Floor beef jerky is simple to make and cheaper than store-bought jerky. You can also make it with a dehydrator or dry it within the oven. Use your selection of floor meat – lean beef or venison – whichever you’ve got out there.
My jerky gun got here with seasoning and remedy packets. Sadly, these had been filled with substances I’m making an attempt to keep away from in business jerkies (MSG, hydrolyzed soy protein, nitrates, and so on.). (These little packets are costly, too, if you are going to buy them individually.)
This recipe makes use of soy sauce and sea salt for preserving as a substitute of curing salt. It doesn’t comprise nitrites or nitrates.
Do you want a jerky gun to make jerky with floor beef? Nope! You can also make jerky and not using a dehydrator or a jerky gun, however the jerky gun is useful and entertaining.
We’ve a primary Nesco jerky gun. For many who need to make large batches of jerky, attempt the LEM jerky cannon.
Why Use Floor Beef for Selfmade Jerky As an alternative of Beef Strips?
I choose floor beef jerky for 3 essential causes:
- It’s cheaper. I can get floor beef or venison less expensive than a roast.
- It’s simpler to make. Working the jerky gun or rolling the meat out thinly goes shortly. Wrestling to chop strips out of a bit of meat with bone and connective tissue intact is hard.
- It’s simpler to chew. Consuming a bit of standard muscle jerky can generally be like chewing on an outdated shoe, particularly when there’s a number of connective tissue. Floor beef jerky has the meaty, salty jerky style we love, with out getting caught in your enamel.
This recipe is customized from Mary Bell’s Full Dehydrator Cookbook – “All American Marinated Beef Jerky”. Mary makes hers with beef strips, however it labored effectively as a floor beef jerky recipe, too.
Tips on how to Scale back Sodium in Beef Jerky
For the soy sauce, I choose grain free natural tamari. Most US non-organic soy is genetically modified, and should have glyphosate residue. Non-organic wheat could also be sprayed with glyphosate prior to reap.
I take advantage of San-J, which has 940 mg of sodium per tablespoon. Compared, La Choy has 1330 mg. A tablespoon of standard desk salt has 6976 mg of sodium(2325 mg per teaspoon).
For those who use a saltier soy sauce, it’s simple to overdo the salt within the recipe. Keep on with a soy sauce that has much less sodium. If you wish to skip the teaspoon of sea salt, retailer the completed jerky within the fridge or freezer. Salt is a preservative.
In case your completed jerky continues to be too salty, you’ll be able to soak it for 15-20 minutes to take away floor salt, then dry it once more. Retailer the de-salted jerky within the fridge or freezer. Another choice is to make use of the salty jerky for flavoring one other dish, so the saltiness is diluted.
Selfmade Floor Beef Jerky Recipe
Substances
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 pound lean floor beef or venison, not less than 93% lean
Instructions
In a glass bowl, mix all substances and let sit (refrigerated) for not less than two hours. I blended this up at bedtime and let it sit till after lunch the subsequent day, and it wasn’t too sturdy.
Load the combination within the jerky gun and use the gun to load your dehydrator trays. I do suggest utilizing the mesh inserts or fruit leather-based trays to your dehydrator. This combination is pretty delicate due to the liquid substances, which makes it simpler to fireplace via the gun.
For those who don’t have a jerky gun, use a rolling pin to roll the combination out very thinly (1/8 inch thick). Rating traces to kind lengthy strips of jerky.
Dry at 145° – 165°F (63° – 74° C) for 4 to 12 hours. The jerky ought to be laborious however nonetheless versatile and comprise no pockets of moisture. For additional security, warmth completed jerky in a 275° F (135° C) oven for 10 minutes.
Jerky will final in an hermetic container at room temperature for 1 – 2 months. For longer storage, place in an hermetic container within the fridge or freezer. Vacuum sealing extends shelf life.
How A lot Selfmade Jerky Do You Get from One Pound of Uncooked Meat?
The burden of the jerky decreases by about two-thirds in the course of the drying time. So for each pound of uncooked meat you employ, you’ll get round one-third pound of completed do-it-yourself jerky.
How Can I Be Certain My Jerky is Protected to Eat?
The College of Wisconsin suggests the next two choices for secure jerky making at house:
- Dry meat at 145° – 155°F for not less than 4 hours adopted by heating in a preheated 275°F oven for 10 minutes. Drying meat at a temperature beneath 145°F produces a product that appears carried out earlier than it’s heated sufficient to destroy pathogens, and earlier than it has misplaced sufficient moisture to be shelf-stable.
Only some dehydrators at the moment available on the market will preserve the mandatory temperature of 145° – 155°F. The Gardenmaster by Nesco/American Harvest and the Excalibur are two such models.
Every of those models has a big heating component, sturdy air stream, and adjustable temperature setting. Dry for not less than 4 hours (6 hours is preferable) and take away jerky from the dehydrator.
Place dried strips on a baking sheet, shut collectively however not touching or overlapping. Warmth in a pre-heated 275°F oven for 10 minutes to an inner temperature of 160°F. Strips thicker than ¼” (when uncooked) could require longer to succeed in 160°F.
In our analysis, strips faraway from the oven had been scorching sizzling. Take away oven-heated samples from the oven, cool to room temperature, and package deal. At all times embody the submit‐drying oven‐heating therapy as a security precaution.
- Steam or roast meat strips in marinade to an inner temperature of 160°F earlier than drying. Warmth poultry to 165°F (inner temperature) earlier than drying. The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at the moment recommends this technique for making secure jerky.
The pre‐heating step assures that any micro organism current might be destroyed earlier than drying. This enables a decrease dehydrator temperature (130° to 140°F) for use. After boiling, dehydrate meat for 4 to six hours. No post-dehydration oven-heating is important.
Since it may be unimaginable to precisely measure the interior temperature of a skinny strip of meat, customers can boil meat in marinade (or water) for five minutes earlier than drying. Sadly, this USDA really helpful technique produces a dried, crumbly product. It might be judged inferior by Wisconsin requirements for chewy, versatile jerky.
Holding meat above 145°F for over an hour pasteurizes the meat. Pathogens begin dying at temperatures above 130°F, however the decrease the temp, the longer they take to kill.
We get our beef or venison from a single animal, so I take advantage of the dehydrator above 145°F and name it good. For those who had floor beef from unknown animals, I’d counsel a while within the oven to complete it.
Do I Want a Dehydrator to Make Jerky?
It’s attainable to make jerky and not using a dehydrator. Right here’s easy methods to make jerky within the oven.
Roll out the jerky on a bit of parchment paper and place it on a baking sheet (or use a jerky gun). Dry the do-it-yourself jerky at your oven’s lowest temperature with the door barely open for two hours. Our oven’s minimal temperature is 170°F (77°C).
Flip the jerky and rotate the baking sheet. Bake for 1-2 hours extra, till jerky is dry however versatile. Oven drying jerky shrinks it up quicker and plumper, and creates extra of a salty crust.
Utilizing the Excalibur Dehydrator and Jerky Gun
With the Excalibur dehydrator, a batch of jerky is completed in about 4-6 hours, relying on the humidity degree. Drying in a single day will get the jerky a bit too dry for my style. It’s nonetheless good, however a bit too crumbly.
The final time we made jerky, my eldest blended up the jerky marinade and meat the night earlier than drying. My youngest loaded up the Excalibur the subsequent morning.
Be sure to pack the bottom meat tightly into the tube to keep away from air pockets. The jerky gun shoots strips about an inch large once you use the “double barrel” attachment. The gun additionally has choice of a single large strip or a tube form.
We made large strips and scored them with a skinny spatula. This makes them simpler to interrupt aside as soon as dry. (You should use this similar scoring approach for jerky made with a rolling pin.)
This has turn into considered one of my favourite snack meals since we’ve been working to cut back our carbohydrate and grain consumption. It’s comparatively fast and simple to make, and the gun was fairly cheap.
Selfmade Jerky with out Soy Sauce (Gluten Free, Soy Free Possibility)
For many who keep away from soy and/or gluten, substitute liquid coconut aminos for the soy sauce. Coconut aminos have an identical taste profile, and are gluten free and soy free.
Beef Jerky Recipe with Floor Beef
Simple and economical jerky recipe that’s nice for lean beef or venison.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Drying Time: 4 hours
- Complete Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 pound lean floor beef or venison, not less than 93% lean
- In a glass bowl, mix all substances and let sit (refrigerated) for not less than two hours. I blended this up at bedtime and let it sit till after lunch the subsequent day, and it wasn’t too sturdy.
- Load the combination within the jerky gun and use the gun to load your dehydrator trays. I do suggest utilizing the mesh inserts or fruit leather-based trays to your dehydrator. This combination is pretty delicate due to the added liquid, which makes it simpler to fireplace via the gun.
- For those who don’t have a jerky gun, roll the combination out very thinly (1/8 inch thick) and rating traces the place you want to the items to interrupt aside.
- Dry at 145° – 165° F (63° – 74° C) for 4 to 12 hours, till jerky is tough however nonetheless versatile and accommodates no pockets of moisture. For additional security, warmth completed jerky in a 275° F (135° C) oven for 10 minutes.
For oven drying:
Roll out the jerky on a bit of parchment paper and place it on a baking sheet (or use a jerky gun). Dry the do-it-yourself jerky at your oven’s lowest temperature with the door barely open for two hours. Our oven’s minimal temperature is 170°F (77°C).
Flip the jerky and rotate the baking sheet. Bake for 1-2 hours extra, till jerky is dry however versatile. Oven drying jerky shrinks it up quicker and plumper, and creates extra of a salty crust.
Notes
Jerky will final in an hermetic container at room temperature for 1 – 2 months. For longer storage, place in an hermetic container within the fridge or freezer. Vacuum sealing extends shelf life.
Do you’ve got a favourite jerky recipe? Have you ever tried making jerky with floor beef? Has anybody tried making jerky out of organ meats? I’d love to listen to from you.
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This text is written by Laurie Neverman. Laurie grew up within the kitchen, studying baking and residential cooking from her momma. At age 15, she and her mother and two sisters created Irene’s Customized Truffles & Catering, which was her summer time job via most of highschool and faculty.
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