Ref; Making Jerky to be sent overseas

[TomKnollRFV]

A buddy of mine I've known online for quite some time has been deployed to Kuwait. <At least, that is where I'd be shipping the stuff too>...and he's asked I make some Jerky, as he didn't get to come through my state before deployment. <I was going to make him a Brisket if he had, but delays in shipping out kept changing things>.

I really haven't made jerky jerky to speak of <Does ground meat snack sticks count? Thats all I've done>.

I don't really know what would be 'safe' jerky to send to him that I can make on my MES. I could use some guidance here, hate to send jerky to a serviceman and it ends up making him sick and all. Like can you make shelf stable jerky from ground meat? Do I need to go the whole muscle and cut it up etc?

 

[tropics]

Tom here is some reading for you.Would hate to see it get confiscated.
Richie
https://www.google.com/search?q=Kuw...ome..69i57.28444j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[SonnyE]

Hi Tom,
I made several London Broils into jerky for the Daughter in Washington.
I believe I found a new love for perfect jerky every time.
The London Broil is already about a perfect size to cut cross-grain, and I took the finished jerky and cut the pieces into bite sized pieces. (About 1" to 1 1/4" squares)
It sure evaporated fast!
We found a sale at $.99 a pound, and got a bunch. (Like 5 or 6 packages.)

I got to vacuum marinade the batches (Teriyaki), and was very pleasantly surprised how well that worked. In 2 hours it was ready to dehydrate. 4-6 hours was good for dryness.
The Daughter gave me one of her electric slicers to keep. I sharpened the blade with my diamond sharpener, then sliced jerky in jig time.

I was a jerky makin fool.
Follow a recipe, dry it well, vacuum package in small batches. I found wrapping mine in a bit of paper towel kept it from poking holes in the plastic. And it unwraps fine.
A dehydrator is perfect to dry it out. Will has a ton of recipes.
I would use Prague #1 in every batch to make sure it is sterile. But that is me nowadays. I've made jerky for decades with only Salt, Pepper, and dried it crisp.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I’d use whole muscle meat as it is a lot more lean. Make sure to use cure and it is dried sufficiently in the MES. Then vac pac and ship out.

I was thinking that was likely the safe bet, but never hurts to ask!

Tom here is some reading for you.Would hate to see it get confiscated.
Richie
https://www.google.com/search?q=Kuw...ome..69i57.28444j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I believe he's going to get me the rules on this. There's additional rules for the service too for what can be shipped or not shipped, which I'll need to keep in mind as well.

Hi Tom,
I made several London Broils into jerky for the Daughter in Washington.
I believe I found a new love for perfect jerky every time.
The London Broil is already about a perfect size to cut cross-grain, and I took the finished jerky and cut the pieces into bite sized pieces. (About 1" to 1 1/4" squares)
It sure evaporated fast!
We found a sale at $.99 a pound, and got a bunch. (Like 5 or 6 packages.)

I got to vacuum marinade the batches (Teriyaki), and was very pleasantly surprised how well that worked. In 2 hours it was ready to dehydrate. 4-6 hours was good for dryness.
The Daughter gave me one of her electric slicers to keep. I sharpened the blade with my diamond sharpener, then sliced jerky in jig time.

I was a jerky makin fool.
Follow a recipe, dry it well, vacuum package in small batches. I found wrapping mine in a bit of paper towel kept it from poking holes in the plastic. And it unwraps fine.
A dehydrator is perfect to dry it out. Will has a ton of recipes.
I would use Prague #1 in every batch to make sure it is sterile. But that is me nowadays. I've made jerky for decades with only Salt, Pepper, and dried it crisp.

Well, that's good to know! I know he asked me to send summer sausage too, but I was like 'I really don't think what I make is stable like that..' Despite having stuff in the fridge for a few weeks with no ill effects I don't know how it would do going over seas!

I was going to do a dry rub for jerky, but I better get to looking up some wet curing <Also I need to find a good sale on some thing to cut up!>

 

[73saint]

I know it’s not the same thing, but I dry cure and sell/ship my bacon, unrefrigerated. I’ve had excellent feedback, and there are other company’s that do the same. I think as long as it’s cured properly and vacuum sealed, you should be good.

 

[KrisUpInSmoke]

SonnyE

Hey, that's cheaper than ground beef goes for and sounds like a much better result.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Years ago I a friend met a couple from the UK in Disney. They became friends and would send things to one another items originating from regions they were from. My buddy tried to ship out a 6 pack of a local beer and was stopped when filing out the customs form at the USPS. The Postal worker said you can't ship beer like this to which my buddy replied its shrimp seasoning. The Postal worker closed the lid, taped it up, calculated postage and away it went.

Ha I may have had the 'Vodka Mouthwash' request already. I told him I'm not shipping him booze unless I also get to send various adult toys to make him afraid to open packages ;)

 

[TomKnollRFV]

You my friend are a fiend every friend should have!

I've had a multitude of friends in the service..and most of them had family who were Vets. Suffice to say, I heard alot of the pranks pulled. My friend won't give his information to the masses because he's pretty sure he'd get more then beef jerky <To be fair, I think he's right. Since he's something of a prankster him self!>.

 

[SonnyE]

SonnyE

Hey, that's cheaper than ground beef goes for and sounds like a much better result.

I think they were loss leaders to get people into the store. But they were fine L.B.s, 2 - 2.25 pounds.
Maybe 1/8 - 1/4 # trimmed. Scraps went to Dog food...

She loves to garage sale and Goodwill shop. So she is always watching for a bargain. We jumped on that like flies.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I think they were loss leaders to get people into the store. But they were fine L.B.s, 2 - 2.25 pounds.
Maybe 1/8 - 1/4 # trimmed. Scraps went to Dog food...

She loves to garage sale and Goodwill shop. So she is always watching for a bargain. We jumped on that like flies.

I'm looking at stores around me and I'm lucky if I see any sort of roast under 4 USD at the moment!