Making Jerky This Week

[Haggis]

Deer season being over, I've the fan blowing 'round the clock drying jerky; it tastes pretty good too. This is the first time I've tried the Alton Brown method which consists of nothing more than marinade and blow dry. Simple beyond words!

[Oldcountryboy]

Could you explain more of what the Alton Brown method is? Sounds interesting.

Here's my recipe for deer jerky.

Approx. 3 lbs. venison
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon each of garlic powder, season all, accent, and liquid smoke.
1/2 cup each of soy sauce and worcestershire sauce.

Combine all the sauces and add the dry seasonings. Slice venison thinly and dredge in sauce ingredients. Then place in glass bowl, layering the slices. Pour remainning sauce over jerky slices, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. Next morning place in dehydrator or oven and leave the door cracked open.

[Haggis]

A body can use what ever sort of marinade or treatment they prefer on their raw meat, but the process of turning said meat into jerky be the Alton Brown bit I'm most enjoying. In the past I've made a wide variety of complicated "smokers" to dry the meat, but now I'm quite simply constructing 20" square frames of 1"X2", covering the frames with plain old garden variety screen cloth (of the sort for which screen doors and windows be famous), laying my thin cut to be jerky meat on the screens, stacking four screens atop one another, and then placing a 20" fan face down on the stack. I keep the four corners of the stack off the table with four small bowls (to allow air to circulate), turn the fan on high, and 12 hours later, it be jerky. I jerked two deer this week, all save the backstraps.

Truth be that it takes nothing but cool dry air in great quantity to dry meat, and that be the definition of jerky; dried meat. My Good Son even had me help him make up a few frames for him, and he be jerking the flank steaks of beef which he buys at the local grocer.

[bowdonkey]

Sounds good Hag.Though this time of year, using the oven keeps the house warm.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by bowdonkey

Sounds good Hag.Though this time of year, using the oven keeps the house warm.

Aye, an oven will do that. Our oven is in the belly of a Heartland Sweetheart woodcooking range; it be the only sort of range we have in the house, winter or summer, though we do appreciate the oven heat more during the cooler months.

By my figuring, to dry meat, one wants cool dry air; living in a cottage heated by wood, we have dry air aplenty; the fan, mentioned above, cools the air and hurries it along, and as a bonus, there is no danger of heating the meat enough to actually cook it.

[bowdonkey]

I'm just concerned about the electric bill. I dehydrate about 100 lbs of apples every year from out trees and the bill goes up considerable.

[TnMtngirl]

My son & I made about 5 lbs of vension jerky this week,we used 2 of the stackable plastic dehydrators.He left the bag on the cabinet & found one piece with mold on it last night.He put the bag in the refrigator.What did we do wrong?Not let it dry long enough?We still have a pile of jerky to make.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by bowdonkey

I'm just concerned about the electric bill. I dehydrate about 100 lbs of apples every year from out trees and the bill goes up considerable.

When I was but a lad, and in summer, my Grandmother would put we children to pealing apples, these then would be cored and sliced, and finally, Grandmother would spred clean sheets, table clothes, and quilts on every flat surface to be found. A day or two in the sun and slices would dry (go rubbery) and she would put the dried apples up in cloth bags until the they were needed.

One might say Grandmother was ahead of her time, what with her using a "solar dehydrator" and all.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by TnMtngirl

My son & I made about 5 lbs of vension jerky this week,we used 2 of the stackable plastic dehydrators.He left the bag on the cabinet & found one piece with mold on it last night.He put the bag in the refrigator.What did we do wrong?Not let it dry long enough?We still have a pile of jerky to make.

I couldn't pretend to know what might have gone amiss with your process, but stay with it, you'll no doubt ferret out the problem.

This "bag" of which you speak, was it plastic? Homemade jerky doesn't want a plastic bag, it much prefers glass jars. We vacuum seal or jerky in plastic bags and toss the bags in the freezer, but the instant the bag comes from the freezer the jerky is removed and set on a plate in the warmer oven, just over our wood range, at least until it is thoroughly warmed; then straight off to a glass jar.

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by Haggis

Deer season being over, I've the fan blowing 'round the clock drying jerky; it tastes pretty good too. This is the first time I've tried the Alton Brown method which consists of nothing more than marinade and blow dry. Simple beyond words!

What is your recipe for mariade....or is Alton Brown a brand of marinate?

I think WIHH would kill me if I air-dried two vensions in the house! She wants to know what your house smelled like after that.

I normally use a soy sauce/worcestershire/spice marinate overnight and then dry in a warm oven with the door cracked open. I hang the strips from the oven racks using tooth picks.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

What is your recipe for mariade....or is Alton Brown a brand of marinate?

I think WIHH would kill me if I air-dried two vensions in the house! She wants to know what your house smelled like after that.

I normally use a soy sauce/worcestershire/spice marinate overnight and then dry in a warm oven with the door cracked open. I hang the strips from the oven racks using tooth picks.

This is Alton Brown's (the TV cook) recipe, pretty good though
1 1/2 to 2 pounds venison (he uses flank steak)
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

As to the smell of the house,,,,,; it was no different than if one were spending a few days getting up a Thanksgiving diner. One only dries about four pounds of raw meat per day; it is quite unbelievable how quickly it dries away. In the past, I've made smokers to dry venison, but this is many times easier and every bit as good as far as taste.

[marvella]

i used to make it by marinating, sticking a toothpick through one end then hang it off the oven racks, set the oven on it's lowest setting. 24 hours later- yum!!

[TnMtngirl]

Yes we did have it in a plastic bag,i do have a seal a meal thing.Will gave to remember that!

[Oldcountryboy]

Originally Posted by marvella

i used to make it by marinating, sticking a toothpick through one end then hang it off the oven racks, set the oven on it's lowest setting. 24 hours later- yum!!

24 hours, Gee! I use to use this same method and only kept mine in for about 8 to 10 hours at the lowest setting. I also cracked the oven door open so it would create a draft.

I've always wanted to use the native american indian method and see how that works. Supposedly the built a wooden rack a few feet off the ground and would transfer hot coals from a fire and place under the meat. They would dry fish as well as venison using this method. It didn't cook the meat only warmed the air that flowed upward across the meat. I've heard that salt and smoke was the only flavoring on the meat but it is really good.

[klickitat]

You know that a refrigerator (modern day frost free) will suck the moisture right out of any thing left in the open.

I like to cut turkey pastrami 1/4" thick and hang it from butchers twine in the refrigerator. Instant jerky; cured, flavored and now dried. I also dry other things in the frig this way. If you are already using the electricity, it isn't going to add to your bill.

[moonwolf]

Originally Posted by marvella

i used to make it by marinating, sticking a toothpick through one end then hang it off the oven racks, set the oven on it's lowest setting. 24 hours later- yum!!

this is similar also to the method I used with a convection oven set at the lowest temp for about 8 hours. Now, I've tried a heated fan method blowing into the oven making turkey jerky that works out very well. Tasty!

[Haggis]

The "Alton Brown" method doesn't use heat at all, just blow the meat dry with a fan.