Easy Homemade Beef Jerky
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This is beef jerky I made in my dehydrator. I actually made it from bison from Lindner’s Bison at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market.
It’s so easy to make — and it makes an extremely healthy and nutritious portable snack.
This is a very basic, all-purpose recipe. If you like your jerky sweeter or hotter, try adding various ingredients like maple syrup or honey or hot sauce or ground chili pepper powder.
Equipment:
Dehydrator or an oven
1 gallon size Ziploc bag (you can also use a large glass baking dish)
Ingredients:
1-2 pounds of grass-fed beef or bison (not ground beef). I think I used top round because that was all they had that day — but I think you could use rump roast or other cuts as well. Ask your farmer or butcher what he or she recommends for making jerky.
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce (I got some organic sauce from Whole Foods; avoid the regular kind as it is probably genetically modified and it has high fructose corn syrup)
1/3 cup naturally fermented soy sauce (I use Eden brand)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons onion powder (I used an organic brand from Whole Foods)
1. Slice the meat very thinly, with the grain (so it doesn’t fall apart).
2. Put the pieces of meat into a gallon-sized Ziploc freezer bag.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients, close the bag, and mix well by moving the meat around with your hands.
4. Let the meat marinate for at least 8 hours. I forgot about mine and it marinated for over 24 hours — still came out great.
5. Pat the meat dry with paper towels.
6. Line your dehydrator trays with parchment paper. If you are using an oven, put some foil on the bottom of the oven to catch drips.
7. Set your dehydrator to 150 degrees for 8 hours. If you are using the oven, set it to the lowest setting (this is often 170 degrees) and crack the door open a bit.
The jerky can take anywhere from 4-12 hours to dry out. Mine took around 8 hours. Just taste it every so often to see if it’s done. You will know when it’s done because it will not be wet or spongy but will be dry like jerky. If it is so dry that it cracks in half, it’s overdone.
Store in a Ziploc bag or glass jar. This is an especially good snack for plane trips.
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09/08/2008 at 12:13 pm Permalink
Do you cook the meat first?
09/08/2008 at 12:46 pm Permalink
No.
I was wondering that myself — but nope.
09/08/2008 at 1:24 pm Permalink
Ann Marie, this was DELICIOUS! I fed Cara some on the way home, too, and she was begging for more!
09/08/2008 at 2:32 pm Permalink
Thanks!
It’s not a cheap snack I guess, but it is a highly nutritious one. Something you can carry in a backpack and give to cranky children when they are hungry!
09/08/2008 at 4:34 pm Permalink
If it’s the cure for cranky children, I don’t care how much it costs. LOL.
10/08/2008 at 2:49 am Permalink
This looks yum!
Another dried meat snack you’d love is Biltong. Like jerky but more moist and because of that IMO tastier than regular jerky. Is thicker and can be used in stews and savoury muffins even so quite versatile. There’s a huge South African population here and am lucky enough to have access to some of the best biltong outside of ZA. I think I’ve even seen directions online on how to make your own biltong maker.
10/08/2008 at 6:00 am Permalink
Very interesting! I guess you can dry it in a dehydrator or oven, right?
10/08/2008 at 3:26 pm Permalink
No, because its thicker it requires to be hanged while drying. The biltong makers I’ve seen online are basically boxes with a super low heat source (usually a light bulb) with a compartment above with a railing to hang your meat off of hooks from it. I am contemplating making my own as it seems easy. Along with the drying method, the marinating and seasoning methods are different to jerky.
11/08/2008 at 6:09 pm Permalink
I made my own jerky this past weekend… and it was AWESOME! The good thing about making your own, is you can tweak the recipe to your liking. I made this Sweet & Sour Beef Jerky and I like it sweeter than most…so i could add more pineapple juice to make it as sweet as i want. This is my second batch and it gets better every time.
Here is the recipe:
http://beefjerkyrecipes.com/meat-type/beef-jerky/sweet-sour-jerky-recipe/
I’d like to try Biltong…ive been hearing so much about it. What makes it different than jerky?
11/08/2008 at 6:48 pm Permalink
Hi, your recipe looks good. I would use rapadura or maple syrup instead of brown sugar. And I like the idea of juice — if freshly squeezed.
Scroll up to the comments about biltong — there is a link to the Wikipedia page about biltong — that explains the differences.
Ann Marie
12/08/2008 at 5:59 pm Permalink
How did you slice your meat?
12/08/2008 at 6:12 pm Permalink
I sliced it thinly with the grain. That was what I was told to do.
Ask your butcher or farmer; they will show you how to slice it with the grain.
Although I have read online that half the people will tell you to slice it with the grain and half will say against the grain.
People have said that it’s easier to chew if you slice it against the grain. (And for those of us who have bad teeth from eating a SAD diet for years… that’s a good thing.)
So just try it. See what works for you.
13/08/2008 at 4:16 am Permalink
I’ve heard both arguments on for/against the grain as well. Since my 3 year old loves the stuff, I prefer it as easy to chew as possible.
Do you use a knife or meat slicer to slice it? And how thick do you slice it? Did you have it partially frozen when you cut it?
So far we’ve used a knife and had it partially frozen. But it takes forever and our hands get really tired. Plus it’s very uneven as far as how thick or thin it is.
Someone from the NT Yahoo group said she uses a mandolin slicer-but it did not work for us. It could have been because ours is cheap.
We would make beef jerky more often except the slicing is soo much work. Short of buying a really big, expensive meat slicer-we just can not seem to find a good way to cut our meat in a uniform way.
I’m always trying to find out what methods others use.
Thanks, and I really enjoy your blog.
Sarah
13/08/2008 at 5:58 am Permalink
I just used a knife and it was not partially frozen — it was thawed.
How much did you cut up? Maybe it would be easier to slice it when it’s thawed. It was easy for me. I was able to get the slices thin enough.
What cut did you use?
13/08/2008 at 1:55 pm Permalink
I have my butcher cut up all of my meat when i buy it. He is a pretty friendly guy…but won’t most butchers do that? I’d try it for sure. It makes your job a WHOLE lot easier.
Hmmmmm…Maple Syrup, huh? Thats a good idea! That would probably make it a little easier to mix together. Now i want to make another Sweet Jerky Recipe so i can try it out. Any suggestions? Or back to http://beefjerkyrecipes.com/jerky/flavor/sweet-jerky/ with me?
05/09/2008 at 2:45 pm Permalink
It’s that easy? I think I’ll try some tonight. One question – does this still keep the beef cool enough to avoid breaking down the raw enzymes, and if it does, do you know of any way to do it at cooler temps?
05/09/2008 at 2:54 pm Permalink
My dehydrator guide said to set it between 145-155.
The enzymes are deactivated at 150.
So you could set it at 145 I suppose.
HOWEVER… upon further study, I have read that in order to kill pathogens, you should heat the dehydrator up to 160 for a period of time, then reduce the temp to 130-150.
If your dehydrator does not go up to 160, you could do this step in the oven.
“Illnesses due to Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 from homemade jerky raise questions about the safety of traditional drying methods for making beef and venison jerky. The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline’s current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160 F before the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat. But most dehydrator instructions do not include this step, and a dehydrator may not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160 F.
After heating to 160 F, maintaining a constant dehydrator temperature of 130 to 140 F during the drying process is important because:
* the process must be fast enough to dry food before it spoils; and
* it must remove enough water that microorganisms are unable to grow.”
http://www.hoptechno.com/bookjerky.htm
Thank you Scott for raising this question. I suppose it is a trade-off between enzyme and pathogens.
I am guessing it would be smarter to go the safe route and lose some of the enzymes.
What do you think?
05/09/2008 at 4:02 pm Permalink
I think it all depends on where you get your meat from. I get a completely pasture raised and privately slaughtered 1/2 cow every year from a farmer I know very well. We eat his beef raw all the time, and we’ve never had any issues. However, if I bought the meat at a store, I’d probably do the cautious higher-heating as well.
I’ve just been reading this really cool site that talks about the place of raw meat in the paleolithic diet – http://www.rawpaleodiet.com.
05/09/2008 at 4:06 pm Permalink
Interesting — I was thinking pretty much the same thing.
I’ve been reading a lot about E. coli O157:H7 and it seems to be caused by cows that are fed grain, not grass.
05/09/2008 at 4:34 pm Permalink
What I’ve read is that the cow’s digestive system can’t handle large amounts of grain, and that the grains (esp. corn) actually decrease the pH of their stomach acid to a level much closer to our own. That means that any bacteria that comes from their intestinal system has a much higher tolerance of acidic conditions than they should have – hence, the bacteria from cows force-fed grains can easily adopt to our own biology and get us sick. Just one more way our factory farming system has made us so much healthier -
16/01/2010 at 2:46 pm Permalink
i’m looking for a jerkey recipe not using soy or any sweetener-is that possible? can’t seem to find any online. also, i’m wondering if either flank or skirt are good cuts to use (grass fed of course!). thanks susan
16/01/2010 at 11:25 pm Permalink
Susan – I think you could use flank or skirt. As far as not using sweetener, try it! You can use salt instead of soy sauce. Please try and report back.
25/05/2010 at 3:23 pm Permalink
Re: the biltong, We make ours in this http://www.traditionaltx.us/images/JerkyDrierInstructions.pdf
I think it cost $15 but its worth every penny and it breaks down and goes away easily
27/08/2010 at 5:51 pm Permalink
I bought a food dehydrator a couple weeks ago and am looking for recipes for homemade jerky. Thanks for this one. I will try it next time!
Jill´s last blog ..Adventures in Food Dehydrating