishes. ( I did that with 62 Salmon for the food bank one year, whew!) Stored the iced down fish in a pair of freezers that were dead and I layed them on their backs. packed them full of fish and covered them with crushed ice.
Cut them into 6" long pieces and carried them to the smoker and got started; took 3 days of near non-stop work.
The smokehouse looked a lot like a oversized Outhouse; bottom 4 feet lined with sheet steel with a gravel bottom. had 2 shelves at about 4 ft and 5 ft levels. Removable and made with Chicken wire and hardware cloth. Large pieces on the chicken wire, smaller on the hardware cloth.
For Long Term Storage we put the jerky in gallon jars and heated in the oven at 250-300 degrees and then sealed them. Stored for 22 years on part of it I lost in the back of our old cellar built int the mountain side to a depth of 10 ft with a metal (steel) roof.
I just found some in edible condition after 17 years in storage. Likely a bit stale tasting you suppose? It was Not sealed in jars.
