Beef jerky

[addz86]

Surely a man forum like this will be full of jerky fans right?
I've tried a few different brands but quite fancied making my own, flicked through some recipe's online and went for

• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of lea n perrins
• 2 tsp of black pepper
• 2 tsp of garlic powder
• 2 tsp of onion powder
• 2 tsp of chilli powder
• 1 tsp of liquid season (found it in the cupboard and it smelt meaty)

Splash of honey
Lump of beef







Marinating overnight and 6 hours in the oven at its lowest setting, I think I might have cut it a bit thick but ill see how it goes and report back!

[cst]

Does look a bit thick but I do like the thicker ones, will be interested to see how they come out! Looks like some nice flavours.

[vsonix]

Mmm, love me some jerky! Looking forward to seeing results (then attempting to copy/improve, of course!)

[Slink]

jeez, that will take some teeth to get through.

[addz86]

I'm hoping it'll thin out a bit when drying... Possibly

[vsonix]

surely just slicing it really thin with sharp knife once dried will be fine?

[Slink]

i really dont think that it will shrink much at all when drying it

and to the above poster, i think you might just about manage to get it in half, but any more than that will probably be impossible, unless you use one of those deli counter spinny disc meat cutter things

[vsonix]

I'd use a chinese style meat cleaver with plenty of weight behind. Or maybe slice when half-dry then finish drying? Or just gnaw on it.

[HD Adam]

I think it's going to be really difficult to dehydrate meat that thick fully.

Only way to do this at home is to cut your meat into 1" thick (approx) lumps, chuck it in the freezer and then slice it when it's still partially frozen.

Or start with thick steaks and do the same

You need to be careful with the oven too as you are only aiming to dry the meat and not cook it.

You can get excellent results by putting the meat on grills inside a cardboard box. Punch some holes through the box and place an electric fan on one side to move the air through it.

[MonkeyBusiness]

What beef did you use?

Ideally you want a box (like above) with a light heat source such as 40w bulb.

[Pints]

I made a batch of equally thick biltong last week. Cured in an extractor fan light box with 60w bulb for several days.
Came out wonderfully dry (I don't like it wet - phnarr) and very tasty (let it marinate for a few days too).

Edited by Pints on Monday 10th June 11:56

[addz86]

Hmm the box idea sounds a good one... I'll try the oven this time see what happens, you leave the door open a inch or so to let the air circulate apparently.

[vsonix]

I gotta start making my own as it's just too expensive to be able to eat as much as I want bought from the shop. I worked out I was spending about a tenner a week on the stuff recently!

[addz86]

We have jerky!
It was a bit thick so I cut it down the middle at about 4 hours, then gave it two more.




It's lovely! The lea n perrins taste stands out so may fiddle with the recipe next time but it's pretty damn good

[HD Adam]

Great effort.

The thing with this and BBQ is that you can experiment

I'd be fairly careful about writing down the recipe and noting the quantities because once you crack what you like, you need to repeat it.

I once made the best BBQ sauce ever by just chucking stuff together (when I was pissed) and took ages to get it the same again.

[addz86]

I recon it's the same as making chilli... You chuck whatever you find in the cupboard and it can go either way