Homemade Jerky - Tips,Tricks, Recipes

[DJK Frank 16]

Alright guys, I haven't seen a jerky thread in over a year now, so figured I would start this up.

Was thinking the other day that I had a grinder, slicer, two dehydrators, and a vacuum sealer that rarely get used when I'm not processing a deer. Decided I would go to the store and find a deal on beef (not really a deal, but cheapest I can find), and make up some jerky.

I was doing some research on tips and tricks for using a dehydrator and figured I would toss this up so everyone could post what their favorite recipe, type, method, etc. is for making jerky.

What I have marinating now is a London Broil sliced against the grain 1/8 inch thick marinating in the following:

1/4c Worcestershire
1/4c Soy
1/4c Louisiana Hot Sauce
1c water
1t onion powder
1t garlic powder
1t cayenne pepper
1t black pepper

I will let these marinate for 24 hours before dehydrating. Looking forward to how this turns out.

Only action shot I took today after mixing and slicing!

 

[badger]

Looks like a good start Drake. I was thinking the other day of making some jerky. I'd like to finish mine off in the smoker, but it might be tough to get the temps where I need them.

 

[Beentown]

A twist for jerky...

1/4 cup of pineapple juice
1/4 cup of soy
table spoon of brown sugar
couple drips of liquid smoke (make sure this disolves
teaspoon of garlic
red and black pepper to taste

Leave it like above or heat it up with some REALLY HOT peppers (your choice) and it is like a Caribbean Jerk flavor.

Little sweeter and good to switch up from the hot stuff. I

 

[DJK Frank 16]

That sounds like a good recipe Charles.

My first batch turned out a little drier than I had hoped. Had great flavor though.




Dehydrator I am using is a cheapo and I think the inconsistent airflow is making it tough to get the timing figured out.

Lastnight I popped a batch in the oven at 185 degrees and propped the door open a little. Much more consistent and much better texture. Going to do another batch in the oven tonight.

 

[Beentown]

I forgot the most important ingredient....Ginger. I add ginger to taste.

 

[Buckmaster]

Leave the water out and use more seasonings. Also, you forgot liquid smoke if doing it in the oven over a smoke house.
48 hour marinate is better then 24 hours.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Leave the water out and use more seasonings. Also, you forgot liquid smoke if doing it in the oven over a smoke house.
48 hour marinate is better then 24 hours.

Got ya! Thanks for the tip! I will cut out the water on my next batch. I do use a some liquid smoke, just forgot to list it. The rest of the batch I'm doing tonight has been marinating for 2 days, so I am anxious to see how much better it tastes.

 

[Buckmaster]

It sounds like it should have a good pop.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

The texture from the oven batch is perfect.

After researching jerky recipes for quite a while, I've found that about 90% of them have Worcestershire and Soy as the main liquid in the marinades. To me this makes almost everybody's homemade jerky taste somewhat the same. I'm trying to figure out a way to cut these out so I can make a batch that is different than most homemade.

 

[Buckmaster]

try some red wine vinegar for marinate. it's a little twist. yum, yum

 

[epe]

For anyone using dehydrators with adjustable temp, what temp do you set it at?

 

[5Cent]

I'm curious as to what settings you used for the oven batch.

Temp
Rack location
Door status (cracked, 1/2 way open, etc.)
Time


Anything else special you may have done.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

I took all the racks out but the top, and ran skewers across and attached the strips to them. Seem to get a more even cook then just laying them on the racks. Be sure to put some foil in the bottom, as you can see you will definitely get drips.

I think I started out the first batch at 225 with the door propped open with a toothpick. It went a little faster and had more of a "meat well done" taste than it did a dry "jerky" taste.

I bumped it down to 185/195 and that gave me the best texture. Even with a slicer sliced evenly I had pieces that got done a lot faster than others, could just be my oven though. 2-3 hours max is what I had using the oven method.

 

[jagermeister]

I've been cranking out goose jerky all afternoon today.

10# ground goose breasts
6 oz cold water
2 oz soy sauce
1 Tbsp Yucateco hot sauce
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 packet ea Cabelas hickory jerky seasoning and cure

Place all ingredients (except the meat) inside a shaker bottle and mix thoroughly. Pour liquid seasoning mixture evenly over bowl or tub full of ground meat. Mix meat with seasoning thoroughly with hands or mixer. Let stand 20-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 185-190. Shoot strips onto oven racks and arrange racks near top of oven. Cook in oven, with door propped open 1-1.5 inches, for 4-5 hours.

The first batch turned out really good. I'm pretty happy with the flavor. But I think a little more heat would be even better... so next time I'm going to double the amount of Yucateco hot sauce.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Sounds like a pretty good recipe Jim, I think next time I make some more I'm going with more dry seasoning and less wet, kind of like the recipe you have above. How do you like that Cabela's seasoning?

 

[jagermeister]

Sounds like a pretty good recipe Jim, I think next time I make some more I'm going with more dry seasoning and less wet, kind of like the recipe you have above. How do you like that Cabela's seasoning?

I've only tried the Cabelas mesquite, original, and hickory seasonings, but they have all been really good. The mesquite and hickory taste pretty similar, IMO. The Cabelas seasonings are right on par with other good mixes like LEM's, so you really can't go wrong. I do like a mixture that is a bit more on the dry side. It results in meat that is stickier, so it seems to hold together better while stretched out on the oven racks. Also, it obviously takes less time to dry/cook. One thing I've been meaning to do is upgrade to a larger jerky gun. The one I have now, which was a gift, is the regular Cabelas Jerky Pistol. The problem is it only holds about .25-.5 pounds, so I have quite a bit of time involved in reloading the gun. A bigger jerky gun would make things much easier.

I really like using ground meat for making jerky. IMO, the end product is easier to chew and the flavor/seasoning is more consistent throughout the batch. One of these days I'm going to buy a good sausage stuffer, too. Running ground jerky meat into 10mm LEM casings makes for some amazing snack sticks!

 

[Gordo]

Im with jimbo.

I always use Ground meat/jerky gun with my 9 tray excaliber dehydrator.

I also use my kitchen aid meat mixer to get the seassonings distributed evenly. I usually mix about 6lbs at a time.

A good tip is to NEVER overload the trays on the dehydrator. The meat will go rancid do to lack of air circulation and not drying properly.