Safe Jerky?

[jammo]

I have been using this marinade for several years but am now concerned after all I read about curing.

Jerky

2 lb Venison or Beef

7 liq oz Soy Sauce

1 tbs Worcestershire Sauce

1 tbs Liquid Smoke

1 – 2 tbs coarse ground black pepper

2 tps Season-All salt

2 tps Onion Powder

2 tps Garlic Powder

2 tps Accent

1/8 tps Cayenne Pepper

Slice meat into ¼ inch thick strips and place in one gallon zip-lock bag.  Combine all ingredients and mix very well.  Add marinate to bag and zip, leaving air space to allow mix to cover all meat evenly. Place in the refrigerator for 12 – 24 hours, turning and mixing several times. Dehydrate at 145 degrees for 8 -9 hours in Garden Master. Store in airtight container.

Should I add cure or is there enough salt? If I should add cure, do I use maybe Tender Quick as an adder or substitute for something? (I don't refrigerate after dehydrating)

Allen

 

[forluvofsmoke]

145* drying temp is not recommended for non-cured meats. That temp won't necessarily kill the bugs in the meat, if any are present. Yeah, lots of folks will tell you they don't cure, and they dry @ 120* or whatever...maybe they're just lucky. The key point to remember about bacteria in meats is that they can become heat resistant if the meat is dried before it's heated to safe temps, leaving the bacteria alive, only in a dormant state, until conditions return to what they can thrive in (just add water @ room temp and they'll do their dirty work). In other words, if you dry slowly at lower temps without curing, then heat the meat up over 160*, the higher finished temps won't really matter. Using TQ or cure #1 for jerky kills the bacteria present in/on the meat during curing.

I don't fully understand salt-curing/drying without sodium nitrite/nitrate, so can't comment on whether or not salt alone in the marinade will do the job with reasonable safety and repeatable results. I just never learned to do it that way. I do know that just adding X amount of salt alone is not the answer, and that the actual amount of salt concentration in the meat has a large impact, as well as temps during drying. If a very salty finished product is not an issue, then roll with it, but if dietary salt intake is an issue (if it's not, it should be), using a cure mix will likely reduce the sodium in the finished product.

I use Morton's Tender Quick at the recommended amount per pound of meat (1 Tbs), in a semi-wet cure/marinade (3-4Tbsp water/lb meat with spices/cure mix), allowing 24-48-hr cure time, depending on thickness of slices. With cured jerky meat, you can take your time drying at lower temps, if you wish, or start low and bump temps up over time (this helps to preserve color and texture with a bit faster drying time), without concerns over food safety. I've made 3/8" thick pepper-steak jerky which took up to 16 hours to dry...never even had a thought about the safety of the finished product once it was dried, because I used a wet-cure/marinade mix.

This gives reasonable explanations of safe methods for drying without cure, though I would not chose to use any of them myself at this point in time due to the obvious loss of flavor, color and texture from heating the meat quickly before drying, or heating the meat and marinade after marination, to pasteurize before drying:

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Jerky_and_Food_Safety/index.asp

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this, but if you decide to use a cure mix with the current recipe you posted, this will add to the salt content of the finished jerky, so you may want to modify the recipe to exclude the Season-All salt...bear in mind that this will change the flavor profile slightly, though using a cure will change the profile as well, likely lending to an even stronger flavor from the beef itself. Another option would be to cut back on the soy sauce to about 1/2 or so...soy sauce has a lot of sodium.

Hope this all helps you to make a more informed decision on how to process your jerky in the future.

Eric