Questions for those who make jerky

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togmo
togmo Posts: 257
in Food and Nutrition
I have been wanting to make my own jerky for quite some time and have recently gotten a dehydrator to aid me in this process.

I have done quite a bit of research but thought I would ask a few questions for those making jerky already which I am hoping you can spend the time to help me with so that I can make tasty jerky first up.

Firstly does anyone have any good recipe ideas. I have a few ideas and from my research it seems the average jerky contains lots of soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, onion and garlic flakes, chillies, brown sugar and perhaps some liquid smoke. Of course this is very generalised but this is kinda where I am headed with my marinade thoughts. I was also thinking of making some mango chilli turkey jerky because a site I looked at had some interesting hawaiian ideas and another one suggested using turkey so I thought I might combine these two ideas? Does anyone else have any good suggestions.

Secondly and most intriguingly (and importantly since I can't seem to find much information out about this) how do you count the calories for the jerky you make? If you marinate it then pat it down do you figure out how much of the liquid you have used and add that as a percentage or will the meat absorb more of the sugar and salt and what not from the marinade? I am basically thinking that once I have figured this out I will simply figure out how many calories per 100g wet then figure out how much dry jerky I have gotten from x amount of wet jerky and then be able to tell how many calories/protein per 100g of end product. How much from experience do you think I am expected to lose in water weight?

Thirdly how do you best store it and how long do you find it lasts. I read somewhere it freezes well. Has anyone tried this?

Also out of curiosity what cuts of meat do you prefer to use and who has tried making anything other than beef jerky?

Any suggestions or comments would be great!
Thanks

Replies

  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    I make venison jerky once a year.
    My basic recipe is soy sauce, worcestershire, garlic powder, salt, liquid smoke.
    There are a million recipes out there, just pick and choose and make small batches in case they dont turn out good. You can usually rehydrate in another marinade. I've never actually done that, but my food drying book says its very common.

    I don't think there is an accurate way to determine what's actually absorbed. How much moisture you lose is completely dependant on how well you pat it, and how dry you like your jerky. I tend to make mine very dry.

    Good jerky never lasts long, not because it goes bad, but because it's quickly eaten. But I keep mine in a zip lock bag or a glass jar. Freezing works for longer term storage as well as keeping it in the fridge, but I rarely need to do that.

    I generally use only meat from the hindquarters for my jerky, it cen be tedious to slice, there are some things out there to make it easier, another trick is slicing it while still slightly frozen.
  • togmo
    togmo Posts: 257
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    Thanks rybo, lots of good suggestions there.

    I am thinking of a very similar marinade to the one you make and have gotten some liquid smoke specifically for my jerky. One of the reasons I have decided to make my own is because some of the store bought stuff is so heavy in salt so I am trying to reduce that slightly while still maintaining a little shelf life, plus I am told it tastes so much better!

    I am probably going to give it a go on the weekend and at some stage I want to try some turkey jerky.
  • Tigg_er
    Tigg_er Posts: 22,001 Member
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    Good jerky never lasts long, not because it goes bad, but because it's quickly eaten. But I keep mine in a zip lock bag or a glass jar. Freezing works for longer term storage as well as keeping it in the fridge, but I rarely need to do that.

    So right and the slightly frozen meat helps a lot. I also have a meat slicer and that works great. Sirloin tip roast is what I use a lot of and bottom rump roast. I have never tried the marinades though have only used the dry shake on style mixes from HI-Country but they are very high in sodium and I havent figured out a way to cut that down and still make the meat safe.
  • togmo
    togmo Posts: 257
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    I think I will freeze my meat before I cut it up and am planning on a soy, worcestershire, liquid smoke, garlic flakes/onion flakes marinade. I am thinking the amount of salt in that will still be pretty high and should keep the bacteria away.

    I am getting excited thinking of my home made jerky. I almost want to call in sick to work so that I can make it up now but I know it needs 24 hours to marinate so I will get to play with it on Thursday night and get it going first thing Saturday morning.

    Will update you on my recipe, my idea of how to count the macros in it and how it tastes after I have made it!
  • Tigg_er
    Tigg_er Posts: 22,001 Member
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    Sounds Pretty Tasty !!! I wouldnt freeze the meat all the way just till it starts to firm up. That should help cutting it. Good Luck !
  • Swiftdogs
    Swiftdogs Posts: 328 Member
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    One other tip - cut the meat across, rather than with, the grain. And the thinner, the better. Your marinade ideas sound similar to what we use. Good luck, and let us know how it comes out.
  • togmo
    togmo Posts: 257
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    My jerky is made and has been somewhat consumed already! Two thumbs up!

    I went to the butcher and got 2kg of round steak which turned out to be about 1.6kg once it was trimmed of all fat. I froze this and then cut it up into pieces that were roughly 3-5mm thick.

    I made up two marinades based on the research I did and each tub got about 0.8kg of meat and was marinated for about 20 hours in the end.
    One had 110ml soy sauce, 55ml Worcestershire sauce, 20ml liquid smoke, garlic flakes, onion flakes and pepper
    The other had 100ml soy sauce, 50ml balsamic glaze, 50ml honey and garlic flakes

    Once it was patted dry it was dried in the dehydrator for about 5 hours (surprisingly quickly compared to some dried fruits actually) and I got about 650g of end product. The balsamic glaze honey one gave me a little more weight than the other one - more carbs I guess.

    Of the glaze I probably left about a half of it in the tub and patted dry another quarter or so, so I probably had no more than approximately 1/3 of the marinade make it to the end product. How I count the calories I am not exactly sure, I mean 1/3 is an easy thing to figure out but I would think the meat would have soaked up more of the salt and sugars and left a larger amount of water behind. Either way the only real macro concern is the sodium content, 1/3 or 1/2 of the marinade doesn't make much of a difference to the calorie count but can add several hundred grams more sodium to your macros.

    Both jerky's are delicious and I will definitely be making my own jerky from now on - the store bought stuff just doesn't compare!

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