I am leaving at about 3am on Friday morning for the 14 hour drive to Grand Marais and further up the Gunflint for my annual spring solo. And so begins the ritual countdown to blast off time. This always includes putting up a fresh batch of beef jerky for the trip. It occurred to me that I've never written down my jerky recipe and so I searched the What's Cooking forum for other recipes and found nothing.  I regard jerky recipes like chili recipes, everyone's got one and everyone thinks theirs is the best.  But what the heck, I'm bored, and there is not much else I have to do to get ready.  Dehydrating meat is one of the oldest food preservation methods known to man, so this really doesn't have to get very complicated. I do it like this:

Start with a 4 to 5 pound rump roast. You can try other cuts, but for my money the rump has the best flavor, and is lean enough to produce a good product. I freeze the meat solid, then let it defrost for about 6 hours in the refrigerator. This makes it about the perfect consistency for slicing thin. I suppose you could use an electric meat slicer, but I insist on my knives being sharp and this doesn't present a problem. Trim the fat cap, and then slice across the grain, keeping it thin. Not paper thin, but thin enough that your not waiting a week for it to dry.

Make a marinade. Here's where everyone has their own idea of what's good.  I keep it simple.  Equal parts Kikomon Teriyaki marinade, and soy sauce, usually about 8oz of each.  Add a heaping tablespoon (two's better) of crushed red pepper flakes.  The kind you sprinkle on pizza. Whatever you do, don't use that red saw dust that McCormick's sells at your local Finast. Find a good ethnic (Indian or Mexican) grocery in your neighborhood, or become familiar with Penzeys.com.  Soak the meat in the marinade for about 4 to six hours, longer is ok.  Just be sure the meat has a chance to get soaked thoroughly. When it's sliced thin like that, you have to keep working it around in the marinade to ensure even coverage. You don't want any dry spots when you remove it.

Set your oven to 170. You really want it at 170 to kill the bacteria. Dehydrators work but don't usually go above 140. Why take the chance. E-coli is very nasty. Line your oven with foil, this stuff is gonna drip and when your finished you can just remove the foil.  I found some disposable aluminum expansion grates at the hardware store that are sold to put in your gas grill. They work perfectly for lining your oven grates, as they are just not suited for laying out 5 pounds of meat on.  When your finished, they go straight into the dishwasher and can be reused almost forever.

Lay the meat out in a single layer on the grates, leaving as much room between the meat strips as possible. Don't pack it too tight. Put the whole mess in the oven and then find something else to do.  You'll want to turn the meat occasionally, like maybe every two hours or so.  It'll take almost six hours for it to jerky properly. Your house will be filled with a pleasant aroma while your waiting, and nothing beats a hot slice of jerky fresh from the oven. 

Turn the meat out onto paper towel lined cookie sheets and pat any excess grease/moisture off the meat.  When it's cooled, vacuum seal in small amounts, 2 to 3 pieces per package.

As I like a hot sweet jerky, here's how I do it...

2 lbs (or 2.5) - London Broil slice in thin slices, 1/8 to 1/4 thick.   Slice with the grain because I like it a little chewy.

2/3 cup Worchestershire sauce.
2/3 cup soy sauce
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup brown sugar

Combine the fluid ingredients with the powdered ingredients in a gallon plastic bag and mix well to insure the sugar dissolving.  Add the meat mix with the fluid ingredients well and seal getting out as much air as possible.  Place in the refrigerator for 4 - 5 hours for sweet, hot, mild taste, or longer for stronger taste.  Place in dehydrator and leave over night.

My usual way is to prepare the meat and everything around 5:00 in the evening, place it in the refrigerator until about 9:30 and then put it in the dehydrator and by morning it is done.

Bruce

Herky Jerky

3 lb. lean London broil
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. Worcestershire sauce
4 tbsp. liquid smoke
1 tsp. salt
2/3 tsp. pepper
2/3 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. monosodium glutamate (optional)
2 tsp. red pepper flakes for spicy (optional)

Trim any fat, semi-freeze meat, uniformly appx. 1/4 " slice meat with grain for chewy or across for soft. Place meat in shallow glass baking dish. Combine all ingredients and pour over meat. Marinate overnight in refrigerator (flip meat at least once).  
Preheat oven to lowest temp., lay strips on cake rack, and place these racks on cookie sheets. Leaving oven door ajar. Bake 6-8 hours, or until meat is chewy. Another option for drying beef in oven; slide strips on bamboo skewers suspend from oven rack over a cookie sheet.

flp