Beef jerky recommendations

Just make your own. There's a recent thread on the topic. Recipes are widely available on the Net. Cheaper than retail and not hard to do. No need for a dehydrator. You can use your stove and even air/sun dry if you prefer.

i make biltong.

sgt1372 wrote: »

No need for a dehydrator. You can use your stove and even air/sun dry if you prefer.

i make biltong and it dries just fine in the fridge, laid out in flat strips over a standard cookie rack on a standard cookie tray. day 1 things do look kind of barbaric in there, but i care not.

op, maybe someone else can help. but personally, i have no idea what 'reasonable' would mean to you, by comparison with local prices of the stuff that you're buying right now.

and if you don't have time, then you don't and i won't belabour the point. but just for reference, here's the biltong process i use. it's about as time-consuming as any single meal that you marinate in a ziploc baggie and then cook. it's just you put it in the fridge instead of the oven, and it's pretty scaleable so one batch can last for a pretty long time.

1. sprinkle meat with rock salt. stick in fridge and forget. if i'm leaving it salted all day/night while i work or sleep, i just cut it thicker than usual. and/or apply less salt.
2. rinse salt off meat with vinegar. shake off the drips, or just let it drip dry on its own while you grind spices.
3. toss or sprinkle, whatever, with fresh-ground coriander and pepper.
4. arrange on the racks and stick in fridge. done. i usually turn it once the top layer's developed that polish, but for all i know you don't even need to do that. it's pretty robust that way.

@canadalbs. Thanks for the info.

Never heard of biltong b4 because it's not commonly found in the US.

Did some research on it and it is indeed very easy to make. However, most of the recipes that I've read call for it to be air dried which I think would be better to dry out the moisture than in the frig.

I make a Chinese style beef jerky that's much more expensive and involved to make because of the cost of the added ingredients. It's moist and sugar/salt rich which makes i taste great - - like food crack - - but it's not suitable to take backpacking or camping because of the possibility of spoilage and attracting animals and bugs. Well dried biltong would be much better and I think I'll try to make some for that purpose.

OP: The cost of making biltong would be a fraction of the cost of any retail beef jerky which costs at least (and often more than) $20/lb.

I think you could make biltong for less than $3/lb if you buy the meat (usually a round cut) on sale or at a discount for bulk (which I've gotten for as little as $2.49/lb). The rest of the cost would be for vinegar, salt and other spices, which should be minimal - - no more than 15-25 cents/# at most.

Can't buy or even make any traditional beef jerky at that price.

canadianlbs wrote: »

i make biltong.

sgt1372 wrote: »

No need for a dehydrator. You can use your stove and even air/sun dry if you prefer.

i make biltong and it dries just fine in the fridge, laid out in flat strips over a standard cookie rack on a standard cookie tray. day 1 things do look kind of barbaric in there, but i care not.

op, maybe someone else can help. but personally, i have no idea what 'reasonable' would mean to you, by comparison with local prices of the stuff that you're buying right now.

and if you don't have time, then you don't and i won't belabour the point. but just for reference, here's the biltong process i use. it's about as time-consuming as any single meal that you marinate in a ziploc baggie and then cook. it's just you put it in the fridge instead of the oven, and it's pretty scaleable so one batch can last for a pretty long time.

1. sprinkle meat with rock salt. stick in fridge and forget. if i'm leaving it salted all day/night while i work or sleep, i just cut it thicker than usual. and/or apply less salt.
2. rinse salt off meat with vinegar. shake off the drips, or just let it drip dry on its own while you grind spices.
3. toss or sprinkle, whatever, with fresh-ground coriander and pepper.
4. arrange on the racks and stick in fridge. done. i usually turn it once the top layer's developed that polish, but for all i know you don't even need to do that. it's pretty robust that way.

I LOVE biltong. Thank you so much for the recipe!

Any low sodium brands? Everything I've seen is WAY too salty for my limits

CafeRacer808 wrote: »

I LOVE biltong. Thank you so much for the recipe!

oh man. when i realised the missing ingredient was coriander . . . and that uncovered meat will dry out in the fridge . . . my life changed.

sgt1372 wrote: »

most of the recipes that I've read call for it to be air dried which I think would be better to dry out the moisture than in the frig.

i bet air drying would be faster - or there are a lot of people who can't live without it, so they go to the length of building their own boxes with a lightbulb and air holes. but i'm not hardy enough to risk air drying in a rainforest. clothes hung outside are still damp four days later around here, so i'd rather not take my chances to quite that extent.

It's moist and sugar/salt rich which makes i taste great - - like food crack - -

i suggest doing a small test then, to start. i find north american jerky completely un-tempting, even in the grip of my worst biltong jones. so if you've got your own strong preferences you might find that you feel the same way about biltong. it takes a little while to get the salt balance right for your preference too, ime. even though you do wash the residue off, some of it sinks in so trial and error is a good thing.