Doing Beef Jerky at home

[Gandahar]

As you might have spotted I got a £40 cheap as well cooked chips Wilko Air Fryer recently so did a post on it. If you have not seen it then go read it, subscribe, click the notification icon, become a patreon and do wife swapping.

Whilst looking for tips I saw a video where some bloke attempted beef jerky in an air fryer. Which is similar to doing fish fingers in a sous vide.

So, after me blasting the kitchen with the airfryer I wondered if my old grill/ oven, now sadly neglected, could do jerky? It does have a 50C lower mark.

Another reason for attempting this is the fact that buying beef jerky / biltong from a supermarket means you get 50g for too much money, environmentally friendly it is not as well with that packaging and the little square of dehrogenating thingy.

So I bought some skirt and beef cheeks, both cheap, 0.7kg



Damn that's a sexy ankle....

So last weekend got it and marinated it for 24 hours.





Then I got carried away with the Airfryer and stuck it into the freezer.

Roll on 1 week and trying to get my oven / grill to be 50C





It's a bit like trying to get a Weber grill to do 200F for a 11lb pork shoulder for 11 hours Like my wife on our honeymoon night in Croydon ( not making that up ...) it is hot and then cold and then hot again.

I'm currently at 61C as I overshot the temp whilst typing this FDR War and Peace epic. Let's hope the finished produce will be worth the effort.

I normally post after a success, but I thought I would take you along for the ride today .....

It is probably at 75C now and growing tentacles ....

Edited by Gandahar on Saturday 25th January 13:45

[Gandahar]

Well after more hours than I care to remember the lack of dessication in the oven shows... water droplets ...



as well as low temps you need a good supply of wind to dry the beef, Now using a high tech method to save the day

[Butter Face]

Looking forward to the results of this!

[21TonyK]

Okay, I'm in on this. I have about a kilo of frozen beef cheek and a commercial dehydrator. Suggestions?

Edited by 21TonyK on Saturday 25th January 18:30

[Djtemeka]

That's an odd way to do biltong/jerky.
I made a 3 foot tall box by 1 foot wide and deep. Hooks inside to hand the meat. 60w bulb at the bottom and a pc fan on top.

Get a big beef joint from sainsburys and slice it up into strips. Get Hunters Biltong Spice and just roll the meet in the spice and hang it up for 3-4 days.
Job done. No additional spices or vinegar needed

[gregs656]

^ that’s how I’ve done it too. Modified an old kitchen cupboard. Pretty simple.

[SwanJack]

I use a large plastic storage box with a bulb in it and a computer fan. Meat is hung inside. Takes about 36 hrs

[bigandclever]

I did the oven method for a while, then went mad and bought a dehydrator

[anonymous-user]

Gandahar, please don't stop ever being you, I love your posts, they brighten up my day no end!

[tomsugden]

Djtemeka said:

That's an odd way to do biltong/jerky.
I made a 3 foot tall box by 1 foot wide and deep. Hooks inside to hand the meat. 60w bulb at the bottom and a pc fan on top.

Get a big beef joint from sainsburys and slice it up into strips. Get Hunters Biltong Spice and just roll the meet in the spice and hang it up for 3-4 days.
Job done. No additional spices or vinegar needed

I do similar, but have a CPU fan on each end of the box working in opposite directions in order to pull air therough the box. I also sprinkle salt on the meat for an hour or so and rinse it off with vinegar before covering it in spices.

[Djtemeka]

^ there are loads of ways to do it. I’ve tried the vinegar version and didn’t like it. I obviously did something wrong.

I’m quite picky with the taste of biltong and fount Hunters to be the easiest AND best for me.

Just roll the meat in the spice and hang it up.

https://www.huntersbiltong.co.uk/biltong-spices

[Gandahar]

bigandclever said:

I did the oven method for a while, then went mad and bought a dehydrator

And that is why you are called Bigandclever !

Ok, final result.




To be fair I enjoyed it all, and was cheap, but ....

TOO MUCH EFFORT.

You need the right equipment as Mr B"n"Clever pointed out or else you just end up fiddling with your knob on a Saturday afternoon for 4 hours. Perish the thought.....


However, if you love that stuff, get a dehydrator then the world is your oyster. Saves a lot money wise and you can do your own marination. You also save the world on excess plastic for covering 15g of a dead cow shavings... which is also probably a topic in itself

This weekend ..... home made bread in the airfryer ..... onwards and upwards.....

Edited by Gandahar on Monday 27th January 18:19

[Gandahar]

tomsugden said:

Djtemeka said:

That's an odd way to do biltong/jerky.
I made a 3 foot tall box by 1 foot wide and deep. Hooks inside to hand the meat. 60w bulb at the bottom and a pc fan on top.

Get a big beef joint from sainsburys and slice it up into strips. Get Hunters Biltong Spice and just roll the meet in the spice and hang it up for 3-4 days.
Job done. No additional spices or vinegar needed

I do similar, but have a CPU fan on each end of the box working in opposite directions in order to pull air therough the box. I also sprinkle salt on the meat for an hour or so and rinse it off with vinegar before covering it in spices.

You can probably guess from my posts above that spending half an afternoon buying medium density fibre board to make a box, then buying a PC fan and then finding an old fashioned 60w bulb at Homebase was not really what "can quick and easy and cheap Biltong be done?" I'm not going to spend £XX on Hunters Biltong spice that costs more than the meat for an experiment .......

Looking forward to your contraptions and how the professionals do it, will be far better than my attempt I am sure. This is the great thing about FDR, you get top tips as such a wide spread of knowledge.

[Gandahar]

had ham said:

Gandahar, please don't stop ever being you, I love your posts, they brighten up my day no end!

Please PM me for when my wife leaves me / dies from food poisoning.

Cheers.

Edited by Gandahar on Monday 27th January 18:24

[bigandclever]

Gandahar said:

bigandclever said:

I did the oven method for a while, then went mad and bought a dehydrator

And that is why you are called Bigandclever !

Ok, final result.




To be fair I enjoyed it all, and was cheap, but ....

TOO MUCH EFFORT.

You need the right equipment as Mr B"n"Clever pointed out or else you just end up fiddling with your knob on a Saturday afternoon for 4 hours. Perish the thought.....


However, if you love that stuff, get a dehydrator then the world is your oyster. Saves a lot money wise and you can do your own marination. You also save the world on excess plastic for covering 15g of a dead cow shavings... which is also probably a topic in itself

This weekend ..... home made bread in the airfryer ..... onwards and upwards.....

Edited by Gandahar on Monday 27th January 18:19

Just some thoughts then... your pieces are massive I find freezing the joint for a couple of hours first enables much neater slicing, of about 3-4mm thick. A dry rub for 24 hours and then a wet marinade for another 24 hours in the fridge, uncovered. Then, from room temperature, place on a rack(s) in the oven set as low as it can go with the fan on and wedged open (tea towel as you used is fine). Depending on your temp, it would take 6-7 hours of ‘cooking’ and the only fiddling needed (hands off your knob) is rotating the rack(s) so the pieces get an even amount of heat... top and back gets more heat than bottom and front.

[Djtemeka]

https://yoursouthafricanshop.co.uk/products/freddy...

1kg spice goes a LONG way






This was a few years ago. Didn't take completed pics as I ate it all