Beef Jerky

[Mental Magpie]

Dark Boyfriend's Mom loves me best!  She bought me a dehydrator for college graduation.  I have made one batch of jerky and Dark Boyfriend has made another.  We're incredibly happy with the results (and full...it's so hard to stop eating it once you start), but I was wondering if anyone else out there had any favorite recipes of their own for jerky?

Thanks!

(Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to try out the green salsa yet, but I have the recipes saved!)

[greencat]

I like to marinate in...ketchup and worcestershire sauce.  Or a premade teriyaki sauce.

[Phoebelion]

No jerky eaters here.

But try some apples and bananas.  Great for snacking and you can control what's put on them.  I lightly dust the apples with cinnamon - DH loves them.

[Hmmmmm]

This is a marinade for about 2 pounds of beef
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons onion  & garlic powder
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
Red pepper flakes depending on your preference for level of spice.  Or I like to use Siracha hot sauce

I've also done a lot of jerky out of ground beef.  You can either get the jerky extruder tool but I use my cookie press.  It has a design that lets me create long flat pieces.  I use very lean ground beef and mix in my preferred spices.
Basic method is to mix up your meat with spices for the flavor you want to go with (salt, garlic and/or onion powder, black pepper, red pepper, oregeno, cumin, chili powder).  Then you create strips using the jerky extruder or cookie press.  Then create a coating out of wet ingredients.  Terriyaki sauce, Hot wings sauce, or a soy sauce/lime juice mixture for a fajita flavoring and brush ontop the strips before drying. 

They don't come out as tough as regular jerky but it's very cost effective if you get the groun beef on sale. 

[Outdoor Girl]

Game meat makes the best jerky because it is so lean.  Moose jerky...  drool...

Eye of the round makes good beef jerky.

I don't have all the proportions right now but if I find them, I'll repost.

(1 cup) soy sauce (full salt)
(1/2 cup) worschestershire sauce
(1/4 cup) liquid smoke
dehydrated onions
garlic
red pepper flakes
hot sauce, if you like
pepper

Soak for 15 minutes for the first batch, a little longer for each susequent soak.  Never keep the marinade; use it the day you make it and pitch what's left.

Use your dehydrater in a well ventilated area because the liquid smoke STINKS.  Tastes so good but smells so bad while you are doing it.  My nephew just made a bunch for their canoe trip and he put it in the bathroom with the fan going all the time.

[sweetonsno]

I like tofu jerky, but I'm not sure that would appeal to the general public. Slice it about a quarter-inch thick, marinate in soy sauce and black pepper.

I wish I had a dehydrator. I have a handful of raw "cook"books and so many of the recipes call for a dehydrator. Ani Phyo has a fantastic book. It includes recipes for kale chips (sounds horrid, actually fantastic) and "cakes" and "cookies." They're amazing.

[Mental Magpie]

Thanks everyone!  I'm finally going to make some again today.  All I have is the generic book that came with the dehydrator.  The recipe is pretty plain so I wanted to spice it up (hehheh).  So far we've only used eye of round, but when hunting season comes around, elk will be on the list!  (Outdoor Girl: is moose anything like elk?  I've only had whitetail deer and elk meat from large game).

While I have you all here, so enrapture in my recipe hunt...is there something I can put at the bottom of my dehydrator to catch the drips?  It is really hard to clean around the heating coil and as of yet I have found no way of removing it.  Will aluminum foil mess with things (re: the heat)?  How about wax paper?

[Outdoor Girl]

I'd try the elk.  I've never had it but I would guess it would be similar to moose.  Generally speaking, I find moose less 'gamey' than venison but it depends entirely on what the deer are eating.  If they are farm fed deer, they are not gamey at all but a deer living more in the bush will be gamey.

As for putting something in the bottom of the dehydrator, I don't think foil is a good idea.  Parchment paper is probably a better choice than wax paper, since the wax might melt off and make a bigger mess.  I have a couple of plastic sheets that go in mine for making fruit roll-ups.  That's what I use for catching the drips.

[Mental Magpie]

I'd try the elk.  I've never had it but I would guess it would be similar to moose.  Generally speaking, I find moose less 'gamey' than venison but it depends entirely on what the deer are eating.  If they are farm fed deer, they are not gamey at all but a deer living more in the bush will be gamey.

As for putting something in the bottom of the dehydrator, I don't think foil is a good idea.  Parchment paper is probably a better choice than wax paper, since the wax might melt off and make a bigger mess.  I have a couple of plastic sheets that go in mine for making fruit roll-ups.  That's what I use for catching the drips.

I used to live in rural Pennsylvania.  Now, I live right next to BLM in the Rockies in Colorado (do you have BLM in Canada?  It stands for Bureau of Land Management, and what it basically means is that there is a giant (something in thousands of acres) parcel of public land without structures on it...it's the great outdoors!) so nothing I've eaten has been farm fed (Dark Dad hunted all of it...and now his friends give us meat come winter).  I think it would be similar to moose, too, by the way.

I didn't think foil would be a good idea, but then I didn't think baking soda on a shirt would be a good idea either, and that turned out just fine.  I didn't think about the was melting; thanks for pointing out that!  What kind of plastic sheets do you use?  I haven't made fruit roll-ups yet but I've been toying with the idea.

[Outdoor Girl]

They came with the dehydrator and fit right into the trays.  You could check with the place you bought it from or check on line to see if you buy them.

We don't have BLM.  We have lots of National Parks and lots of Provincial Parks, where you can't hunt.  But we also have lots of Crown Land.  Basically land that the province owns but isn't considered a Park.  It is huntable.  And you can get permits to cut firewood, too.

[Mental Magpie]

They came with the dehydrator and fit right into the trays.  You could check with the place you bought it from or check on line to see if you buy them.

We don't have BLM.  We have lots of National Parks and lots of Provincial Parks, where you can't hunt.  But we also have lots of Crown Land.  Basically land that the province owns but isn't considered a Park.  It is huntable.  And you can get permits to cut firewood, too.

I'll have to see if I can buy them online.  Dark Boyfriend's Mother bought it for me from Wal-Mart.  I guess I can check if they have them, too.  You never know.

Ah, Crown Land sounds exactly like BLM.  Definitely can't hunt in parks here, either.  I can get to BLM in less than 2 miles on the road or something like .5 miles if I just walked straight towards it (though I don't think I could because there is some pretty steep terrain).

[greencat]

Foil is usually fine in the bottom of the dehydrator - actually I find it helps by reflecting the heat up.  Just look at your dehydrator and make sure you're not blocking anything when you put it in - the nice thing about foil is that you can punch holes in it!

[Mental Magpie]

Foil is usually fine in the bottom of the dehydrator - actually I find it helps by reflecting the heat up.  Just look at your dehydrator and make sure you're not blocking anything when you put it in - the nice thing about foil is that you can punch holes in it!

I was afraid foil would mess with even heating by making it more intense.  I don't have a heat setting on mine; it's just plug it in and go.

[greencat]

The way most dehydrators work, you should either rotate the layers every 6-12 hours or you will have the layers finishing in stages.  I would need a commercial grade dehydrator in order to make jerky faster than I eat it off the tray so I generally just let the bottom one finish, eat it, and then repeat with the next layer

[Mental Magpie]

The way most dehydrators work, you should either rotate the layers every 6-12 hours or you will have the layers finishing in stages.  I would need a commercial grade dehydrator in order to make jerky faster than I eat it off the tray so I generally just let the bottom one finish, eat it, and then repeat with the next layer

Yeah, my layers are the rotating ones...but I think you may be on to something...