Oddley wrote:Bob, would you like to tell us about your jerky making and perhaps lead us by the hand through a jerky making session.
NB: The procedure below applies only to ground meat jerky. You use a different process for making solid meat jerky.
I start with ground chuck which I either grind myself from chuck roast or buy in the form of lean hamburger meat. Do not use cuts of beef that are not well marbled - chuck is really the only meat you want to use. And don't pay attention to those who claim you can get by with 90% lean - the jerky will come out like sawdust. Do not use adjuncts like breadcrumbs because it will mess up the texture.
You can buy jerky seasonings but we like a spice we get from McCormick called "Fajita Seasoning". Any spice that is used to flavor beef will work. Or you can make a soy and brown suger concoction laced with a little Worchestershire sauce. Another spice that is tasty is a Cuban cessina spice made by Badia. Many recipes call for teriyaki sauce too.
You must use a curing salt like Mortons Tender Quick, which is like Prague #2 with both nitrite and nitrate. The maker of the LEM Jerky Gun claims you should refrigerate the jerky after cooking, but we eat it so quickly that we keep it on the kitchen counter, and therefore it is critical to prevent bacterial growth.
I use 1 tsp. curing salt per pound, but that may be too much salt depending on the spices you choose. I suspect you could get the preservative effect from as little as 1/4 t. per lb. - perhaps someone can comment on this. Then I add 1 TBS. McCormick Fajita Seasoning and after mixing I put the meat in a plastic freezer bag for "curing" in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day I flatten the plastic bag on a cutting board and cut right thru the plastic making square cylinders of meat for loading into the meat tube of the jerky gun. Be sure to either wet the surface of the meat slightly or wet the interior of the meat tube so the meat won't stick too much.
I have two kinds of nozzles - one makes a flat strip of jerky about 1/8" thick and the other makes a round stick about 1/2" dia. We make both kinds. I have a Nesco dehydrator with large trays, so I squirt the meat strips/sticks directly onto the trays with the gun. If you don't have a jerky gun, you can roll the meat into round sticks like you would roll dough on a cutting board.
Then the dehydrator is turned on to the highest setting (155F) and the meat is heated for at least 4 hours, turning it at 2 hours. We like the jerky a bit on the chewy side so we let it go as long as 6-8 hours. If you don't have a dehydrator you can cook the meat in the oven on a rack at 200F for 4 hours. The smell from cooking the spiced meat will fill the house with a pleasant odor.
I just made a batch using the spices that came with the LEM Jerky Gun and although I like my own spices better, they did put something in that made the meat come out chewier - almost rubbery. I suspect it's that chemical called sodium erythrobate or maybe it's propylene glycol. Maybe I will call Allied Kenco to see what they know about this.
After drying/cooking the jerky we keep it on the kitchen counter in a large tumbler and munch on it throughout the day and night. It does not take long to eat a pound of meat, so watch your waist line if you get hooked on it. If you want to cut down on temptation to eat too much, put most of it in the refrigerator out of sight - it will keep longer that way.
There are many books on amazon.com about making jerky but you will have to experiment to get it right because most books are afraid to tell you that you need a some fat to make edible ground meat jerky.
If you buy a lean chuck roast that has exterior fat removed and grind it, you will get about 25% fat. I buy the cut which has the short rib and remove it for grilling. What remains is about the right percentage fat for me, which I estimate to be around 30%. Someday I may dissect a roast to see what the fat percent is.
If there is too much fat, it will cook out at 155F and the bottom of your dehydrator will be covered in grease. That will tell you to lower the fat content. When the surface of the cooked jerky is lightly coated with a film of grease, that's the right amount of fat in the meat. Remove the film by rinsing with water and then dry with a paper towel - or it may go rancid if you keep it out for several days.
If you buy ground chuck and see much visible fat in it, then it is probably too fatty. I have a butcher who uses only well trimmed chuck which has just the right amount of fat in it. I pick the packages where there is no visible fat except for the lone speck or two. He charges the same for the ground chuck as his roasts, so I believe he is using well-trimmed meat.
Oddley wrote:Are the spice mixtures dry or can you add pastes.
I have seen recipes for dry ingredients and wet ingredients. Anything you would mix into ground beef for flavoring will work. In effect you are making a form of beef sausage which is air-dried.
Which reminds me - I need to try the recipe for genoa salami. I wonder is 4-8 hours at 155F is enough to get some fermentation going.
Oddley wrote:Would cure #1 be OK to use seeing as the cure time is short.
I have always used Morton's Tender Quick, which is like Prague #2.
It is my understanding that the active ingredient is sodium nitrite and the purpose of sodium nitrate in #2 is to act as a slow-release agent for the creation of additional sodium nitrite over a longer period. IOW, it's not the cure time but the storage time that determines the use of #2.
We consume our jerky so quickly that I doubt we even need sodium nitrate. For example, this last batch was removed from the dehydrator early yesterday evening and it is already half gone. We go thru jerky at about 1 lb starting meat weight in 24 hours.
If you want to use #1 because that's what you have, I suppose it would not hurt to refrigerate the jerky if your consumption rate is low. The maker of the seasoning I used that came with the LEM Jerky Gun states that I should refrigerate my jerky.
