From time to time (mainly a few weeks before the holidays) I try to lose a little weight in anticipation of the good times to come.One snack that I rely on to get me through my peckish moments is beef jerky. And as Chef Jerry Pellegrino can confirm, we’re lucky that a lot of our local beef farmers are making it now, so it’s easy to find.
We see beef jerky at Farmers Markets all the time. Liberty Delight’s “Rancher Shane” line of jerky is first rate. But if you want to try to make your own, ask your local meat guy what cut he’d recommend. It’s really fun.
Now nearly anything will do, but in the interests of economy, it would be tough to beat a top round steak. It’s not what we would call a prime cut, because of its toughness. But, for our purposes it’s perfect, because we’re going to be cutting it up into very thin slices.
Now there are two ways you can do this:if you slice with the grain, the meat will retain its inherent chewiness; but if you slice across the grain, you will make a much more tender piece of jerky. It’s up to you.
Also in terms of cooking, we again have two choices. Keep in mind we are not roasting the meat as much as drying it out… but not entirely.Y ou want to retain a bit of moisture; you don’t want it brittle. Now, in recent years we’ve seen the advent of purpose-designed dehydrators that cook the beef in a steady low temp environment. Conversely, you can put you sliced meat on a baking rack over a pan, and pop it in a 170° oven. Cooking time in either case is around 4-6 hours. And of course it depends on the thickness of the slices: the thicker, the longer time you’ll need.
Since beef jerky comes in an endless variety of flavors, we can assume a marinade is going to be used. And here’s where the variety comes in. First of all, the basic beef jerky marinade is a blend of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, some kind of sweetener (brown sugar or honey) pepper and garlic powder. You see this combo everywhere and it’s easy to make.
But it’s what comes next that makes all the difference.
First, there are some standard add-ons: smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and minced jalapenos are very common. You’ll also see mustard, ginger and assorted vinegars called for. A little more exotic would be something like siracha, garam masala, or teriyaki.
There also could be various other liquids.For instance my favorite is orange juice.
With a lot of hot stuff that works really well. We’ve even seen recipes that call for Bourbon, rum, and believe it or not, Dr. Pepper.
If you like a warm smoky flavor, line up an outdoor smoker to use, and keeping the heat very low, go ahead that way. And of course you have your choice of wood chips:
mesquite, apple wood, hickory… there’s a whole bunch.
Now we’ve been talking exclusively about “beef” jerky. You may ask, are there any other proteins that we can use? There are, and the primary criteria is leanness. If you have friends who are hunters, you might be able to get some venison, which is actually perfect.
Other than that you can go with chicken breast or turkey breast, cut lengthwise. Pork and lamb, particularly cuts from the back leg are good.And if you’re really adventurous cut some strips from a salmon filet and give that a try. American Indians of the Pacific Northwest were past masters at that.
But to tell the truth, we think just about any protein would work, and has been working since the beginning of time. Drying meat for safe storage is a very old form of cooking. Talk to your favorite farmer or butcher, get some meat and take a whack at it.
